Death threats against Sinaltrainal President

We denounce before the national and international community that on 24 November 2009 our comrade Luis Javier Correa Suárez received a call on a mobile phone assigned to him by the protection programme of the Ministry of the Interior and justice, the call came for the mobile number 312-8160930 and a man who identified himself as Arnold Jiménez told Javier Correa “you have until the 22nd to renounce, and there won’t be another phone call”, when he asked why the man replied “you know why, don’t play games, you know what I mean” and hanged up the phone.

We also denounce that on 20 November 2009 two calls were made to Sinaltrainal’s land line, one confirming a fax and one on which a man said that he would be calling the other Sinantrainal branches to inform them of the contents of the fax. He also said that Coca Cola had relationships and influence with the Government and the sons of Alvaro Uribe, this man did not identify himself for security reasons. In a previous statement we denounced the commercial treaties between the sons of the President and the multinational.

This death threat reaches us a few days after the Inter-American Commission on human rights notified us its decision to extend precautionary measures to Sinaltrainal members and at a point when we are in a collective conflict with multinational (National Industry of Soft Drinks S.A. - Coca Cola), which does not want to sign the collective labour agreement even though we had reached an agreement to our demands during the negotiation process.

We demand from the authorities to investigate and punish the material and intellectual perpetrators of these acts and to guarantee our right and freedom of association and to protect the life and physical integrity of Sinaltrainal members and their families.

We ask the international community as much solidarity as possible to help us prevent crimes against the trade union movement and the people of Colombia

National Directorate

Sinaltrainal - Colombia

RECOMMENDED ACTION

Send protest to Colombian embassy in the UK at elondres@cancilleria.gov.co and mail@colombianembassy.co.uk ; message of support to areainternacional@sinaltrainal.org

with copies to Colombia Solidarity Campaign at info@colombiasolidarity.org.uk



Take Action to Guarantee Safety of Members of PCN, Indigenous Cabildos, CUT-Valle and NOMADESC

Forwarded from Washington Office on Latin America December 6, 2009

Dear Activists,

AFRODES USA and WOLA urge you to contact Colombian authorities immediately and urge them to take action to guarantee the safety of Afro-Colombian, Indigenous and human rights leaders in northern Cauca.

On December 4, Lisifrey Ararat of the Community Council of La Toma and the Black Communities Process (PCN) received a text message that stated:" Hp no decidan por la comunidad que si quieren los recursos, tienen 8 dias pasalir sigue la lista *** fin **. This translates into English as "Motherfucker don't decide for the community what they want. You have eight days to leave the area. The list remains active."


The same text message which came from the telephone number 310 8964370 was also sent to Yair Ortiz, Edwar Mina (both leaders from the Community Council of La Toma), Arley Gonzalez (mining leader), Enrique Guetio (traditional indigenous leader from the Cabildo Cerro Tijeras) and Edwar Villegas (member of the human rights group CUT-Valle and Association NOMADESC). This threat follows another threat that was received by the Aguilas Negras-Nueva Generacion paramilitaries to these same groups on October 22nd.

PCN, NOMADESC and others recently participated in a round of visits to the US Congress and an OAS hearing on the right to previous consultation for Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Communities. For details of this visit, got to: http://actualidadetnica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8500:gimena-sanchez-garzoli-&catid=57

Please contact the following offices immediately and urge them to protect the lives of these activists, investigate these threats and prosecute those responsible for making them. Also recommend to these offices that they take bold steps to strengthen the right of previous consultation for these communities. The Colombian authorities' information is as follows:

- Colombian Vice President's office: Francisco Santos 57-1-560-1195

- Ministry of Interior and Justice: Fabio Valencia Cossio 57-1-444-3100 (Executive Secretary)

- Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Program: Carlos Franco 57-1- 595-1853 o 57-1595-1888.

For further information, please be in touch with Charo Mina Rojas of AFRODES USA at (434) 760-0663.
http://actualidadetnica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8500:gimena-gimena-sanchez-garzoli-&catid=101

[RECOMMENDED ACTION

Send protest to Colombian embassy in the UK at elondres@cancilleria.gov.co and mail@colombianembassy.co.uk ; message of support to areainternacional@sinaltrainal.org

with copies to Colombia Solidarity Campaign at info@colombiasolidarity.org.uk ]