Two more teachers murdered in Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

2009-04-03
Two more teachers murdered in Colombia

Ramiro Cuadros Roballo and Walter Escobar Marín, both members of SUTEV, a teacher union affiliated to FECODE, and two other trade-unionists were assassinated last month, as the violence against trade union activists continues to mount.

Ramiro Cuadros Roballo worked for 20 years as a teacher and was a prominent union leader. In recent years he assisted teachers in their claims for debt payments at the local administration of Tulúa, in the department of Valle del Cauca. Due to his work in the defence and promotion of trade union and human rights he received many death threats over a period of several years, peaking at the end of 2008. On 24th March at 6am he was shot dead outside his house by a group of gunmen as he set off for work.

Cuadros had filed several complaints with the regional Special Committee for Displaced and Threatened Teachers, and completed the procedure to apply for the status of threatened teacher. These mechanisms are guaranteed in a 2003 Government Decree with the aim of protecting vulnerable teachers.

Walter Escobar Marín worked at an education institution in the district of Cali, Valle del Cauca. The circumstances of his death remain unknown, since his body was found in the district of Palmira on 21st March, after a reported absence at work of 8 days.

More:
http://www.ei-ie.org/en/news/show.php?id=1002&theme=rights&country=colombia

[Judi Lynn]

1. Earlier: Colombian teacher trade unionist assassinations mount

Colombian teacher trade unionist assassinations mount

1 October 2007

Four more teacher trade unionists have been murdered in recent weeks in the Colombian department of Antioquia, taking to over 1,000 lives the union death toll in that department alone.
The Colombian trade union federation CUT has notified campaign organisation Justice for Colombia of the most recent assassinations of teachers - all of whom were active in the teachers' trade union FECODE.

The most recent killing, on Wednesday 19 September, was of Rosalino Palacios Mosquera an English-language teacher in the town of Bello in Antioquia department. The 39-year-old was gunned down as she walked with her brother through the town. Her brother also died during the attack.

Previously, on 12 September, Alberto Valencia Correa, the head of a small primary school in the Envigado region of Antioquia, was also assassinated. Augusto Ramirez Atehortua, a teacher in the 'La Inmaculada' school in the town of Guarne, also in Antioquia, was murdered a week earlier on 6 September.

http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=2837

[Judi Lynn]

2. Earlier: Colombia: Two teacher unionists murdered in 5 days

2007-11-13 Colombia: Two teacher unionists murdered in 5 days

EI deplores the murder of two teacher trade unionists within the past week

Mercedes Consuelo Restrepo Campo was shot dead outside the 'San Juan Bosco' school in the town of Cartago by two armed men on a motorcycle on 7th November the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Colombia – CUT - reports.

Restrepo, who had been a teacher for 30 years, served on the executive board of SUTEV, a regional affiliate of EI member FECODE, in the department of Valle de Cauca.

Her murder follows that of Leonidas Silva Castro on 2nd November. He was murdered in his home in the Barrio Prados del Norte neighbourhood in the town of Villacaro. Castro had arrived home after attending a trade union event. He was an active member of ASINORT – another FECODE affiliate.

Colombia remains the most dangerous country in the world to be a trade unionist. The EI Barometer found that violence against trade unionists is endemic. Union leaders are targets of attacks by armed groups for political reasons. Teachers, who make up almost one-third of the organised work force, especially so.

http://www.ei-ie.org/en/news/show.php?id=662&theme=rights&country=colombia

[Judi Lynn]

3. Teacher murdered by shadowy hands in the town of Puerto Tejada, Cauca.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Teacher murdered by shadowy hands in the town of Puerto Tejada, Cauca.

PUBLIC DENUNCIATION

(Translated by Peter Lenny, a CSN volunteer translator)


The question we keep asking is how long we educators will have to stand for the barbarity we are subject to by this decadent State misgoverned under purported security policies, which in practice have brought nothing but desolation, displacement and death to Colombia.

We have not yet finishing mourning three murdered teachers, our colleagues, and already we face another period of mourning for our colleague Bernarda Zúñiga. She was threatened with death in the town of Buenos Aires Cauca, and was working as a teacher in Puerto Tejada where she was tragically killed. What is especially worrying teachers in Cauca is, firstly, that all these murders have been committed against teachers who are members of our trade union; secondly, that three of the four murders were against women; and lastly, that all these cases have gone unpunished and the government has not even made any kind of pronouncement.

The Cauca teachers’ association “ASOINCA” repudiates the vile murder of the educator, our colleague, BERNARDA ZÚÑIGA IMBACHI, who worked at the “San Pedro Claver” educational institution in the town of Puerto Tejada.

On 21 May 2007, she was found murdered with a gunshot wound to the head at a deserted part of the La Ventura area of the Timba district in the municipality of Buenos Aires. She had been receiving death threats for the last year and a half, and the Committee on Death Threats had accordingly granted her official “under threat” status. What we cannot accept is that the local administration transferred her, with no protection, to a place close to where she was later killed, because hers was a very risky case. For that reason, we demand an investigation and the corresponding declaration from the authorities. This murder was perpetrated by persons unknown who took her from a party where she was talking to friends.

In her teaching career, this educator and colleague, who at the time of her death was a member or our union, won distinction for her academic qualifications which, with the greatest quality and dedication, she placed at the service of all her students at the various teaching institutions where she worked in the state. She was also a colleague who distinguished herself in the struggle for public education, for the rights of teachers, children, young people and the underprivileged generally.

More:
http://www.colombiasupport.net/news/2007/07/teacher-murdered-by-shadowy-hands-in.html

[Judi Lynn]

4. Wednesday, 1 April 2009, 3:39 pm: Violence In Colombia Continues

Violence In Colombia Continues
Wednesday, 1 April 2009, 3:39 pm
Press Release: International Trade Union Confederation

Violence In Colombia Continues

Brussels, 27 March 2009: Murders of trade union leaders and members and violence against the trade union movement are continuing, despite the Colombian authorities' assertions to the contrary. Ramiro Cuadros Roballo, Walter Escobar Marín, José Alejandro Amado Castillo and Alexander Pinto Gómez were murdered this March, bringing to nine the number of trade unionists killed in 2009.

For years, Ramiro Cuadros Roballo, a member of the Valle Teachers' Union (SUTEV), a branch of the Colombian Teachers' Federation (FECODE) in Valle del Cauca department, had been receiving threats, and these became more frequent at the end of last year. These threats were duly reported to the appropriate authorities and to the Valle Committee for Threatened and Displaced Persons, which was examining his case, since another teacher, Cuadros Robayo, had followed the procedure specified by Decree 3222 of 2003 to secure recognition as a threatened teacher. On 24 March, as he was about to drive to work, he was confronted by gunmen, who shot him and fled.

Walter Escobar worked at the José María Carbonell school, in the city of Cali in Valle del Cauca department. The circumstances surrounding his murder are not known, since his corpse was found in the city of Palmira on 21 March. He had not been at school for eight days.

José Alejandro Amado Castillo and Alexander Pinto Gómez, of the Girón Santander High and Medium Security Prison, were also murdered in March. On their way home in an official vehicle, they were killed by gunmen on motorbikes. They were both members of the Trade Union Organisation of Employees of the National Penitentiary and Prisons Institution, INPEC ASEINPEC, an affiliate of CGT (General Confederation of Labour).

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0904/S00016.htm