12 July, 2010
The ICEM Colombian affiliate, USO (Unión Sindical Obrera) has again been targeted with an assassination of one of their activists. Nelson Camacho González was shot repeatedly by hired killers on motorbikes, 16 June, as he waited at a bus stop for his bus to work.
This murder is the latest in the ongoing violent persecution of the oil workers union, as USO activists are involved in collective struggles with the multinational British Petroleum in Casanare, with Ecopetrol and with TGI (Transportadora de Gas del Interior).
The murder occurred three days after another trade union activist was assassinated, Ibio Efrén Caicedo, on 19 June. The trade unionist from the Antioquia Teachers’ Association (ADIDA) was the seventh unionised teacher to be murdered in 2010 in the Antioquia region, northern Colombia. He was killed the day before the presidential elections in the country.
The total number of trade unionists assassinated in Colombia in 2010 is 32. As was recently reported by ICEM, in 2009 there were 101 trade unionists murdered around the world, 48 of them in Colombia. Nearly 3,000 trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia in the last 24 years. When Uribe hands power to President-elect Juan Maunel Santos, his legacy will be 529 union leaders killed while conducting collective bargaining, with the hired killers from paramilitary groups acting with impunity.
The ICEM joins USO in calling for a full investigation into this latest crime, to be lead by Colombia’s Attorney General.
These killings occurred four weeks after the ILO’s Committee on the Application of Standards removed Colombia from the list of 25 countries sanctioned for trade union rights abuses. The surprising decision to remove the most dangerous country for trade unionists from the list was passed on the condition that a high level tripartite ILO delegation to Colombia would take place. The mission was in Bogotá 6-9 July, conducting a series of meetings with government, employers, and workers.
The delegation took part in numerous meetings with workers rallying outside. Last Wednesday, 7 July, as the delegation met with the Colombian Ministry of Social Protection, hundreds of workers outside chanted slogans such as “down with the repressive policies of the Uribe government and the Ministry of Social Protection!”. The rally was, as is the norm, under constant intimidation by the notorious ESMAD riot police.
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda expressed anger and grief, on behalf of all ICEM affiliates, in a letter to USO President Germán Osman this week.