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Anti-union repression in Guatemala gets on European Parliament agenda
30 May 2007
 |  |  view larger image | | | European Parliament, Brussels - photo courtesy of Sergio Galletti, GFDL | |
Guatemala’s appalling human rights record, including its anti-union repression, came under scrutiny at a recent conference marking ten years of the Guatemala peace accords. The accords brought to an end 36 years of civil war.
Held on 2 and 3 May in Brussels, Belgium, at the European Parliament, the conference focused on ways of channelling resources to assist in the enforcement of the peace agreement.
Participants included representatives from the ITF-affiliated dockers’ union Sindicato de Trabajadores Empresa Portuaria – Quetzal (STEPQ), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the United Nations Human Rights Office. The Guatemalan Ambassador and the President of the Episcopal Commission in Guatemala were also present.
During the conference, ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder highlighted the issue of trade union rights, which, he claimed, were persistently being violated in Guatemala. He underlined the case of Pedro Zamora, leader of the STEPQ, who was murdered in January and mentioned other trade unionists who had also been killed.
Meanwhile, STEPQ representative Oscar González Donado reinforced Ryder’s view, claiming that the human rights situation in Guatemala had taken a turn for the worse in recent years.
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