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The first export under the new Colombia-US Free Trade Agrement shipped more than 1.2 million flowers to the shores of Miami, left Cartagena ports at midnight on May 15, seen off by flag-waving children. But many predict the free trade agreement will leave little to be thankful for. Less than two weeks later, Daniel Aguirre, a leading figure in the sugarcane cutters’ labor movement, was shot twice and killed, becoming the seventh union leader killed this year. Read more.
 Have you ever asked yourself how it’s possible to fight a “war” against drugs? Wars are traditionally defined as conflicts between two nations or, at the very least, between two armed parties. How does the US military and government seek out and hunt down substances like cocaine, heroine and marijuana? Who are the enemies? The plants? The people who transport the substances? Those who sell them or those who consume them?
Last year our first popular education booklet, What’s Land Got To Do With It?, explored how we are connected to land in other places through our everyday activities. Now we're back with another complex issue -- the 40-year-old war on drugs. The drug war is a global enterprise involving politicians and governments, the mafia, drug traffickers and illegal armies, the police forces and militaries of several countries, millions of ordinary civilians and your tax dollars. Through true stories from real people, we look at who the drug war impacts, analyze some of the big interests involved, and offer a few alternatives.
This booklet will be ready for distribution on June 23. Let us know here if you want to order copies.
By Alejo Vargas Velásquez
Some hundred thousand Colombians from all over the country marched in Bogota on April 23. The important protest formalized the creation of a new social and political movement of great relevance in Colombian life, the Marcha Patriótica (MP). The MP movement groups together not only traditional communist and agrarian reform groups, but encompasses rural farmer movements, student groups, unionists, and other liberal groups. The movement could have a role in helping to end the armed conflict. Read more.
 By John Lindsay-Poland
A night-time helicopter attack by U.S. and Honduran drug enforcement agents May 11 in the remote river community of Ahuas, Honduras killed four villagers, including two pregnant women and a 14-year-old boy. The massacre has led to renewed scrutiny of the U.S. role in Honduras. Read more.
 There is growing consensus that the war on drugs is a failure that has generated unprecedented violence in Mexico and Central America, killing more than 50,000 Mexicans and instability to the entire region, as cartels fight for profits derived from supplying the insatiable demand for illicit drugs. A coalition of groups including FOR is hosting a "People's Movement Assembly" on the drug war June 17 in Oakland and its impact on our communities. What actions result depend on the engagement of Bay Area organizations, residents and friends. We call on people to connect, collaborate and join us in envisioning new drug policies grounded in science, health and human rights. Read more.
Positive News for Rights of Colombian Conscientious Objectors
The Colombian Constitutional Court has ordered the Defense Ministry to start a campaign specifically supporting conscientious objection, stating that the national military has not been properly educated on the topic. The court order is based on a recent case of a young man who tried to claim conscientious objection based on both his religious and personal belief against the use of violence and thus did not want to participate in the current culture of violence in his country. An army Major rejected his petition stating, “Conscientious objection is not part of Colombian law.”
The Constitutional Court sided with the young man, based on the same court’s decision to incorporate the rights of conscientious objectors into Colombian law as of 2010. The court further ordered the Defense Ministry to begin a campaign to educate its ranks on the right to conscientious objection, an important right in a country where military service is obligatory. The campaign is to be directed to all Colombian armed forces, but particularly those in charge of the recruitment of young people. At FOR in Colombia, we are hopeful that this campaign will indeed help Colombian youth working to be recognized as conscientious objectors! - Gina Spigarelli |
Behind Flowers and Flags, Unionists Still Face Violence
