The public policy of privatization of the port sector and its impact on the Organization of work in the Buenaventura's port

With Law 01 of 1991 a new regulatory framework was established.Through it Colpuertos' liquidation was decreed and were defined conditionsto modernize the port sector and its functioning by Regional Port Societiesand port operators. The new management model based on efficacy andefficiency underlying private sector rationality, was implemented in order toincrease the port sector competitivity and the Colombian economy. One ofthe neo liberal basic underlying concepts is the labor market flexibilizationregulated in Colombia by Law 50 of 1990 and its posterior reforms lookingfor production cost reduction and employment generation. However withthe privatization process the port sector was modernized and the demandof non qualified hand labor was reduced, utilized intensively in the portactivity before its privatization. This article tries to investigate the portprivatization political impact on work organization in Buenaventura'sPort considering that Colpuertos was the main employment source in thecity until its liquidation. Currently, Buenaventura presents high indexof employment, unemployment, poverty, marginality, violence, increasof the arm conflict that has converted the city into a strategic scenario ofterritorial dispute for different illegal activities.