At least 1.5 million union workers joined by thousands of members of peasant and grass-roots social organizations heeded the call for a nationwide strike to protest government austerity measures and free-market economic policies. 

REUTERS
Tuesday, 31 August 1999

Colombia Rebels Storm Power Plant As Strike Rages 

By Karl Penhaul

BOGOTA -- Marxist rebels stormed a hydro-electric power plant in western Colombia Tuesday and were reportedly holding up to 100 people in an operation to back the first day of a general strike by the country's main unions.

The armed assault on the power plant was the most serious in a wave of incidents that included rebel sabotage attacks on electricity pylons and a main oil pipeline and the burning of buses driven by strike-breakers.

In all Colombia's main cities, demonstrators throwing rocks fought running battles with police wielding truncheons and firing tear gas. A top union official said hundreds of people had been arrested in the capital and there were reports of some minor injuries.

At least 1.5 million union workers joined by thousands of members of peasant and grass-roots social organizations heeded the call for a nationwide strike to protest government austerity measures and free-market economic policies.

It threatens to be the most serious labor stoppage since President Andres Pastrana took office a year ago and comes amid one of Colombia's worst recessions that has sent urban unemployment spiraling to a record 20 percent, the highest in Latin America.

``We will remain here as long as the nationwide civic strike lasts,'' a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel commander, identified as ``JJ,'' told Reuters by phone from the Anchicaya power plant near the main Pacific coast port of Buenaventura.

``The FARC has given the order to support the workers' movement with these type of actions ... We must support it with all forms of struggle including arms. Other armed actions are being carried out elsewhere,'' he said, adding that his fighters were demanding a 30-percent cut in electricity costs for residents of southwest Valle del Cauca province.

Union leaders had called for a peaceful protest but military leaders warned over the weekend that the country's estimated 20,000 Communist guerrillas might launch an offensive to coincide with the stoppage.

The rebel commander, head of the FARC's so-called 30th Front, said about 100 employees were in the 360 megawatt power plant but did not specify if they were being held hostage.

A spokeswoman for power generator EPSA, which runs the privatized plant in conjunction with U.S. and Venezuelan partners, said that at least 60 people were being held.

She added that the plant was undergoing maintenance at the time of the takeover.

Capt. Jose Espejo of the army's Third Division said the Anchicaya generator was in a remote region and troops had not yet been ordered in to drive out the rebels.

In other parts of the country, rebels of the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN) blew up three power pylons in northwest Antioquia and northern Cesar provinces and demonstrators torched buses in the regional capital Medellin.

In Bogota, public transportation ground to a virtual standstill and most downtown shops and businesses remained closed. Protesters clashed repeatedly with riot police in some working class neighborhoods. One group, lobbing rocks at the security forces, blocked the main highway that leads out of the capital to the south.

Demonstrators blocked another major highway in the central coffee-growing region while peasants blockaded the main thoroughfare from southern Narino province into neighboring Ecuador. Meanwhile, protesters in the Caribbean coast town of Barranquilla went on the rampage and looted scores of stores, police said.

Wilson Borja, head of the main public sector workers' union, said at least 200 protesters had been arrested in the capital.

``The strike is a success. Most people have been detained for blocking roads and fighting with the police but so far we have no reports of injuries,'' he told Reuters.