=================================
Hernando Hernandez, USO president,
said the decision to lengthen the
strike was in the hands of the
various unions involved in the
protest.
=================================
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FINANCIAL TIMES (London)

Tuesday, 21 April 1998

Colombia strike over murder
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By Adam Thomson

BOGOTA -- Colombia's leading public sector unions held a 24-hour 
national strike yesterday in protest against the murder on Saturday 
of a human rights lawyer.

The public sector oil workers union USO, which includes some 10,000 
active and retired workers of the state oil company Ecopetrol, began 
the strike at 6am. Joachim Gomez, general manager of Ecopetrol's 
principal oil refinery at the river port of Barrancabermeja, said 
petroleum and gas distribution had been seriously affected. But he 
added that the company's reserves were sufficient to last 24 hours. 

Ecopetrol executives expressed concern that the union might opt to 
prolong the strike.

Hernando Hernandez, USO president, said the decision to lengthen the 
strike was in the hands of the various unions involved in the protest. 

The human rights lawyer, Eduardo Umana, who was assassinated by 
unidentified gunmen, defended a number of Ecopetrol workers - 
including former USO president Cesar Carrillo - accused by the Public 
Prosecutor's Office of carrying out terrorist acts against the country's 
oil infrastructure.

Copyright 1998 The Financial Times Limited 
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