GOC EFFORTS TO PROTECT EDUCATION-SECTOR UNIONISTS

UNCLAS BOGOTA 003187 SENSITIVE SIPDIS USTR FOR EISSENSTAT AND HARMAN DOL FOR ZOLLNER AND QUINTANA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ELAB EAID ETRD PGOV PHUM PREL USTR CO SUBJECT: GOC EFFORTS TO PROTECT EDUCATION-SECTOR UNIONISTS REF: BOGOTA 1120 SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (SBU) About 40% of murdered unionists in Colombia are public-sector educators. Ministry of Education (MOE) officials and labor leaders told us that armed groups and criminal gangs target educators because of their involvement in community affairs and politics. The Colombian Federation of Educators (FECODE) is a potent political force, making its members targets. Protecting Colombia's 310,000 educators remains outside the Ministry of Interior and Justice (MOIJ) Protection Program's scope. Instead, the GOC started a transfer system to remove threatened educators from harm. So far, authorities have transferred 2,043 educators out of dangerous situations, probably saving hundreds of lives. Still, labor groups said the system is flawed. The GOC and civil society are working on legislation that will refine the system, due for completion before the end of the year. End Summary. UNION MEMBER MURDERS BY SECTOR -------------- ¶2. (SBU) According to the National Union School (ENS),24 unionists have been killed so far in 2009. Of these, 9 worked in the education sector; 6 in agriculture; 3 in the penal system; 2 in the oil/mining sector; 2 in the healthcare/social security sector; and 2 in the food and fishing industries. This mirrors the breakdown of the 49 murders of unionists in 2008: 41% (20) worked in the education sector; 20% (10) in agriculture; 14% (7) in the penal system; 8% (4) in the mining sector; 6% (3) in healthcare; and 4% (2) in the environmental sector. The remainder (3) included a public sector economist, a bank worker, and a lottery worker. EDUCATORS TARGETED FOR LEADERSHIP/POLITICAL ROLES -------------- -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Adela Monroy Omana, Advisor in the MOE Office of Decentralization, said armed groups on both ends of the political spectrum target educators because they are visible, influential community leaders, not necessarily because they are unionists. They get closely involved in community issues and local government in addition to teaching, which puts them at risk, she said. Rafael David Cuello Ramirez, Vice President of FECODE told us that Colombian educators are often the only literate members of rural communities, and frequently take on greater civic responsibilities than teaching alone. Both Monroy and Cuello said armed groups pressure community leaders to choose sides, and threaten or kill those who refuse or claim neutrality. Criminal gangs frequently target community leaders who do not cooperate in their illicit activities, they said. ¶4. (U) Education International (EI),the world's largest global union (30 million members),concluded in a recent study entitled "Colombia's Classroom Wars" that paramilitary groups or their remnants target Colombian educators because they constitute a potent, left-leaning political force. FECODE has 220,000 members (26% of Colombian unionists) and extends from the national level, where two former presidents are Congress members aligned to the Democratic Alternative Pole party (PDA),down to the most remote Colombian village. FECODE has a tremendous capacity to mobilize, and has done so successfully. It halted decentralization and privatization reforms in the early 1990s; forced changes in educational funding in 2001; and defeated President Uribe's 15-point, political and fiscal reform referendum in 2004 (which would have frozen public-sector salaries),the report said. It also concluded that guerilla groups target educators for teaching content that is contrary to their ideologies, and/or for collaborating with GOC authorities. GOC MEASURES TO PROTECT TEACHERS -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Since 1997, the MOIJ has managed a successful protection program for vulnerable social leaders/activists, including labor leaders (reftel). The program currently protects 11,000 people, including 7 educators who are also national-level labor leaders. Still, it is beyond the program's scope and budget ($45 million in 2009) to protect Colombia's estimated 310,000 public-sector educators (220,000 of whom are unionists). ¶6. (SBU) In 2003, the GOC created a transfer system to bridge this protection gap. Decree 3222 established "Special Committees for Threatened Public Educators" in each department to evaluate and resolve threats to educators, Monroy said. Departmental-level secretaries of education chair the committees, which include representatives of regional inspector generals and prominent unions. Educators who feel threatened submit transfer requests to these committees, which must evaluate each situation and make a recommendation to local authorities within three working days. ¶7. (SBU) The system employs a range of transfer options (temporary/permanent; regional/national/international),depending on the level of risk. Local authorities are responsible for arranging and paying to transfer threatened educators and their dependents, and the emitting institutions continue to pay educators' salaries and benefits for one year, at which point the parties convene to reexamine the situation and decide whether to make the transfer permanent, extend it or terminate it. An "inter-institutional" working group in Bogota composed of the MOE, MOIJ, the Ministry of Social Protection, the Inspector General, the Office of the Vice President, and FECODE also meets regularly to discuss difficult cases and refine the system. IS THE TRANSFER SYSTEM EFFECTIVE? -------------- ¶8. (SBU) Committees have resolved 2,043 cases to date: 213 without transfers; 315 with temporary transfers; 1,475 with permanent transfers; and 40 with international transfers. In roughly the same period, the annual number of murdered education-sector unionists fell from 94 in 2002 to 20 in 2008 (ENS statistics),a decrease of 78% (twice as fast as general homicides fell in the same period). Monroy sees a direct link between the transfer system and murder rates of educators, and by extension, unionists. She said the system has saved hundreds of lives. ¶9. (SBU) Cuello agreed with Monroy's assessment, but said the transfer system has lingering problems. First, the three-day evaluation period is too long, leaving educators vulnerable while committees carry out evaluations. Second, committees frequently decline transfer requests, leaving threatened educators vulnerable. Third, educators with short-term contracts do not have access to the transfer system. Fourth, the MOE has been slow to incorporate jurisprudence from Constitutional Court Decision T-976 of 2004, which mandated a clearer delineation of risk-levels and corresponding legal obligations of local authorities. Finally, he said that the "inter-institutional" working group is not very effective --it has only met once this year. ¶10. (SBU) Monroy told us that a new presidential decree replacing Decree 3222 is due by the end of the year, and will mandate a one-day (as opposed to three) turnaround on committee decisions. It will also enumerate three levels of risk (ordinary, extraordinary, and extreme) and corresponding legal obligations of local authorities in accordance with the Constitutional Court decision (T-976/04). She added that educators with short-term contracts are in fact eligible, but only for territorial transfers, not regional or international transfers. Finally, she said that no educators who have been denied transfers have been killed, evidence that the committees make sound judgments. ¶11. (SBU) Cuello could not provide evidence that any education-sector unionists were killed while waiting for, or after being denied, a transfer. According to ENS, one education-sector unionist who was offered a transfer was killed. Ramiro Cuadros Roballo, an educator and union leader in Rio Frio, Valle de Cauca, received a death threat on March 3, 2009. The "Special Committee for Threatened Public Educators of the Valle" urged him to accept a transfer, but he refused, citing his belief that the threat was baseless and that community members had requested he stay and continue his work. He was gunned down on the morning of March 24, 2009, on the way to his office by unknown assailants. NICHOLS