WARNING ON MASSACRE OF PROTESTING COLOMBIAN OIL WORKERS http://www.namnewsnetwork.org/v2/read.php?id=170999

The Colombian Oil Workers Union (USO) has warned of a possible massacre of oil workers participating in a protest in the town of Puerto Gaitan in the province of Meta. The USO union said the government has ordered the army and police to forcibly evict the workers - who are demanding decent working conditions - tonight from the Rubiales and Quifa oilfields and a curfew has been imposed.

The union said it would hold President Juan Manuel Santos and police responsible as well as the multinational company Pacific Rubiales, state oil company Ecopetrol and authorities who ordered indiscriminate attacks on the workers. The union demanded that the government stop the repression and violence against workers and communities of Puerto Gaitan and other oil regions.

For more than six years, the communities have been asking authorities and oil companies to solve many social, environmental, labour and economic problems but without response, the union said. Protests have continued for weeks in this oil region - the largest in the country - sparked by allegations of violation of workers' rights, met by heavy police repression, local media reported. Oil workers are in a precarious situation, with low wages, long workdays and other working conditions that violate Colombian law, the union said