PROFITING FROM REPRESSION: CANADIAN INVESTMENT IN AND TRADE WITH COLOMBIA Third Edition Asad Ismi April 2012 Commissioned by The Canadian Union of Postal Workers Asad Ismi is an award-winning writer on international politics specializing in the impact of U.S. and Canadian imperialism on the Global South. He is international affairs correspondent for The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Monitor, Canada’s biggest left-wing magazine (by circulation). Asad is the author of more than a hundred articles, nine reports, five radio documentaries and two books. His latest radio documentary “The Latin American Revolution” has been aired on 40 radio stations reaching an audience of 33 million people in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. Asad has written for 21 progressive Canadian unions and non-governmental organizations. The groundbreaking three editions of Profiting from Repression: Canadian Investment in and Trade with Colombia (2000, 2006, 2012) constitute the most comprehensive and indepth account of this subject presently in existence. For Asad's publications, visit www.asadismi.ws. ISBN 978-0-9731900-1-4 REVIEWS 1. Asad Ismi’s research is an extraordinary tool for us in the struggle to defend the natural resources of humanity and to construct a nation with social justice. ---Francisco Ramirez Cuellar, Former President of the Colombian Mineworkers Union. 2. The definitive account of corporate-driven Canadian neocolonialism in Colombia and the most comprehensive book on the subject. A superb analysis of how Canada's corporations and government benefit from and exacerbate Colombia's decades-old social and armed conflict. Unencumbered by academic jargon, this book presents a clear and damning portrait of the corporate pillage of Colombia and the resulting violence, impoverishment and mass displacement impacting its people as well as their courageous resistance. Must reading for activists, unionists and all those concerned about social and economic justice in Latin America. ---Ilian Burbano, Colombia Action Solidarity Alliance (CASA), Toronto. 3. This report is a gold mine of information! Thank you, really thank you for doing this research. I think it will be very useful for our new campaign "Targeting Canadian Profiteers of the War in Colombia", because we are focusing on some of the companies you're talking about in this report. This is really the kind of work we need and never have the time to do. I also think it is very relevant to highlight the role of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in Colombia and how the Canadian government supports the companies. I think it's also very good to put relations between Canada and Colombia in a global context of colonialism and imperialism. ---Mélissa Leblanc, Projet Accompagnement Solidarité Colombie (PASC), Montreal. 4. Most Canadians are unaware that some of this country's largest corporations are profiting from the Colombian government's brutal repression of dissent and democracy. Asad Ismi's shocking exposé of this corporate collaboration with Colombia's ruthless dictatorship is recommended reading for everyone concerned about social and economic justice. ---Ed Finn, General Editor, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Ottawa. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many thanks to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and especially to Brothers Denis Lemelin (National President) and Mark Evard (National Director—Central) for commissioning this report. The author is very grateful to the following friends for translation: Rick Castro, Susy Alvarez, Jennifer Moore, Guillermo Ramirez and Francisco Vidal. This document is classified as both a book and a report. Research for this report was completed on January 14, 2012 (except for the epilogue). The report was submitted to the CUPW on February 2 and the union released it on May 3. The information presented in bold type in this report is new information; that presented in normal type is from the 2006 edition of the report which is still relevant. About 80% of the information is new. Published by Canadian Union of Postal Workers Ottawa, April 2012 Copyright Asad Ismi 2012 1 DEDICATED TO THE COLOMBIANS WHO STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE 2 CONTENTS Introduction……………………………………………………….4 Oil and War……………………………………………………….34 Mining……………………………………………………………..82 Food Services……………………………………………………...149 Footwear…………………………………………………………..149 Trade………………………………………………………………150 Conclusion………………………………………………………...163 Epilogue…………………………………………………………...177 3 INTRODUCTION From time immemorial, the Colombian state has attempted to base its economy on the most obsequious service to multinational capital. It has extended a hand to the instrument of paramilitarism in order to crush all social expressions whose economic logic is opposed to the interests of foreign capital. --Father Javier Giraldo1 The great countries are the owners of our future. Our country is negotiating with the pharoahs. The great countries want to buy what is not theirs to buy. They know how to exploit our land. I want my land back so I can feed my children. --Maria Luz Nely Serna, Internally Displaced Colombian.2 Under the governments of Alvaro Uribe Velez (2002—August 2010) and Juan Manuel Santos (August 2010—present, he was Defence Minister under Uribe), the multinational corporate exploitation of Colombia has intensified to an unprecedented degree characterized by the virtual give-away of precious national resources to foreign companies. This means more poverty and unemployment for an already dispossessed population. Canada’s corporations and its government have played an important role in promoting the corporate takeover of these critical resources in Colombia’s important oil and mining sectors. Multinational dominance in Colombia is brutally enforced by the country’s military and its affiliated paramilitaries. Several Canadian companies are linked to this extremely repressive security structure. In these ways, Canada’s role in Colombia has increased the enormous suffering of its people; the Canadian government and companies have expanded their penetration of the Colombian economy by exacerbating the poverty and inequality that are the main causes of the country’s civil war. This report links ten Canadian companies in Colombia to the genocide of indigenous Colombians, to complicity in eight murders and one attempted murder, to other significant military/paramilitary repression, to large-scale 1 Francisco Ramirez Cuellar, The Profits of Extermination: How U.S. Corporate Power is Destroying Colombia, (Prologue to the Spanish edition written by Javier Giraldo) Monroe, Maine, Common Courage Press, 2005, p. 28. 2 Quoted in Leslie Wirpsa, "Economics Fuels Return of La Violencia", National Catholic Reporter, October 24, 1997, p. 13. 4 displacement, and to environmental destruction on a massive scale as well as to labour union busting, strike-breaking, and worker exploitation. These corporations are the four oil companies Talisman, Gran Tierra, Pacific Rubiales, and Petrominerales, and the six mining companies Gran Colombia Gold, Eco Oro Minerals, Cosigo Resources, B2Gold, Midasco Capital and Antioquia Gold. Never before have Canadian companies in Colombia been so destructive. This opens up these corporations to the criminal charges of genocide, murder, complicity in murder, environmental damage, displacement and the violation of labour rights. The 2006 edition of this report found four Canadian corporations to be linked to military/paramilitary repression in Colombia. The destructive practices of these Canadian companies (as detailed later in this report) have elicited outrage and vehement opposition from Colombians. Between September 30 and October 4, 2011, 11,500 delegates from all over Colombia met in the city of Cali for “The Land, Territories and Sovereignties Conference”. The delegates included farmers, workers, indigenous peoples, Afro-Colombians, “victims of the capitalist developments and state crimes”. In their own words they came “to defend life and Mother Earth. We confirm that that the only option is not the consumerism, the oil addiction, the destruction of nature and the economy driven by war… our social movement is the indignant answer of the people in the face of the destruction of nature, the territorial invasion by pillaging multinational companies [and] the plunder of our natural resources…” 3 The conference adopted seven mandates, the second of which (reproduced here) explicitly condemns four Canadian oil and mining companies (Pacific Rubiales, Gran Colombia Gold, Eco Oro Minerals and Cosigo Resources) and calls for their expulsion from Colombia: “The Second General Mandate is to guard Mother Earth and acknowledge her rights. The one who do not respect Mother Earth, do not deserve her. And those who do not deserve her are the ones that destroy water sources to exploit for gold and oil. This Congress, prohibits by mandate, the multinationals’ exploitation and the outrageous oil exploration. By consequence, this Congress has declared illegal and non-grata the presence in our territory of Anglo Ashanti, BHP Biliton, Xtrata, Pacific Rubiales, Cosigo Resources, Smurfitt Kappa, Cemex, Medoro Resources [now Gran Colombia Gold], Greystar,( now Eco Oro Minerals ) and Fenosa Union 3 Declaration from “The Land, Territories and Sovereignties Conference”, Cali, Colombia, October 2011. 5 because of their direct participation in aggression against local communities and territories, and their systematic attempt to undermine the country’s sovereignty. We notify them that by appealing to our ancestral