US embassy cable - 04BOGOTA3913

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BOGOTA 003913 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NOFORN 
 
STATE PLEASE PASS TO USTR 
GENEVA FOR CHAMBERLIN AND DELAURENTIS 
LABOR FOR ILAB 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/02/2014 
TAGS: PHUM, PGOV, PTER, ELAB, SOCI, CO 
SUBJECT: FOUR CASE STUDIES OF LABOR VIOLENCE IN COLOMBIA 
 
REF: A. BOGOTA 3866 
 
     B. BOGOTA 3345 
     C. 03 BOGOTA 5768 
     D. 01 BOGOTA 11005 
 
Classified By: Ambassador William B. Wood for reasons 1.4 (b) 
and (d). 
 
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Summary 
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1. (C) During a meeting with four participants in a 
USDOL-funded exchange program for at-risk trade unionists, we 
learned that paramilitaries had targeted at least three of 
them because of their leftist political activism, rather than 
their trade union membership.  Carlos Rodriguez, the moderate 
president of the United Workers Central (CUT), Colombia's 
largest and traditionally most left-of-center labor 
federation, recently confided to the Embassy that the radical 
attitudes and activities of some CUT members had stained the 
CUT as a whole and converted all of its members into 
potential targets of paramilitary violence.  Further study of 
this issue is needed to discern whether or not these case 
studies correlate to a larger trend.  However, these case 
studies do highlight the importance of considering cases of 
labor violence in context, rather than assuming that 
paramilitaries target trade unionists solely because of their 
labor activism.  End Summary. 
 
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Context 
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2. (SBU/NF) On April 2, four participants in the AFL-CIO 
Solidary Center's USDOL-funded exchange program for at-risk 
trade unionists visited the Embassy before their departure to 
share their first-hand experiences with violence against 
trade unions.  In 2003, the exchange program provided 
U.S.-based training and technical education to nearly 40 
Colombian trade union leaders under threat.  The four trade 
unionists we met, who are all currently enrolled in the GOC 
Ministry of Interior and Justice's (MOI/J) protection program 
(ref B), were:  Miguel Fernandez, United Workers Central 
(CUT) regional president for Cauca department; Luis Molina, 
CUT regional president for Boyaca department; Maria Eugenia 
Paez, secretary general of the executive board of SINTRENAL, 
a CUT-affiliated teachers union; and Nelson Quijano, regional 
human rights director for the "Union Sindical Obrera" (USO), 
a national oil workers union affiliated with the CUT. 
 
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Some Targeted Because of Political Positions 
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3. (C) Moderates within the CUT, led by CUT National 
President Carlos Rodriguez, generally eschew strictly 
political debates and instead emphasize bread-and-butter 
issues such as collective bargaining, the right to strike, 
and the importance of strengthening labor inspection 
mechanisms.  CUT leftists, however, support a 
confrontational, ideological approach to their activism that 
includes opposition to even centrist government policies only 
tangentially related to labor rights (ref A).  Fernandez, CUT 
regional president in highly conflictive Cauca department, 
told us local paramilitaries threatened him because he 
organized opposition to the October 2003 political and 
economic reform referendum, publicly criticized GOC social 
policy, advocated greater GOC social investment, and 
marshalled support for left-wing political candidates. 
Fernandez, who recognized he was threatened because of his 
political activities, stated that such activity is 
part-and-parcel of labor activism. 
 
4. (C) Paez, a high school teacher in Cucuta, Norte de 
Santander department, said paramilitaries targeted her for 
advocating leftist politics in the classroom.  Paez told us 
that although she never discussed politics with students, her 
leftist leanings are well-known and consistent with labor 
activism.  Paez's statements indicate she was targeted 
because of her politics, rather than for membership in a 
trade union or for labor rights advocacy.  GOC Ministry of 
Defense (MOD) statistics indicate that murders of teachers 
dropped 48 percent in 2003.  Unionized and non-unionized 
educators are still, however, threatened, attacked, and/or 
forcibly displaced by both paramilitaries and leftist 
guerrillas for allegedly disseminating propaganda in the 
classroom (ref C). 
 
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Others Targeted for Opposing Paramilitaries 
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5. (C) Molina, CUT regional president for Boyaca department, 
told us his name appeared on a list of paramilitary "military 
objectives" because he organized resistance among small 
merchants to paramilitary extortion attempts.  Molina 
insisted that paramilitaries targeted him because of his 
union leadership, but also speculated that paramilitaries' 
animosity toward him was probably motivated by his leftist 
ideology, his efforts to organize resistance to their 
depredations, and his opposition to their alleged use of 
emerald mines as drug labs. 
 
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Perceived Guerrilla Ties Lead to Violence 
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6. (C) Of the four, only USO activist Quijano appears to have 
been targeted strictly for his trade union affiliation. 
However, he also told us that USO recently organized 
activities in support of a group of peasants from Bolivar 
department who have been charged with rebellion by the 
Prosecutor General's Office ("Fiscalia"). 
 
7. (C/NF) CUT National President Carlos Rodriguez has 
confided to Embassy officers that some of his greatest 
challenges have been to help CUT members differentiate 
bread-and-butter labor activism from tangential political 
issues and to convince hard-core CUT leftists to abandon 
tacit -- and even active -- support for guerrilla 
organizations.  Rodriguez explained in frustration that the 
actions of some misguided CUT members had stained them all as 
radical leftists and given paramilitaries an excuse to target 
the CUT as a whole. 
 
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Comment 
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8. (C/NF) While these case studies do not constitute a 
representative sample, they do highlight the importance of 
considering contextual information in any analysis of 
violence against trade unionists in Colombia.  The fact that 
97 percent of threatened Colombian trade unionists belong to 
the CUT (ref A) indicates that violence against trade 
unionists may be selective and that members of other 
Colombian trade unions are largely not targeted by 
paramilitaries.  The propensity of some within the CUT to 
correlate labor activism with political radicalism may help 
to explain why the CUT is disproportionately targeted by 
paramilitaries and why the CUT is widely distrusted by 
private sector employers. 
WOOD