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Protest letter to Guatemalan President

Issue date

Mr Otto Perez Molina
President of the Republic of Guatemala

Dear President Perez Molina

Assassination of three Guatemalan trade unionists in March

On behalf the British Trades Union Congress, the 6 million members of our affiliated members and British workers I write to express our shock and outrage at the murder of three more of our trade union colleagues in Guatemala last month.

Carlos Hernandez, culture secretary of the health workers union Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de Salud de Guatemala (SNTSG), was shot dead in the municipality of Camotan on 8 March

Santa Alvarado, also a member of the SNTSG, was kidnapped after finishing work on 21 March in the kitchens at the national hospital in Totonicapán, her husband was released but she was later found strangled

Kira Zulueta Enriquez Mena, General Secretary of the Municipal Workers of Nueva Concepcion in the department of Escuintla, was assassinated at the library where she worked on the 22 March.

These murders have left numerous families and the trade union movement in deep mourning. Despite the numerous statements by the Public Prosecutor's Office issued after previous killings we simply to do believe it is fulfilling its responsibilities in the face of such atrocities.

We are outraged that some official responses and reports issued through the Ministry for Labour and Social Services and other department, continue to argue that none of the murders of our colleagues are in any way related to their trade union activities.

We call upon your government to respect the right to trade union freedom and the lives of Guatemalan trade unionists and we urge you to take steps together with the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Judiciary to ensure that these crimes do not go unpunished. It is vital that full and impartial investigations be undertaken as soon as possible and that all material and intellectual authors of the crimes be appropriately punished.

Whilst we welcome the intent behind the recent Memorandum of Understanding signed by your Minister of Labour and Social Protection and the chairperson of the Workers Group at the International Labour Organisation, we need to see immediate action to make its content a reality or we will have no option than to push for a suspension of the European Union - Central American Association Agreement in relation to trade preferences for Guatemala and to renew the call for a full ILO commission of inquiry into breaches of ILO conventions in Guatemala.

Yours sincerely

Frances O'Grady

General Secretary

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