GENOCIDE AGAINST THE CENTRAL UNION OF COLOMBIAN WORKERS (CUT) CONTINUES
CSN-MADISON, MAY 2, 2002WE CONDEMN THE MASSACRE OF WORKERS IN THE BANANA INDUSTRY IN URABA
On April 26, 2002, in the Villa Lucia Ranch, situated on Salsipuedes Lane,
municipality of Apartadó, Department of Antioquia, according to information
from the mass media, the Fifth Front of the FARC massacred 9 people, of whom
7 were affiliated with the National Agricultural-Fishery Workers¹ Union‹SINTRAINAGRO-CUT. The other two people were a woman resident of the town and a young man who happened to arrive at the ranch where the criminal acts occurred.
The names of the assassinated compañeros are:
… Agustín Colmenares
… Alberto Martínez
… Juan Sepúlveda
… Albeiro Ledesma
… José Hurtado
… Enrique Suárez
… Luis Enrique Guisao
The Central Union of Colombian Workers‹CUT--, through its National
Executive Committee, condemns and rejects this barbarous act, which
has been carried out against workers affiliated with SINTRAINAGRO, at
the same time that we call upon the national government, headed by Dr.
Andrés Pastrana Arango, President of the Republic, to adopt real
mechanisms that would give us the guarantees necessary to continue with
our union activities throughout the country and in this case particularly
in the area of Uraba.
The condemnation of this political-union crime leads us to demand that
armed
participants respect International Humanitarian Law by excluding us
from the armed conflict, because we belong to civil society. The commitment
we have
to unionized workers is the call to support a political negotiated solution
to this war that today affects Colombians in general so dramatically,
a consequence that was not recognized in its full magnitude by the President
of the Republic of Colombia, when in a unilateral move he broke off
the
processes of dialogue with the FARC and ended the neutral zone in San
Vicente del Caguan, unleashing an increasing escalation of this war
and
creating a situation that has caused a greater number of victims, such
as
the one we are denouncing today.
Later, via a new comunique from our central office we will release more
information about this massacre of banana workers in the Uraba area.
HECTOR FAJARDO ABRIL JESÚS ANTONIO GONZÁLEZ LUNA
General Secretary Director, Department of Human Rights
Bogotá, D. C., April 26, 2002