Violence Against Trade Unionists Rises throughout Central America in 2010

The civil wars that tormented Central America ended with the 1996 signing of the Peace Accords in Guatemala, but a new spiral of violence is once again claiming the lives of trade unionists throughout the region.  Between January 1, 2010 and mid-February 2010, six union leaders have been assassinated in Central America: one in El Salvador, three in Guatemala, and two in Honduras.   

These killings appear to be planned, targeting specific unionists who are very involved in current labor rights campaigns.  Since the 2006 implementation of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) between Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and the U.S., there has been a sharp upsurge of assassinations and violence against trade unionists in Central America.  While CAFTA supporters touted that it would uphold core labor rights standards, it has so far proven to be ineffective at impeding the new wave of violence that is affecting the freedom of trade unionism in the region, let alone protecting core worker rights. 

Violence Continues After Honduran Elections

According to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and independent media organizations in Honduras, at least 14 trade unionists have been murdered since the coup of June 28, 2009.   The violence is continuing despite installation of new President Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo who in his January 27, 2010 inauguration speech told Hondurans to “forget the past.”  

The trade unions and human rights organizations that form a part of the Resistance Front Against the Coup find it very hard to forget especially since the human rights violations and assassinations against its members have continued since his inauguration.  According to the Chicago-based group La Voz de los de Abajo, at least ten members of the resistance have been assassinated since Lobo took office. ­

•  On the evening of February 3, 2010, the lifeless body of nurse Vanessa Yaneth Zepeda*, a union member of SITRAIHSS (Sindicato de Trabajadores del Instituto Hondureño de Seguridad Social), was thrown out of a moving vehicle in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.  She was a member of the opposition, marching against the coup on June 28, 2009 just weeks after giving birth.  The 29-year old mother of three was still in her nurse’s scrubs when she was found.  Over the protest of the labor movement, the Lobo Administration categorized Zepeda’s murder as a common crime.  

•  On the night of February 11, 2010, four men broke into the house of Porfirio Ponce, Vice President of the International Union of Foodworkers-affiliated beverage and bottling union, Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Industria de la Bebida y Similares (STIBYS).  The General Secretary of STIBYS is former presidential candidate Carlos H. Reyes, who refused to partake in the elections.  Reyes, a well-known leader of the Front, was brutally beaten in August and has received many death threats.   

•  Unionist Julio Funez Benitez was shot three times and killed on February 15.  Funez Benitez received death threats after attending his first meeting of the Resistance Front in Siguatepeque.  He was a member of the National Union of Aqueducts and Sewage System Workers, SANAA (Sindicato de Trabajadores del Servicio Nacional de Acueductos y Alcantarillados). 

The European Union and the majority of Latin American countries, including Argentina, Venezuela, and Brazil have yet to recognize the new Honduran government.  The U.S. continues to be one of the exceptions, accepting the November 29 elections organized by the coup government as legitimate and now recognizing the new government.  The U.S. is also in the process of reestablishing aid.   

The Resistance Front continues to call on the international community to not recognize the Lobo government and to suspend aid to Honduras.  The Front’s chief goal is a constituent assembly to write a new constitution.  Trade unions have been at the forefront of the resistance movement and are among the strongest and largest faction making up the resistance coalition.  

Guatemala: Three Killed in Seven Weeks

The ITUC in 2009 cited Guatemala as the second most dangerous country in the world to be a trade unionist.  At least six trade unionists were murdered in 2009 and, according to UDEFEGUA, a Guatemalan human rights organization, the documented number of threats and attempted assassinations increased by more than half from 2008 to 2009.  Now, three have been killed early in 2010.

•  On January 13, 2010, union leader Evelinda Ramirez Reyes was gunned down after leaving a meeting with representatives of the state authorities regarding labor rights abuses committed by the Spanish electricity transnational DEOCSA-UNION FENOSA.  Reyes was a leader from FRENA (Frente de Resistencia en Defensa del Pueble y de los Recursos Naturales), affiliated to the National Resistance Front, FNL, which is part of the Guatemalan Labor, Indigenous, and Campesino movement, MSICG.  Her murder follows the high profile assassination of another FRENA union leader, Victor Galvez, who was reportedly shot thirty times in late October 2009 when he was leaving his workplace.

•  Pedro Antonio Garcia, a member of the Malacatan Municipal Workers Union, which is affiliated to the Confederation of Trade Union Unity of Guatemala (CUSG), was murdered on February 2, 2010.  In January, Garcia led a series of actions along with other union members demanding payment of wages owed since 2009 and compliance with the current collective bargaining agreement.  

•  On February 17, 2010, another public sector worker affiliated to FRENA was murdered in the municipality of Malacatan.  An unknown assailant shot Octavio Roblero 17 times outside of his work post at the bus terminal.  Roblero was also the brother-in-law of Victor Galvez, murdered last October.  His murder comes days after the release of MSICG’s report, "Guatemala, el costo de la libertad sindical" (Guatemala, the Price of Trade Union Freedom).

And in El Salvador

•  On the morning of January 15, 2010, the General Secretary of the Salvadoran Union of Municipal Workers of Santa Ana, SITRAMSA (Sindicato de Trabajadores y Empleados Municipales de la Alcadia de Santa Ana) was assassinated on his way to meet with other union leaders to discuss the submission of a complaint denouncing the unfair firing of several workers from the municipality.  

U.S. Trade Leverage Ineffective

The AFL-CIO and six Guatemalan unions filed the first and so far only CAFTA labor complaint in April 2008.   There has been very limited progress on cases raised in the complaint while a near total rate of impunity surrounds the assassinations of trade unionists in the region, including the high-profile case Pedro Zamora documented in the CAFTA complaint.  

Mr. Zamora was the General Secretary of the port workers’ union STEPQ (Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Empresa Portuaria Quetzal), gunned down on January 15, 2007 in front of his son 50 meters from his home.  After the filing of the CAFTA complaint, one of the suspects was subsequently arrested and convicted of the murder, but at the end of 2009 his conviction was overturned and he was released from prison.  Now, no one is behind bars for any of the murders of trade unionists in Guatemala over the past three years.   

CAFTA’s ineffectual labor provisions replaced the worker rights conditions of U.S. trade preference programs like the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), used by USLEAP and others to some meaningful effect.  Trade unionists in Guatemala used to say that the GSP conditions weren’t great but that things would be worse without them.   They’ve unfortunately been proven right, deadly so.

Even in the face of a military-backed coup, CAFTA has failed to provide trade leverage, even to protect basic democracy.   This contrasts sharply with the U.S. government’s pre-CAFTA trade leverage, when its ability to use the threat of losing GSP trade benefits helped reverse the last coup in the region, in Guatemala in 1993.

*On March 15, 2010, agents from the Honduran National Criminal Investigation Unit (Direccion Nacional de Investigacion Criminal- DNIC) arrested Dr. Rafael Alejandro Amador Linares in connection with the murder of Vanessa Yaneth Zepeda. According to various sources close to Zepeda, Mr. Amador Linares an ex-partner of the slain victim, was obsessed with the union leader and member of the Resistance Front and constantly harassed her. The DNIC is now handling the case as a crime of passion and not a political murder.