January 2007-Protest against the illegal action against Yesenia Echavarria Zuleta and attempts of government to evict the union of Sintraminercol

In November 2006 the Colombian government and the management of Minercol Ltda, unleashed an offensive to exterminate Sintraminercol, illegally firing Yesenia Echavarria Zuleta, attempting to evict the union from its headquarters and unjustifiably accelerating the liquidation of the company.
The Colombian government of President Alvaro Uribe Velez, following policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, had begun liquidating the state mining company, Minercol Limitada, in 2004 through a code drafted by lawyers working for Colombian and foreign mining companies thereby undermining Colombian sovereignty and eliminating the Sintraminercol Union at the company.
Yesenia, a Sintraminercol member and important union leader is a member of the National Claims Commission of Sintracarbon and Funtraenergitica, coordinator of the International Network of Women and Mining, as well as belonging to the sub directors' board of Fenasintrap (central zone). She was recently a witness at the Permanent People's Tribunal, which found several mining multinationals guilty of serious and repeated human rights violations in the country. In spite of the legal protection she enjoyed she was illegally fired by the Minercol management, which is loyal only to the Uribe government and the multinationals. She and Sintraminercol are being targeted for their role in defense of national sovereignty over Colombia's mineral resources and for charges brought by union leaders against the Uribe government, some foreign country governments, and multinational corporations in the mining sector for their crimes. This arbitrary and illegal decision by the Minercol management was carried out in the context of a continuing repression against its unionized workers and the suspension of fundamental rights and guarantees.
In December 2006 RIMM sent a letter to the Colombian government denouncing the illegal firing of Yesenia and condemning the attacks, bombings and threats that were undermining the fundamental rights of workers. The letter demanded that representatives of the multinationals that are exploiting Colombia's mineral resources should assume responsibility for the repression and cease their policy of dismantling the union organization, which operates under the protection of the Social State of Law.