Aletho News

COLOMBIA: U.S. wants Free Trade Agreement with Colombia even after August massacre and other human rights abuses in Magdalena Medio region

CPTnet | 19 September 2011

While the United States considers a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Colombia, the human rights situation in the Magdalena Medio region of Colombia has deteriorated dramatically, culminating in the 17 August 2011 massacre in the township of El Dorado.

The United States House of Representatives and Senate will probably vote on the long standing FTA when they return from their congressional break, asserting that the human rights situation in Colombia is improving. However, a wave of human rights violations, assassinations, and massacres has shaken the region. For example, in the city of Barrancabermeja, from 13-18 August, the organization Human Rights Workers’ Forum of Barrancabermeja (Espacio de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras de Derechos Humanos) documented two assassinations, two forced disappearances, five attempted assassinations, and the kidnapping of three contract workers.

Furthermore, in the Sierra de San Lucas mountain range, the agricultural and mining communities are also threatened. This region is rich in natural resources such as gold. With the price of gold rising, multinational companies who stand to benefit from a FTA with Colombia are seeking even more concessions in the region. One human rights worker told CPTers, “We are facing wave of violence that has not been seen since the paramilitary group Auto-Defense Forces entered the region the late 90s.”

From November to August of this year, Fedeagromisbol, a federation of primarily subsistence small-scale miners and peasant farmers throughout the Sierra de San Lucas mountain range in South Bolívar, documented sixteen assassinations in the region and twenty cases of abuses and harassment.

On 17 August, 7:00 p.m., in the community of Casa Zinc, part of township EL Dorado in the municipality of Monte Cristo, Bolivar, twenty armed men entered the community and identified themselves as the Black Eagles, a paramilitary group. They gathered the community together and assassinated Pedro Sierra, a farmer. They then tortured and cut out the tongues of Ivan Serrano, a local shop owner, and Luis Albeiro Ropero, a young miner, before they killing them. The Colombian Army was just twenty minutes away while the Black Eagles were committing these atrocities.

On the 21 August, local human rights organizations, including Fedeagromisbol and the Christian Peacemaker Teams traveled to the region to investigate the massacre. On their way, they received a call that the paramilitary group was still present in the community four days after the massacre. The official investigation commission was unable to come, because the Colombian government could not guarantee the safety of anyone entering the region.

The massacre in Casa Zinc is not unusual. Most of the violence happens either at the hands of the Colombia Armed Forces or occurs when these forces are nearby and able to prevent it, if they chose to do so. The U.S. government must not move forward on a Free Trade Agreement by claiming that the human rights situation has improved.

October 1, 2011 - Posted by aletho | Civil Liberties, Economics, Progressive Hypocrite, Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular