Request for Urgent Action

MURDER OF THE VICEPRESIDENT OF THE CUT:
RESPONSE TO THE NATIONAL  PUBLIC SECTOR STRIKE


The Colombian Human Rights Non-Governmental Organizations express before
the national and international community our fierce condemnation of the
treacherous murder of compañero JORGE LUIS ORTEGA GARCIA, First
Vice-President of the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores - CUT  - at 7:15
p.m. yesterday, October 20, 1998  in Bogota. This event occurred as Jorge
Ortega was entering the building where he lived, and was carried out by a
person who was waiting for him and fired 6 shots which killed him
instantly.

Jorge Ortega was a member of the National Strike Command of the Public
Workers Strike, playing a very active role in this body; the members of the
Command had received death threats since its inception; this horrible crime
is, therefore, a clear retaliation against the strength of the actions of
the workers who throughout the country have legitimately demanded their
rights, and to whose positions the government has responded in a
intransigent and warlike fashion.

The strike, which has now lasted 14 days without the government having
proposed any  solution, has been arbitrarily repressed. As a result of this
military treatment the following people have been murdered:  MARCO PEREZ,
member of Sintraelecol Sincelejo  (Electricity Workers) and ORFA LIGIA
MAJIA, a teacher in Nariño. As well, EUGENIANO SANCHEZ, BENITO RUEDA and
VIRGILIO OCHOA, all members of Sintracuemponal in Barrancabermeja, were
injured in attempts on thier lives.  At the same time, many workers have
been assaulted, arbitrarily detained and victims of violent dispersions of
the crowds which have caused serious personal injuries.

JORGE ORTEGA GARCIA dedicated a large part of his life to the defence of
Colombian workers' rights.  During the course of his work he was an
outstanding leader of the Sindicato de Trabajadores del Sector Electríco
(electricity workers union) - SINTRAELECOL - and a leader at the national
level in the Central Unitaria de Trabajdores since the beginning of the
labour central.  At the same time, he played an active and leading role as
a representative of the workers in the Permanent Assembly for Peace and led
the CUT Human Rights Department.

In his capacity as a human rights defender he participated as a delegate of
the union and social organizations to the Risks Evaluation Committee of the
"Program for the Protection and Human Rights Defender and Social Leaders",
of the Ministry of the Interior. In that forum he repeatedly demanded from
the Colombian State protective measures and guarantees for hundreds of
workers, and advocated the investigation of the cases of murder, forced
disappearances, tortures, attempted murders and threats suffered by
Colombian trade unionists. In the sessions of those Committees JORGE ORTEGA
has repeatedly indicated the high levels of risks to him, DOMINGO TOVAR and
other members of the Executive Committee of the CUT.

In the Session of the Risk Evaluation Committee on October 19, 1998 in
Bogota, only one day before his death, JORGE ORTEGA, in the presence of
delegates from the Ministries of the Interior and Labour, the Presidential
Advisory Group on Human Rights and the Security Administration 
Department,
DAS, identified the Colombian State as the only and exclusive party
responsible for any attempt on his life, given that after five months of
having repeatedly requested security measures, he had not been granted 
body
guards nor a vehicle, despite the recurring events denounced by the CUT.

On September 22, 1998, JORGE LUIS ORTEGA GARCIA was subjected to an 
illegal
raid of his apartment. Various armed men entered his home, beat and gagged
his wife and destroyed their belongings, searching the entire house. This
grave crime was denounced before the Nation's Attorney General on the same
day and the same night the President of the USO and JORGE ORTEGA himself
held a meeting with the Vice-Minister of the Interior Dr. Jorge Mario
Eastman to demand protection for his life.

There is other evidence that indicates State responsability in the matter.
JORGE ORTEGA was arbitrarily detained by military units in February 1994,
and deprived of his liberty for three months by the Regional Attorney of
Bogota.  This process was initiated fundamentally on the basis of military
intelligence reports of the 13th Brigade of the Army. Being followed and
subjected to attacks and threats against his life obliged him to leave the
country on various occasions. Nevertheless Jorge Ortega always returned to
the country to carry out with fortitude his responsibilities as a union and
human rights leader.

For these reasons the Human Rights NGOs do not hesitate to identify the
Colombian State, and the governments of Presidents Samper and Pastrana as
the only authors of this abominable crime that has plunged the workers and
the entire country into mourning.

For the above reasons:

We declare

1.      Our justified solidarity with the just struggles for workers'
rights that the trade union movement is carrying out and express our
profound pain and indignation regarding this latest crime of the State.
2.      Our decision to withdraw, along with the social and trade union
organizations, from the Risk Evaluation Committee of the Protection Program
of the Ministry of the Interior, given that we consider that this latest
crime proves once again the ineffectiveness of these kinds of mechanisms,
as well as the absence of political will on the part of the State to
protect and prevent new crimes against social, trade union and human rights
leaders.


We Demand

1.      That the political responsibility on the part of the authorities
who repeatedly failed to authorize the protective measures  agreed upon by
the trade union and human rights organizations after the murder of the
defence lawyer Eduardo Umaña Mendoza be established.

2.      That the penal and disciplinary responsibility be established of
those who participated in this crime, by action or by omission, for the
purpose of assuring that this atrocious murder that has provoked mourning
in the Colombian society and the international trade union movement does
not remain unpunished, as have so many others perpetrated against human
rights defenders and social and trade union leaders.

3.      That clear and unequivocal responses that go beyond declarations
and that are backed up by real actions be given to the demands formulated
by the social, trade union and human rights organizations at the national
and international level for the a) dismanteling and destructuring of the
paramilitary groups, b) the overcoming of the impunity in which the crimes
against humanity and the grave violations of human rights continue, c) the
removal from active service of members of the public forces (army, navy,
airforce, police, DAS) and other State organisms implicated in human rights
violations; d) a review of the intelligence activities carried out by the
Armed Forces and security organisms.

3.      That the Office of the United Nations' High Commission for Human
Rights  completely fulfill in a decisive manner its mandate to the effect
of compelling the Colombian State to adopt effective and immediate
mechanisms to prevent the numerous attempts against social, trade union and
human rights leaders, as well as intervening to assure that this new crime
does not go unpunished.

4.      That trade union freedoms and the right to collective bargaining,
protected in the National Constitution, as well as in Agreements 87, 98 and
151 of the ILO be respected. As a consequence, that the Decree declaring
the National Public Sector Strike illegal be revoked and that retaliatory
measures against those who have legitimately exercised these rights be
abstained from.

5.      That the exercise of the rights to meet and demonstrate be
guaranteed and that the repressive treatment to which the National Public
Sector Strike has been subjected be suspended.  In particular we ask that
the national, regional and local authorities, such as the Mayor of Bogota
Enrique Peñaloza, lift the restrictions imposed by them on the
mobilizations planned by the workers.

6.      That the President of the Republic Andres Pastrana correct his
intransigent and repressive attitude regarding this legitimate movement,
immediately negotiating in good faith the bargaining demands presented by
the National Unitary Workers Command, guaranteeing the free exercise of the
rights to associate, meet and mobilize. As well, that he abstain from new
arbitrary measures, among them the declaration of a state of siege.


We call upon the entire society to publicly and massively express its
repudiation and indignation regarding the policy of extermination of the
social sectors committed to the defence of human rights and in particular
regarding this horrendous crime, and to join the activities and
demonstrations organized by the Colombian trade union movement.



Bogota, October 21, 1998


Signed,



Colectivo de Abogados "José Alvear Restrepo"
Asociación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos
Comité Permanente para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos
Comisión Colombiana de Juristas.
Comisión Intercongregacional de Justicia y Paz
Humanidad Vigente Corporación Jurídica
Asociación para la Promoción Social Alternativa -MINGA-
Corporación SEMBRAR
Comité de Solidaridad con los Presos Politicos
Corporación Jurídica Libertad
CODEHSEL
Fundación Manuel Cepeda Vargas
Familia Franciscana de Colombia
Comisión de Justicia, Paz y Reverencia con la Creación de la F.F.C.
ILSA
REINICIAR
CREDHOS
ANDAS
Comité Regional de Derechos Humanos JOEL SIERRA
Departamento de Derechos Humanos de la CUT
BENPOSTA
Comité Derechos Humanos del Nordeste Antioqueño
Corporación Juan Bosco
Comunidades Eclesiales de Base
REDES
Centro CLEBER
CINEP