Colombia Follow

Márquez's magical world offers hope for the real one.

War on Want and Justice for Colombia organised a mock execution of 13 British trade union leaders and several MPs outside parliament recently, in a demonstration of solidarity with the terrorised Colombian trade union movement.

ON 5 December 1996 paramilitaries gunned down a trade union negotiator, Isidro Segundo Gil, at the Bebidas y Alimentos bottling plant in Carepa in Colombia. They later kidnapped another union leader at the plant, who managed to escape. The right wing thugs then burned down the union offices and set about terrorising the remaining workers into leaving the union. Behind this murder lay one of the world's most famous and profitable companies. Bebidas y Alimentos is a Coca-Cola bottling plant.

ALVARO URIBE Velez is a good friend of George Bush and Tony Blair. The right wing president of Colombia was the only South American ruler to back war on Iraq. Uribe now sounds like he wants his powerful backers to send their forces to Colombia.

Three Irish Republicans are facing a show trial in Colombia.

"IF YOU keep fucking around we are going to kill you all." That threat was made by the Colombian army to workers at the EMCALI public utilities firm this week. The workers, based in the city of Cali in the South American country, are occupying offices and plants against the threat of privatisation. A year ago they beat off privatisation after an occupation.

Bacardi is one of the most instantly recognisable brands in the world, but behind the sleek image lies a sinister side to this multinational. Hernando Calvo Ospina, a Colombian investigative journalist, demonstrates in his new book Bacardi: The Hidden War that Bacardi has prosecuted a clandestine war against Cuba in an effort to destabilise the Castro government.

I CAME face to face with the global ruling class last week. Along with others from the Colombia Solidarity Campaign, I was sitting in the annual general meeting of Britain's biggest corporation, BP. We became BP shareholders to protest at the company's role in Colombia. Alongside the protest, the event shattered the myths that supporters of capitalism push about how their system works.

A top Colombian general resigned last week, along with several other senior military officers. It was the clearest sign yet that the war launched by the US-backed regime against rebel forces is not going to plan.

President Andres Pastrana has announced the end of the peace process with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).

Colombia's government has plunged the country into full-scale civil war. The US backs this brutal and bloody policy. Andreas Pastrana, president of the South American country, broke off peace talks with the powerful FARC guerrilla group on Wednesday of last week.

Over 100 people attended an excellent weekend of meetings in London organised by the Colombia Solidarity Campaign last Saturday and Sunday. The highlight of the conference was a rally addressed by visiting trade unionists from Colombia.