TUC protest at multiple death threats in Colombia

Juan Manuel Santos
President of the Republic
Bogotá
Colombia

Dear President Santos

Death threats by the 'Los Rastrojoas Comandos Urbanos'

On behalf of the Trades Union Congress, the 6 million members of our affiliated unions and British workers I am writing to convey our grave concerns following reports that on 1 April 2013, 92 organisations and social and political leaders received threats, where they were stigmatised and deemed as 'a permanent military target and enemies' for 'attacking senior government's good and noble intentions to promote peace. Furthermore we are informed that the perpetrators of these threats said they were ready 'to go beyond threats' if they were not taken seriously.

The organisations threatened in the pamphlet included: SINTRAMIENERGÉTICA, FUNTRAENERGÉTICA, SINTRACARBÓN, FUNDACIÓN ARCO IRIS, CPDH, MOVICE, CODHES, COLECTIVO DE ABOGADOS JOSÉ ALVEAR RESTREPO and the PDA.

The list also named a series of well known trade union leaders and defenders of human rights Including; Yonis Ojeda Lobo, Sabas Brito Mendoz, Horacio Llanos, Sergio Becerra Moreno, Igor Diaz Lopez, and Senators Alexander Lopez, Jorge Enruque Robledo and Guillermo Jaramillo, along with many others.

This latest act of intimidation follows on from over 991 threats already made by these same groups against the Colombian trade union movement during the period your presidency . As yet we understand that no legal action has been taken against the material or intellectual authors of these threats which fuels the culture of widespread human rights' violations and flagrant impunity.

This incident is a repeat of one in January when trade union organisations received a collective threat from the same group. The most worrying factor is the silence maintained by the authorities which is further exacerbated by the absence of any new security measures to protect the leaders targeted by these threats.

We of course continue to reject the baseless allegations against trade union leaders and defenders of human rights that accuse them of links with the insurgency and at the same time as offering our support for the peace process in which you are currently engaged we demand that the constitutional guarantees for trade union freedom and association are upheld.

Yours sincerely

Frances O'Grady

General Secretary