Exploited Labor: News & Updates

The farming families of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in the Urabá region of Antioquia Department have suffered many tragedies over the past 27 years: murders, sexual violence, massive displacements, destruction of homes, usurpation of land, and burning of crops.

During April and May, Germán Graciano, the legal representative of the Peace Community, received phone calls with death threats.  In mid-April, paramilitaries held a meeting with local leaders of community action boards in the township; at least one paramilitary threatened the extermination of the community.  Threats reemerged after June 10 when a federal jury in Florida found Chiquita Brands liable for the killings of eight men (banana workers) between 1997 and 2004 and ordered Chiquita to pay their families $38.3 million in damages. Chiquita Brands has a history of abuses linked to its operations in the Urabá region of Antioquia Department, where the Peace Community has been located for the past 27 years. Seventeen years ago Chiquita admitted to paying more than $1 million to the paramilitaries who killed the banana workers.

We are urging that authorities in Colombia review the various precautionary and protective measures ordered since 1997 for the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the Constitutional Court of Colombia.

It is imperative that the government of Colombia provide effective protection measures to land rights and human rights defenders who are in situations of risk—and respond immediately when they report specific threats.

Narciso Beleño Belaides, age 62, was a well-respected peasant leader and dear friend of Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT-Colombia), a close partner of IRTF.  For more than three decades, Narciso worked to defend campesino families and their farm lands in southern Bolívar against the presence of paramilitary groups that isolated and forcibly displaced communities in the region. He was recognized for his constant fight for the rights of peasant communities and the preservation of the San Lucas mountain range, which is currently being disputed by armed groups such as the Gulf Clan (paramilitaries) and the ELN (rebel group).

Narciso was a member of the National Agrarian Coordinating Body (CNA) and was the current president of the Agromining Federation of Southern Bolívar (FEDEAGROMISBOL).  For several decades, FEDEAGROMISBOL has suffered attacks by paramilitary groups through threats, disappearances and murders, as well as by state agents in the past.

On the evening of April 21, Narciso was entering his home in the El Recreo neighborhood, an urban area of ​​the municipality of Santa Rosa del Sur, Bolívar Department.  Armed men were waiting for him. They shot him four times.

Just hours before he was shot to death,  Narciso had denounced the Gulf Clan paramilitaries for a new incursion into the area that began April 18.

State-sponsored violence, in collusion with the interests of private corporations, continues to take its toll on campesino communities.

On February 29, 1,500 agents of the Honduran National Police carried out violent evictions against three campesino cooperative bases of the Landless Peasant Movement of Yoro Department (MCSTY): El Bálsamo, Agua Blanca Sur, and La Sarrosa. Police used heavy machinery to destroy corn plantations, fired gunshots, used physical violence against farmers and their families, and made arrests.  Almost 20,000 quintales of food, including basic grains and vegetables, and an estimated 300 blocks of crops were destroyed, directly affecting about 1,500 people. These farmers, who had been in the process of recovering their lands for the previous ten months, now find themselves in a situation of extreme vulnerability. 

Furthermore, these evictions reportedly favor the interests of the sugar company Azucarera del Norte SA (Azunosa), which has acquired land titles through intimidation, fraud, and violence since the early 1990s. To date, Azunosa has presented 15 criminal accusations against several members of MCSTY and another 40 against members of the regional chapter of the National Central of Farm Workers (CNTC-Progreso).

We are urging that the Supreme Court of Justice, the National Congress, and the Agrarian Security Commission review agrarian reform laws and give the green light for the National Agrarian Institute to proceed in transferring land titles to campesino associations. In addition, we are urging that the National Human Rights Commissioner and the Human Rights Secretariat assume a more proactive role in protecting the rights of campesino communities, beyond simply registering these violent eviction operations.

Attacks continue on leaders of campesino cooperatives in the Aguán Valley, Colón Department, in northern Honduras. Marvin Dubón, age 23, was a dedicated community spokesperson and partner of the Tranvio Farmers Agricultural Cooperative.  

At 7pm on March 17, while riding home on a motorcycle with his life partner Elizabeth Gómez,  Marvin Dubón, was followed by heavily armed assailants from the communities of Salamá to  Quebrada de Arena, Tocoa municipality, Colón Department. At Quebrada de Arena they shot and killed him.  

Campesino organizations suspect collusion among criminal groups, private corporations, and municipal security forces. Witnesses to the assassination noted the presence of Juan Carlos Lizama, leader of a criminal group who is closely associated with the head of security for the Dinant Corporation. The company had previously pushed for the eviction of campesino families from some agricultural cooperatives (Chile, Camarones, and Tranvio). The Coordinating Body of Popular Organizations of Aguán (COPA)  reports that Juan Carlos Lizama has for several years participated in a series of acts of violence against peasant communities; it also states that there have been no serious investigative actions against him by the Public Ministry (MP) or the Police Investigation Directorate (DPI). This raises serious concerns about collusion among the assassins, the Dinant Corporation and local security forces in Tocoa.