By Internationalist Struggle, a section of the IWU-FI, Spanish State
27 September 2021
The PSOE-IU / Podemos government has awarded the Isabel la Católica Collar to the president of Colombia, Ivan Duque. It will take effect during the Colombian president’s visit to Spain. The “most progressive government in history” pays tribute to the politician responsible for the brutal repression suffered by the Colombian people since the social protests against his tax reform began on 28 April: 72 dead at the hands of the security forces, 2,845 arrested, and 1,177 injured, 27 of them with eye injuries, hundreds of disappeared.
El Collar, shameful for a government that claims to be left-wing, is the other side of the coin of the signing of the Agreement for the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments, an agreement that protects the interests of the multinationals that will plunder Colombia for ten years, in particular against nationalisations or expropriations. Behind this agreement are the Ibex35 companies: ACS, OHL, SacyR and Ferrovial; oil companies such as Repsol; Telefonica, hotel chains such as NH, Melia, Iberostar and Barcelo… With over 600 companies, Spanish State is the fourth largest investor in Colombia and second in 2020, with 1.8 billion dollars, very close and only behind the United States (2086 million dollars).
Amnesty International has called on the government to ask Duque for explanations for a human rights violation documented in a report published at the end of July. The UN and various organisations also denounced them. According to the Colombian organisation INDEPAZ, the government murdered 310 activists in the country in 2020 and 115 men and women this year.
The Spanish government justifies itself by saying that it has been a tradition to give the medal to all previous Colombian presidents. And it was Rodriguez Zapatero who in 2005 decorated none other than Alvaro Uribe, a president who is pending legal proceedings, particularly for the so-called false positives: between 3,500 and 10,000 civilian murders at the hands of the army to present them as alleged guerrillas. Uribe’s defence minister during this period, and who succeeded him in office, also received the Collar of Isabella the Catholic in 2015, presented by Rajoy. A tradition Spanish imperialism has in the service of the multinationals. PSOE governments and now also in coalition with Unidas-Podemos, despite the latter’s complaint, continued with the tradition.
Internationalist Struggle, a section of the International Workers’ Unity- Fourth International (IWU-FI), calls for the protest of all left trade unions and democratic organisations against the resolutions taken by the Spanish government: no support to the government of Ivan Duque.
We express our solidarity with the struggle of the Colombian people. We demand immediate release without charge of all those arrested and prosecuted. Investigation and punishment for those responsible for the repression. Out with Duque!
