Luis Adolfo Cardona, a former union worker at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Carepa, Colombia, told an audience at the Pyle Center Thursday night that Coca-Cola Co. had helped sponsor paramilitary death squads to bust his trade union, Sinaltrainal.
Cardona's speech, presented in both Spanish and English, included the story of his flight to the United States after seeing his friend and Sinaltrainal union negotiator Isidro Gil shot to death in the union's headquarters.
\In Colombia you have three options,"" he said through a translator. ""You stay silent, or you die, or you get out of the country.""
He has requested political asylum in the United States and is touring the country with the sponsorship of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Program and the Columbia Action Network to speak about the effects of transnational corporations and U.S. military aid on his country.
Sinaltrainal sued Coca-Cola and its bottling partners in July 2001, alleging the bottling companies had ordered the deaths, and Coca-Cola was complicit in them. The U.S. District Court in Miami dismissed the suit against Coca-Cola, saying the union had not provided sufficient evidence that the company was involved.
Coca-Cola has denied any involvement in the killings, attributing them to internal disputes in Colombia. Representatives from the company talked with union negotiators last January, Cardona said, but the contents of the discussion were not disclosed.
""We have invested in that country for 63 years,"" Coca-Cola spokesperson Lori Billingsley said. ""We will continue doing business in Colombia.""
Cardona called for a boycott of Coke products. The University of Wisconsin System has an exclusive contract with Coca-Cola, said Meredith Aby, a member of the Columbian Action Network.
Cardona considers himself lucky to have escaped the situation that killed his friend and many more union workers like him.
""Fear sometimes paralyzes people, but it can also make you react,"" he said. ""I was fortunate enough to react.""
Cardona's allegations against Coca-Cola managed to shed light upon ethical issues concerning the soft drink company that were news to audience members, once accustomed to guzzling its beverages without guilt.
UW-Madison senior Tim Condon said he was on the Jefferson High School student council when it decided to buy Coke rather than Pepsi, partly because Coca-Cola sponsored scoreboards and drink machines for the school and provided the sports teams with free Powerade.
""Being 16 years old, of course we're going to go with the one that gives us the most,"" he said.
