Colombia    VIOLENCE

 

 

In reaction to the murder of Daniel Aguirre, General Secretary of the National Union of Sugarcane Cutters

Letter from IUF Latin America

to the President of SINALCORTEROS

 

Regional Latinoamericana
Unión Internacional de Trabajadores de la Alimentación, Agrícolas, Hoteles, Restaurantes, Tabaco y Afines (Rel-UITA)


   

Comité
Ejecutivo
Latinoamericano:


Presidente
Norberto Latorre
UTHGRA  Argentina

 

Vicepresidente
Luis A. Pedraza
UNAC  Colombia

 

Vicepresidenta
Neuza Barbosa
CNTA  Brasil 

 

Carolina Llanos
UATRE  Argentina 

 

Héctor Ponce
ATILRA  Argentina

 

Silvia Villaverde
FATPCHPYA
Argentina

 

David Morales
FESTRAS  Guatemala

 

Alessandra
da Costa Luna
CONTAG  Brasil

 

Siderlei Oliveira
CONTAC  Brasil

 

Guillermo Rivera
SINTRAINAGRO
Colombia

 

Wendy Yadira Chavarría Mejía
FESTRAS  Guatemala

 

Eduardo Esquivel
STIE  México

 

María Dafur
FNT-CGTP-ABA
Perú

 

Gerardo Iglesias
Secretario Regional

 

 

 

  

Montevideo, April 29, 2012

 

Alfonso Viafara

President of SINALCORTEROS

Municipality of Florida

Valle del Cauca

Colombia

 

 

 

Dear Alfonso,

 

Through this letter we wish to express our deepest solidarity and most heartfelt condolences for the vile murder of our fellow unionist and general secretary of your Union, DANIEL AGUIRRE PIEDRAHITA, committed on April 27.

 

We had the privilege of meeting DANIEL in the heat of the battle as SINALCORTEROS staged a 58-day-long strike, which began in late 2008 and ended in February 2009.  

 

There we saw him in action, supporting workers and their families with his solidarity and passionate and class-based message.

 

DANIEL was murdered at a time when union actions are moving forward and succeeding in the struggle against outsourcing and Associated Work Cooperatives and as SINTRAINAGRO amended its bylaws to include sugar laborers members of your Union.

 

We understand that the best way to honor DANIEL AGUIRRE’s life and dedication to the cause is to continue and further his struggle to dignify rural work and promote political and food sovereignty in Colombia.

 

From IUF Latin America we will contribute to your efforts to see that this horrible homicide is properly investigated and that the perpetrators, both direct and indirect, are brought to justice.

 

Dear Alfonso, please receive our warmest sympathies, which we extend to DANIEL’s family and our other fellow unionists at SINALCORTEROS.

 

With solidarity,

 

 

 

Ron Oswald

IUF General Secretary

  

Norberto Latorre

President of the Latin American Executive Committee of the IUF

  

Luis Alejandro Pedraza  

Vice President of the Latin American Executive Committee of the IUF

 

Gerónimo Venegas

President of the Global Professional Group of Agricultural Workers of the IUF

 

Guillermo Rivera Zapata

Latin American Executive Committee of the IUF

 

Artur Bueno de Camargo

President of the Latin American Federation of Sugar Workers

 

Gerardo Iglesias

IUF Latin American Regional Secretary

 

 

 

cc: President of Colombia; Vice President of Colombia; Ministry of the Interior; Ministry of Labor; United Workers Federation (CUT); Amnesty International; Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; Justice and Human Rights Movement of  Porto Alegre (BRAZIL); Global Labour Institute (GLI); SINTRAINAGRO; National Agro-Food Union of Colombia (UNAC); Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (CSA); International Labour Organisation (ILO); International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC); Comisiones Obreras - Spain (CCOO); and General Workers’ Confederation - Spain (UGT).

 

 

  

Wilson Ferreira Aldunate 1229 Of. 201, Montevideo, Uruguay

Tel: (598) 29007473 - 29021048 / Fax: 29030905  -  uita@rel-uita.org

Rel-UITA

                30 de abril de 2012

 

 

 

 

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   UITA - Secretaría Regional Latinoamericana - Montevideo - Uruguay

Wilson Ferreira Aldunate 1229 / 201 - Tel. (598 2) 900 7473 -  902 1048 -  Fax 903 0905