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Confidential document
to close TELECOM |
Bogotá. On May 26, 2003, the then Minister Martha Elena Pinto de Hart, an economist graduated at the University of the Andes, sent from the Ministry of Communications to National Planning Department of Colombia the so-called "Social Protection Plan" implementing the "Program for the Renewal of Public Administration" , the orders of Act 790 of 2002, intended to draw the people of TELECOM.
The document warns unscrupulously, "... because it is a liquidation process, and given its confidentiality has not been possible to link beneficiaries of social retainer through a registration process must be noted that the figures, especially with regard to single mothers, may vary slightly after settlement as the result of a broader process of purification. However, it should be noted that such lists have been prepared based on information recorded in the EPS (Health Enterprises) and Compensation Funds. "
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| 3612 to draw from 4000 post of TELECOM |
The document details the employment landscape of official workers would be disconnected, thus: "Between Telecom and Teleasociadas (subsidiary), 6499 people are linked to the plant. Of these, 4848 persons belong to Telecom and 1,651 are related to their Teleasociadas (subsidiary). Additionally, there are currently about 3,500 people hired through temporary services. "
The document gives a cold figures how many people thrown out of TELECOM, noting that "in accordance with the categories established by the Decree Law 790/02 and 717/99 and 190/03,Telecom's working population, is distributed as follows: 678,single mothers 14%, 11, Disabled 0% 4% 202 future pensioners,345 Trade union 7% 3612 75% Staff to settle. Total 4848,"Therefore, the direct consequence of the liquidation, will be the elimination of 3612."
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On June 10, 2003, 3612 people were
violently dimissed from 4000 sites of TELECOM |
Indeed on June 10, 2003, special units of riot police and army captured more than 4,000 offices and positions of TELECOM; around COLOMBIA from the small town of Leticia in the Amazon in border with Brazil and Peru up to the archipelago of San Andrés in border with Nicaragua and Jamaica.
On June 13, 2003, Ms. Martha Pinto, the former official of "Gaseosas Hipinto", told the journalists at the presidential palace that "The country has since yesterday a new national telecommunications company." She said that this new TELECOM offers "under one company, phone service in over 4,000 towns, 850 townships and 21 department (states) capitals, the national long distance and international data transmission and Internet ".
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| Mr. Uribe congratulated Mrs. Pinto. Photo: cabecera.com |
She told reporters that "the new Telecom born as one hundred percent state company, consisting of the sum of the former TELECOM operations and thirteen of its associated companies." From yesterday "the service is fully guaranteed and can only be affected by acts of sabotage," said this madam thinking about a misguided reaction workers.
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Minister of Communications, Minister of Finance and President of TELECOM,
celebrate the sell of TELECOM of Colombia to TELEFONICA of Spain
in 2006. Photo: Semana.com |
More than 200 people with psychiatric illnesses were treated at the Clinic Montserrat Bogota, during the first four months after the violent act of the TELECOM closing, according to reports from former officials of the wellness area of Telecom. To date, reports indicate that more than one hundred deaths of several former employees have occurred, including suicides of people dismissed from Telecom who did not return to find decent work to support their families with dignity.
