WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #453 October 4, 1998 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 *8. COLOMBIAN STATE WORKERS PLAN NEW STRIKE Colombia's public sector workers are preparing an open-ended nationwide general strike to force the government into shelving its economic austerity plan, union leaders said on Sept. 28. Wilson Borja, head of the 700,000-member National Federation of State Unions (FENALTRASE), told Reuter in a phone interview that no definitive strike deadline had been set yet, but that Oct. 7 was the most likely start date. The date was to be finalized at a union meeting on Sept. 30. The new strike plan follows a two-day general strike that shut down government services on Sept. 23 and 24 [see Update #452]. Borja said the strike is aimed at forcing the government into revoking a fiscal adjustment program due to take effect later this year. The program is supposed to close budget deficits that President Andres Pastrana inherited from the administration of his predecessor, Ernesto Samper, when he took office on Aug. 7. Borja called the program "an assault against all Colombians." Colombia's militant state oil workers' union, the Workers Trade Union (USO), plans to disrupt oil production during the upcoming strike, according to USO leader Cesar Carrillo. The USO took part in the last strike but did not shut down production. [Reuter 9/28/98] *9. COLOMBIA: PARAMILITARIES TARGET REFUGEES, INDIGENOUS, PRIESTS Paramilitary violence appears to be increasing in Colombia. Campesino Roberto Antonio remained missing as of Oct. 2 after having been abducted on Sept. 29 by presumed paramilitaries in the municipality of Dabeiba, Antioquia department. The abduction took place amid heavy military presence, following a Sept. 24 incursion in Dabeiba by guerrillas of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Antonio and his family are displaced members of the La Balsita community in Dabeiba; they were forced from their homes during joint paramilitary and armed forces operations in the area in 1997. [Amnesty International (AI) Urgent Action 10/2/98 (UA 261/98)] Four members of the indigenous community of Abejero, in the municipality of El Carmen del Atrato, Choco department, have been missing since they were abducted on Sept. 16 by members of the paramilitary Campesino Self-Defense Groups of Cordoba and Uraba (ACCU). In the municipality of Lloro, also in Choco Department, Brother Miguel Angel Quiroga Gaona, a member of the Catholic Marianist congregation was killed by paramilitaries on Sept. 18. [Amnesty International (AI) Urgent Action 9/22/98 (UA 253/98] Father Alcides Jimenez, the Catholic priest of the Nuestra Senora del Carmen parish in the municipality of Puerto Caicedo, in southern Putumayo department, was shot to death by presumed paramilitaries on Sept. 11 as he celebrated Mass. Church helper Evangelina Andrade was seriously wounded in the attack. [AI 9/21/98 Update on 9/15/98 Urgent Action (UA 244/98)] On Sept. 10, an ACCU member known as "Cinco Pelos" murdered displaced campesino Jose Osorio Montoya at the Las Vegas farm in Unguia municipality. Osorio was beaten, tortured, burned with acid, stabbed, and shot 17 times. [Comision Justicia y Paz letter 9/14/98] On Sept. 6, Juan Carlos Garzon and Juan Guillermo Guarin were reportedly abducted by members of a paramilitary group as they travelled to El Penol, Antioquia department; they remained missing as of Sept. 30. Before their abduction, the two had been accused of being guerrillas or guerrilla collaborators by members of the El Penol police force. [AI Urgent Action 9/30/98 (UA 259/98)] Edilbrando Roa Lopez, a judicial investigator working out of the human rights office of the Colombian attorney general, and his driver were dragged out of their official all-terrain vehicle in a rural area of northwest Antioquia province late on Sept. 2 by unidentified assailants who then shot them to death execution- style. Local media reports said rightwing paramilitary forces were believed responsible for the killings. [Reuter 9/4/98]