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Assassination of trade union leader, Luis Ovidio Ortiz Cajas

Issue date

03 April 2012


HE Mr Acisclo Valladares Molina
Embassy of Guatemala
13a Fawcett Street
London
SW10 9HN

By fax: + 44 20 736 5708

By email: inglaterra@minex.gob.gt

Dear Ambassador

Assassination of trade union leader, Luiz Ovidio Ortiz Cajas

On behalf of the TUC, British workers and the 5.4 million members of our affiliated unions I write to highlight the murder of another trade unionist in Guatemala.

Senor Ovidio Oritz and three other men, Bildave Santos Barco, Fredy Leonel Estrada Mazariegos and Oscar Alexander Rodriguez Lima, were killed on 24 March. It was reported that Ovidio Oritz was shot repeatedly by an unknown assailant as he was about to go into a shop near his home in Guatemala City. The three men, who had been outside the shop, were killed and two other men were wounded.

Sr Ovidio Oritz was a member of the Executive Committee of the national trade union of health workers, Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Salud de Guatemala - SNTSG, which campaigned about the management of the country's public health facilities and had filed an official complaint against the previous Minister of Health, accusing him of corruption.

We ask you to:

convey to the Guatemalan government our condemnation over the killing and wounding of these trade unionists and urge immediate steps to provide all necessary protection to SNTSG member in accordance to their wishes; and

we call on the authorities to order an independent, thorough and impartial investigation into the killings, to publish the results and bring those responsible to justice.

We will be stepping up our campaign to support our colleagues in Guatemala this year, including publicising the level of violence faced by trade unionists and other human rights

defenders in Guatemala and highlighting the need to increase support for the work of the Commission Against Impunity and other measures to support the meaningful implementation of the rule of law in Guatemala.

Yours sincerely

BRENDAN BARBER

General Secretary

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