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9 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 18/2001
Colombian cement workers' leader Jaime Alberto Duque Castro has been abducted by paramilitaries, Amnesty International reports.
On behalf of cement and allied workers worldwide, the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) has called upon the Colombian government to ensure that he is released immediately and unharmed.
Duque Castro is the President of the El Cairo Cement Workers' Union (SUTIMAC). Reports received by Amnesty say that he was abducted on 24 March. He and other trade unionists were watching a football match in Santa Barbara, Antioquia, when the paramilitaries seized him. They reportedly beat him up before taking him away.
The Amnesty account links the kidnapping to the United Self-Defence Groups of Colombia (AUC), a network of paramilitaries who allegedly have connections with the Colombian armed forces. The AUC had reportedly been keeping SUTIMAC under surveillance before the abduction.
The AUC have often been accused of carrying out other abductions and murders of trade unionists - including the execution-style shooting of miners' leaders Valmore Locarno Rodriguez and Victor Hugo Orcasita earlier this month.
"Last year alone, at least 129 Colombian trade unionists were murdered," said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. "Unless and until the authorities make a real effort to investigate these crimes, and bring them to an end, the suspicion must remain that the gunmen are not acting alone."
On behalf of cement and allied workers worldwide, the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) has called upon the Colombian government to ensure that he is released immediately and unharmed.
Duque Castro is the President of the El Cairo Cement Workers' Union (SUTIMAC). Reports received by Amnesty say that he was abducted on 24 March. He and other trade unionists were watching a football match in Santa Barbara, Antioquia, when the paramilitaries seized him. They reportedly beat him up before taking him away.
The Amnesty account links the kidnapping to the United Self-Defence Groups of Colombia (AUC), a network of paramilitaries who allegedly have connections with the Colombian armed forces. The AUC had reportedly been keeping SUTIMAC under surveillance before the abduction.
The AUC have often been accused of carrying out other abductions and murders of trade unionists - including the execution-style shooting of miners' leaders Valmore Locarno Rodriguez and Victor Hugo Orcasita earlier this month.
"Last year alone, at least 129 Colombian trade unionists were murdered," said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. "Unless and until the authorities make a real effort to investigate these crimes, and bring them to an end, the suspicion must remain that the gunmen are not acting alone."