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12 February, 2007
Global trade unions were shocked to learn of the brutal Colombian murder of Carmen Cecilia Santana Romaña in her home in Apartadó, Antioquia state, on 7 February. She was the partner of a leading official of a Colombian national labour centre, and a proven and dedicated trade unionist herself.
Santana Romaña, age 28, was a leader in the agriculture union Sintrainagro and a workers’ organiser at Finca Palmeras, where she served on the union’s negotiating committee. The cold-blooded murder occurred in the home she shared with her three children and Hernán Correa Miranda, the first vice president of Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT).
The killing was preceded by telephone and e-mail death threats. CUT is demanding that the national government conduct a full, speedy, and impartial investigation. CUT also reiterates its demand that the political establishment undertake immediate measures to eradicate all forms of violence against trade unionists. CUT states that a total of 96 murders in 2006 in Colombia were a result of trade union activism.
The shock and grief of this most recent cowardly killing in Colombia was expressed in an outpouring of letters from Latin American and trade unions worldwide. In a letter to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, ITUC Gen. Sec. Guy Ryder expressed global labour’s contempt, by stating his disappointment that “yet another three children have been orphaned, thereby joining the long list of sons and daughters of workers.”