FROM BOGOTA TO CARACAS

RMTnews :: march 2006 :: www.rmt.org.uk 22 The Colombia Solidarity Campaign delegation began the trip by attending a conference in Bogota on the impact of multinational corporations (MNC) on the situation in Colombia. The message was appropriately summed up by a delegate by the name of Hector Mondragon, who is an economist at the National University. “If a farmer in the US finds oil on their land they think, hurray, the good life beckons. “But if a farmer in Colombia finds oil on their land, they think, what a disaster! “This is because they are likely to lose their land, livelihood and probably their life,” he said. The delegation travelled overland by bus to the department (county) of Arauca, which gave a real sense of underdevelopment. On the journey to our next destination of Saravena, we were detained at a checkpoint just outside a town called Tame, by the army and DAS (state intelligence branch) with whom we engaged in an argument for about an hour, a deliberate ploy to make it impossible for us to reach our destination. This was because there is a 6pm-6am curfew, during which anyone or vehicle out within these times are regarded as guerrillas and treated as a legitimate targets ie a free fire-zone. Following this encounter, we returned to Tame where we were accommodated in a locked sports stadium for the night. As one of our Colombian comrades stated “we’d been kidnapped by the army”. Eventually arriving at Saravena we attended a humanitarian forum, to discuss the effects of ‘Plan Colombia’, a US aid package 80 per cent of which goes to the Colombian police and military for weapons, training and helicopters. We also commemorated the lives of three trade unionists, who were murdered by the army, namely Alirio Matrinez, Jorge Prieto and Leonel Goyenche. Here we heard some heart rendering testimonies on the effects of the army presence and what it actually means to the region. This includes the detainment of two trade unionists on trial for rebellion, one of which is Samuel Morales, the president of the regional CUT, equivalent to our TUC and Raquel Castro, who is an executive member of the teachers union. Both narrowly missed being assassinated together with the other three trade unionists. After the forum we moved to the regional capital Arauca City where we were again detained at the border for a couple of hours due to an explosion in the city killing six and injuring 14 people. One of the injured was a member of our delegation who had gone on ahead to deal with a passport problem, whilst we were awaiting entry. FROM BOGOTA TO CARACAS RMT member Dave Parkes shares his experiences taking part in a recent delegation to Colombia and Venezuela POPULAR: Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez greets supporters