VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBO #3187/01 2872029
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 142029Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY BOGOTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0307
INFO RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/FBI WASHINGTON DC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 0085
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHINGTON DC
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 0408
RUEHGL/AMCONSUL GUAYAQUIL
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA 0412
RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC

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