Date: Sat, 20 Jul 2002 23:50:10 +0100
Coca Cola, Oilworkers Visit and Uribe Reports

English pp1-4 
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I.      EL TIEMPO URIBE REPORTS
II.     COCA COLA DAY OF ACTION - MONDAY 22nd JULY
III.    COLOMBIAN OIL WORKERS SPEAK OUT

ESPANOL pp 4-6
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IV.     INFORMES DE EL TIEMPO


Ia.     "I DON'T PROPOSE A FASIST REGIME" SAID  ÁLVARO URIBE
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EL TIEMPO  16th July 2002

In his first London public appearances, Uribe insisted on Tuesday that
his proposed government "is not a fascist regime", but one of
"democratic security and respect for the law",

Uribe tried to dispel the doubts over his future leadership to the UK
government, entrepreneurs and academics worried by the Colombian
conflict.

The future president, who will be received today by the British Prime
Minister Tony Blair, focussed all his speeches yesterday on security as
the basis for the economic and social recovery of Colombia. This was his
recurring theme to British parliamentarians, to members of Canning
House, (a cultural institute that links British people with Latin
America) and to businessmen in the Britain Colombia Chamber of Commerce.

A tense atmosphere was created by a group of some thirty demonstrators
opposed to his government, who were in place at all the events that the
president-elect attended. They shouted over megaphones "Uribe fascist,
Uribe paramilitary" and held up banners. This group was made up of
political exiles, former guerillas and British citizens.

Uribe took the protest with good humuor and said several times that he
would set up security for all Colombians, foreign investors and even
those who already questioned "a government that has still not started".

He revealed that he will ask the United Kingdom for a direct
contribution to the security of British companies in Colombia, so that
they stay in the country. "We want the British police to come and train
the Colombian police, so that they improve the protection of British
companies".

He clarified that the presence in London of the future Minister for
Defence Marta Lucía Ramírez, was not to try and purchase arms of
anything of the sort.

The aid package Uribe is asking also includes technological support for
air interdiction,  by means of satellites systems, to combat
narcotrafficking and arms traffic to irregular groups.

To justify his request for an international presence in the country, he
said that ""terrorism in Colombia has the capacity to destabilise the
democracies of the region, as has the Argentine crisis done with the
economy".

MARIA VICTORIA CRISTANCHO
EL TIEMPO Correspondent, London


Ib.    UK OFFERS ANTI-TERRORIST AID TO PRESIDENT-ELECT ALVARO URIBE
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ELTIEMPO 17th July 2002

The British prime minister Tony Blair, announced that the United Kingdom
will contribute technological and police aid during the visit of
Colombia's new leader to London.

The announcement of international co-operation was made by Uribe after
his meeting earlier today at 10 Downing Street, a meeting that he
characterised as "very important and positive".

"The United Kingdom will collaborate in an integrated security plan to
confront the Colombian conflict" explained Uribe. "They will help us in
intelligence services and the latest generation technology, and we also
talked about greater police cooperation".

The country's president-elect reported to Blair during their meeting
that his Government would guarantee the protection of foreign
investments in Colombia, but he underlined that thsi would need "the
greatest possible aid from the British police".

According to Uribe, Tony Blair showed that he is "very well informed on
the Colombian conflict".
"The Primer Minister understood perfectly the link that exists between
drugs, terrorism, misery and the lack of trust from investors" Uribe
stated.

"We mustn't forget", he added, "that every year forty tons of Colombian
cocaine arrive on the streets of London".

In agreement with the Colombian leader, Blair also offered his aid in
environmental projects to substitute legal crops for drugs.

"We need a hundred million dollars a year to compensate the 50,000
peasant families who will be in the first stage of crop substitution",
Uribe noted. But he was unable to state whether the British government
will be contributing a part of these funds.

Alvaro Uribe asked for more time to respond to the case of two Colombain
diplomats who the British police want to question in relation to the
death of a guard at the doors of a London supermarket.

"For the moment", he said , "it is not up to me to decide whether or not
diplomatic immunity should be lifted for them, but of the government in
power. When I am invested as President on 7th August, then I will look
into the matter".

Uribe denied having discussed this question with Blair, although he
admitted of having done so in the hour before with Britain's deputy
Prime Minister John Prescott, to whom he committed to treating the
matter with urgency once he is President.

Asked whether he had talked about human rights with the head of the
British government, Alvaro Uribe answered: "I told him that only through
security will we be able to recover human rights in Colombia".

Before leaving for Brazil, where next Sunday he will meet with President
Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Uribe will lunch with sub-Secretrary of State
for Foreign Affairs Denis McShane.

Previously he met a group of Colombian businessmen in the Colombian
Embassy.


II.     COCA COLA DAY OF ACTION - MONDAY 22nd JULY
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Pickets
-------
4.30pm Monday 22nd July
Colombian Embassy, 3 Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge (back of Harrods),
London SW1

and US Consulate, Belfast

NO MORE COCA COLA DEATH SQUADS!
END STATE IMPUNITY FOR PARAMILITARY TERROR!

Electronic Protest
------------------
Please send messages on 22nd July especially pointing out that Coca Cola
should:
        * stop violating the human rights of its workers
        * apologise to the families of the victims and pay them
compensation
        * condemn paramilitary terror in Colombia
        * call on the state authorities to prosecute those responsible
for murdering trade unionists.

World President of Coca Cola  E-mail, mail@na.cokecce.com

The British Foreign Office:
E-mail: Dennis Macshane: macshaned@parliament.uk
Jeremy Hobbs: jeremy.hobbs@fco.gov.uk
Jack McIver: Jack.McIver@fco.gov.uk

His Excellency Dr Victor G Ricardo, Embassy of Colombia, 3 HansCrescent,
London SW1X OLN. Fax: 020 7581 1829 Email: mail@colombianembassy.co

with copies to:  sinaltrainaldinal@hotmail.com; audpubcoka@hotmail.com
and colombia_sc@hotmail.com

III.    COLOMBIAN OIL WORKERS SPEAK OUT
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Public Meeting
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7.30pm Wednesday 24th July
Conway Hall, Red Lion Square (nearest tube Holborn)
organised by War on Want

Public sector workers in Colombia are in the forefront of struggle
against privatisation and war, which have a common root in the take-over
by the multinationals. Colombian oil workers are, like the public
utilities workers of SINTRAEMCALI, and workers in education and health,
involved in daily resistance. Colombian government are offering ever
more inviting terms for the multinationals, and are intent on
dismantling state control of the country's natural resources. The oil
workers' union USO continues to fight for the economic benefits of oil
and gas to come to the Colombian people.    The union has paid a heavy
price. Its members have been the object of systematic and massive state
and paramilitary violence that has taken 89 lives.

Two leaders of USO will be visiting Britain from 18th to 30th July.
Gilberto Torres was kidnapped on Friday 22nd February, as he left his
work on the OCENSA pipeline in Casanare. The OCENSA  pipeline transports
BP's oil from wells in the eastern Andes to the Caribbean port of
Coveñas.  The paramilitary group AUC [United Self-Defence of Colombia]
kept Gilberto shackled a hole in the ground covered with barbed wire.
After six weeks of sustained international pressure the paramilitaries
finally handed Gilberto over to a special commission including the
International Red Cross.

Gilberto's disappearance had triggered a national strike by USO that
lasted several days, and was restarted on 20th March after another USO
leader Rafael Jaimes was assassinated in Barrancabermeja. Then on 18th
June another regional leader, Cesar Blanco Moreno was assassinated in
Bucaramanga.

Cesar Carillo worked for the state oil corporation ECOPETROL for 24
years. He was a trade union leader for 20 years, seven of which he was
president of USO.  Cesar was also a member of the CUT National Executive
for four years. In 1997 he and 14 other oilworkers were imprisoned
without trial, during which time their lawyer Eduardo Umaña Mendoza was
assassinated. On his release Cesar received so many persistent death
threats that he was forced into exile. He now lives in Spain from where
he represents USO as a member of its International Commission.

Seminar
-------
11am -5pm on Saturday 27th July
CORAS, 161 Lambeth Walk, London SE11
(nearest tubes Lambeth North and Vauxhall).
organised by Colombia Solidarity Campaign

IVa. Julio 16 de 2002  EL TIEMPO

'No propongo régimen fascista', dice presidente electo Álvaro Uribe
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En sus primeras apariciones públicas en Londres, aseguró el martes que
su propuesta de gobierno "no es de un régimen fascista", sino de
"seguridad democrática y respeto a las leyes".

Uribe trató de despejar las dudas sobre su futura gestión ante el
gobierno del Reino Unido, empresarios y académicos, preocupados por el
conflicto colombiano.

El futuro presidente, quien será recibido hoy por el primer ministro
británico, Tony Blair, focalizó todas sus intervenciones de ayer en el
tema de seguridad como base para la recuperación económica y social de
Colombia. Así se lo dijo a parlamentarios británicos, a miembros del
Canning House, (instituto cultural que relaciona a británicos con
América Latina) y a empresarios de la Cámara Británico Colombiana.

El ambiente de tensión lo pusieron una treintena de manifestantes
opositores a su gobierno, que se iban apostando en todos los lugares a
donde se dirigía el presidente electo. "Uribe fascista, Uribe
paramilitar", voceaban con megáfonos y mostrando pancartas. Del grupo
hacían parte exilados políticos, exguerrilleros y unos cuantos
ciudadanos británicos.

Uribe tomó la protesta con humor y dijo en varias ocasiones que él
plantea llevar seguridad a todos los colombianos, a los inversionistas
extranjeros y hasta quienes desde ya cuestionan "una gestión de gobierno
que todavía no se ha iniciado".

Reveló que le pedirá al Reino Unido un aporte directo de seguridad para
las empresas británicas con presencia en Colombia, para que permanezcan
en el país. "Que vengan los policías británicos y entrenen a los
colombianos, que mejoren la protección de las propias empresas
británicas", dijo.

Aclaró que la presencia en Londres de la futura ministra de Defensa,
Marta Lucía Ramírez, no pretendía avanzar en la compra de armas ni nada
por el estilo.

En el paquete de peticiones también incluyó el apoyo tecnológico para
interdicción aérea, a través de sistemas satelitales, para combatir el
narcotráfico y el tráfico de armas dirigidas a grupos irregulares.

Para justificar su petición de presencia internacional en el país, dijo
que "el terrorismo en Colombia tiene la capacidad de desestabilizar las
democracias de la región, como la crisis argentina lo ha hecho en lo
económico".

MARIA VICTORIA CRISTANCHO
Corresponsal de EL TIEMPO
Londres


IVb.    Reino Unido ofrece ayuda antiterrorista al presidente electo
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Álvaro Uribe
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ELTIEMPO.COM 8:05 a.m. julio 17 de 2002

El primer ministro británico, Tony Blair, anunció que el Reino Unido
aportará ayuda tecnológica y policial durante la visita del nuevo
mandatario colombiano a Londres.

El anuncio de la cooperación internacional lo hizo Uribe tras su
encuentro de hoy en el número 10 de Downing Street, una reunión que
calificó de "muy importante y positiva".

"El Reino Unido colaborará en un plan de seguridad integral para hacer
frente al conflicto colombiano -explicó Uribe-. Nos ayudarán con sus
servicios de inteligencia y con tecnología de última generación, y
también hemos hablado de una mayor cooperación policial".

El presidente electo del país andino informó a Blair durante la reunión
de que su Gobierno garantizará la protección de los inversores
extranjeros en Colombia, pero subrayó que para ello necesita "la mayor
ayuda posible de la policía británica".

Según Uribe, Tony Blair se mostró "muy comprensivo con el conflicto
colombiano".

"El primer ministro entendió perfectamente el vínculo que existe entre
la droga, el terrorismo, la miseria y la falta de confianza inversora",
precisó Uribe.

"No olvidemos -añadió- que cuarenta toneladas de cocaína llegan cada año
a las calles de Londres procedentes de Colombia".

De acuerdo con el mandatario colombiano, Blair también ofreció su ayuda
a los proyectos ambientales previstos para sustituir los cultivos de
droga por otros lícitos.

"Necesitamos cien millones de dólares al año para compensar a las 50.000
familias campesinas que en una primera etapa harán la sustitución de
cultivos", manifestó Uribe, quien, sin embargo, no aclaró si el Gobierno
británico aportará parte de esos fondos.

Por lo que respecta a los dos diplomáticos colombianos que la policía
británica quiere interrogar en relación con la muerte de un celador a
las puertas de un supermercado en Londres, Alvaro Uribe pidió tiempo.

"Por el momento -dijo-, no me corresponde a mí decidir si se les levanta
o no la inmunidad diplomática, sino al Gobierno en ejercicio. Cuando sea
investido presidente, el próximo 7 de agosto, me ocuparé del tema".

Uribe negó haber tratado esta cuestión con Blair, aunque admitió haberlo
hecho una hora antes con el viceprimer ministro británico John Prescott,
a quien dijo que dará prioridad al tema cuando asuma la presidencia.

Preguntado sobre si había hablado de derechos humanos con el jefe del
Gobierno británico, Alvaro Uribe contestó: "Le he dicho que sólo a
través de la seguridad podremos recuperar los derechos humanos en
Colombia".

Antes de partir para Brasil, donde el próximo domingo se entrevistará
con el presidente Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Uribe tiene previsto
almorzar hoy en la capital británica con el subsecretario de Estado para
Asuntos Exteriores, Denis McShane.

Posteriormente, se reunirá en la Embajada de Colombia con un grupo de
empresarios de su país.
Con EFE.

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