Paramilitaries terrorize labor leaders

On Tuesday, January 11, 2000, a group belonging to the State Security force, "Gaula," initiated a simultaneous operation in which family members of the Worker's Trade Union Leader, Alvaro Remolina, were murdered and one of them remains disappeared.

For one decade, Alvaro Remolina has been one of the leaders of the Worker's Trade Union in the production district known as "The Center". He has taken part in the labor union commissions that dealt with labor issues in the fields adjudicated to transnational corporations by the different types of contracts that the State Petroleum Company has established with them. These transnational corporations are obligated by collective agreement to develop labor standards with the same guarantees that Ecopetrol has contracted with our union.

The security problems he has to face emerge from his participation in these commissions, such us the commission related to the Opon Gas field and plant, where Amoco-BP has investments; the reversions of the Magdalena Medio production fields, where he confronted the Texas Company, and also the discussions on the handing over of the Ecopetrol fields to the transnational companies, under the modality of incremental crude, which implies that where the country formerly collected 100% of the profits will now only see 30% of these.

The facts:

• Around 10 o'clock in the morning, the group known as "Gaula" murdered Remolina's nephew Ismael Bohorquez Florez. He was twenty-two years old and had been living in Florida, a municipality bordering Bucaramanga.
• At this same hour, "Guala" took Remolina's brother Rodrigo Remolina Gutierrez who was accompanied by a man named Eduardo. Both men were detained while getting ready to board an inter-municipal bus that ran between Giron and Barrancabemeja. They were detained at the bus stop known as "Puente el Bueno".
• Their captors were wearing army uniforms and initially identified themselves as members of the Technical Investigation Force (Cuerpo Tecnico de Investigaciones - CTI). Afterwards, they identified themselves as members of the Heroes de Majagual Battalion and then changed it a third time and stated they were paramilitaries. Eduardo and Rodrigo were taken in the direction of Barrancabermeja by way of the Giron highway. They then turned off this road and headed for the Peroles petroleum field and from there headed to the Yarima military base. Here, military forces operate under the coordination of the Security Force of the Colombian Petroleum Company. This Force was created for the protection of the petroleum infrastructure of the country and has become the largest security outfit in Colombia, a service given to the transnational petroleum companies.
• Inside Yarima, the two men were separated and Eduardo was able to escape his captors. Once free, he denounced to the public that photos of Alvaro Remolina and Miguel Vera that portrayed them as delinquents were being exhibited on the base. Both men are leaders in the Workers Trade Union. He also stated that he was told by the military and paramilitary soldiers that work together and live together on the Yarima Military Base that "it was Alvaro Remolina whom they needed because his existence continually gave them headaches since his work in the Center", the production district of the Ecopetrol state petroleum company.
• On Monday, July 17, Gladys Florez Garcia was killed. She was 39 years old and was the mother of Ismael Bohorquez. Her husband, Alvaro Remolina's brother, was killed in Barrancaberneja in 1996. Gladys was taken off of the bus she had taken to go from from Barrancabermeja to Ibague by men dressed in the uniforms of the national army. This happened in the urban perimeter of Barrancabermeja, a place known as "Los Cabritos" where she was immediately outraged, vexed and beaten to death.

Background Information:

• On July 8, 1998, due to threats against his life, Alvaro Remolina was forced to leave Barrancabermeja and go to the city of Bogota. There he was placed in a protection program for union leaders and workers. The Commission of Human Rights and Peace ran the program. Alvaro remained in the program until December 12, 1998, when he was transferred to work in Bucaramanga.
• While in Bucaramanga, he received new threats against his life and was again forced to return to Bogota. He has been in this city since September 8, 1999 until today; he stays there under the responsibility of the Commission agreed upon between the Workers Trade Union and Ecopetrol. The Commission was created as a response to the avalanche of threats, murders, detentions and displacements of union affiliates and company workers due to the confrontation between the USO and Ecopetrol board of directors; this confrontation is motivated by Ecopetrol's management policy as demanded by the IMF and the World Bank; this policy consists of the handing over of the state petroleum activities, profits, and assets to multinational companies present in the county. The Texas and British Petroleum companies, this latter known today as BP-Amoco, have been highlighted for their military and commercial aggressive activities in this regard.