Reply #7: Here's one I don't think a lot of Americans have heard!

[Judi Lynn]

From Oil Field to Border Military Base

Is the US military transforming a Colombian oil facility into a fortress intended for launching attacks against Venezuela?, asks Colombian union leader Oscar Cañas. Cañas says that not only are there runways for military planes in Caño Limón but also tanks, artillery, reconnaissance planes, a strong Colombian military contingent, and a group of U.S. marines.

21.11.2004 Not only oil springs out of Caño Limón, but also serious labor problems, and even geopolitical uneasiness. Oscar Cañas Fajardo, an industrial relations technician for the oil industry and advisor of the CUT trade union federation, warns over rapidly increasing military presence in the Colombian side of the Arauca river, with the pretext of protecting the oil pipelines (from Caño Limón) against continual sabotage.

Cañas assures that there are uniformed marines from the U.S. army, as well as war equipment, just a few kilometers from our borders; and accuses the transnational Occidental de Colombia Inc., a transnational oil company, of promoting a labor conflict at all costs with the intention of reducing the number of unionized workers on the payroll.

“Occidental de Colombia intends to apply the same plan recently carried out by Ecopetrol, that is, promoting an artificial conflict with its employees, with the purpose of reducing the number of unionized workers on the payroll.”
Cañas comments that the oil industry labor union USO presented a set of petitions which, more than just a project of collective contracting “is a list of social benefits that represents less than 0.8% of their earnings. And this company is not really interested in discussing these issues. Its intention is to go beyond that.”

More:
http://www.anncol.org/uk/site/doc.php?id=193



Caño Limón pipeline