Union rep's slaying called revenge

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/crime/stories/MYSA041307.12A.union_murder.3328f6e.html

Union rep's slaying called revenge

Web Posted: 04/12/2007 11:05 PM CDT

Sean Mattson
Express-News Mexico Correspondent

MONTERREY, Mexico — The slaying of a representative of a U.S.-based union for migrant workers was a politically motivated crime, union leaders charged Thursday.

Santiago Rafael Cruz, 29, was found Monday bound and beaten to death in the Monterrey offices of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee.

The union represents hundreds of temporary agriculture workers who travel to the eastern United States with H2A, or agricultural, visas issued in Monterrey.

In recent years, the union has locked horns with growers over fees their recruiting agencies charged workers for processing agricultural visas and transportation to work sites, union representatives said.

The group's Monterrey offices had been broken into a number of times and union representatives had faced threats and intimidation, said Baldemar Velásquez, the union's founder.

Cruz, originally from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca but who had worked with the organization in Toledo, Ohio, lived at the office.

FULL story at link.