Bomb explodes at Brazilian metalworkers union office and death threat made to union leader

Brazil. At 10.50 p.m. on the night of Tuesday 5 June, a homemade bomb was thrown at the offices of the Taubaté Metalworkers Union, in Brazil, in a terrorist act. The bomb exploded against a wall of the building and, fortunately, there were no casualties. However, after the attack, the union president Valmir Marques da Silva, alias Biro Biro, who is also the leader of the Sao Paulo Metalworkers Federation, received a death threat in the form of an anonymous telephone call on Wednesday morning, at approximately 11 a.m. The telephone call was answered by one of the union's telephonists. The caller, who did not identify himself, said the bomb was only a warning, and that Biro Biro and his family would be the next target. The National Confederation of Metalworkers, affiliated to the trade union central CUT, issued a press release expressing its "repudiation of all acts of violence, especially terrorist attacks such as this one, which recall the times of the dictatorship that terrorised and destroyed the lives of thousands of Brazilian workers." The Confederation added that it "offers its solidarity and total support to our Taubaté colleagues." Source: National Confederation of Metalworkers (CNM)