4 students protesting Coca-Cola near bottling factory briefly kidnapped

On Thursday the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke sent an email alert stating that 4 students in Colombia were briefly kidnapped on June 3rd by the paramilitaries for their involvement in a demonstration against Coke's destructive environmental policies. The email is below:

Campaign to Stop Killer Coke Alert
URGENT ACTION:
4 STUDENTS PROTESTING COCA-COLA KIDNAPPED IN COLOMBIA

At around 7.30 pm on 3 June 2005, as SINALTRAINAL's protest against Coca-Cola for its policies of environmental destruction was ending (5 June being world environment day) just two blocks from the Barranquilla bottling plant, agents belonging to paramilitary groups carrying firearms, forced four students to get into a gray van. The students are LIZANDRO PERRIL, OMAR PERRIL, WALTER CARCAMO and BERNARDO CHARRIS, from Atlántico University and Pestazzi College. They had been demonstrating their solidarity with the Coca-Cola workers who mounted a protest outside the bottling plant beginning at 9 am. Other students managed to escape by throwing themselves out of the car and taking refuge in the 'Las Nieves' neighourhood.

Inside the vehicle, the students were forced to bend their heads face down and threatened with guns. The paramilitaries said that the Coca-Cola workers are guerrilla chiefs. They accused the students of being guerrillas since they had helped the protest and attended it. They stated that the zone was under paramilitary control and they would not allow any protests there. They knew the students attended Atlántico University and had their home addresses. The paramilitaries ordered the students to leave the city that day or be assassinated. After facing these threats, torture and a drive round the city that lasted about 45 minutes, the students were thrown out of the vehicle near the national police school, situated in Serri neighbourhood.

The paramilitaries could not “disappear” the students thanks to the rapid protests by the comrade responsible for Human Rights in the CUT, as well as the local and national leadership of SINALTRAINAL and the pressure that was exerted by the workers and social organisations to get immediate intervention by the security bodies, the vice-President of the Republic and the DAS [security police]. The students reappeared alive and the paramilitaries did not achieve their objectives.

Once again, this incident occurs at the time when we are presenting our annual negotiating position to Coca-Cola on the north coast region [where Barranquilla is located]. And as the facts have demonstrated, the government of President ALVARO URIBE VELEZ is lying to the world, given that this band of criminal paramilitaries continues assassinating, massacring, disappearing, torturing, forcibly displacing and terrorising the population. The State is affording these paramilitaries protection with the deceitful negotiations seeking to pardon and forgetting human rights violations. The trade unions and social movements seek peace with justice and democracy that resists the authoritarianism and militarism of the government. We demand that the Government of President Álvaro Uribe Vélez investigates and punishes those responsible for this macabre incident, that it guarantees union activity and protects the lives of the workers, students, communities and trade unionists.

Yours faithfully,

LUIS JAVIER CORREA SUAREZ
President SINALTRAINAL

The email calls upon readers to:

Send immediate protests to:

Presidencia de la República
Dr. Álvaro Uribe Vélez,
Cra. 8 No..7-26,
Palacio de Nariño,
Santa fe de Bogotá.
Colombia
Fax: (+57 1) 566.20.71 E-mail: auribe@presidencia.gov.co

[OR to better send e-mail to Uribe login to http://www.presidencia.gov.co and click on ESCRIBALE AL PRESIDENTE at the bottom of the page.
Para enviar correo al Sr Presidente, dirmjase a la pagina
Web: http://www.presidencia.gov.co y haga clic en ESCRIBALE AL PRESIDENTE
ubicado en la parte inferior, al final de la pagina.]

Vicepresidencia de la República
Dr. Francisco Santos
E-mail: fsantos@presidencia.gov.co

In the U.S.:
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Washington, DC 20008
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In Canada
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Fax: 020 7581 1829
Colombian Embassy (UK): mail@colombianembassy.co.uk
Bill Rammell: rammellb@parliament.uk]

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Paseo de la Reforma 1620,
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Consulate of Colombia in La Paz, Bolivia
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La Paz, Bolivia,
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In Brazil:

Consulate of Colombia in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Praia Do Flamengo,
284, Office 101, Manaos CEP 22210 - 030 R.J.
Brasil Rio de Janeiro
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In Australia:

Consulate Honorary of Colombia in Melbourne, Australia
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Black Rock VIC 3193
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Fax: (03) 9589 0696
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In Italy:
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Cola di Rienzo, 285 00192
Rome, Italy
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Fax: 009 39 06 3211703