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Protest letter re latest murders in Colombia

Issue date

Ambassador Noemi Sanin Posada
Embassy of Colombia
3 Hans Crescent
London
SW1X OLN

Dear Ambassador

Further Assassinations of Colombian Trade Unionists

I regret that I have to write again on behalf of the 6+ million workers represented by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to protest in the strongest possible terms the assassinations of three more trade unionists in Colombia in recent weeks;

Pablo Rodriguez Garavito and Jorge Humberto Echaverri Garro both teachers and members of the Arauca teachers association - Asociacion de Educadores de Aracuca (ASEDAR);

Rafael Antonio Sepulveda Lara an activist of the national hospital workers' union, Asociacion Nacional de Trabajadores Hospitalarios de Colombia (ANTHOC) and a member of the national executive of the public servants federation, Federation Nacional de Servidores Publicos (FENASER-CTC)

These murders occurred during and just after the International Labour Conference at which the Colombian government was at great pains to highlight the so called dramatic fall in the number of trade unionists being assassinated. Tragically the facts on the ground continue to contradict the figures being produced by your government.

As I understand it nobody has been arrested in any of the above cases, adding these to the thousands of others in which trade unionists have been assassinated and the perpetrators allowed to escape with impunity.

The ongoing killings - which as we have already highlighted this year are continuing to run at the rate of one a week - indicate that contrary to the assurances given by your Government to the international community, little is being done to safeguard the lives of trade union members and activists in Colombia.

I must again restate our position that until this situation is rectified, the British trade union movement and our friends and allies in the British Parliament will continue to urge our own Government to end their political and military support for the Colombian Government and oppose the signing of any bilateral trade agreements between the EU and Colombia.

I look forward to hearing from you and would appreciate some sort of explanation as to why the assassinations are continuing unabated.

Yours sincerely

Brendan Barber

General Secretary

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