Colombia Solidarity Campaign

Nelson Prez, Luis Eduardo Garcia, Jose Domingo Flores

In the last fortnight, three Coca-Cola workers in Bucaramanga, Colombia have been told that before the end of December they will be killed and buried in a mass grave. The threat demands that the union cease all protest against Coca-Cola. Join us in emergency action to defend their lives!

The men – Luis Eduardo, Jose Domingo and Nelson Perez – belong to SINALTRAINAL, the trade union representing Coca-Cola workers in Colombia. Since 1994, nine Coca-Cola workers have been murdered by paramilitary death squads in response to the union’s resistance.

Urgent Action: Attack and Threat on Women’s Leader Yolanda Becerra
by O.F.P., Human Rights Colombia and others Sunday, Nov. 04, 2007 at 1:44 PM

‘When the men knocked at the door, Yolanda Becerra Vega thought it was the women who had returned and opened it. The men pushed the door and started to hit Yolanda, pinning here against the wall. One of them pointed a gun at her, and they told her “son of a bitch, your story is over. You have 48 hours to leave, if not we’ll wipe out your family. You won’t escape us”.’

Report by Richard Solly, Secretary, London Mining Network, 41a Thornhill Square, London N1 1BE.

BHPBilliton plc AGM, 25 October 2007

Trade unionists from Colombia and representatives of mining-affected communities in the Philippines attended the BHPBilliton plc AGM in London on 25 October.

COLOMBIA

Javier Correa (m), the National Union of Food Industry Workers (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Industria de Alimentos, SINALTRAINAL)

José Domingo Flores (m), leader of the Santander branch of SINALTRAINAL,

Members of their families

Other members of SINALTRAINAL 

According to Álvaro Uribe, the paramilitary groups have demobilised, however the truth is that they are more active than ever.

Each time the government and the management of Ecopetrol implement programmes of privatisation of the the Colombian peoples’ state oil corporation, or hand over our natural resources, the threats against the union increase. This is what is happening now as we, the workers, are against the sale of ECOPETROL shares.