The International Centre for Trade Union Rights

COLOMBIA BULLETIN 25: 1 October 2004

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During past month ICTUR has received the following reports from Colombia, including serious violations of trade union rights:
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23 August: Rene Cabrales Sossa, leader of the Cordoba branch of the university workers' union Sintraunicol-CUT, received telephone death threats directed to both him and his son. The trade unionist has been "displaced" from his home for eight years due to previous murder attempts to his family.

3 September: Jorge Alberto Salcedo Olaya, leader of the regional public sector workers' union Sintraenteddimccol and secretary of the Bugalagrande branch of the public sector workers' union Fenansitrap, was victim of a murder attempt. After being shot in the head he was taken to hospital in a coma.

10 September: the Asociación para la Promoción Social Alternativa and the Comité de Solidaridad con los Presos Politicos denounced the 'disappearance' of the peasant farmers' leader Gabriel Buitrago Duque, in the department of Tolima.

11 September: Erenia Salcedo Sarriá, worker in the Hospital del Bordo and member of the health workers' union Anthoc, was murdered in the department of Cauca.

13 September, Deyanira Arévalo Cardenas, a member of the health workers' union Anthoc and activist against the restructuring and privatisation of public hospitals, was found dead in the department of Meta.

13 September: in Quipile the house of the mother of Juan Efrain Mendoza, president of the Cundinamarca small farmers' union, was raided by 12 soldiers. The union leader has been detained by the army since July, accused of membership of a guerrilla organisation. Such charges have previously been levelled against trade union and social activists in Colombia, but a recent mission of legal experts from the International Commission for Labour Rights (www.labourcommission.org) could find no case in which a trade union leader who had been arrested for alleged guerrilla activities had subsequently been convicted of the same.

14 September: a national strike of the truck drivers' association ACC was launched in protest at the government's lack of compliance with collective agreements signed in December 2003 and against the rise in the costs of vehicles, petrol and road tolls.

16 September: the acting Sintraemcali president Luis Henrique Imbachi Rubiano and Carlos Marmolejo, a member of Sintraemcali executive committee, received anonymous telephone calls. The man who called summoned the two trade unionists to meetings, warning that if they did not keep the appointment they would be assassinated four days later. Both Imbachi and Marmolejo are on the list of the so-called 'Operation Dragon', a covert operation by soldiers and a private consultancy firm to investigate on members of the opposition and trade union and social leaders.

24 September: the university workers' union Sintraunal received information about the interception of its telephones and the filming of its activities. These events happened after the university workers started a protest against the policy of the rector Marco Palacio, who cut more than 100 administrative jobs and introduced flexible contracts.

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ICTUR has written to the Colombian authorities to protest against the continuing violations of trade union rights. ICTUR calls for an end to the aggression and insists that the authorities implement and ensure full respect for the international legal standards that protect freedom of association.

For more information contact ICTUR: miguel@ictur.org

If you want to take action in support of these cases you can send letters of protest to the Colombian authorities at the following addresses:

President of the Republic of Colombia
Dr. Alvaro Uribe Velez
Palacio de Narino, Carrera 8 No.7-26 Santafe de Bogota, COLOMBIA
Fax: + 57 1 566 2071
E-mail: auribe@presidencia.gov.co;

Vicepresident of the Republic of Colombia
Francisco Santos - Consejeria Presidential de Derechos Humanos
Carrera 8A No. 5-57, Santafe de Bogota, COLOMBIA
Fax: 00 57 1 566 2386
E-mail: fsantos@presedencia.gov.co

Minister of the Interior and Justice
Fernando Londono Hoyos Ministerio del Interior y Justicia
Palacio Echeverry, Carrera 8a, No.8-09, piso 2o., Santafe de Bogota, Colombia
Fax:00 57 1 566 3234
E-mail: ministro@minjusticia.gov.co

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