5 April, 2010
The ICEM has issued stern rebuke to the cowardly perpetrators of an assassination attempt on two union officers of the National Oil Workers’ Union (USO) of Colombia, and calls on the government of President Álvaro Uribe to apprehend and prosecute those responsible. On 27 March, in the city of Villavicencio, in Meta Department south of Bogotá, hired killers on a motorcycle fired automatic weapons at Fernando Navarro and Yesid Prieto, two USO subcommittee officers of Bogotá.
Although both escaped unharmed, their bodyguard, Antonio Pedro Carreño, was shot and killed.
The attack comes days after USO marked the eight-year anniversary of the assassination of the union’s Director, Rafael Jaimes Torra, by paramilitaries. Rafael Jaimes’ nephew, the only witness to the attack, was also murdered shortly after.
ICEM-affiliated USO reported the attack to the Attorney General’s office, as well as to national and regional government officials and to the government’s ombudsman. USO and the ICEM call on Colombian authorities to investigate this attack as a matter or urgency and to bring those responsible to justice. The union wants assurances from the government, as well as from the state oil company Ecopetrol, that their right to life and right to conduct trade union activities are protected.
Paramilitary groups, such as Cuchillo (Knife) and El Loco Barrera (the Crazy Barrera), intimidate workers and trade unionists in the oil fields without reprimand. Recent public statements by paramilitaries that they receive regular payment from oil companies, has added weight to USO’s claim that complicity at many levels is involved in the trade union murder-for-hire racket.
One recently example was the 13 March killing of the teachers’ union ADIDA activist, Duvian Dario Rojo Cadavid, who was gunned down together with his wife a day after speaking to media about armed groups who extort money from teachers.
Manfred Warda
“The ongoing deaths, assassination attempts, and common forms of threats and intimidation by telephone and other means against trade unionists have got to stop,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “If the Colombian government continues not to take action, then it is up to the world community to take sharp measures against the government of Colombia and its denial that violence impedes free, democratic trade unionism.”