Colombia and debt (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

                        =====================================
                        "We are demanding that the government
                        declare a moratorium because the debt
                        payments consume 36 percent of our
                        national budget," labor leader Luis
                        Garzon told AFP.
____________________    =====================================
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

Tuesday, 24 August 1999

                  Colombia's labor unions call for
                suspension of foreign debt payments
                -----------------------------------

BOGOTA -- Labor leaders here called Tuesday for the government to suspend
payments on the country's foreign debt, as Colombia struggles to emerge
from its worst recession in 70 years.

Union activists have made suspension of debt payments a condition for
calling off a national strike planned for August 31.

"We are demanding that the government declare a moratorium because the
debt payments consume 36 percent of our national budget," labor leader
Luis Garzon told AFP.

The demands to break off debt payments came as Colombia attempts to rouse
itself from economic stagnation that has led to the demise of more than
70 major companies and 3,600 small businesses in the first seven months
of the year.

Colombia owes some 17 billion dollars foreign creditors, and experts
estimate that that the government paid more than two billion dollars last
year to meet its foreign debt obligations.

The country's gross domestic product grew by a mere 0.6 percent in 1998
and is likely to fall by between 0.5 and one percent this year because of
a drastic fall in demand, analysts said.

Meanwhile, unemployment has soared to almost 20 percent.

The economic downturn led finance officials to announce in July that
Colombia would seek three billion dollars in loans from the International
Monetary Fund for a package to stimulate the economy.

Tuesday's national strike to protest the government's economic policies
was likely to affect a broad range of sectors, from the oil and electric
industries to airlines and telecommunications.

Police and military leaders have reinforced deployments to avoid attacks
by leftist insurgent groups during the strike, officials said.

Colombian army soldiers on Monday took over the country's two main oil
refineries ahead of the strike.

The soldiers, acting on orders from President Andres Pastrana, also took
over sites that control the flow of crude along the country's oil lines.

        Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse
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