Ecuador - Trade unionist arrested

His Excellency Mr Juan Eduardo Falconi Puig

Embassy of the Republic of Ecuador (UK)

Dear Ambassador

Imprisonment of trade union leader Dr. Carlos Figueroa

On behalf of the TUC and six million British trade union members, I would like to express my concern over the imprisonment of trade union leader Dr. Carlos Figueroa, former executive secretary of the Federación Médica Ecuatoriana (Ecuadorian Medical Federation). Dr. Figueroa was arrested by the police on 22 July in the city of Quito, where he was visiting his terminally ill mother.

The trade union leader's case has been reported to human rights organisations internationally. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) requested that precautionary measures be adopted for Dr Figueroa, calling on the state of Ecuador to immediately suspend the ruling delivered in 2013 by the National Court of Justice of Ecuador, which sentenced him to six months in prison on charges of libel. This suspension was supposed to have remained in effect until the IACHR ruled on the petition regarding irregularities of due process in the trial against the trade union leader, along with oil union leader Fernando Villavicencio and National Assembly member Cléver Jimenez.

The case has been reported to the supervisory bodies of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as an act of harassment, intimidation and anti-union persecution and was acknowledged by the Committee on Freedom Association, the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations and the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards of the ILO.

Many national and international trade union organisations (particularly Public Services International (PSI), which has offered to sit on an arbitration committee), together with labour and human rights activists, have been closely following the case and the questions raised with regard to the violation of due process in the trial against Dr. Figueroa, and have called for compliance with the precautionary measures issued by the IACHR and for the opening of a dialogue between the parties.

We have also been informed that following the arrest and imprisonment of Dr Figueroa, applications were made on two occasions, on 24 and 25 July, for writs of Habeas Corpus, but which were denied by the judicial authorities.

I wish to express my concern over this case and I hope to see an outcome consistent with the principles of a constitutional state, such as Ecuador, governed by rights and justice.

The international trade union movement will be closely following the case of Carlos Figueroa, with a view to taking all actions it deems necessary to protect the rights of this trade union leader and the trade unionists and workers of Ecuador in general.

Yours sincerely

FRANCES O’GRADY

General Secretary