Where trade unionists start their day on the net.
The Colombian army has assassinated three members of the agricultural workers trade union FENSUAGRO. The three, Javier Alexander Cubillos, Wilder Cubillos and Heriberto Delgado, were all farmers from the town of San Juan de Sumapaz on the outskirts of the Colombian capital Bogotá.
On March 18th the men were travelling to the community of La Hoya del Nevado to inspect some cattle when they went missing. Some days later the Colombia media reported that the army had killed three guerrillas in the area and, on March 27th, the families of the three men identified their bodies in a morgue in the town of Fusagasuga.
The Colombian Army has claimed that all three were guerrillas that they killed in combat. This is the same claim made by the army last year when they assassinated three senior trade union leaders in the region of Arauca.
A coalition of community groups and trade unions in the region have released a public statement saying that all three men were well-known political and peasant activists in the region who were leading members of both their trade union and the local branch of the Colombian Communist Party.
Please send messages of protest to the following Colombian authorities:
Vice-President Francisco Santos
fsantos@presidencia.gov.co
Minister of Defence Jorge Alberto Uribe
siden@mindefensa.gov.co & infprotocol@mindefensa.gov.co
Head of Presidential Human Rights Program Dr Carlos Franco
cefranco@presidencia.gov.co & fibarra@presidencia.gov.co
Please also send a message to the British Government calling on them to freeze British military aid to the Colombian Army until they stop assassinating trade unionists.
Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell MP
rammellb@parliament.uk & john.riley@fco.gov.uk
For sample protest letters please see the Justice for Colombia website at www.justiceforcolombia.org
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