Behind the ‘Justice and Peace Act’

In June the Colombian Congress approved a bill entitled the “Justice and Peace Act” (JPA) that will reduce the sentences of right-wing paramilitaries—really death-squad members—who confess their crimes, return stolen goods and compensate their victims. This law’s opponents say it will grant immunity to paramilitaries for their many crimes.

Around the same time, the U.S. Congress extended Plan Colombia, which was due to end this year.

To explore the consequences of these decisions, Workers World interviewed Gerardo Cajamarca, Colombian human rights advocate and member of the Coca Cola workers’ union, SINALTRAINAL. Cajamarca is in exile in the United States precisely because of death threats he received from paramilitaries. He currently works with the Steelworkers Union in the Global Justice project.

Cajamarca said the Justice and Peace Act is “an initiative by the paramilitaries to make sure that they will not be punished for the atrocious crimes they have committed. The law also fails to punish the paramilitary mob for drug trafficking and the theft of land that has resulted in 3 million people being displaced in Colombia.”

Cajamarca said that although the paramilitaries are considered terrorists, even by the U.S. government, paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso has stated that they have control of 35 percent of the Colombian Congress, with influence on many governmental agencies.

On June 21, says Cajamarca, while the Colombian Congress was arguing about the JPA, Congress member Gina Parody, loyal to President Alvaro Uribe, told the news media that the paramilitaries control 70 percent of the Congress, not just 35 percent. “This makes Colombia a Narco State,” said Cajamarca.

The criminals include the Colombian president. Uribe’s links to drug trafficking and formation of paramilitary groups have been exposed in a book written by Joseph Contreras and Fernando Garavito: “El Señor de las Sombras” (The Lord of Darkness).

Cajamarca also quoted from two articles in the U.S.-based media. One is from the June 23 issue of El Nuevo Herald, which accuses Uribe of protecting a brother and two cousins who are alleged assassins. The June 23 New York Times criticizes the JPA and Uribe’s complacency with the paramilitaries.

The trade unionist said less than 30 percent of the Colombian Congress opposed the JPA. “Those who are not paramilitaries are corrupt politicians or representatives of the oligarchy,” he added.

Cajamarca pointed out that the people have only a few representatives in Congress. These belong to the Democratic Pole and the Social and Political Front. Representatives like Gustavo Petro have received death threats for speaking out in the congressional debates. Former mayor of San Jose de Apartadó Gloria Cuartas and Father Javier Giraldo, both human rights advocates, were paid no respect. Their testimony was dismissed.

‘You’re either a revolutionary
or a reactionary’

Speaking about the impact of the congressional decision on the general population, Cajamarca said that it has brought “fear, desperation, frustration and outrage.” He added that in Colombia there is no “progressive” movement, “You are either a revolutionary” or a “reactionary.”

The movement’s response to the decision did not take long. On June 30 a new initiative against impunity was launched in Bogotá, he said. SINALTRAINAL and Father Javier Giraldo launched a People’s Tribunal.

“We will appeal to the international community, that great force, the peoples of the world, who are in the most part opposed to war. We will continue organizing against war and against social injustice,” said Cajamarca.

About the U.S. Congress’s decision to continue Plan Colombia, Cajamarca said he did not understand how an initiative supposedly aimed at combating drug trafficking could send money to Colombia to be handled by the General Prosecutor’s Office. This office is itself closely linked to paramilitarism.

He added: “The U.S. Congress is making a mistake by not listening to the voices of the victims in Colombia. The extension of Plan Colombia means $800 million more for the fumigation of our parks and jungles with dangerous glyophosphate. For our people it means more war, more misery.

“It means the continuation of a policy of extermination of the social movement, the demonization of our social struggle, more persecution of activists, more arrests and assassinations. But we will continue because our social struggle is to defend our lives, for national sovereignty, for dignity.”

Cajamarca ended by saying, “My mes sage to the U.S. government is that Colombian workers will take power in Colombia, and when that happens, we would like good relations with all of the countries, including the U.S., as long as our dignity is respected. Things will happen both in Colombia and in this country. Just remember what Simón Bolívar said: ‘Let us unite and we will become invincible.’”