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Trip to Colombia
I was fortunate to join a delegation to Colombia at the end of August and beginning of September this year, organised by Justice for Colombia. You may already be aware that GMB nationally and regionally support this campaign.
The delegation consisted of a number of MP’s, one MEP and Senior Trade Union Officials and a couple of Solicitors.
Having travelled via Madrid we arrived in Bogatá late afternoon and had a formal dinner with a number of Colombian politicians.
On the Sunday we departed early and flew to Cali in South West Colombia. We met with a number of agricultural workers, members of FENSUAGRO. We then left for a village called El Retiro where we met with peasant farmers and indigenous people.
On the way back to Cali we visited Agua Blanca where we had a tour of a shanty town. I have been fortunate that I have never visited a shanty town before but this visit did leave a very deep impression on me. We then returned to Bogatá.
On the Monday we had an early meeting with the CUT trade union federation which is the equivalent of the TUC. There then followed a number of meetings with other trade unions.
On the Tuesday we left early for the region of Sumapaz which is three hours south of Bogatá. We had a meeting with the local Mayor who is a member of the Democratic Alternative Pole opposition which is a broadly left-wing party. We also met with local trade unionists and farmers. This is a very beautiful part of the country but is quite remote and isolated from Bogatá.
On our return to Bogatá we met with the United Nations High Commissioner’s Department for Human Rights and had a frank exchange of views on what is happening in Colombia.
On the Wednesday we had a meeting with the various political parties in the Colombian Congress and then in the evening we met with the Vice President of Colombia, Francisco Santos.
On the Thursday we visited the Buen Pastor women’s prison where we met with 85 female political prisoners. This for me was one of the highlights of the tour and was very moving as we heard the stories of a number of people who had been imprisoned for no more than being trade union or community activists. There were a number of prisoners who were members of the FARC guerrilla group but they were quite open about it. It is quite clear that the Colombian authorities imprison people as guerrillas who do no more than exercise their democratic rights.
Following this we had a meeting with the newly appointed Director of the Colombian secret police known as the ‘DAS’.
On the Friday we had a meeting with the Ministry of Defence including the Defence Minister, Juan Manuel Santos, National Police Commander General Oscar Naranjo and the Commander of the Armed Forces General Freddy Padilla de Leon. At this meeting there was a frank exchange of views about the activities of the paramilitaries and the death squads.
In the afternoon we met with the British Ambassador, Haydon Warren-Gash, where again there was a frank exchange of views about British military aid to Colombia. This concluded our trip and we departed the following day.
It is clear that Colombia is a beautiful country but is still blighted with an ugly regime with links to paramilitaries who still organise death squads against trade union activists and community leaders. Whilst there is clearly still a guerrilla war mostly against FARC, this has been used as an excuse to curb democratic and trade union rights. It is still true that Colombia remains the most dangerous place in the world for trade unions.
For a copy of the report Rehabilitiating Trade Union Victims of Violence please click here.
Richard Ascough
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