Nelson Prez, Luis Eduardo Garcia, Jose Domingo Flores
In the last fortnight, three Coca-Cola workers in Bucaramanga, Colombia have been told that before the end of December they will be killed and buried in a mass grave. The threat demands that the union cease all protest against Coca-Cola. Join us in emergency action to defend their lives!
The men – Luis Eduardo, Jose Domingo and Nelson Perez – belong to SINALTRAINAL, the trade union representing Coca-Cola workers in Colombia. Since 1994, nine Coca-Cola workers have been murdered by paramilitary death squads in response to the union’s resistance.
5-7pm Thursday 20th December
PICKET: Coca-Cola Great Britain, Head Office
1 Queen Caroline Street, Hammersmith, London W6 9HQ
(near to Hammersmith tube)
The paramilitary group Aguilas Negras (Black Eagles) have claimed responsibility for this threat and the five others issued to SINALTRAINAL members this year, demanding that they cease all protest against the company. The situation was covered in Channel 4’s recent Dispatches: Mark Thomas on Coca Cola which featured interviews with Luis Eduardo.
Watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5JXmDApzp4
The Christmas season is a particularly dangerous time for social and human rights activists in Colombia. Please help protect our friends. Make sure that the threat that they end up in a mass grave this December isn’t carried out.
WHAT CAN YOU DO? BOYCOTT COCA-COLA PRODUCTS
WHAT ELSE YOU CAN DO
Call on Coca-Cola Corporation and its bottling subsidiary FEMSA to:
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provide immediate protection for the threatened workers – Luis Eduardo Garcia, Jose Domingo Florez, Nelson Perez – and their families;
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denounce the Black Eagles as the authors of these threats and demands that they be brought to justice;
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condemn the government’s ‘Justice and Peace’ Law as a device for legitimising the Black Eagles and other paramilitary groups.
Write to Ed Potter, Coca-Cola Director of Global Labor Relations at E-mail: colombia_action@Coca-Cola.com; Juan Carlos Jaramillo President Coca-Cola FEMSA in Colombia at jarbelaez@panamco.com.co ; and Corporate Responsibility at UK Coca-Cola at corporate_affairs@ge.cokecce.com
Demand that the Colombian government breaks the impunity enjoyed by the Black Eagles and:
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pursues an immediate criminal investigation into the Black Eagles in Bucaramanga;
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stops its process of legalisation of paramilitary groups under the misnamed ‘Justice and Peace’ Law .
Write to President Álvaro Uribe Vélez E-mail: auribe@presidencia.gov.co and Colombian Embassy to the UK E-mail: mail@colombianembassy.co.uk