Why Britain should back Colombia, not the Colombian Government

UK Government policy on Colombia

TUC briefing

May 2008

The TUC has argued for some time that the British Government should suspend its military aid to Colombia until the Colombian Government implements the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner's recommendations, and that we would like to see the British Government doing far more to promote peace and social justice in Colombia, including by encouraging the Colombian Government to pursue a political solution to the conflict.

We would also like to see the British Government encouraging the Colombian Government to end its harassment and undermining of the trade union movement, so that the Colombian trade union movement can organise and grow again, and pursue social justice and poverty reduction through collective bargaining with employers and political lobbying.

Crucially, the Colombian Government needs to end 'parapolitica', cease public vilification of trade unionists and do far more to support the development of an effective and independent judiciary in order to ensure an end to the culture of impunity which has left thousands of Colombian trade unionists murdered over the years, and yet hardly any prosecutions (and even fewer successful ones) - not least because of the collusion between right-wing paramilitary groups and the Colombian army and political elite.

Impunity

There have been more than 2,500 murders of Colombian trade unionists since 1986, and the International Trade Union Confederation's latest annual survey of violations of trade union rights confirms that it is still the most dangerous country in the world in which to be a trade unionist. According to all the sources known to us (such as the UN, the Colombian Commission of Jurists and the Colombian NGO, Escuela Nacional Sindical - National Trade Union School), right-wing paramilitary groups have committed the vast majority of these murders and not, as has recently been claimed, the FARC or other allegedly left-wing armed groups.

The ITUC's most recent survey is worth quoting in detail (see http://survey07.ituc-csi.org/getcountry.php?IDCountry=COL&IDLang=EN). On the subject of impunity, it says:

'Impunity remains the chief incentive behind the attacks on trade unionists in Colombia. Little progress has been noted regarding the impunity surrounding these violent acts. Indeed, the vast majority of the violations, i.e. over 99 per cent of the cases, were unpunished and many murders have not been investigated.

'As part of the Tripartite Agreement on Freedom of Association and Democracy, the Attorney-General set up a special unit to investigate and punish crimes involving attacks on the lives and freedom of trade union officials and workers, composed of five public prosecutors. The group's first task was to make a report on the investigations carried out by this government agency throughout the country in relation to such cases from 1994 to the present time.

'The initial findings were that 1,165 crimes had been committed against trade unionists. Of those, 95 per cent had benefited from total impunity, as national and international trade union organisations had been complaining. Of those 1,165 cases ... just 56 are before the courts and only 10 have resulted in sentences. These facts forced the Attorney-General to raise the number of special public prosecutors from five to 13 and to promise to provide more reports on results to the Colombian trade union organisations within two years.'

We recognise that, under pressure from the ILO, the global trade union movement and the British Government among others, the Colombian Government has been forced to take more steps to increase the number of prosecutions and convictions that has now reached around 90. However, we are also aware that a significant number of these convictions were in absentia, or of perpetrators who were already dead or in prison. We believe that the Colombian Government must be put under even firmer pressure to improve matters.

That is all the more apparent as the latest figures received from the ENS report a total of 17 murders of trade unionists in the first three months of 2008 - a rate that would indicate a substantial increase compared with 2007.

Collusion

Our argument that the Colombian Government colludes with the right-wing paramilitary groups is based on four key elements. We have discussed these issues directly with the Vice President of Colombia, Dr Francisco Santos, and while he argues that there are 'bad apples', he has made no attempt to deny to us that there are elements within the state and politics that are involved with the paramilitaries.

The first and most pressing element for Colombian trade unionists is that the Government regularly acts in a manner that puts them at risk of paramilitary violence. Unfounded accusations by Government sources (including the President himself) that prominent trade unionists are terrorists, or directly linked with terrorist groups, has led in the past to those individuals being targeted by the paramilitaries and assaulted or even murdered.

The second is that, as the National Trade Union School points out, 'most of the violations of the human rights of trade unionists in Colombia are associated with industrial disputes, even though they take place in the context of war and are committed, in most cases, by one of the belligerent parties. ... Most of the murders, threats, kidnappings and forced removals suffered by Colombian workers have taken place in periods and contexts characterised by increased activity and pressure for workers' demands.' It argues that, therefore, those Colombian trade unionists are not 'accidental or collateral victims of the armed conflict that has been raging in the country for decades,' but the victims of persistent attacks, in which the Government is involved, on trade union and workers' rights.

Three of the trade unionists killed so far this year were murdered around the 6 March mobilisation of the trade union movement and other parts of civil society against violence by the Government, and terrorist paramilitary and guerrilla groups, and we are concerned that the current upsurge in killings is not unrelated to the fierce debate about the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

The third is that, the Colombian Government has, over the years, used the testimony of bodyguards supposedly provided to protect trade union leaders as justification for their arrest on charges of terrorism, narco-terrorism or rebellion that are often never brought to trial so that innocence can be proved. Trade union leaders thus accused and imprisoned without trial (such as Hernando Hernandez from the rural workers union, Samuel Morales or Raquel Castro from the teachers' union) then become targets when eventually released.

And fourthly, there are the persistent reports of what is widely referred to in Colombia as 'parapolitica' - the involvement of paramilitaries in the army and the state, and the involvement of politicians in the paramilitary groups. The implications of the examples which follow are that elements of the army, including those receiving military aid from the British Government, are complicit not only in human rights violations and murders of trade unionists, but in protecting paramilitaries and other criminal elements involved in the cocaine trade.

The TUC has held that view for some time and it has been reinforced over the past year with the public exposure in the Colombian and international media and in reports to the ILO of the infiltration by the paramilitaries of the institutions of the state, the body politic and business and the collusion between, in particular, paramilitaries and elements of the armed forces and security services.

The political crisis caused by 'parapolitica' has been compounded by the arrest and investigations of members of the Colombian parliament. The most recent information we have received is that 51 deputies are now being investigated or awaiting trial on charges relating to links with the paramilitaries. In 2007, considerable publicity was given to scandals related to links between members of Colombia's parliament and the paramilitaries (see the Washington Post of 16 April - www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/15/AR2007041501066.html - and the BBC report of 5 October - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7029389.stm which states that 14 politicians were awaiting trial for such links and that 'dozens' had been accused including the President's cousin Mario Uribe).

Two recent cases where the army appears to have acted as paramilitaries are illustrative of what Colombian trade unionists tell us is commonplace.

The Inter-Press Service reported recently (www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41817) that 'on March 26, the Attorney General's Office issued an arrest warrant for 15 non-commissioned officers for the 2005 murder of 11 members of the San José de Apartadó Peace Community in north-western Colombia. The victims included three children. A former paramilitary, Jorge Luis Salgado, told prosecutors that the killings were committed by the army in conjunction with the paramilitary United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC).'

And on 19 May 2006, fifteen members of the High Mountain Battalion of the Colombian army, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Bayron Carvajal, took part in the so-called Jamundi massacre of ten members of a US-trained elite anti-narcotics police unit (see http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/17/america/LA-GEN-Colombia-Tainted-Army.php for a report of the trial - we understand they have now been found guilty). And we understand that the UN has cited this Battalion as implicated in the murder of trade unionists. The Battalion is one of those in receipt of UK military aid in the form of human rights training.

We are deeply concerned about the current army intervention in Tolima. Reports indicate an offensive which has placed the population under what amounts to curfew, without access to essential services, and in which at least eight civilians have been reported murdered by Colombian soldiers - mainly from the Caicedo Battalion - in the municipalities of Chaparral and Planadas. The population has been harassed and received death threats and children have been questioned about their parents' political leanings. According to local residents the only person to have spoken out in defence of their rights was regional ombudsman Tito Acosta. The army subsequently detained him, accused him of supporting the guerrillas and threw him in jail, where he remains.

UK military aid

It is in this context that the TUC has been calling for a suspension of UK military aid to the Colombian Government until the UN recommendations are implemented.

For several years, we also have been pressing for disclosure of what in fact this military aid was for, and how much it amounted to. We have never received a comprehensive answer, partly because of the argument - which is obviously difficult for us to assess - that full disclosure would compromise the security of UK personnel involved.

We have been told that the aid pays for mine clearance and for human rights training. We note the concern expressed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights about the increase in extra judicial executions by the Colombian army, the fact that, in the past, the FCO has acknowledged that UK military aid is provided for 'counter guerrilla strategy' and that it is during such operations that nearly all extra-judicial executions take place.

We are concerned that the human rights training which is being delivered is failing to meet what we assume to be its objective. A rigorous evaluation of the effectiveness of this approach would appear overdue.

We also believe that until the concerns about impunity and collusion are addressed, the Colombian Government will see military aid as the British Government giving a tacit endorsement of their overall approach.

The British Government is increasingly isolated. The only other major supplier of military aid to the Colombian regime is the US Government, and last April Congress put a hold on $55.2 million of military aid out of concern because of the alleged links between the head of the Colombian Army and the AUC paramilitary group. The current debate in the US about the proposed Free Trade Agreement between the USA and Colombia - and most recently, its suspension - is further evidence that Democrats in the USA are very worried about the situation in Colombia, as is the US trade union movement (see the recent AFL-CIO report (www.aflcio.org/issues/jobseconomy/globaleconomy/upload/colombia_briefing.pdf).

There is a lack of comprehensive clarity and openness about the amount of British money involved in military aid and the uses to which it is put, and an apparent lack of adequate conditions and safeguards involved.

Support for peace and social justice

The British and Colombian trade union movements oppose terrorism and violence from whatever quarter. Despite the fact that most trade unionists are killed by right-wing paramilitaries, the Colombian trade union movement has been at the forefront of the popular campaign against all violence, terror and kidnapping which culminated in the 6 March mobilisation. It has been among the most outspoken advocates calling for the release of all kidnap victims, including Ingrid Betancourt.

Previous Government Ministers - Margaret Beckett and David Triesman - were involved in discussions held in London last summer attended by a wide range of political, church and trade union representatives from Colombia, including families of FARC-held hostages, about the need for a political solution. Colombian colleagues, supported by British trade unionists, pressed for consideration to be given to the proposal for a humanitarian exchange of prisoners as advocated by France, Spain and Switzerland. We also asked the FCO to press the Colombian government to desist from military attempts to free hostages that too often result in the deaths of hostages. Indeed the following day, the Peace Commissioner for Valle de Cauca, a member of the delegation, was obliged to return home as her brother - himself a hostage - had been killed in such an attempt. We would welcome an initiative from the UK Government together with, for example, the French Government, to explore proposals for a humanitarian exchange.

Other positive moves, which we believe could be made, would focus in particular on social justice rather than military aid. A military solution to the conflict in Colombia, especially one that purports to focus on drugs, is unlikely to be successful. The conflict pre-dates by several decades the development of the Colombian drugs trade, which is a symptom, not a cause, of the conflict. The solution to that conflict will need to address the social and economic issues, which caused it and continue to reinforce it.

The Colombian Government is making very little progress towards fulfilling its obligations under ratified ILO Conventions with regard to law and practice in industrial relations. Significant efforts need to be made to address the social dislocation and democratic deficits resulting from an increasingly - and intentionally - precarious labour market, with almost no collective bargaining and few employers willing to engage in developing mature systems of industrial relations.

It is our view that the non-compliance with ILO obligations is not caused by the violence in Colombia, but is rather the product of intentionally neo-liberal and authoritarian economic, social and labour policies, and anti-trade union violence has been one way by which those policies have been imposed. We remain convinced, however, that support for effective social dialogue and mature systems of industrial relations - goods in their own right - could have the additional benefit of demonstrating by example the possibility of peaceful resolution of conflict through negotiation.

The TUC and the Colombian trade union movement welcome the steps that have been taken by the FCO to support the Colombian trade union movement, such as the relationship building between the UK's ambassador and CUT President Carlos Rodriguez, the recent FCO-sponsored visit to the UK by Carlos and senior colleagues, and so on.

We would welcome the opportunity to build on that by channelling UK government funds into promoting trade unionism and collective bargaining, for instance by financial assistance to the ILO office in Bogotá for a post devoted to promoting social dialogue in order to help it fulfil its mandate under the tripartite agreement signed at the ILO Conference in June 2006.

We also welcome the FCO's past intervention, at our request, to protest in individual cases of assassination, detention and disappearance and in respect of the treatment of JFC/British trade union solidarity delegations. We are of course keen that such positive interventions should continue.