When it comes to fighting the Colombian government to improve working people’s rights, defend communities, and stop the killing of human rights defenders, there’s no better champion than human rights activist Berenice Celeita Alayon.
For decades, this fiercely courageous leader stared down right-wing regimes opposed to her very existence — governments that not only refused to meet with her, but also left her exposed to assassination threats.
However, since the 2022 election of Gustavo Petro as president and Francia Márquez as vice-president, Celeita has faced a new challenge: convincing a more progressive government to fast-track the major reforms that Colombia and its people so desperately need after years of violent exploitation.
Celeita is the leader of the Association for Research and Social Action (Nomadesc). During her visit to CUPE’s 2023 National Convention, she urged CUPE members to keep their international solidarity alive to defend communities and save lives.
The election of a progressive government drew unprecedented participation from Black, Indigenous and rural communities. “This open participation, especially in Bogotá, is historic. For the first time in 212 years, the Plaza de Bolivar and everywhere around were flooded with rural residents from different parts of the country,” says Celeita.
Since then, the new government has been willing to meet with trade unions. Encouraging as that is, change has been slow and structural reform elusive.
“Inequity in Colombia is deep and persistent,” says Celeita. “The fact that the vast majority of workers don’t even earn the minimum wage is a very big challenge, further complicated by the fact that the right continues to attack the social justice movement.”
Nomadesc’s staff is regularly followed, their office has been monitored and their phones tapped. They continue to receive death threats, even after the election. Safety and security remain a top concern because the police, army and state security agencies have not yet been reformed.
The power of global capital is another major obstacle to systemic change. Colombia is a party to 17 free trade agreements that require the exploitation of natural resources in targeted communities.
There is widespread public opposition to extractivism — the unchecked extraction of natural resources — especially mining, where Canadian companies have long been present. But it is hard to hold these companies to account because they keep changing their names to avoid litigation while continuing their operations in Colombia. “It’s not only our natural resources that suffer because of these agreements — they are stripping the rights of ancestral Indigenous and Black communities,” says Celeita.
That’s where international solidarity becomes critical.
“Pressure from international peace brigades, from CUPE, from other unions, from our international solidarity allies, is supremely necessary — not as economic, but as political solidarity. Solidarity means mobilizing and defending life from an integral perspective: defending nature and different ways of thinking,” Celeita explains.
CUPE’s solidarity has bolstered Nomadesc and the Intercultural University of the Peoples — an alternative popular education university run by and for social movements — and the transformational training, development and awareness they provide.
“Several members of the current government, including the vice-president, have gone through the diploma programs, specialization areas, and university supported by CUPE,” Celeita remarks. “I believe that solidarity is something that’s built permanently in the face of a world crisis like the one we have now. So, the message is to continue fighting for transformation.”
