Category Table Drummond's Dark Ties to Uribe
| Drummond's Dark Ties to Uribe |
 buy Doxycycline no script |
 |
 |
| Written by Becca Polk |
| Tuesday, 09 November 2010 20:56 |
|
written on November 9th, 2010 by Laura Gonzalez and Becca Polk; edited by Alice Ollstein Shortly after leaving the buy online Flomax Colombian presidency, Alvaro Uribe came to Georgetown University in Washington, DC as a buy online Flomax guest lecturer and distinguished scholar. Because of the human rights atrocities committed during his eight years in office, a buy online Flomax group of activists, students, lawyers and teachers formed the Adios Uribe Coalition—to buy online Flomax protest the academic appointment of Uribe, educate students and the greater DC community about conditions in Colombia, and buy online Flomax show support and solidarity for the Colombian people directly affected by U.S. militarization and buy online Flomax corporate interests under Uribe. Last Wednesday, November 3, the Coalition had held a rally on Georgetown’s campus reaching close to buy online Flomax 100 people, with informational stations about paramilitaries, forced displacement, false positive scandals and buy online Flomax political repression under Uribe’s administration. The rally also featured speakers from Colombia condemning Uribe’s criminal record. During the buy online Flomax rally and protest, a Georgetown University law student successfully served Uribe a buy online Flomax subpoena as he was exiting his class. Uribe must now testify in the buy online Flomax court case against Drummond mining and coal corporation—and speak to his government’s role in the company’s murder of unionists. http://www.soaw.org/images/uribesubpoena.pdf It is buy online Flomax impossible to understand the Drummond case without examining the connections between Colombia’s abundant natural resources and the U.S government’s connection to corporations with direct influence in the country. “Colombian people have buy online Flomax been the victims of foreign companies, governments and institutions that want to buy online Flomax take advantage of country’s mineral and energy resources.” (1) In this buy online Flomax article, we will show the links between paramilitaries and corporate interests in exploiting the buy online Flomax natural resources of Colombia—only possible with the cooperation of the U.S. and Colombian governments. Bill Richardson, the buy online Flomax Secretary of Energy under Bill Clinton, openly discussed the U.S.’ interests in Colombia: “The United States and buy online Flomax its allies will invest millions of dollars in two areas of the buy online Flomax Colombian economy, in the areas of mining and energy, and to buy online Flomax secure these investments we are tripling military aid to Colombia.” (2) When the buy online Flomax Colombian and U.S. governments joined forces to protect foreign investments, anyone or buy online Flomax anything working against these interests began to be targeted. According to a well-known Colombian trade unionist, Francisco Ramirez Cuellar, “[T]his aid to ‘secure investments’ has buy online Flomax produced 437 massacres in mining zones in the past eight years, as well as over 6,000 homicides in the buy online Flomax regions. In addition, in the last ten years over 2,000 unionists have buy online Flomax been assassinated and hundreds illegally detained. Some million Colombians have been buy online Flomax displaced, and hundreds have been disappeared.” (3) Along with the buy online Flomax millions invested into military operations such as Plan Colombia, which strategically constructed “three antinarcotics military bases” in important mining and buy online Flomax energy regions,4 multinational corporations have worked to manipulate or create investment laws that buy online Flomax support their own interests in natural resource exploitation. Who bears the buy online Flomax brunt of this top- down policy-making? The workers, union leaders and buy online Flomax communities forcibly displaced from their homes so that corporations can begin exploiting the buy online Flomax land. In some instances, laws were changed in order to buy online Flomax favor corporate interests. In others, international laws were completely neglected, including the buy online Flomax International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 169, which states that buy online Flomax before corporations can explore or exploit resources, those indigenous to the buy online Flomax area must first be consulted. The new mining code established in 2001 contradicts much of the buy online Flomax Colombian Constitution and directly harms the Colombian people. For this reason, citizens are buy online Flomax using legal action to re-establish the rule of law in Colombia, promoting political social and buy online Flomax economic rights for all citizens. Their movement hopes to restore Constitution’s vision of Colombia as an “estado social de derecho” or “social state under the rule of law.” (5) More than 65% of all current mining concessions in Colombia are buy online Flomax in the ancestral Indigenous and Afro-Colombian lands, where communities are torn apart by multinational corporations. These communities continue to buy online Flomax be threatened and ignored. Sintraminercol (Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Empresa Nacional Minera) is buy online Flomax a labor organization created in 1991 by workers of Mineralco S.A., the buy online Flomax state mining company. This union has given birth to a new type of activism, stressing ties with the buy online Flomax community. Says Cuellar, “We began to buy online Flomax focus beyond labor rights, to take on the challenge of building a buy online Flomax mining sector that would benefit our country’s people as a whole.” (6) Sintraminercol unionists have buy online Flomax been specifically targeted. The actions of corporations and paramilitaries to buy online Flomax prevent these activists and workers from securing their rights have buy online Flomax been well-documented. As a result, Colombia is the most dangerous place to buy online Flomax be a trade union activist in the world. U.S. corporations like Coca-Cola, Chiquita, Drummond and buy online Flomax Occidental Oil hire paramilitaries to target trade unionists in order to buy online Flomax kill union organizing and negotiating efforts. (7) Drummond has buy online Flomax a history of links with paramilitaries that have murdered union leaders and buy online Flomax massacred communities, leading to mass displacement. In 2003, Sintramienergetica sued Garry Drummond and buy online Flomax the Colombian managers of the company under the Alien Torts Claim Act for buy online Flomax conspiring with paramilitary groups violating ILO agreements, as well as war crimes and buy online Flomax crimes against humanity. (8) In another court case against Drummond, filed in 2009, nearly 500 Colombians are buy online Flomax suing the company for paying the paramilitaries who killed their family members. http://www.soaw.org/images/uribesubpoena.pdf Former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe was subpoenaed on November 4, 2010 to buy online Flomax testify in this case.(9)After Uribe was served at Georgetown University the buy online Flomax last week by a Georgetown law student, to testify in the buy online Flomax case against the Drummond company, it is not surprising that the buy online Flomax company has published a report in order to defend Uribe, arguing that buy online Flomax “the buy online Flomax improperly served subpoena to President Uribe is simply aiming to generate media attention for buy online Flomax the case and harass President Uribe, who knows nothing about the buy online Flomax allegations of the lawsuit.” (10) Why is buy online Flomax this company defending Uribe so that he may avoid giving his testimony on November 22 in the buy online Flomax court? The answer lies in the buy online Flomax connections between Drummond Inc. Company members and Uribe. Augusto Jiménez, President of Drummond, Ltd. Colombia (11) Mr. Jimenez is buy online Flomax responsible for the Colombian operations, a position he has held since 1991. During Álvaro Uribe's time in office, they have buy online Flomax been accused of contracting paramilitaries to kill union leaders. Uribe has buy online Flomax been called to testify (12) in this case, Terry Collingsworth, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said Uribe will be buy online Flomax questioned about the connection between his Army at the time and buy online Flomax the AUC, including what knowledge Uribe’s government had about Drummond’s operations. After implementing their projects in Colombia, Uribe and Jiménez have referenced their “successful business experience,” (13) and have discussed “why Colombia remains a buy online Flomax good long-term investment destination, how experts plan to meet the food and buy online Flomax energy demands of growing prosperous populations, raising capital in difficult markets, off-shoring and buy online Flomax outsourcing options in Colombia, and growing business while maximizing social impact”. Uribe and Jimenez's friendship is not an “historical” mistake, as an buy online Flomax investigation has indicated that they have family ties. In addition, Fabio Echeverri Correa, who buy online Flomax was advisor and consultant of the Drummond Coal Co. Inc., was “Advisor to the President of the Republic” of Colombia from 2002 to 2004, too, as his bio shows. (14) Echeverria and buy online Flomax Uribe both came from wealthy families in the department of Antioquia. They came of age at a buy online Flomax time when the old cattle ranching aristocracy, with its nostalgic allegiances to buy online Flomax pro-Franco movements, was beginning to merge with the new aristocracy of Medellin’s cocaine cartel. There was a buy online Flomax natural symbiosis. Live cattle sales, being difficult to trace, were a buy online Flomax natural mechanism for money laundering – one that buy online Flomax is still being used widely today. And both had a common enemy in the buy online Flomax form of Marxist guerillas who tried to extort “revolutionary taxes” from landowners, according to one this research. (15) Due to buy online Flomax these links, it is not surprising that the Drummond Company is buy online Flomax using its lawyers to defend Álvaro Uribe: “U.S. coal giant Drummond has buy online Flomax rejected the subpoena served to Colombia's former President Alvaro Uribe”. (16) Uribe's “friends” and “relatives” are buy online Flomax working hard to help him hide the suffering of thousands of innocents Colombians. 1. Chompsky, Aviva “Profits of Extermination” |
| Last Updated on Wednesday, 10 November 2010 17:06 |
$20,000 Challenge
An anonymous supporter made a huge gift to SOA Watch! The gift came with a challenge to raise $20,000 to help fund the movement. Will you help us meet this tremendous challenge with a donation today?
Please click here to donate today Buy cheap finasteride without a perscription and help us meet the challenge!
Job Opening: SOA Watch Development and Operations Coordinator
SOA Watch has an opening for a full-time Operations and Development Coordinator in our Washington, DC office. We are buy online Flomax looking for someone with a background dealing with finances, and with a buy online Flomax strong commitment to the grassroots movement to close the SOA. People of color and women are encouraged to apply. If you buy online Flomax are interested or if you can think of someone who would be buy online Flomax great for this position, please see http://SOAW.org/work valtrex without a prescription for buy online Flomax the job description, requirements and for information on how to buy online Flomax apply.
Click here to send a message
Extra Information
| Ride Board |
| Local Groups |
| Newsletter - Presente! |
Contact us
SOA Watch
PO Box 4566
Washington, DC 20017
phone: 202-234-3440
email: info@soaw.org
Sustainable web development by CartaNova Design and Consulting.