Two More Trade Unionists Assassinated in Colombia

[IndianaGreen]

Two More Trade Unionists Assassinated in Colombia

7 July 2010: The trade union world is again in mourning after the assassination of two more trade unionists in Colombia. The ITUC, together with its Colombia affiliates the CUT, the CGT and the CTC, has roundly condemned the murders, expressing its deep shock at the news of the killing of Nelson Camacho González, a member of the oil industry’s united workers’ union USO (Unión Sindical Obrera) and of Ibio Efrén Caicedo, an activist from the Antioquia teachers’ association ADIDA (Asociación de Institutores de Antioquia).

Ibio Efrén Caicedo, who had a strong track record as a trade union activist, was assassinated on the day before the 20 June presidential elections. The murder of Ibio Efrén brings to seven the number of unionised teachers assassinated in Antioquia in 2010 so far.

Three days earlier, Nelson Camacho González died after being shot at repeatedly at the bus stop on his way to work. The murder of Nelson Camacho González is another in a series of systematic attacks and threats against members and leaders of the oil workers’ union during industrial disputes. The union has been in conflict with the multinational British Petroleum in Casanare, with Ecopetrol-UT on the Andean pipeline, with TGI on the departments of Boyacá y Casanare, and with Ecopetrol over various other labour disputes.

In two protest letters to the Colombia authorities, the ITUC demands that President Uribe and his government immediately initiate a full investigation to identify and bring to justice those responsible for these two murders that have further weakened the credibility of Colombian democracy.

To read the protest letters:

http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/Microsoft_Word_-_Otro_educador_asesinado_julio-20100706161811.pdf

http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/Microsoft_Word_-_Asesinato_de_Nelson_Camacho_de_USO_junio__2_-20100706161817.pdf

The ITUC represents 176 million workers in 155
countries and territories and has 312 national
affiliates.

http://www.ituc-csi.org
http://www.youtube.com/ITUCCSI

http://www.ituc-csi.org/two-more-trade-unionists.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. The Catholic Church is very active in Cuba, getting CIA spies, mafioso and criminals

out of prison...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x38342

WHERE ARE THEY IN COLOMBIA, where thousands of union leaders have been murdered by the Colombian military (about half, according to AI) and its closely tied rightwing paramilitary death squads (the other half)?

Oh, yeah, Cuba is just so terrible on human rights; Cuba, where they have universal free medical care, not to mention free medical educations. They're just so bad with their "political prisoners" and all. But NOT ONE WORD on the HEINOUS human rights violations in Colombia--and, for that matter, NOT ONE WORD from the Catholic Church, that I know of, on the U.S. torture dungeon on the other end of the island of Cuba!

This just makes me so-o-o-o-o mad! :mad: :puke: :mad:

The hypocrisy of the Vatican and the U.S. State Department are very similar.

[Judi Lynn]

2. I have NEVER heard any grumbling in US corporate media regarding all those tortures, dismemberments

of the living, done publicly, before family members and neighbors, all emptying into mass graves, or into the rivers of Colombia.

Noop! Not one word of condemnation, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER. It can drive you wild. And the fact the feudal right-wing government makes NO efforts to put any of the killers in prison, since they are killing people the government wants out of the way, anyway, doesn't seem objectionable to the U.S. corporate news sources.

And as you say, the day is never long enough to allow all the yammering about political "dissidents" in Cuba, while we ALL know, because it's the law, NO ONE does that here and gets by with it. Years in prison, heavy fine for the same things the Cuban "dissidents" get paid to do to their government with OUR TAXDOLLARS.

It's like an argument we have with our own spirits, as if we point out the falseness of it all, point out the dishonesty enough times, then somehow it's going to change. They are flaunting our powerless state in front of us, telling us day by day there is absolutely nothing we can do no matter HOW perfidious the policies of our own government, and the government lapdogs, the molders of perception among the ignorant, the corporate media.

[IndianaGreen]

3. When the late Pope John Paul II went to Cuba, guess what he bitched about?

He complained about Santeria! The Polish Pope was upset that Santeria worship had an equal footing with the Catholic Church. Prior to the Revolution, the Catholic Church held a preeminent position in the country, with the Catholic religion as the "official" religion.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Wow. That's so wierd! If he's so worried, he should try to make a better "product!"

If he wants to know where all his church members went, he should go look for them in Miami, and in New Jersey!

Never would have guessed it would be Santeria that chapped his ass!

[Judi Lynn]

5. Sorry, wrong thread!. n/t