More Deaths In Colombia

Date: 22 July 2003

Tuesday 15 July 2003 will go down as another tragic day in Colombian labour history, with three trade unionists assassinated on this day by government sanctioned para-military death squads.

ECOPETROL worker of twenty years and trade unionist, Marco Tulio Diaz, was murdered in his own home at 7.30am on 15 July.

Mr Diaz was a memeber of the Union Sindical Obrera oil workers union and had been working as the President of the National Association of ECOPETROL Pensioners (ASONAJUB) just prior to his death.

Construction industry worker Jose Evelio Bedoya, a member of the Construction Industry and Materials Trade Union (SUTIMAC) and employee of Cementos El Cairo was murdered in Santa Barbara on the same day by paramilitaries.

Agrarian trade unionist from Tolima, Alberto Marques, was also murdered on July 15 along with his bodyguard Nelson Castiblanco Franco. His five year old daughter who was with him at the time was wounded in the attack.

The peak Colombian Union CUT has blamed the paramilitary forces of the United Self Defence Forces of Colombia for his death.

So far this year 41 trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia.

Victorian unionists will join an international day of protest against corporate giant Coca-Cola, who are implicated in the killing of nine trade unionists in Colombia since 1990, on 22 July at 5pm at Federation Square.

For further information

Union:	Labor Council of NSW
WWW:	http://vthc.org.au/media/general_news/20030721_colombia.html

LaborNET is proudly created, designed and programmed
by Social Change Online for the Labor Council of NSW
[Credits] [Site Matters]