Another union leader slain in Colombia

While one U.S. ally, Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, was preparing to visit the United States to promote his “Justice and Peace” Law, another Colombian union leader, the most recent in the long list of murdered unionists, was savagely and cowardly assassinated. His murder exposed to the world the gruesome reality behind this law.

On Sept. 11, people found the body of Luciano Enrique Romero Molina. He was bound, stabbed 40 times and showed signs of having been tortured. Romero Molina, 47, was a respected and loved leader of SINALTRAINAL, the union representing Coca-Cola and Nestlé workers in Colombia.

Romero Molina was the secretary of the union’s Human Rights department and an active member of the Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners. His and his union’s concern for human rights was illustrated by his unfailing Sunday visits to the prisoners in Valledupar jails, where he monitored their situation while bringing them support and solidarity.

To discourage visits and communication with prisoners, the government makes a visit to political prisoners in Colombia extremely difficult and time-consuming. [Joubert-Ceci recently visited women political prisoners at the Buen Pastor jail in Bogotá—ed.]

Romero Molina worked 20 years in a Nestlé company in Valledupar, a department in the north of Colombia bordering Venezuela, until Oct. 22, 2002, when he was fired for participating in a strike against the company. In a show of the Colombian government’s disregard for labor rights, the Ministry of Social Protection had declared the strike illegal.

Romero Molina then filed a suit in the First Labor Court of Valledupar Circuit against the companies involved: Nestlé de Colombia S.A., Cicolac Ltd. and the Dairy Partners Americas Manufacturing Colombia Ltd. He demanded his reinstatement.

As a result of his labor and human rights activities he was a target of the paramilitaries who support the interests of corporations like Nestlé and Coca-Cola.

The death threats he had received from paramilitaries made him leave Valledupar in several occasions. Since the end of 2004, he had been staying in Girón, Spain, under a special protection program and had just returned to Colombia in the beginning of this year.

When he was assassinated, he was under the “security” of the Organization of American States’ Human Rights Inter american Commission program of Pro tec tive Measures. He is survived by his compañera, Ledys Mendoza, and his four children.

His body was found in Las Palmas, a sector of the La Nevada neighborhood known to be under the paramilitaries’ control. A statement released Sept. 11 by the Foundation Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners of Valledupar (FCSPP) states, “As a consequence of the death threats against Romero Molina’s life, the FCSPP had asked the Colombian government that he be included in the protection program for union leaders and human rights advocates; the only protection given was supplying two units of mobile phones.”

This is in sharp contrast to Uribe’s process of “demobilization” of paramilitaries that offers protection and special programs to paramilitaries who “promise” to leave the notorious death-squad grouping.

The Law of Justice and Peace simply furthers the legalization and protection of these groups that have caused countless murders, massacres, threats, and other numerous despicable crimes against the Colombian people, especially Afro descen dants, Indigenous, human rights advocates, labor leaders, and anybody else who opposes Uribe/United States policies.

Many Colombian and international groups, even those in the U.S., have denounced and criticized this law. In a letter to Uribe, Leo W. Gerard, the international president of the Steelworkers’ union (USW) writes: “I am writing to express my grave concern with the recent, so-called ‘Law of Justice and Peace’ which you initiated and recently signed into law.

“This law has been roundly condemned by the International Metal workers Federation, of which we are a member, and by all human rights groups reporting on Colombia, including Am nesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Inter-American Com mis sion of Human Rights. As these groups report, this new law gives almost absolute impunity to the paramilitaries in Colombia—groups which have been engaged in gross human rights abuses, including the murder of hundreds of trade union leaders - while asking for little in return.”

Romero Molina’s union SINALTRAINAL denounced the murder and asks the international community to send protest messages. Edgar Paez, from the National Board of the union, wrote, “We repudiate this horrendous crime that is part of the endless list of trade unionists assassinated in Colombia, under the strategy of state terrorism and of the persecution by the companies to exterminate the union movement.

“Once more we condemn the government of Álvaro Uribe Vélez and his false ‘peace process’ with the paramilitary groups that, as we have seen, continue massacring the unarmed population, and their crimes will remain in total impunity thanks to the Law of Justice and Peace”.

Readers can write protest letters to: President Álvaro Uribe Vélez ([email protected]; [email protected]); Vice President Francisco Santos ([email protected]); Human Rights Department Director Dr. Carlos Franco ([email protected]); General Prosecutor Dr. Mario Iguarán Arana ([email protected]; [email protected]); Interamerican Commission for Human Rights ([email protected]) with a copy to: SINALTRAINAL at [email protected].