BY WHITNEY EULICH<\/p>\n
On an April night ten years ago, Luz Ortiz took the bus home from the local university after wrapping up a union meeting.\u00a0 It was 10:30 p.m., and the streets of Cali, Colombia were quiet, dark.\u00a0 When she stepped off the bus, someone called out her name.\u00a0 Ortiz turned expecting to see a friend or neighbor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always tried to be alert of my surroundings,\u201d Ortiz said.\u00a0 But the call was a distraction.\u00a0 In a matter of seconds she was pushed from the poorly lit street into a white, four-door sedan that had pulled up beside her.<\/p>\n
Ortiz\u2019s kidnappers, two men, shoved her onto the floor of the car between the front and back seats.\u00a0 One of the men reached over from the passenger seat pointing a gun at her head as they drove out of town.\u00a0 The kidnappers parked alongside a deserted country road, and waited, ignoring her pleas for information.\u00a0 They received two phone calls but spoke in code so Ortiz couldn\u2019t follow their conversation.<\/p>\n
Ortiz worked as a sindicalista<\/em>, which translates to trade union worker, but in Colombia signifies something closer to a human rights advocate.<\/p>\n Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world for trade unionists, said Jeff Vogt, AFL-CIO Global Economic Specialist.\u00a0 \u201cFor a long time Colombia had more union workers assassinated annually than every other country in the world combined.\u201d<\/p>\n Union workers in Colombia are often associated with far left political ideals, and government officials have openly accused them of working with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).\u00a0 The perceived association between union workers and guerilla groups has served as an excuse for paramilitaries, in conjunction with large corporations and at times local government, to target trade unionists and union leaders.<\/p>\n President Alvaro Uribe, who has been in office since 2002, is well known for improving the Colombian economy and reducing rampant violence.\u00a0 His administration claims to have demobilized over 35,000 paramilitary fighters, and as of 2006 allegedly eradicated paramilitary organizations from the country.<\/p>\n However, there are new emerging groups that are inflicting nearly identical violence on Colombia as the demobilized paramilitary groups, according Claudia Lopez of the Colombian NGO Nuevo Arco Iris<\/em>. \u00a0\u201cThe new criminal gangs are on the offensive and are targeting community and social leaders, just as paramilitaries did before them,\u201d Lopez said during a May 3 panel discussion at Columbia University on Colombian security.<\/p>\n The attack on Ortiz is part of what experts call the Colombian government\u2019s history of stifling criticism and dissent.\u00a0 \u201cThere is a systematic effort to limit Democratic activity in Colombia,\u201d said Mary Roland, professor of history at Hunter College in New York.\u00a0 If the government suggests individuals or groups have undermined the country\u2019s stability, paramilitary groups and their successors stand ready to inflict vigilante justice, Roland said.\u00a0 \u201cThere needs to be a forum for criticism without ramifications or long term consequences.\u00a0 These are huge limits on civil society,\u201d Roland told the audience at Columbia University.<\/p>\n A decade after Ortiz\u2019s kidnapping, union workers in Colombia still face terrifying repercussions for unionizing.\u00a0 Colombia has been in conflict since 1948 when a civil war between conservative landowners, the Catholic Church and liberals began.\u00a0 Since 1963 Colombia has documented 71,100 fatalities and 4.5 million internally displaced people.\u00a0 Presidential elections were held on May 30, 2010, resulting in a runoff election slated for June 20. Though Uribe was not up for reelection, his former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos will take part in the runoff.<\/p>\n Santos served as Defense Minister during the 2009 \u201cFalse Positives\u201d scandal.\u00a0 The Colombian army killed civilians, then dressed them in rebel uniforms or gave them guns to present them as guerrilla or paramilitary fighters.\u00a0 These bodies allowed the army to fabricate results on the progress of fighting rebel violence in Colombia.\u00a0 Many question whether the election of Santos would improve human rights violations identified under the current administration.<\/p>\n On that April night in 2000, around 12:30 or 1:00 a.m. one of Ortiz\u2019s kidnappers got out of the car and opened the back door.\u00a0 He pulled Ortiz out of the vehicle.\u00a0 Scared for her life, Ortiz couldn\u2019t stop shaking.\u00a0 But, they were letting her go.\u00a0 As the door closed behind her, Ortiz\u2019s kidnappers yelled, \u201cSon of a bitch! We\u2019re going to leave you alone tonight, but stay quiet! We\u2019re watching you.\u2019\u00a0 The men drove off, leaving her alone on the roadside.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know why they let me go.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know why they didn\u2019t kill me,\u201d Ortiz said.<\/p>\n In 1980, approximately 35% of the Colombian working population was unionized, however today only 9% are actively engaged in union work, said Hernan Posada, a former Colombian union leader now living in New York.\u00a0 \u201cThe population of union workers is being destroyed, erased from the maps,\u201d Posada said.<\/p>\n Posada and Ortiz met while she sought refugee status from the NGO Safe Horizons in New York in 2002.\u00a0 Because of their shared background in the trade union movement, and experience with violence in Colombia, they became close friends.\u00a0 They bring their families together often to discuss the trade union movement and violence that, according to Posada, seems to have no end.<\/p>\n On the night that Ortiz narrowly escaped death, she waited for what felt like hours after her kidnappers fled, before getting up and walking toward the dark highway.\u00a0 She feared her kidnappers were watching her from afar, ready to come after her again.\u00a0 Ortiz hitched a ride with a truck driver who drove her into town and dropped her at a friend\u2019s house.\u00a0 She was still shaking, but didn\u2019t want to tell the driver what had happened.<\/p>\n Because of the kidnappers\u2019 car color and model, she suspected they were associated with the local government.\u00a0 \u201cThe person who grabbed me acted like a soldier, I don\u2019t know how to explain it,\u201d Ortiz said.\u00a0 The car was small, and her vision limited from the floor, but she could see their military-style haircuts.<\/p>\n Reporting the kidnapping to the police would have only made matters worse.\u00a0 Instead she called on the leadership within her union, Sindicato de Empleados Publicos<\/em>, to help register an anonymous complaint.\u00a0 \u201cI knew people who had registered complaints with the local police, and they were murdered,\u201d Ortiz said.\u00a0 \u201cI never could have gone on my own and it wasn\u2019t until at least two months later when I was already in the United States that my complaint came up for review.\u201d<\/p>\n Even though there is overwhelming evidence of collaboration between the police and paramilitary successor groups at the local level, the Colombian government often turns a blind eye.\u00a0 \u201cThere is a lack of attention by the Colombian government,\u201d said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Dirctor of Human Rights Watch Americas Division, \u201cbut it\u2019s easy to see why.\u00a0 If the government acknowledges that paramilitary groups still exist, the administration is acknowledging that their demobilization campaign didn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the assassinations or disappearances of friends and colleagues, the murder of her 17-year-old brother and the near kidnappings of her pre-school aged daughters, Ortiz decided to flee Colombia as a political refugee only after her kidnapping in 2000.<\/p>\n Since 2001, The Colombian Ministry of Social Protection has helped protect 4,492 trade unionists, according to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.\u00a0 Ortiz left Colombia through this program, and received political asylum in the United States in 2002.\u00a0 As of 2008 there were 26,450 Colombians seeking refuge in the United States.<\/p>\n Protection by the Colombian government doesn\u2019t turn out so well for everyone.\u00a0 Many union workers are relocated within Colombia, others simply given a new cell phone number or bulletproof vest.\u00a0 Ortiz received a plane ticket and $200 from the government. \u00a0More than 2,706 trade unionists have been murdered since 1986, when the Colombian Confederation of Workers (CUT) first began collecting data.<\/p>\n When Ortiz first agreed to interview for this story, she didn\u2019t share her phone number until two hours before our appointment.\u00a0 She insisted on meeting on a busy street corner in Brooklyn.\u00a0 She was accompanied by her friend and activist, Hernan Posada, an unexpected addition to the interview.\u00a0 Though Ortiz fled Colombia a decade ago, she still suffers debilitating post-traumatic stress; she is unable to hold down a job.\u00a0 She volunteers with recent Latin American immigrants to the United States, and sees a psychiatrist regularly.<\/p>\n Ortiz is not alone in her struggle to recover from kidnappings, attempted assassinations and threats.\u00a0 Posada, the leader of a bankers union in Colombia, fled the country in 1998. \u201cI was the victim of three assassination attempts, but really, I owe my life to my daughters,\u201d Posada said.<\/p>\n One afternoon Posada stopped his car at a red light.\u00a0 A man ran up to his window, gun extended, aimed at Posada\u2019s head. \u201cThe only reason he didn\u2019t shoot was he realized my three daughters were sitting in the car with me,\u201d Posada said.\u00a0 A few months later the scene repeated itself, but this time the gunman shot at Posada and his adult passengers, injuring his sister-in-law.<\/p>\n \u201cI was always paranoid someone was coming for me,\u201d Posada said, \u201cI saw so many friends killed or disappeared, surely my time was coming.\u201d<\/p>\n Though the assassinations of union workers in Colombia have decreased from 200 in 2002 to 49 in 2009 according to the National Labor School (ENS), this does not account for the documented 497 death threats, three cases of torture and 154 forced displacements of union workers in 2008 alone.<\/p>\n Ortiz doesn\u2019t expect to see drastic changes in security for union workers in Colombia as a result of the upcoming election, though some do retain hope.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have a government who is demonizing people who are trying to bring about change in the country, it creates a hostile environment,\u201d said Vogt.\u00a0 He believes the new administration will have the opportunity to change the tone of the conversation about union workers, and in turn diminish violence toward this group.<\/p>\n Regardless of who wins the June 20th Colombian presidential run-off election, many human rights observers are concerned about the legacy of Uribe policies such as The Justice and Peace Law, which passed in 2005 in an effort to disarm paramilitaries. The law allows former paramilitaries the benefit of a maximum sentence of eight years in prison if they contribute to the \u201cdiscovery of truth, justice and reparations for victims.\u201d\u00a0 Though many former paramilitaries have admitted to murdering union workers, few have been convicted for their crimes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe law has been an utter failure,\u201d Vogt said.\u00a0 Paramilitaries are often tried in absentia, which means the perpetrators are still at large, and according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights only 20 people have been partially indicted under the law.\u00a0 No one had been convicted as of September 2009.<\/p>\n Many \u201cdemobilized\u201d paramilitaries are now joining paramilitary successor groups, or teaming up with drug traffickers, according to Human Rights Watch.\u00a0 The paramilitary successor groups continue to target social leaders and union workers.<\/p>\n Wendy Luers, founder of the Foundation for a Civil Society explained there is a lack of job training for demobilized paramilitaries, and high levels of fear amongst local business leaders deter them from hiring those who have completed the demobilization process.\u00a0 \u201cSo they are turning back to what they know,\u201d Luers said in an April 13 interview in New York.\u00a0 \u201cThey are picking up their guns and going back into the mountains, and this will continue until a well-rounded demobilization process is in place.\u201d<\/p>\n Ortiz says she is rarely on the phone with family or friends in Colombia.\u00a0 \u201cThere aren\u2019t many people left to talk to,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cMany have moved.\u00a0 Many more have been assassinated.\u00a0 Some are in the US but in other states.\u00a0 But in Colombia, I know very few [people].\u201d<\/p>\n There were more than 600 union workers assassinated during President Uribe\u2019s eight-year administration.\u00a0 \u201cThough the government claims paramilitary groups no longer exist, the same types of abuse, murder, threats and intimidation continue toward social and community leaders,\u201d said Vivanco of Human Rights Watch.<\/p>\n According to Posada, \u201cPeople in the U.S., Europe, and around the globe need to understand the character of violence people live through in Colombia.\u00a0 We\u2019re not here to pursue the American Dream. I\u2019m lucky to be alive, yes, but I\u2019ve been uprooted and expelled from my country.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you count the different stories, you remember that what has happened to one person in Colombia, has happened to all of us,\u201d Posada said.