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17 October, 2005
Colombian trade unions, together with NGOs and indigenous people’s groups convened the largest general strike in over a decade in the South American country on 12 October.
The strike, called by the national trade union federation CUT, was over the proposed free trade agreement with the US, and a proposed amendment now before Colombia’s Constitutional Court that would allow President Alvaro Uribe to stand for a second four-year term next May.
Strikers also called for an end to consistent trade union repression by the Uribe government, and for the government to take decisive action against paramilitaries, who killed 99 trade union leaders in 2004. Thousands of Colombian judicial, transport and education workers walked off their jobs to join the strike, which forced closure of schools and government offices.