Guatemala: SITRABI targeted

The ITUC wants to express its profound dismay and indignation about the murder on 29 April of Carlos Enrique Cruz Hernández at his workplace, the agricultural concern FINCA Chikasaw El Peligro. Mr Cruz Hernández was employed by the company Bandegua and was a member of the Izabal banana workers’ union SITRABI. The concern is owned by Compañía de Desarrollo Bananero de Guatemala (Guatemala Banana Growers’ Company – BANDEGUA), a subsidiary of the company Del Monte, which is in charge of a whole range of banana growers in Guatemala that have violated human rights for decades.

Brussels, 30 April 2008: The ITUC wants to express its profound dismay and indignation about the murder on 29 April of Carlos Enrique Cruz Hernández at his workplace, the agricultural concern FINCA Chikasaw El Peligro. Mr Cruz Hernández was employed by the company Bandegua and was a member of the Izabal banana workers’ union SITRABI. The concern is owned by Compañía de Desarrollo Bananero de Guatemala (Guatemala Banana Growers’ Company – BANDEGUA), a subsidiary of the company Del Monte, which is in charge of a whole range of banana growers in Guatemala that have violated human rights for decades.

On 23 April, representatives of the Confederation of Trade Union Unity of Guatemala (CUSG) had met the Minister for the Interior to condemn the intimidation of Danilo Méndez, also a member of SITRABI, by armed men. A number of SITRABI workers had already been murdered over recent months.

In a letter to the Guatemalan authorities (ES), the ITUC urges President Alvaro Colom to take the action needed to put an end to the uncontrolled violence aimed at the labour movement and calls with insistence on employers like Bandegua to respect the ILO core conventions which have been ratified by Guatemala.

The ITUC has again reminded President Colom of the commitment he made at the ITUC conference on the role of trade unions in combating impunity, held from 29 to 31 January in Guatemala City, to do everything in his power to eradicate the violence against union activists and put an end to the impunity endemic in Guatemala. "The situation in Guatemala hasn’t improved and workers continue to live in a climate of fear and unacceptable insecurity," ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder said. "Measures urgently need to be put in place to change the situation and ensure that workers can exercise their basic rights without risking their lives."

Please click here to read the ITUC’s “Union View” on Guatemala

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