Appeal n° 311 (25 October - 10 December 2007)

Almost eleven years after the peace agreements between the government and the guerrilla were signed, the level of violence in Guatemala is still that of a country at war, where human, economic, social, and cultural rights are constantly violated. Poverty is growing at an alarming rate, as a result of the Free Trade Agreement and of the extreme concentration of economic power. During the last three years of Oscar Berger’s presidential term, 629 assaults on human rights advocates were recorded. This earns the country second place, just after Columbia, in the gloomy record of attacks against human rights advocates and trade unionists(1). During the recent electoral campaign, no fewer than 21 homicides were recorded. Today, the spectre of the death squads has risen once again with the murder of a trade unionist.

On 23 September 2007, at 5:45am, Marco Tulio Ramirez Portela left his home for work. His small house was located within the Yuma plantation, which belongs to Bandegua, one of the suppliers of the multinational company Del Monte. In front of his wife, Marco Tulio was shot dead by several masked and heavily armed men. This banana worker was also the Secretary for Culture and Sports of the Guatemalan Banana Workers Union of Izabal (SITRABI(2)), that defends the plantation workers employed by Del Monte. His brother, Noé Antonio Ramirez Portela, is the union’s current General Secretary. There is no doubt as to these being the reasons for the murder.

Marco Tulio had been threatened with dismissal several times; he was accused of sabotaging production and encouraging the other workers to illegally stop work or to go on strike. This trade unionist’s murder is a typical example of the escalation of violence and institutional impunity in Guatemala.

More and more threats

On 20 July 2007, between 8pm and 11pm, five soldiers in uniforms raided the SITRABI headquarters. They interrogated two activists to obtain the names of the union’s leaders, the number of members, when they met, and further private information. The number plate of the pick-up truck that had transported the soldiers was noted down and one of the protagonists was identified by the cap he was wearing. The soldiers hid behind their special status and refused to reveal their identity. The trade union reacted immediately and, in a meeting that was eventually granted in September, the Ministry of Defence agreed to launch an internal inquiry.

There is nothing new about these intimidations. On 13 October 1999(3) a group of armed men had forced the trade union’s leaders to give up their positions and their jobs. The culprits were sued and were sentenced to three and a half years in jail, but the union leaders were forced into exile.

In 2000, the members of SITRABI’s executive committee received regular phone calls threatening them with their lives. Despite the complaints lodged with the state prosecutor and with the special section that deals with crimes against journalists and trade unionists, nothing came of it, due to the lack of evidence.

Around 8:30pm on 26 November 2006, armed men stopped Cesar Humberto López, member of the executive committee, when he was driving one of the trade union’s vehicles, and smashed his windscreen with stones. No legal action ensued from this incident.

Finding the murderers and those behind the crimes

Marco Tulio’s murder sadly resembles the style of the “death squads” that left such a deep imprint on recent Guatemalan history. (see Further Information). Yet it is impossible that the murderers have not been identified in some way.

The events took place inside a guarded property, the entrances and exits of which are strictly controlled by private guards(4). A pass is required for any vehicle to enter the premises and security guards also check anyone leaving. Moreover, there are regular patrols around the buildings.

This type of provocation is on-going. Between 8pm and 11pm on 28 September 2007, masked motorcyclists armed with AK47 rifles drove between workers’ homes on the Bandegua plantation and threatened the trade union leaders and their families. At night, vehicles regularly enter the property and so maintain a constant state of insecurity.

Faced with this situation, so reminiscent of the darkest times in Guatemalan history, the International Trade-Union Movement and especially Latin American trade unions are mobilised to protect the SITRABI activists and urge the authorities to intervene and to ensure that justice is done.

The banana industry trade unions grouped together under COLSIBA (5) have called upon their counterparts and the Euroban coordination to relay this mobilisation.

(1) According to the OMCT and FIDH annual report
(2) Sindicato de Trabajadores Bananeros de Izabal
(3) Appeal n°213 (4 November 1999) Guatemala: the return of terror
(4) SERPROP, a private company, provides guards for the Bandegua plantation.
(5) COLSIBA is the Latin American coordination of banana trade unions.

FURTHER INFORMATION

The sad memory of the death squads

Numerous Latin American governments have engaged in gruesome "disappearance" and "death squad" practices; Guatemala is no exception. The Guatemalan death squads were born in the 1960s. In the 1980s the Guatemalan army stepped up the massacring of political dissidents and their alleged sympathisers to an unprecedented level. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights report published on 15 October 1981 accused the Guatemalan government of "thousands of summary executions."

Appeal in collaboration with:

- Euroban (European Banana Action Network): Peuples Solidaires is part of this collective of European trade unions and not-for-profit organizations. It strives to provide a sustainable banana economy and improve the living conditions of small producers and plantation workers. As part of Euroban, Peuples Solidaires supports workers’ organisations and seeks to raise awareness among French consumers.

- International Union of food, farm and hotel workers world-wide (UITA): www.iuf.org

WRITE!

By letter: copy the standard letter below or use your own wording. Remember to add your name, address and signature, and send it to the addressee.
Support message to partner: to give SITRABI an idea of the support on which it can rely, send them the message below!
E-mail: mgarcia@presidencia.gob.gt - Cc : sitrabi@itelgua.com
Reaction time: on reception, and until 10 December 2007.

Protest letter:

Presidente de la Republica de Guatemala
Licenciado Oscar Berger Perdomo
Casa Presidential6a.
Avenida, 4-18 zona 1
Ciudad de Guatemala
Guatemala

Señor Presidente,

Me he enterado por la asociación Pueblos Solidarios (Francia) del asesinato del sindicalista Marco Tulio Ramírez Portela, secretario de Cultura y Deportes del Sindicato de Trabajadores Bananeros de Izabal (SITRABI), el 23 de septiembre del 2007, por varios hombres enmascarados y armados, sobre la propriedad de la Compañía de Desarrollo Bananero de Guatemala (BANDEGUA), subsidiaria de la multinacional Del Monte Fresh, una de las más grandes productoras y distribuidoras de frutas.

Estoy sumamente indignado(a) por este intolerable atentado a la vida de un militante sindical pacífico, y exhorto a las autoridades de su país a:
  organizar inmediatamente una investigación imparcial e independiente sobre el asesinato de Marco Tulio Ramirez Portela ;
  garantizar que los responsables de este crimen, asi como las personas que lo ordenaron, sean rapidamente identificados, arrestados y debidamente juzgados ;
  tomar las medidas necesarias para poner fin a la impunidad que ampara las prácticas de terror de escuadrones de la muerte contra sindicalistas o defensores de los derechos humanos.

Atentamente,

Support message for the Guatemalan Banana Workers Union of Izabal (SITRABI):

SITRABI
Avenida Vicente Cozza.
4-17 Zona 1
Morales de Izabal
Guatemala

Estimados amigos de SITRABI,

Me he enterado(a) por Pueblos Solidarios del asesinato del sindicalista Marco Tulio Ramírez Portela, el 23 de septiembre de 2007. Estoy sumamente indignado(a) por este intolerable atentado a la vida de un militante sindical pacífico, y he enviado una carta al Presidente de Guatemala exhortándole a responder inmediatamente a vuestras demandas.

Saludos atentos,

TRANSLATIONS

Best regards,