The International Centre for Trade Union Rights

BULLETIN 8: COLOMBIA, 8 May 2003

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During the past two weeks ICTUR has received the following reports from Colombia, including serious violations of trade union rights:
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29 April: The National Executive Committee of CUT received a death threat signed by a group calling themselves the 'Colombian Honest Politicians'. The CUT Human Rights Department and the National Executive Committee say that they will carry on working even if their lives are in danger.

29 April: Jorge Ruiz Sara, member of the Magdalena Teachers Trade Union EDUMAG - FECODE - CUT, and Rector of the Secondary School of Palermo in Sitio Nuevo Municipality, was assassinated in the city of Baranquilla, Atlantico Department.

30 April: Alfredo Porras Rueda, a former Coca Cola worker and activist of the SINTRAINAL food workers' union, was released from prison. He had been in prison since 31 December 2002, charged with membership of the guerrilla movement, but the prosecutor could not find evidence to prosecute the case. Colombian trade unions complain of many such false accusations against their members.

1 May : Juan de Jesus Gomez was assassinated on INTERNATIONAL WORKERS DAY. He was a member of the SINTRAINAGRO farm workers' union, and President of the Mining Section in San Martín Municipality, Cesar Department in the north of the country. These unfortunate events were committed in San Alberto in the same Department. At the time of the assassination Juan de Jesus Gomez was leading an historical collective negotiation for workers at PALMAS DEL CESAR S.A in the palm oil sector.

1 May: Union leader Oscar Figueroa, SINTRAEMCALI ASSESSER (Fiscal), was followed by a red Mazda 626 vehicle with semi-open polarised windows and with no number plates from the South West Motorway to Eighth Avenue, where the May Day demonstration was assembling. William Castillo, one of Oscar's bodyguards, noted that there was a man inside the following vehicle dressed in a uniform like that of the National Police.

1 May: SINTRAEMCALI workers informed union leaders Domingo Angulo and Oscar Figueroa that 'suspicious individuals' had attended the May Day march. One of these individuals followed Congressional Representative and former SINTRAEMCALI leader Alexander Lopez, while others took photographs and video footage. SINTRAEMCALI workers confronted one of the men who claimed to belong to SINTRAEMCALI. None of the workers recognised the man, who attempted to flee and pulled a gun from his belt. The workers disarmed him.

Congressional Representative Alexander Lopez mediated in the situation. He received a call from Colonel Naranjo, commander of the Cali Metropolitan Police, saying that the person the workers had disarmed was in fact a policeman and could his gun be returned? Alexander agreed to use his good offices to personally hand over the weapon, asking why there was so much filming of the community, and why were the security forces behaving in this manner? Colonel Naranjo acknowledged that that man was police Intelligence Service, but said that he did not have authorisation to enter the demonstration in this way.

4 May: Magda Beatriz Tovar Gonzalez received a death threat. On 21 March her sister, Ana Paulina Tovar Gonzalez, was also the victim of an attempted kidnapping. The girl's father, Domingo Tovar Arrieta, is a CUT Executive member and Director of the Human Rights Department. The targeting of the families of trade unionists represents a grave deterioration of the human rights situation in Colombia and has been condemned by numerous human rights organisations.

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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 3375890 / 3420592
E-mail: auribe@presidencia.gov.co; rdh@presidencia.gov.co

Vicepresident of the Republic of Colombia
Francisco Santos - Consejeria Presidential de Derechos Humanos
Calle 7, No 6-54, Piso 3 Santafe de Bogota, COLOMBIA
Fax: 00 57 1 337 1351 E-mail: mdn@cable.net.co; infprotocol@mindefensa.gov.co; siden@mindefensa.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 1 286 8025 E-mail: mininterior@myrealbox.com

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