6 February, 2012
The start of 2012 has seen deadly circumstances facing Colombian trade unionists deteriorate even further. The leadership of ICEM-affiliated Sintraelecol, the Electric Power Workers’ Union, is now being systematically threatened.
Sintraelecol leaders Marcelino José López Perez and Danuil Gómez Perez have escaped harm in three attempts on their lives in a period of six weeks, from 19 December, in the Northern city of Montería Córdoba. The only way to ensure their safety is to arrange for them to leave the country, since no protection is offered by the authorities or by the employer.
The ICEM is currently working on their exit.
Danuil Gómez Perez
Martin Porto and Walberto Figueroa are other Sintraelecol leaders working at Electricaribe, a subsidiary of Spanish energy provider Gas Natural, who have received death threats. The four trade unionists believe that the threats and attacks are directly related to their union activities.
In the latest attempted murder on 1 February, hit men on motorbikes armed with revolvers approached the car of Marcelino López while he was visiting an infirmed co-worker at his home. Fortunately for López, he was not in the car at the moment of attack and his bodyguards managed to apprehend one of the thugs, taking him immediately to police.
Sintraelecol has condemned the lack of urgency by the authorities and the National Protection Unit of the Interior Ministry’s Human Rights Office in assessing the risk facing its leaders. And the ICEM has also. The investigation is still in the evaluation phase.
Even full-time bodyguards cannot ensure safety for Sintraelecol’s leaders, however. The ICEM is pursuing other avenues to ensure assassinations do not occur. Local management has failed to relocate Marcelino López and Danuil Gómez to Bogota for their safety, although they are contractually obliged to do so in these circumstances.
See a moving documentary into the effects of a culture of murders with impunity in Colombia, in Spanish.