Colombia: Two More Trade Unionists Assassinated

[Judi Lynn]

Source: 'Scoop' Independent News N.Z.

Colombia: Two More Trade Unionists Assassinated
Thursday, 26 June 2008, 6:17 am


Colombia: Two More Trade Unionists Assassinated
Brussels, 24 June 2008 (ITUC online): Less than one week after the latest ITUC protest to President Uribe about the violence and repression against trade unions in Colombia, two more trade unionists have been murdered. The ITUC, together with its Colombian affiliates, CUT CGT and CTC, categorically denounce those latest atrocities. Twenty-eight trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia since the start of the year.

Favier Darío Pelaez Castaño, a member of the guard dog handlers' group at a prison belonging to the Instituto Nacional Penitenciario y Carcelario (INPEC), was assassinated on 13 June in front of his wife and his youngest daughter, in Caicedonia, Valle department. On 19 June, Walter Anibal Recalde Ordoñez, also an INPEC officer, was murdered on his way home, one kilometre from the prison where he worked. Both were members of the prison employees' union Asociación sindical de empleados del Instituto Nacional Penitenciario y Carcelario (ASEINPEC - CGT).

According to reports received, INPEC employees have been subjected to an ongoing terror campaign including attacks on their lives. Back on 12 March, José Gregorio Astros Amaya, a prison officer at Cartago prison in Valle department and one of the leaders of the ASEINPEC union, was assassinated.

In a letter to the President of Colombia, Mr. Álvaro Uribe, , the ITUC asked the Colombian authorities to carry out an immediate and thorough investigation to identify the perpetrators of these two murders. "These crimes are a further example of repression against the Colombian trade union movement," stated ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder. "The full weight of the law must be brought to bear against the criminals and the rights of freedom of association and free collective bargaining must be respected and applied."



Read more: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0806/S00589.htm

[Tempest]

1. Do you think McSame will bring this up when he goes there?

Only to find out how he can get away with it here.

[Dr.Phool]

4. It was probably done as an offering to McCain.

Gotta please the neo-con gods.

[David__77]

2. Very few options within system for change in Colombia.

It's hardly surprising that people have resorted to other means.

[aquart]

3. What courage they had.

There are no medals for bravery like this.

[sasquatch]

5. Yes,but if we make our free trade agreement with them the free trade fairy will make it ALL BETTER!

:sarcasm:

[Caradoc]

6. Dangerous hypocrisy...

And Canada now pursues 'free' trade with Colombia. How 'free' can it be when labour organizers are in constant fear of their lives.
Once again, free trade is exposed for the shameless lie it is with nary a thought for human rights. The hypocrisy is astounding. Thank you Judi Lynn for posting this...it's been noted before that the two most dangerous jobs in the world are being a Chinese coal miner and a labour organizer in Colombia.

[otherlander]

7. But Nader says Obama is talking white.

Oh, the things that catch on fire around here.

[formercia]

8. Asking Uribe for help is like asking Satan to dedicate a Mass

for the departed.

[Judi Lynn]

9. He's the natural ally to our own slimey pResident. They have everything in common.

I only found out recently that his Vice President and his Defense Minister are cousins, and that his Vice President's family owns the country's largest newspaper. Nice to be able to program exactly what the papers will be saying. OF course there's little doubt about the loyalties of our own media by now, sadly.



Uribe, flanked by the pouting Vice President Francisco Santos, to his right, and the Defense Minister,
Juan Manuel Santos to Uribe's left. They are the top of the heap among right-wing Colombians, apparently.

http://www.cbc.ca.nyud.net:8090/gfx/images/news/photos/2007/03/11/bush-colombia-cp-161514.jpg

Having a good laugh
at humanity's expense.

[SpikeTss]

10. It seems you have a typo in your posting

pResident Bush?

Did you mean p resident Bush?

[Judi Lynn]

14. I always have done that since seeing it used at the old CNN political message board.

A lot of Democrats there had a hard time coming to grips with the fact _Bush was actually acting as the country's President, and tried to find small ways to show their disgust in their script.

[XemaSab]

12. Well if it isn't Larry, Moe, and Curly

:eyes:

[Judi Lynn]

15. Real "men of distinction," aren't they? So elegant! And such honorable leaders, too! n/t

[Omaha Steve]

11. FAIR, not free trade!

K& R!

[XemaSab]

13. Anyone want to bet 5 bucks that American interests are somehow behind this?

:shrug:

[fascisthunter]

16. This is the Right Wing in Action

while progressives/liberals who want fairness do things peacefully, the right wing hunts us down like animals to kill us.

[julios]

17. Our tax dollars at work.

:puke:

[RedCloud]

18. Pigs forget one thing.

People will not go silently to their graves.

When they give the masses no other choice but revolution, they will get a revolution sans Paul McCarthy.