New Book Available from Common Courage Press
The Profits of Extermination:

How U.S. Corporate Power is Destroying Colombia

by Francisco Ramirez Cuellar

translated by Aviva Chomsky







Published to acclaim?and death threats against its author and bombings of his union?s offices?in Colombia in 2003, The Profits of Extermination uncovers the role of multinational mining and energy companies in Colombia?s violence. Through legal maneuvers, corruption, and direct use of paramilitary violence, companies like Occidental Petroleum, Harken Energy, and many others, have taken over Colombia?s resources, displacing and murdering those who have tried to challenge them.





This book gives the lie to the claim that the ?drug wars? are the main factor behind Colombia?s violence, and explains the role that the U.S. and Canadian governments and their corporations have played in the war against Colombia?s peasants, indigenous, and Afro-Colombian populations.



Francisco Ramirez Cuellar is president of Sintraminercol, the Union of Colombian Mining Workers.

Aviva Chomsky is Professor of Latin American History at Salem State College and active in Colombia solidarity work.



Common Courage Press

March 2005

$14.95



To order, call 800-497-3207.



"With icy precision, The Profits of Extermination makes real the meaning behind the terms FTAA (Free Trade Agreement of the Americas), globalization and neo-liberalism."



--Cecilia Zarate-Laun, Program Director, Colombia Support Network



"Francisco Ramirez, focusing on the mining industry in which he is involved as a unionist, recounts in detail the struggles of his fellow workers and the violent response by the mining corporations and the U.S. and Colombian military which protect them. We should be grateful for real heroes like Francisco Ramirez."



--Daniel M. Kovalik, Assistant General Counsel, United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO-CLC



"Francisco Ramirez provides startling information about how the government and corporations like Coca Cola are actively involved in suppressing social movements of any kind in Colombia."



--Ray Rogers, Director, Campaign to Stop Killer Coke/Corporate Campaign, Inc.



"This investigation makes the vital connections between the exploitative interests of global companies and investors, in concert with the U.S. and Canadian governments, and the dire poverty and exploitation combined with repression carried out by Colombian State and paramilitary forces."



--Grahame Russell, co-director, RightsAction



"The Profits of Extermination vividly illustrates how both blood and electricity flow when North Americans flick on their light switches."



--Garry Leech, editor of Colombia Journal and author of Killing Peace: Colombia's Conflict and the Failure of U.S. Intervention