The following urgent action was sent out by Amnesty International on November 24, 1998: Further information on UA 274/98 issued 21 October 1998 - Fear for safety/Extrajudicial execution
Héctor Fajardo, Tarcisio Mora, Gabriel Alvis, Jesús Bernal, Alexander López, Over Dorado, Rafael Baldoviano, Rafael Pina, Segundo Mora, Alvaro Pulido, and Olimpo Cardenas.
The recent killing of Jorge Ortega García, vice president of the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT), Trade Union Congress, after he was subject to a long campaign of death threats, has raised concern for the safety of other members of the national trade union leadership who have all recently been subject to similar death threats.
Additional names of those under threat are: Héctor Fajardo- secretary general of the CUT; Tarcisio Mora - President of the Federación Colombiana de Educadores (FECODE), Federation of Colombian Teachers; Gabriel Alvis - vice-president of Unión Sindical Obrera (USO), Oil Workers' Trade Union; Jesús Bernal - president of Sindicato de Trabajadores de las Empresas Municipales de Cali (SINTRAEMCALI) Cali Municipal Workers' Trade Union; Over Dorado - a leader of Asociación de Institutores de Antioquia, (ADIDA), Antioquia Teachers Association; and Rafael Pina, Segundo Mora, Alvaro Pulido, and Olimpo Cardenas - leaders of Unión Nacional de Empleados Bancarios (UNEB), National Bank Workers' Union.
Jorge Ortega García was killed at a time of great tension during a national strike. There is concern that legitimate trade union action intended to resist the impact of government economic policy will be met with an attempt to selectively murder members of national trade leadership.
FURTHER RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send telegrams/telexes/faxes/express/ airmail letters:
·expressing concern for the safety of all the above, and other trade union leaders who have received death threats;
·calling for immediate steps, as agreed on by those under threat, to guarantee the safety of the threatened trade unionists;
·calling for prompt, full and impartial investigations into death threats made against those named above, for the results to be made public and for those responsible to be brought to justice;
·reminding Colombia's new government of the country's commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in particular Article 3: "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person."
APPEALS TO:
President of Colombia:
President Andrés Pastrana
Palacio de Nariño, Carrera 8 No. 7-26
Bogotá, Colombia
Telegrams: President Pastrana, Bogotá, Colombia
Telex: 396 44281 PALP CO
Fax: 011 57 1 284 2186/289 3377/286 7434/
pastrana@presidencia.gov.co
Néstor Humberto Martínez
Ministro del Interior
Kra.8 n.8-09
Bogotá, Colombia
Fax: 011 57 1 341-9739
Alfonso Gómez Méndez
Fiscal General de la Nación
Diagonal 22 No. 52-01
Bogota, Colombia
FAX: (57-1) 570-2022
Hernando Yepes Arcila
Ministro de Trabajo y Seguridad Social
Ministerio de Trabajo y Seguridad Social
Calle 19, No. 6-68, piso 9
Bogotá, COLOMBIA
Telex: 45445 MITRA CO
Fax: 571 285 7091
COPIES TO:
Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Colombia (CUT)
AA 221
Bogotá, Colombia
