The International Centre for Trade Union Rights

BULLETIN 9: COLOMBIA, 9 June 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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6 May: the oil workers' trade union USO received a death threat signed by Carlos Castaño (the leader of the AUC paramilitary) announcing that 'we declare all the USO union leaders and the children of USO members to be military targets, and we have already started actions against the workers' children'. The reference to their children marks a deterioration of the serious situation facing trade unionists.

6 May: Marlon Mina Gambi, the son of USO member Yesid Mina, 'disappeared' from Cartagena.

8 May: workers in EMCALI's Puerto Mallarino Drinking Water Treatment Plant were surprised by a high powered explosion which took the lives of Nelson Lopez, Willmer Vergara, and Jorge Vasquez. The three workers were all members of the SINTRAEMCALI union which has been calling for increased security for employees at the EMCALI corporation .

7 May: Ingrid Garcia Carillo, a member and activist of the Attorney General's office workers' union SINTRAPROAN, was obliged to leave the city of Valledupar after receiving a series of death threats. The threats originate from paramilitary groups that operate in the city.

8 May: Martín Oyola Paloma, an officer of the public sector workers' union UTRADEC (CGTD), was the victim of an attempted assassination. Martín was wounded and recieved a leg injury. He is now recovering in hospital.

9 May: Domingo Tovar Arrieta, Director of the Human Rights Department of the national trade union confederation CUT, received another series of phone calls threatening his life.

10 May: workers from the EMCALI EICE corporation marched to protest the assassination of fellow members of the public sector workers' union SINTRAEMCALI. Following the funeral of three of their former comrades the Executive Committee of SINTRAEMCALI went into an extraordinary meeting to analyse the serious security problems that they are now facing. After the meeting SINTRAEMCALI leader Carlos Ocampo observed a vehicle following him. A passenger in the vehicle was watching him suspiciously. Later Carlos's wife observed two more vehicles apparently closing in on them. Carlos took his car off the road and drove down the oncoming carriageway in order to escape their pursuers.

11 May: a group of workers from the EMCALI EICE coroporation lead by SINTRAEMCALI activist Fredy Cuellar was attending an urgent maintenance call in the city of Cali when Members of the Cali Metropolitan Police arrived and started harassing the workers. The SINTRAEMCALI union recently participated in high profile actions to try to prevent the privatisation of the EMCALI company. Following the dispute SINTRAEMCALI workers have reported numerous incidents of harassment.

11 May: members of the military police unit of the Army's Third Brigade, acting on the orders of Military Criminal Attorney 132, raided the Colon Gerencia Telecommunications Plant of EMCALI EICE. After three hours in which the workers permanently accompanied them, the police signed a statement that there was nothing irregular in the plant.

11 May: SINTRAEMCALI's Press Officer Giovanny Serrano (who has received a number of death threats by telephone) was followed by a vehicle without number plates. Other SINTRAEMCALI workers have reported sighting the vehicle on previous occasions around trade union meetings.

16 May: the food workers' union SINALTRAINAL received a series of threatening telephone calls which culminated in a bomb threat. The threats come at a time when SINALTRAINAL is negotiating a collective agreement in the Femsa Coca Cola bottling plant on Colombia's north coast. SINALTRAINAL is also currently in dispute with the transational Nestle-Cicolac in Valledupar.

20 May: several armed individuals shot at workers from the EMCALI water treatment plant. On repeated occasions the public sector union SINTRAEMCALI has called for increased security at the plant and for improvements of the security infrastructure in the area. No additional security has yet been provided.

In April / May: the BIMBO DE COLOMBIA S.A. company took a series of actions against a newly created trade union. Union Director Luis Gabriel Jimenez Camargo was sacked alongside trade union members Hugo Valbuena, Melquisdec Gomez Sanchez and Alexander Garcia Serquera. The company also transferred the jobs of the union's President Carlos Albeiro Perez, Treasurer Javier Mauricio Contreras, and Secretary Camilo Sarmiento to a remote location. The union complains that the new location does not have water, light, telephone, or transportation. The Company's manoeuvres will seriously impede the union's communications.

In May: the President of Colombia has announced his intention to put an end to the Programme of Protection for Trade Union Members and Human Rights Defenders. The protection scheme provides a limited - yet extremely important - supply of bodyguards, armoured vehicles and communications equipment to trade unionists in a country where more than 4000 trade unionists have been murdered since 1986. The removal of the scheme would have dramatic implications for Colombian trade unionists.

In June: the Spanish multinational UNION FENOSA has presented to the Minister of Social Protection for the Atlantic and Bolivar region, a request for authorisation to sack 673 workers from its local subsidiaries in Magdalena, Cesar, Guajira, Bolivar, Sucre and Cordoba departments. Trade unions complain that the action breaches their collective agreements with the company.

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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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