[Marxism] Colombia: Permanent People's Tribunal holds special session

[Greg McDonald <sabocat59@xxxxxxx>]

Assassinations and terror
Colombia tribunal examines role of oil companies

By Deirdre Griswold
Bogotá, Colombia
Published Aug 16, 2007 9:46 AM
What is most remarkable about the political situation in Colombia is  
not just the high level of state-sponsored violence against the  
popular organizations and their leaders, but the high level of  
courage and resistance from a people who refuse to be crushed or  
intimidated, even by masked assassins who come in the night.

This courage and resistance was on display here for two days, Aug. 3  
and 4, when a special session of the Permanent Peoples Tribunal heard  
testimony on the role of U.S. and European oil companies in the  
terror campaigns against social activists in Colombia.

Some 800 people from both the capital, Bogotá, and many rural areas  
of Colombia crowded into an auditorium provided by the Teachers'  
Union, where they heard heart-rending testimony from the relatives  
and friends of activists, young and old, who were murdered for  
speaking out about the conditions in their communities.

Some of the witnesses fought back tears as they told of armed men  
breaking in at night in search of their husbands, sons and brothers,  
whose lifeless bodies were later found, often showing gruesome signs  
of torture.

Again and again, witnesses described how the Colombian military and  
local police give free rein to the "paras," some of whom work as  
private security guards for the big oil companies—Occidental, British  
Petroleum and Repsol. And they pointed the finger directly at the  
government of President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, who is currently trying  
to deflect popular anger by reshuffling his top military command,  
many of whom have been directly implicated in the crimes, along with  
the paramilitaries and druglords.

Three busloads of villagers from Arauca attended the tribunal. Arauca  
is a region in the oil-rich northeast, next to Venezuela, where the  
violence has been particularly vicious.

The face of Alirio Martínez—a campesino leader from the Arauca region  
who was murdered exactly three years ago—smiled down on the audience  
from a huge banner on the stage. Behind him, other peasants were  
depicted carrying a placard, "Arauca Lives," and the slogan, "We are  
building the paths to freedom."

At one point in the program, a group of girls and boys from Arauca  
who had been patiently waiting all day got their chance to dance with  
exuberance, grace and precision in front of the banner.

The energy of these young people showed that the terror campaign  
against the local population has failed to break their spirit. Even  
witnesses who cried as they spoke ended their testimonies with  
slogans of struggle and optimism.

Assassination of Alirio Martínez

The execution of Alirio Martínez by government soldiers early on the  
morning of Aug. 5, 2004, was but one of many horrific crimes brought  
before the tribunal, but it sheds light on what is the real basis for  
the bloody conflict in Colombia, which has been going on for decades.

According to evidence presented to the tribunal, Martínez, president  
of the Association of Service-Using Campesinos of Arauca (ADUC), had  
spent the night at the home of a friend on Caño Seco Road in the town  
of Saravena after a meeting of leaders of local civic groups, held to  
evaluate the regional situation with regard to social and human rights.

Also present at the meeting were Jorge Prieto Chamucero, president of  
the National Association of Hospital and Clinic Workers of Colombia  
(ANTHOC), Leonel Goyeneche Goyeneche and María Raquel Castro, both  
members of the Teachers Association of Arauca and the Central United  
Workers (CUT), and Samuel Morales Flórez, president of the Arauca  
branch of the CUT.

At around 5:00 in the morning, troops belonging to the mechanized  
group Revéis Pizarro, assigned to the 18th Brigade of the National  
Army, broke into the house where the meeting had been held and  
totally surrounded it.

About a half hour later, several soldiers went to the nearby house of  
Jorge Prieto, where Alirio Martínez had been sleeping. They grabbed  
him and Goyeneche, ordered them to kneel at the side of the house and  
then shot them to death. They then dragged the bodies away from the  
house, put small arms near them and fired a few more shots to give  
the impression of a gun battle.

Later they dragged the bodies through the streets for everyone to  
see, and then put them on a helicopter and took them to batallion  
headquarters. They also arrested Samuel Morales, Raquel Castro and  
María Constanza Jaimes, taking them along in the helicopter.

This atrocity became known as the Massacre of Caño Seco.

The government presented it as a successful operation against armed  
insurgents of the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the  
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Samuel Morales, Raquel Castro and several other civic leaders in the  
region were sentenced to six years in prison for the crime of  
"rebellion," which also was the excuse given for the massacre.

Raquel Castro got early release from prison and came directly to the  
tribunal, where she testified that she had heard her friends being  
shot and had heard the soldiers demanding, "Where are the arms?"

"There weren't any," said Castro. She added that when the helicopter  
got to the battalion headquarters, she saw U.S. soldiers—"gringos"— 
with the Colombians.

"All this is meant to suppress the struggle of the civic  
organizations, the peasants, the workers, for their human rights,"  
added this brave teacher.

On the side wall of the auditorium, a banner read, "Truth and justice  
will honor the memory of our victims."

Griswold served as a co-judge at the tribunal.


Page printed from:
http://www.workers.org/2007/world/colombia-0823/

-- 
Meredith Aby
Anti-War Committe (antiwarcommittee.org)
Colombia Action Network (colombiasolidarity.org )

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