14 October 2004 Edition

Resize: A A A Print

Speaking out for human rights in Colombia

BY MARTIN SPAIN

Pedro Mahecha and An Phobalcht editor Martin Spain

Pedro Mahecha is a remarkable man. He is a human rights lawyer in Colombia, a country where the lives of those who challenge the state are routinely threatened and often taken.

Pedro is a member of Colombia's renowned Lawyers' Collective, a body that has consultative status at the UN. For many years, since his days as a student, he has worked to defend human rights and people persecuted for political reasons. The collective is named after Jose Alvear Restrepo, who, like Pat Finucane in Ireland was assassinated because of his work. He freely acknowledges that his life is constantly in danger because of his work.

Pedro was in Ireland this week before travelling to London to speak at the European Social Forum.

Colombia Three

Among those Pedro has defended are the three Irishmen, Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and Jim Monaghan. The juryless trial on charges of training FARC guerrillas, before a single Colombian judge, began on 4 October 2002 and concluded on 1 August 2003 after seven adjournments. Judge Acosta finally delivered his verdict in April, clearing the Irishmen of the main charges. The verdict is currently under appeal by the Attorney General's office, and the men, since released from prison, remain in hiding in Colombia for their own safety, awaiting the outcome of that process.

Pedro points out that there is no new evidence on which to base the appeal. At one stage, the state's Solicitor General's Office was also appealing the verdict, but it has withdrawn its appeal.

While the three Irishmen remain in a legal limbo in Colombia, Pedro points out the significance of their case for human rights in Colombia, rule by the right-wing President Uribe.

"The three men were detained during a period of huge popular repression. It dovetailed with a massive wave of arrests and detentions. This policy has continued and many Colombian men and women are detained now, in the majority of cases, with no evidence against them. Many won't even go to trial but still can spend long periods in jail. They should be freed.

"This repression is part of the so-called anti-terrorist policy instigated in Colombia even before September 11 2001. The case of the three Irishmen shone an international spotlight on the human rights situation in Colombia. I believe the decision has implications for other similar cases.

Judicial independence

"In this case, because of the international focus from human rights groups and others, the judge regained his autonomy and was able to act in law, rather than deliver a political decision. Such decisions favour human rights in Colombia and help the cause of judges who want to be independent from political interference.

"The President and government ministers in this case had violated the independence of the judicial process by proclaiming the men's guilt. Indeed, since this case, the Justice and Interior Minister, Fernando Londoño, who declared the men guilty, because of his interference in another case, has been barred from public office for 12 years for interference in the independence of the judiciary.

"It is common in Colombia that the army and the prosecution work together to ensure convictions, including fabricating evidence and bringing forward false witnesses.

"There are a lot of issues here, but without a doubt the work organised by the campaign for the three Irishmen helped surround the trial judge with guarantees that he could make a decision based on law and allowed judges in similar cases to have similar independence."

Unholy alliance

Pedro went on to highlight the danger posed by the Colombian Government's current 'peace dialogue' with right-wing paramilitaries, who have been responsible for massacres and killings of peasants, leftists, human rights activists and trade unionists over many years.

While the massacres have fallen in frequency, individual killings have increased since this process began.

"The peace process is a farce," says Pedro. 'The worst is that the government wants to provide immunity to the paramilitaries for their crimes in exchange for a deal. Human rights activists and victims' groups are strongly opposing this. Also, the US Government has stated that these people are drug traffickers, so this opposition has created problems for Uribe.

"The deal Uribe is trying to strike with the right-wing paramilitaries, with the support of the army, has people saying that Colombia has been 'paramilitarised' in an alliance of government, army, paramilitaries and drug traffickers. A former Minister recently said that this was not real peace talks but a dialogue between friends.

"Meanwhile, in the south of the country, the government forces gave been carrying out their 'Patriotic Plan' against leftist guerrillas such as FARC. They have not succeeded in destroying the guerrillas but there have been massive human rights violations for the peasant population. The army has caused far too many civilian deaths."

Threats to opposition

Pedro also discussed the prospect for a viable political opposition to Uribe's government. "There is a movement towards social democracy in Colombia that is very important," he said. 'Presidential elections are due in 2006 and Uribe wants to be re-elected. A broad coalition of the left, social democrats and the Liberal party are trying to prevent this.

This, however, has resulted in a backlash from the right. A lot of members of Congress and Senators are being threatened. A plan to assassinate the Mayor of Bogota, Luis Eduardo "Lucho" Garzon, a leftist former union leader, was uncovered a month ago, known as the 'Dragon Plan'. And in the last two weeks, two bodyguards to the Social Democrat Governor of Valle de Cauca province have been shot dead. So this situation makes it very difficult to organise an effective opposition to Uribe."

Coca-Cola case

Pedro is also working on the case brought by Colombian trade union Sinaltrainal against Coca-Cola, which is currently before a US federal court in Florida. The union has suffered the assassination of eight union leaders, killed by paramilitaries, as well as the disappearance, arbitrary detention, torture, kidnap and sacking of hundreds more of their workers at Coca-Cola bottling plants throughout Colombia. Ninety percent of all union leaders reported killed worldwide die in Colombia. The union, which organises workers employed by Coke Colombia as well as by the Nestlé Corporation, along with United Steelworkers in the US, is accusing Coke of crimes against humanity for its involvement in the repression of workers by paramilitaries. The campaign has the backing of the Colombian Trades Union Congress, the CTU.

The multinational has claimed that its US headquarters has no involvement in the repression but Pedro is among the legal team making the case that headquarters dictates how the bottling is done, what logos to use, etc. "How can they have no role in security at their plants," he asks, "when they control all other aspects of production?

"This week at the European Social Forum, Sinaltrainal representatives will speak, reiterating their call for a boycott of Coca-Cola products as a means of publicising the case."


An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland