21 April, 2011The international labour movement marked the 5th anniversary of the deaths of Mario Alberto Castillo Rodríguez and Héctor Álvarez Gómez with a march in Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico and the submission of new evidence to the ILO highlighting the issue of violence against members of the SNTMMSRM. The murders of Rodríguez and Gómez, named in the ILO complaint (no. 2478), remain unsolved.
GENEVA/MEXICO: New evidence highlighting the political persecution of members of the National Miners' and Metalworkers' Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM) was submitted to the International Labour Organization (ILO) on April 20 marking the 5th anniversary of the murders of two SNTMMSRM members, Mario Alberto Castillo Rodríguez and Héctor Álvarez Gómez, who were gunned down during a strike defending union autonomy in Mexico.
The new evidence supports ILO complaint no. 2478 calling on the Mexican government to respect union autonomy. It was originally filed in March 2006, just a month before 900 federal and state police, backed by Mexican military troops, stormed the Sicartsa Steel plant to evict striking steelworkers who were taking part in a 48-hour national action in protest of the government's removal of elected leader Napoleón Gómez Urrutia.
The complaint exposes the ongoing persecution of SNTMMSRM members at the hands of the Mexican government and in collaboration with Mexican mining giant Grupo Mexico, including:
- the unsolved murders of Rodríguez and Gómez, Reynaldo Hernández González and Juventino Flores Salas;
- assault on Mario García Ortiz and the abduction of his wife, Marie Elena de los Santos Echevaria;
- the freezing of union bank accounts;
- illegal detention of Juan Linares Montufar;
- unfounded criminal charges against Napoleón Gómez and SNTMMSRM leadership; and
- numerous cases of violence and intimidation.
The ILO's Committee on Freedom of Association has repeatedly asked the government to investigate these crimes and reply back to the ILO.
In Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico, the SNTMMSRM held an Extraordinary General Assembly in honour of the day. The program included speeches by the family of Rodríguez and Gómez, Napoleon Gómez, USW and a representative of SNTMMSRM members on strike in Taxco, Cananea, and Sombrerete. The group marched from the union hall to the center of town outside the gates of the Sicartsa steel plant where a memorial stands in honour of Rodríguez and Gómez. There, the group placed flowers at the "Monument of the two Martyrs".
On April 18, the AFL-CIO announced that it would award Napoleón Gómez the 2011 George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award. The annual Meany-Kirkland award, created in 1980 and named for the first two presidents of the AFL-CIO, recognizes outstanding examples of the international struggle for human rights through trade unions. Previous winners have included Wellington Chibebe of Zimbabwe, Ela Bhatt, the founder of India's Self Employed Women's Association, the Liberian rubber workers, Colombian activist Yessika Hoyos and the Independent Labour Movement of Egypt.