Colombia: Several trade unionists receive death threats

The ITUC has condemned in the strongest terms the death threats made against FENSUAGRO General Secretary Eberto Díaz and calls upon Colombian President Álvaro Uribe to take all necessary steps to protect Mr Díaz from any attempt on his life.

Brussels, 24 September 2008: The ITUC has condemned in the strongest terms the death threats made against FENSUAGRO General Secretary Eberto Díaz and calls upon Colombian President Álvaro Uribe (ES) to take all necessary steps to protect Mr Díaz from any attempt on his life.

On 18 September 2008, FENSUAGRO received a message purportedly from the paramilitary organisation Amigos de Álvaro Uribe en Colombia (AUC). The message listed several social and trade union organisations – including FENSUAGRO – as targets along with two national FENSUAGRO leaders, General Secretary Eberto Díaz and Secretary Juan Efraín Mendoza. Direct threats were also made against the family of Eberto Díaz in Colombia while he himself was in Europe. Over 1,000 members of FENSUAGRO have been murdered since the association was founded 32 years ago, 12 of them during 2008 alone.

Regrettably, Eberto Díaz is not the only figure to have received death threats in Colombia over the past few days. On 16 September, both the Asamblea Permanente de la Sociedad Civil por la Paz and the Movimiento Nacional de Víctimas received a death threat against leaders of the trade union movement and the Polo Democrático Alternativo (PDA) signed by, among others, a paramilitary group calling themselves Comando Carlos Castaño Vive. The message listed CUT General Secretary Domingo Tovar Arrieta, USO National Board member Rodolfo Vecino, former USO President Hernando Hernández, Polo Democrático National Executive Committee members Nelson Berrio and Rafael Cabarcas, and youth leader Lenin Fernández.

We, the trade union movement, as represented by the ITUC, national, regional and international organisations, and not least our affiliates in Colombia itself are extremely concerned by these deplorable developments. “The Colombian government has a duty to protect social players in Colombia, in particular trade unionists,” said Guy Ryder, General Secretary of the ITUC. “Colombia must respect the trade union rights enshrined in ILO Core Conventions,” he added.

Please read the letter sent to President Uribe (ES).


The ITUC represents 168 million workers in 155 countries and territories and has 311 national affiliates.

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