Support The National Strike In Colombia

• Rally in front of the Colombian Consulate in Chicago
• 500 North Michigan Avenue, August 27, 1999 at 5pm

Colombia is in its worst crises of the past 70 years. The USA is moving step by step towards direct  military intervention, creating  logistical and psychological conditions for the eventual landing of troops. This is creating a generalized panic and making any solution to the the Colombian conflict impossible.

20% of the labor force in Colombia is unemployed. 80% of all assasinations of trade union activists take place in Colombia. In 1998, there were 3,832 political murders with nearly 100% impunity for the perpertrators of those murders. Repression by the Armed Forces of Colombia and its paramilitary organizations have forced more than 1 ½ million people to flee from their homes in the rural areas into the urban centers. In Colombia an example of what happens to legal opposition to the system is the martyred Patriotic Union which was expelled from the legislative bodies by the physical elimination of its representatives. That is to say by blood and fire. For this reason, support for the armed insurrection has grown to such high levels.
 
Given this grave situation, trade unions, civic, student peasant and political organizations gathered at the National University of Colombia agreed to carry out a national strike on August 31. The strike is to show their rejection of the neoliberal policies of President Andres Pastrana whose economic model only benefits big capital and the transnational businesses.
 
Intervention by the USA is growing, covered with the mantel of the ?War on drugs?. It  consists of military aid, and training of  officials and soldiers of the Colombian army in the worst methods of counter-insurgency. The Colombian military has one of the worst human rights records on the continent and Colombia is one of the top three recipients of US military aid, coming only after Israel and Eypt. n recent days, the increasing military intervention is focusing on the psychological arena, aiming to  supposedly show support in Colombia and in the US for military intervention.
 
Meanwhile, various administrations in Washington DC have been building military bases in the neighboring countries. Bases are operating in Ecuador and  in Peru. In Colombia they have recently built a facility in the Amazon region and there are already bases in Panama and in Puerto Rico. Furthermore, new bases are proposed in Aruba and in Curacao. All of this shows that the danger of the Marines landing is at hand, but this can not provide a solution to the Colombian crises. On the contrary, it will only increase the pain and suffering of the people of Colombia, and led to extending the conflict beyond the borders of Colombia, becoming the Vietnam of the next millienium.

The organizations listed below, invite all concerned people to join us in a protest in front of the Consultate of Colombia in Chicago to express our solidarity with the National Strike and to inform public opiiion about the imminent and dangerous military intervention by the U.S.
 

• Down with the Neoliberal Policies of the IMF!
• No to US Military Intervention in Colombia!
• No more military aid to the military cartels in Colombia!
• Solidarity with the National Strike!