Colombia USO Activist Murdered, ILO Delegation Arrives in Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

12 July 2010 ICEM InBrief
Colombia USO Activist Murdered, ILO Delegation Arrives in Colombia

The ICEM Colombian affiliate, USO (Unión Sindical Obrera) has again been targeted with an assassination of one of their activists. Nelson Camacho González was shot repeatedly by hired killers on motorbikes, 16 June, as he waited at a bus stop for his bus to work.

This murder is the latest in the ongoing violent persecution of the oil workers union, as USO activists are involved in collective struggles with the multinational British Petroleum in Casanare, with Ecopetrol and with TGI (Transportadora de Gas del Interior).

The murder occurred three days after another trade union activist was assassinated, Ibio Efrén Caicedo, on 19 June. The trade unionist from the Antioquia Teachers’ Association (ADIDA) was the seventh unionised teacher to be murdered in 2010 in the Antioquia region, northern Colombia. He was killed the day before the presidential elections in the country.

The total number of trade unionists assassinated in Colombia in 2010 is 32. As was recently reported by ICEM, in 2009 there were 101 trade unionists murdered around the world, 48 of them in Colombia. Nearly 3,000 trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia in the last 24 years. When Uribe hands power to President-elect Juan Maunel Santos, his legacy will be 529 union leaders killed while conducting collective bargaining, with the hired killers from paramilitary groups acting with impunity.

The ICEM joins USO in calling for a full investigation into this latest crime, to be lead by Colombia’s Attorney General.

More:
http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3901-USO-Activist-Murdered-ILO-Delegation-Arrives-in-Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

1. This assassination was mentioned on the 7th by Indiana Green:

Two More Trade Unionists Assassinated in Colombia

7 July 2010: The trade union world is again in mourning after the assassination of two more trade unionists in Colombia. The ITUC, together with its Colombia affiliates the CUT, the CGT and the CTC, has roundly condemned the murders, expressing its deep shock at the news of the killing of Nelson Camacho González, a member of the oil industry’s united workers’ union USO (Unión Sindical Obrera) and of Ibio Efrén Caicedo, an activist from the Antioquia teachers’ association ADIDA (Asociación de Institutores de Antioquia).

Ibio Efrén Caicedo, who had a strong track record as a trade union activist, was assassinated on the day before the 20 June presidential elections. The murder of Ibio Efrén brings to seven the number of unionised teachers assassinated in Antioquia in 2010 so far.

Three days earlier, Nelson Camacho González died after being shot at repeatedly at the bus stop on his way to work. The murder of Nelson Camacho González is another in a series of systematic attacks and threats against members and leaders of the oil workers’ union during industrial disputes. The union has been in conflict with the multinational British Petroleum in Casanare, with Ecopetrol-UT on the Andean pipeline, with TGI on the departments of Boyacá y Casanare, and with Ecopetrol over various other labour disputes.

In two protest letters to the Colombia authorities, the ITUC demands that President Uribe and his government immediately initiate a full investigation to identify and bring to justice those responsible for these two murders that have further weakened the credibility of Colombian democracy.

To read the protest letters:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=405&topic_id=38356

[Judi Lynn]

2. CUT condemns and repudiates the cowardly assassination of educator Efren Ibio Caicedo

(Google translation)

The CUT condemns and repudiates the cowardly assassination of educator Efren Ibio Caicedo
By Rafael Alberto and Luis Alberto Molano Vanegas Z., President ( e) and Human Rights Department Director

News from the CUT Sliced edited :

Slices of Reality - CUT Bogotá, 23/06/10.- The Confederation of Workers of Colombia - CUT, through the Department of Human Rights and Solidarity, condemns the murder of Professor Ephrem Ibio Caicedo , member of the Association of Antioquia Institutores - ADIDA .

On June 19, 2010 , Ibio was taken violently from their residence in the District area of Cuturú the Municipality of Caucasia in Antioquia Department , apparently by armed men who disappeared , murdered and then threw his body into the waters of Rio Nechi . His body I can only be rescued yesterday June 22, 2010 .

We call on all the trade union movement , civil society and national and international human rights to send messages of protest against the lamentable fact that today mourn the teaching of Antioquia.

The National Executive Committee of the Central sends a message of solidarity and sympathy to the family Caicedo, and in the same way again demands the Colombian government to give necessary guarantees for the exercise of union activity and that the authorities clarify this heinous crime, and punish the perpetrators and instigators of this fact.

http://www.rebanadasderealidad.com.ar/CUT-col-10-40.htm