Assassinations and terror

Colombia tribunal examines role of oil companies

By Deirdre Griswold
Bogotá, Colombia

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.

Raquel Castro, a teacher from Arauca, testified at tribunal just days after being released from jail. WW photo: Deirdre Griswold

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.

Manuel Chacón, a union activist, and Alirio Martínez, a peasant leader from Arauca, were both assassinated by the Colombian Army.

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.

Next: What’s Big Oil got to do with it?

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