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Rising tide of violence against trade unionists in Guatemala
27 September 2007
The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) has reported the murder of another Guatemalan trade union leader this week.
Masked gunmen murdered Marco Tulio Ramírez Portela early in the morning of September 23 as he was leaving his home for work. Marco Tulio was Secretary of Sports and Culture of the banana workers’ union Sindicato de Trabajadores de Bananeros de Izabal (SITRABI), which organises workers employed by US food production and distribution company Del Monte.
The IUF has called on the Guatemalan government to undertake a full and open investigation into this latest union assassination. The ITF yesterday expressed its “extreme concern” regarding the news of the murder in a letter to the Guatemalan President Oscar Berger Perdomo.
Tulio’s murder follows a pattern of rising anti-union violence and institutional impunity in Guatemala. In January, Pedro Zamora of the ITF-affiliated dockers’ union, Sindicato de Trabajadores de Empresa Portuaria Quetzal, was shot dead by multiple assailants who ambushed him and his children. Since the murder, the five surviving leaders of the union have received death threats; their families are also being threatened.
To show your support for the IUF’s campaign, visit: http://www.iuf.org/cgi-bin/campaigns/show_campaign.cgi?c=309. More information about the ITF’s campaign to win justice for Pedro Zamora can be found at http://www.itfglobal.org/campaigns/zamora.cfm
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