Forwarded message:
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 95 15:31 EST
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Christian Task Force on Central America BC)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: urgent action
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
MARCH 21,
1995
------------------------------------------------------------------URGENT
ACTION GUATEMALA URGENT ACTION GUATEMALA URGENT
TRADE UNIONIST KILLED.
Dear Friends,
We received an urgent action request from Amnesty International.
% ALEXANDER YOVANI GOMEZ VIRULA, a Guatemalan trade unionist, was
last seen at about 7:30p.m. on March 13 1995 near his home on the
road to Atlantico from Guatemala City. His family has been unable
to find him in detention centres or hospitals, and there is fear
that he may have been abducted in connection with his trade union
activities. When he went missing, he was on his way home from the
headquarters of the Guatemalan Workers' Union - UNSITRAGUA.
We just received the sad news that the body of Alexander was found
in a ravine in zone 18 of Guatemala City. He was apparently
beaten to death with massive blows to the head, face and abdomen.
The emergency team that recovered the body also reported seeing
several bullet wounds. His documents and belongings were found
nearby. According to preliminary forensic evidence, Gomez had been
killed approximately four days earlier, indicating that he had
been held for two days.
Immediately following his disappearance, strenuous efforts were
made to secure the intervention of government authorities in the
case. Union representatives tried to meet with the Minister of
Interior but received no response. UNSITRAGUA declared that, the
"lack of a quick response to this case, and many others, indicates
negligence by the government authorities as well as complicity
with paramilitary groups."
While eight members of UNSITRAGUA have been assassinated since the
middle of 1994, Alexander Gomez is the first victim from the
maquiladora sector.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION.
Alexander Gomez was financial Secretary of the (Sindicato de
Trabajadores) of R. C. A. Workers Union. In Guatemala R. C. A.
was a Korean-owned "maquiladora" or assembly-line factory, the
type of operation which has been moved from countries such as the
United States to those like Mexico and Guatemala in order to keep
labour costs down. The workers formed a union in August 1994 and
the response of the company was to closed down in order to destroy
the union. The closure of the factory violated the agreement that
the company signed with the Labor Ministry to keep the factory
open.
The workers occupied the factory in protest and they also charged
that the owners had not complied with their legal responsibilities
to them. The occupiers were subsequently evicted by a court order.
About 70 workers a continued the protest, amongst them Alexander
Yovany Gomez, pressing to have their rights to work and to
organize a trade union recognized by the Korean owners and
Guatemalan authorities.
Those attempting to organize trade unions in Guatemala have been
long-term targets of human rights violations, including
extrajudicial executions and disappearances.
In a recent incident on February 28 1995, Debora Guzman Chupen, a
leader of the trade union of L & L modas, a clothing assembly
factory, (maquiladora) went missing in similar circumstances to
those of Alexander Gomez. It was later revealed that she had been
abducted. Following her release, she reported that she had been
drugged and threatened with death and that her captors had
questioned her about her husband's trade union activities.
Numerous workers in maquiladoras report the almost slavery
conditions under which they are forced to work . The workers
conclude that different kinds of abuse and degrading treatment are
carried out in Korean-owned maquiladoras in Guatemala.
RECOMMENDED ACTION.
Please write to the Korean Embassy in Ottawa.
%Inform them about the brutal killing of Alexander Yovani Gomez,
former worker of a Korean maquiladora in Guatemala City.
%Request that the Korean Government investigate the labour
situation in maquiladoras owned by Korean companies in Guatemala
and in particular the closure of RCA.
%Remind the Korean Government that it is a member of the United
Nations and signatory of international treaties, so all Korean
companies must respect basic human rights and freedoms in any part
of the world.
Please write to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa,
requesting that the representatives of the Canadian Embassy in
Guatemala meet with the Minister of Defense about the abductions
and killings of workers in Guatemala. Express your concern about
the serious increase in human rights violations in Guatemala.
Please write to the United Nations Mission to Guatemala -MINUGUA-
expressing:
% Your concern for the increase in human rights violations.
% The need for an investigation of the abduction and killing of
Alexander Yovani Gomez Virula, bringing both, intellectual and
material authors to justice.
% The need for an investigation of the human rights violations at
the maquiladoras in Guatemala, in particular, the Korean-owned
assembly lines.
Appeals to: Ambassador of Korea. Korean Embassy 151 Slater St. ,
5th floor. Ottawa, Ontario. KIP 5H3 Fax # 613 232 0928.
Hon. Andre Ouellet. Minister of Foreign Affairs House of Commons.
Ottawa, Ontario. K1A OA6. Fax# 613 - 996 3443.
Sr. Leonardo Franco. MINUGUA. Hotel Las Americas. Avenida Las
Americas 9-08, zona 13. 9o. nivel Guatemala, Guatemala C. A. Fax
# 011 5022- 39 34 54
THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSE!
