Action not words

How many more emergency motions on Colombia do we need before the tragedy in Colombia is resolved?

This was the unsettling question Unite delegate and cab driver Jim Kelly posed to Congress on Monday (September 12), speaking in support of an emergency motion to help beleaguered trade unionists there.

He recounted the story of Cecilia Coicue, a trade union activist who on September 7 was stabbed to death by right wing paramilitaries.

“Cecilia was not the first and sadly will not be the last trade unionist murdered since the peace agreement was signed,” he said.

“Our sisters and brothers in Colombia do not want charity; they want solidarity,” Kelly argued. “And our movement needs to continue to pressure the Colombian authorities on all cases of abuses.

“Yet the motion speaks of 35 trades unionists and human rights activists murdered in the last six months, while the discussions on peace were ongoing,” he added.

Welcoming the recent news of the release of Miguel Beltran, Kelly emphasised that “there is nothing to celebrate until not a single trade unionist is killed, and not a single one remains locked up behind bars.”

He expressed disappointment that there have been no actions outlined in previous motions on Colombia to support union leader Huber Ballisteros jailed on trumped up charges in 2013 while waiting to catch a plane to address this very Congress.

Ballisteros is the vice-president of Unite’s sister union Fensuagro Andwas and is also president of the Colombian TUC. He is a diabetic but is denied insulin; he shares a wing with convicted right wing paramilitaries.

“Huber is literally fighting for his life in his Bogota cell,” Kelly noted.

Urging Congress to support the emergency motion, Kelly affirmed, “We need to ensure that over the next twelve months the General Council resource a national campaign to release Huber with meaningful actions.”

“We need to step up our support for Justice for Colombia to ensure that we no longer need emergency motions and that in 2017 Huber can address this Congress as a free man as the leader of the Colombian trade union movement,” he added.

“We need action not words from the General Council over the next 12 months.”