"Colombia: The struggle for lasting peace" w/ union leader Nidia Quintero

A tour featuring Nidia Quintero, General Secretary of FENSUAGRO, Colombia’s largest federation of agricultural workers unions.

Over a year ago, peace accords were signed in Colombia that officially ended 52 years of civil war. But there are powerful enemies of the peace who want to undermine the accords any way they can.

The transnational corporations and big landowners are trying to stop reforms that benefit rural communities. They are terrorizing rural, indigenous, and Afro Colombian families and forcing them to leave their land.

Colombia remains the most dangerous country in the world for unionists. The most repressed labor organization in the country is FENSUAGRO, the National Federation of Unified Agricultural Workers Unions.

Nidia Quintero, General Secretary of FENSUAGRO, comes from a farming family that was displaced because of the armed conflict from the department of Cauca. She relocated to Putumayo, where she and her family became community and labor organizers. Fifteen of her fellow organizers were assassinated for their activities between 2000 and 2004, including her husband, a union leader, and her 19-year-old son, who was also active in the union. In 2008 Nidia was chosen to be FENSUAGRO’s Secretary for Rural Women. In 2010 she was elected to FENSUAGRO’s execu- tive committee.

Over 1,500 of FENSUAGRO’S members have been assassinated since its founding in 1976. Meanwhile, promises for rural development made by the government in the peace accords have not materialized.

In fact, the Trump administration is pushing the Colombian government to abandon those commitments. It is of vital importance for the Colombian people and all Latin America that the peace accords be honored.

We invite you to come hear Nidia Quintero and help build popular and labor solidarity in the U.S. with rural Colombian workers and for the peace effort. Her tour is supported by the San Francisco Labor Council.

$5 to $20 donation requested. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Sponsored in the Bay Area by the ANSWER Coalition and Alliance for Global Justice. Call 415-821-6545 to endorse.

Co-sponsors: Alianza Hondureña USA-No. Cal; Bay Area Latin America Solidarity Coalition; Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador—Bay Area; Cuba and Venezuela Solidarity Committee; Tony Gonzales, AIM West*, Party for Socialism and Liberation; Task Force on the Americas; Workers World Party. *For ID purposes only.

To learn how to support efforts for Peace in Colombia, contact James Jordan at workertoworker [at] gmail.com