22 April, 2010Jyrki Raina, IMF General Secretary, reiterates international solidarity for Mexican miners.
MEXICO: Thousands of miners from section 271 of the miners' union in Michoacán, wearing red T-shirts and waving flags, assembled with their families around the monument to the memory of the two miners' leaders who died four years ago defending the freedom of association and trade union autonomy.
Héctor Álvarez and Mario Alberto Castillo were killed on April 20, 2006, during the first bloody demonstration organised to defend the miners' union.
IMF representatives participated in the ceremony at Lázaro Cárdenas. Jyrki Raina, IMF General Secretary, reiterated the international solidarity for Mexican miners and their leader Napoleón Gómez Urrutia.
Speaking by telephone, Napoleón Gómez called for miners in the union to stay united and to increase the pressure to bring those responsible to justice. "We respectfully demand that the National Human Rights Commission takes action so that those responsible are prosecuted and sentenced".
Leaders representing the Canadian USW and the Honduran union FETRAMIMH also attended.
Jyrki Raina was interviewed by the local press, mainly about IMF denunciations to the ILO about violations of the freedom of association.