Model letter to the Colombian Embassy in your country

Señor Ambassador:

The (name of your organisation) in the name of its (number of members) in (name of your country) together with the organisations affiliated to the ICFTU, energetically protest the assassination on 20 October 1998 in Bogotá, of comrade JORGE ORTEGA, Vice President of the United Workers Organisation (CUT). This appalling crime confirms the total impunity which the most obscure sectors of the security apparatus enjoy in their barbarous attacks against Colombian civil society, especially against the trade union movement.

Comrade Jorge Ortega played a very important role in the Colombian trade union movement. His vehement plea for the repect of the most elementary human and trade union rights in Colombia touched the most profound fibre of all of us who met with him recently, both in Colombia and outside the country, including the recent meeting of the ICFTU Committee for the Defence of Human and Trade Union Rights, held in Brussels in December 1997.

As has become well known, Jorge Ortega received many death threats in recent weeks. The threats were related to the indefinite strike by State employees which has already run for two weeks and which was called in protest against the economic and fiscal measures taken by the government which gravely affect the situation of the poorest sectors of Colombian society, who have already been hit by the economic crisis.

The (name of your organisation) considers that this recent murder of a national trade union leader, coming after the murder of thousands of trade unionists in the last 10 years, finally confirms the total incapacity of your government to guarantee even the minimal norms of personal security for citizens of your country.

We therefore demand that your government immediately:

• open a full, public and impartial investigation of the assassination of Jorge Ortega;
• arrest the intellectual and material author or authors of this crime and place them at the disposition of the courts;
• offer public and effective guarantees for the personal security of all the leaders and activists of the Colombian trade union movement;
• renew in good faith the dialogue with the Colombian trade union movement so that it can participate fully in the resolution of the urgent economic and social problems of the country.

Meanwhile, we inform you that we are consulting with our fraternal organisations and the ICFTU over the measures to take so as to ensure the maximum pressure in the economic, political and diplomatic arenas, including at the level of the ILO, on the Colombian government in order to obtain urgent satisfaction of our demands.

We would be grateful to you for bringing this communication to the attention of your government, reaffirming to them the expression of our most distinguished consideration.

(signed) (leader of your organisation)