(The new President of Colombia, Uribe Valez, has embarked on a military offensive against the people's struggles in the name of crushing revolutionary armies operating there with the full military and financial support of US Admn. to crush the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN). Paramilitary death squads supported by the Govt. and financed by US imperialists and local reactionaries have become part and parcel of the machinery of Colombian state to crush the people's struggles. We are here publishing parts of an interview with Hectro Castro, leader of Central Workers Federation dealing with the conditions of workers and of the trade union movement in Colombia. We are reproducing this interview from Fight Back! summer 2002. -Editor) 

What are the daily conditions of life for trade union activists and Colombian workers in general?

In general, conditions for Colombian workers can be characterized by the assassination of labour leaders- seven at Coca-Cola plants- death threats, forced displacement, and the creation of trumped-up charges against workers and labour leaders, to imprison them and criminalize their union organizing The paramilitary death squads carry out raids on union offices, cooperatives and the houses of union members. They also use extortion and kidnappings to force workers to renounce their labour contracts and their right to free association and protest. We’ve been subject to forced decertification and violation of collective labour agreements. All this makes up a systematic policy to destroy the unions.

The U.S. has spent more than $2 billion in tax dollars on Plan Columbia, a plan for war. How has this money affected Colombia in general, and unions in particular?

The strategy of the previous Pastrana government went two ways. On the one hand, they had a policy of peace. On the other, they had the strategy of war, not only against the insurgency but also against the entire population. Plan Colombia has been a failure. Plan Colombia is a long-term plan for direct colonial pillage- pillage by big business interests. And so it continues with the new President, Uribe Valez, receiving more money from the U.S. government.

 The military has been re-energized and technically updated, paid for with $ 1 billion of the $ 1.6 billion in US “aid”. This money isn’t just to fight the FARC and the ELN- Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces and the National Liberation Army- the two main guerilla armies, with a military escalation, but to also recolonize Colombia.

This obliges the workers and the entire population to have a concerted response against the imperialist strategy.

International opinion must know how “two party democracy” works in Colombia: the continuous assassination of labour and social movement leaders, the 3000 deaths of members of CUT (Central Labour Federation) in recent times, and the complicity of the landholders and the regional bosses with the paramilitaries.

Who is behind the death squad murders of trade unionists at Coca-Cola plants in Colombia?

The paramilitaries are responsible for the crimes against the workers, but it’s also the military and the transnational corporation from the U.S. and Europe. In sum, it’s the Colombian state and its criminal regime that are directly responsible. The political model Columbia’s government follows is that of extermination of the civil population; selectively in the case of trade unionists and the social movements, the indiscriminately in the rural areas.

This selective and indiscriminate model was the same that was used in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala during their civil wars during the 1980s. We first saw this model in Argentina where the Argentine officials and their civilian collaborators were financed and supported by the CIA and the US State Department in the 1970s.

Will the new President of Columbia, Uribe Valez, make the situation better or worse for trade unionists?

The situation will get worse. The new government’s proposals are characterized by major budget cuts and austerity measures for workers. This is the continuation of previous governments’ anti-people policies-cutting health care, education and justice while giving tax cuts for the rich.

Security: The new government is proposing the modernization and expansion of the security forces with 15,000 more soldiers per year, and 10,000 more heavily armed police; while strengthening the repressive system by cutting back on democratic freedoms.

Justice System: The new government wants to cut personnel in this department by 50% and to introduce changes so the military are their own judge and jury outside the cities.

Education: This money would come in part from cutting into other social service budgets like family compensation funds, increasing direct and indirect taxes paid by poor and working people, higher payroll taxes, and increased alcohol taxes.

Health care: the new government is saying that to provide basic health care for all poor people in Colombia they will create a big fund. To do that, the government proposes raising state workers’ payroll taxes. President Uribe Valez wants the workers to pay. The new government wants to end pensions for the state workers- in the oil industry (EcoPetrol), for teachers, and amongst civil servants like those in the judiciary (the magistrates). The government wants to raise the retirement age and lengthen work hours. Currently, workers in Colombia can retire with 65% of the average income of the last ten years on the job, the government wants to change this too.