U.S. Senators Express Concern for the Safety of Colombian Witnesses

On February 20, 2009, two U.S. senators sent a letter to Colombian Ambassador Carolina Barco addressing the recent remarks made by President Uribe during a public assembly against human rights advocates who testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor on February 12, 2009.  In their letter, Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Patty Murray (D-WA) “urge an immediate clarification” and expressed concern for “the effect [these] comments may have on the safety of those who voluntarily testified.” 

During the Consejo Communal address in Boyaca on February 14th, Uribe accused the witnesses of political hate and lying, using terms popularized in the 1980’s that refer to the M-19 Colombian guerilla movement.  The speech broadcasted repeatedly on Colombian media was only a few days after President Uribe clearly showed more disdain for members of the peace movement during a community meeting in the Department of Meta stating, “Now the FARC’s international bloc doesn’t dare defend the FARC directly, the FARC’s international bloc is very clever, very astute, it doesn’t dare to oppose fundamentally the Democratic Security policy; the FARC’s international bloc defends the FARC simply by talking about peace.”

Colombia’s Vice President Francisco Santos Calderon spoke this past Tuesday at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs on current economic investment opportunities in Colombia arguing that there has been major change and progress in various areas of the government.  After his presentation, USLEAP presented Vice President Santos with the Senate letter and expressed strong concern regarding Uribe’s comments and the security of the three witnesses who testified.  The threat against human rights leaders in Colombia is all too real.  Violence against Colombian trade union leaders continues to be an issue, increasing from 39 murders of labor union members in 2007 to 49 in 2008. 

At the February 12th House hearing, the Director of the Escuela Nacional Sindical, an independent non-governmental organization in Colombia, Jose Luciano Sanin, stated that “of the nearly 2,700 workers murdered over the past 23 years, 482 have occurred during the administration of the current president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe.”  Those figures indicate approximately one murder every three days making “the murder rate of unionists in Colombia five times that of the rest of the countries of the world, including those countries with dictatorships that have banned union activity,” said Sanin.  Human Rights Watch researcher Maria McFarland also testified at the hearing stating that 96 percent of all killings of Colombian union members remain unsolved. 

In addition to Sanin, the other two Colombian witnesses were Yessika Hoyos and Jose Nirio Sanchez.  Ms. Hoyos is the daughter of slain union leader, Jorge Dario Hoyos, who was 16 when her father was murdered and has openly fought for justice seeking the intellectual authors behind her father’s murder since then.  Sanchez is the former 2nd criminal judge of the specialized circuit of Colombia who presided over cases of violence against labor union leaders and unionists and who was dismissed by the courts in January 2008.

While the progress on impunity for murderers of trade unionists has been extremely limited, impunity for other forms of violence, including displacement, disappearance, kidnappings, death threats, and torture, have seen no improvement whatsoever.  These topics were expected to come up at the meeting between the representatives of both countries, which included Senators Chris Dodd  (D-CT) and John Kerry (D-MA), Representative Roy Blunt (R-MO),National Security Adviser General James Jones, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.