In the last days more news about the repression of Colombian people has come to us. On October 16, 2003, Esperanza Amaris Miranda, a member of the Popular Women’s Organization and human rights defender in the region of Barrancabermeja was murdered by paramilitaries who arrived at Esperanza’s home in a public service vehicle. Although her daughter tried to protect her mother by throwing herself onto the car, Esperanza was assassinated beside the symbolic Camilo Torres Restrepo College. According to the regional Ombudsman, Barrancabermeja has witnessed 94 murders and 56 disappearances this year alone. These official statistics are a pale reflection of the magnitude of the repression that the Colombian police state, with the open support of the US’s Bush administration, exerts on the Colombian population, specifically upon popular organizations that struggle for democratic rights and social justice.

Colombia’s Trade Union Congress (CUT), recorded the murders of 172 affiliated members during 2002. Forty-nine of those murdered were trade union leaders. A further 164 received death threats, and as a consequence 80 went into exile. Between January 1 and August 26, 2003 there have been 47 union leaders assassinated. The unions that have been particularly targeted for such violence are the public sector unions and union organizations representing workers in strategic sectors of the economy such as oil, mining and energy. The number of people displaced continues to increase. In 2002 more than 280,000 people had to leave their homes, 31.8 percent more than in 2001.

The government of President Alvaro Uribe criminalizes the activity not only of the labor union organizations, but also social movements lead by farmers, students and human rights advocates. The Uribe government’s main goal is to secure by force the political environment necessary for further penetration of transnational corporations and for the “national” ruling classes. Presently, Uribe is embarked in a referendum campaign to allow him to remain in the presidency for one more period, permitting him to complete the “pacification” of the country and to further increased the military alliance with Washington, symbolized in the so-called “Plan Colombia”

The US invasion of Iraq and Colombia’s civil war are part of the same story, two fronts in the transnational global war to dominate the world’s population and its resources. Presently there are more than 2000 US soldiers helping and training the Colombian army and the paramilitary squads. US interests in the area are to create a stronghold in Colombia in order to eliminate local resistance to the pro-American Colombian government, but also to intervene against the progressive regime of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. A stronghold in Colombia will allow the US military to have strategic access to the Amazon basin, thus providing further opportunities for transnational corporations to sack its vast natural resources. It will also augment the Pentagon’s capacity to keep an eye on the popular struggles in Brazil, Bolivia and Northern Argentine. The popular uprising against the neo-liberal policies, that have recently resulting in the ousting of the president of Bolivia, surely will be used by Pentagon strategists to increase their military presence in Colombia.

Despite the incredible violence perpetrated against Colombian activists, the resistance movement continues. But such a movement can only succeed with the support of an international solidarity movement that targets both the Colombian government and its US and corporate backers. Currently, an international campaign against Coca-Cola is underway, organized by SINALTRAINAL (a Food and Beverage Workers National Union). Coca-Cola has been targeted as a result of the assassination of eight Coca-Cola plant union leaders by paramilitaries, with the complicity of Coca-Cola executives. Such a campaign draws the connections between the violent represssion of Colombian labour activists and the benefits neoliberal policies have reaped for multinational corporations operating in the country.

Canadian corporations are also involved in business in Colombia, particularly in the oil industry. Paramilitary squads are highly active in areas where Canadian companies have installed their bases for operation. Barrancabermeja is one such area. “Vanguard,” which operates in the upper Magdelena valley, is one of the eleven Canadian oil companies doing business in Colombia with the support of the Canadian government.

As activists in the Canadian state, we should be participating in the international solidarity movement wherever we can. This solidarity reinforces our anti-capitalist struggle in Canada, and our struggle to denounce and resist globalization, militarism and imperialism.

For Updates on the Struggle in Colombia see: