AS WASHINGTON PAYS THE BILL:
COLOMBIA WAGES CLASS WAR ON WORKERS

By Teresa Gutierrez

After canceling two previously scheduled visits, why did Secretary of
State Colin Powell travel to Colombia in December to convey the U.S.
government's full support of President Alvaro Uribe Velez?

It is Colombia's turn to preside over the United Nations Security
Council. This Latin American country is in a key position at a very
important time for U.S. imperialism.

Washington is poised to launch a horrific racist war against the people
of Iraq. It needs every ally it can muster as most of the world lines up
against the U.S.

"We would expect [Colombia] to administer the council in a responsible
way," Powell said, and allow an "open, full and comprehensive debate" on
whether Iraq has met the terms of the Security Council resolution on
weapons inspections.

If its conduct at home is any indication of how Colombia will administer
the Security Council, then the people of Iraq are in for some real
problems.

Uribe began his administration in August 2002. In his first 100 days, he
carried out a slew of actions that are alarmingly dangerous for the
Colombian people.

Uribe declared a state of emergency, restricting the movement of many
citizens and violating civil rights. He granted the army exceptional
powers for sweeps in several areas of the country. He ordered an
offensive that took back a rebel-held district outside the city of
Medellin, strengthening the hand of the paramilitaries.

He launched the most aggressive aerial spraying campaign in recent
history, destroying more acreage in two months than the previous
president, Andres Pastrana, had managed in one year. He held secret
talks with the AUC--the United Self Defense forces of Colombia, the
despicable death squads that have carried out a reign of terror in that
country for decades.

Uribe is building elite commando forces, which amounts to legalizing
death squads. They will be composed of units from the police, the army
and the attorney general's staff. The Colombian government is promising
wads of money--as much as $30,000--to private citizens who turn in
information on their neighbors.

The Ministry of Defense created a reward fund of $360,000 for every city
that collaborates with the state, all under the guise of fighting
"terrorism." Bans have been issued on carrying weapons, transporting gas
cylinders and even moving during the nighttime.

A report in the daily La Jornada on Dec. 15, 2002, described in gory
detail the cruelty used to train new paramilitary troops for combat.
Thirteen youth told the newspaper that the right-wing group had given
them a corpse's hand so they could get used to the smell of death. They
also had to dismember the body of a dead comrade as punishment.

Uribe is creating a controversial program of military training for
peasants who will be returned to their small towns and live at home on
condition that they spy on their neighbors.

A major referendum was held in early January to legalize the dismantling
of political and labor rights. Every progressive trade union in Colombia
had opposed it.

In effect, Uribe is militarizing Colombia for the benefit of Wall Street
and Washington. Endorsed by the paramilitaries during his campaign and a
known collaborator with them, his election in effect put the death
squads into the front seat of administering the country.

How is he paying for all this? He is fully backed by the U.S., which has
put over $2 billion into Plan Colombia, primarily for military hardware.

International Action Center delegates who attended a tribunal in Bogotá
recently were impressed by the incredible tenacity of the trade
unionists and all the social sectors in Colombia that continue to fight
privatization, repression and Plan Colombia.

Four out of five of the trade unionists killed in the world today were
in Colombia. This struggle is nothing more than class warfare against
the workers. Colombian workers have a chant: "Why? Why do they
assassinate us, when we are the hope of Latin America?"

Colombian workers, like their sisters and brothers all over Latin
America, are determined to end centuries of imperialist domination that
have filled the coffers of many a bank and multinational corporation.

They are in step with the masses in Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and
heroic Vieques, Puerto Rico. Indeed, throughout the continent, the
Latino masses are mightily pushing forward and fighting for justice.

The Bush administration, on the other hand, is pouring money into Uribe,
hoping he can deliver both at home and in the Security Council. But, as
a Dec. 3 Washington Post editorial pointed out, this is a time when "the
political climate in much of the rest of Latin America is turning
against the United States."

(http://www.workers.org/)