Colombian Oilworkers' Leader Murdered
Right-wing death squad had admitted kidnapping him
Source : International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Worker\'s Union
6 November 2001
Colombian oilworkers' leader Aury Sara Marrugo, abducted by a right-wing death squad on 30 November, has been found murdered, together with his bodyguard.
This latest killing brings the number of Colombian trade unionists murdered this year alone to over 130.
Aury headed the Cartagena district of the oilworkers' federation USO. He was abducted near his home on 30 November. Two vehicles hemmed in his car on a bend. Several armed men jumped out of the cars, seized Aury and his bodyguard and drove them off to an unknown destination. Witnesses say that a nearby police patrol made no attempt to intervene. The right-wing death squad AUC later admitted that it was holding Aury prisoner.
The following is the full text of a letter faxed to Colombia's President Andr�s Pastrana today by Fred Higgs, General Secretary of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM):
Mr. President,
On behalf of more than 20 million workers worldwide affiliated to the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), I am writing to express our horror and disgust at the brutal murder of AURY SARA MARRUGO, District President of USO in Cartagena, and of his bodyguard.
Time and again, the ICEM has had to protest to you over the murder of Colombian trade union leaders. Your country is by far the most dangerous place in the world for trade unionists. This year alone, more than 130 union activists have been murdered in Colombia. The vast majority of these horrific crimes have gone uninvestigated and unpunished. This is an intolerable situation, which you can no longer permit to continue.
In the case of these latest murders, there is no doubt about the culprits. They have already proclaimed their own guilt.
This Monday, your High Commissioner for Peace, Camilo Gomez Alzate, received a communiqu� from the high command of the self-styled Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), one of your country's most brutal right-wing death squads. In that communiqu�, the AUC admitted that Aury Sara Marrugo was their prisoner. They stated that they had brought him before "an AUC Court" and that he had "confessed" to being the leader of a guerrilla movement.
The message is clear. In your country, a terrorist gang has usurped justice, has held its own "trial" and has carried out its own "execution".
This proves what many organisations, including ourselves, have repeatedly told you: that right-wing death squads are behind the murders of Colombian trade unionists.
Many observers inside and outside Colombia are also convinced that, passively or actively, the Colombian State, the police and the armed forces have been conniving with the death squads.
It is up to you, Mr. President, to prove the contrary by ensuring that the murderers are tracked down and brought to justice without delay.
This anti-union terrorism must be ended once and for all, and it must be ended now.
2001 / -1 / 2-
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