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May 12, 202111 min read

Violence against trade union activists in Colombia: An old problem which refuses to go away.

Updated: Jun 13, 2022

Murdered trade union representatives Alcides Cotes Jurado (L) and Hernán Ayala Melo (R).

Four years have passed since Colombia signed the Final Peace Agreement to end almost fifty years of war that left a huge impact on the history of the country and on millions of Colombians who today are still victims of violence, and who are experiencing a far from perfect peace. The Colombian State intends to continue making policies that address the problem of drugs, terrorism, and a commitment to the defense and promotion of human rights. However, within the framework of social leaders, it is quite simple to discern that this is not being accomplished. The activity of the leaders is constantly affected by the clash with the private interests of other groups such as the paramilitaries and guerrilla dissidents. The growing political polarization in Colombia concerning the implementation of peace policies shows that the fractures in Colombian politics and the extremely weak responses from the government only intensify the magnitude of risk to which Colombian social leaders are exposed every day.


In Colombia, getting involved in certain roles within economic, political, and particularly social fields is quite dangerous. Within this outlook, acting as a social leader positions you in a vastly vulnerable situation within Colombian society. During the last few years, anywhere between four hundred and nine hundred social leaders from various communities and roles have been murdered at the hands of various actors, among which neo-paramilitary groups stand out. Initially, it is essential to be clear about the context that surrounds the specific type of leaders on which this project is focused: trade union leaders. According to the British employment law company Castle Associates: “In the workplace, a trade union representative is an employee who will represent and defend the rights of workers.”(2017). These leaders are the ones who act in the name of the trade union, and they seek to mediate efficient responses to their demands.


This type of work means that on occasion, the position of the trade union is seen as contrary to the interests of the business. This dynamic means that in the international context, trade union representatives may face threats and violence. Colombian trade union representatives focus on projects related to supporting the human rights activities of Colombian workers, providing funds for workers’ organizations, and establishing relations with international workers’ organizations, etc. This is why their work is so dangerous. By defending these interests they collide with the private interests of others, and a threat emerges. In some cases, illegality is part of this dispute, and the risk concerning the life and integrity of these leaders increases. As a consequence, the exercise of this work has resulted in large numbers of murders over the years.


As reported by the 2019 Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights: “During 2019, CUT Colombia reported twelve murders, one hundred ninety-eight death threats, eleven acts of intimidation, four attempted murders and one forced disappearance, amounting to a total of two hundred twenty-six acts of violence directly targeting workers and union leaders.”(2019). These alarming figures not only show the cruel circumstances of the leaders, but also the distinctive types of violence to which they are subjected.


However, it is crucial to broaden the scope to have a better understanding of the historical context of violence towards trade union workers. According to the National Trade Union School (ENS) when talking specifically about Trade Union leaders, it is necessary to understand that these have been the class of leaders who have most been in danger historically throughout Colombian history, the history of the country where 63% of worldwide murders of trade unionists are committed. This indicates to us how deadly trade union work has been not only during this government but throughout the recent history of the country.

Now, in addition to the general examination of the statistics of violence against trade unionists within the general framework of social leaders, it is necessary to establish a more concise and specific study within the cases of union leaders who have been killed.


In Colombia, the murder of social leaders has been normalized as an unpunished crime that apparently shows no signs of ceasing but neither will it be given enough spotlight to rally sufficient people regarding how alarming this gravely problematic situation really is. For this reason, understanding and sharing the stories of leaders killed may help to generate more empathy and a call for justice on behalf of the general population. One of those leaders was Alcides de Jesús Cotes Jurado, a member of the Complaints and Claims Commission of the Union of Security Transport Workers (Sintravalores), who was assassinated on April 14 2016, while he was supplying a Bancolombia ATM in Santa Marta. Alcides had suffered harassment and threats from his boss who had told him that he should “take care of himself on the street” if he did not resign from the union. Hernán Ayala Melo was another such victim. He had worked for nineteen years at Inpec (security force in charge of prisons) and was head of the Judicial Police of the Cúcuta prison until his murder on October 23, 2018. Hernán had been targeted for his union activism; he had discovered irregular procedures in prison and had reported death threats against him. There has been no justice in either case (AIL, 2020).


Following the same thread, the numbers regarding trade union leaders speak for themselves, and yet, even though the murder rates are already high enough to reflect the country’s indifference in ensuring and protecting the rights of its people, this only belongs to a small fraction of the injustices within the context of violence against social leaders and human rights defenders in the country. According to the latest report from Colombia’s interior minister, citing data from the Chief Prosecutor’s Office and the National Police in collaboration with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, we find that there were around 370 homicides of social leaders between 2016 and mid-March 2020 (Colombia Peace, 2020). Moreover, across a similar timespan, the INDEPAZ institute shows an even higher figure: 872 murders between January 1, 2016, and September 8, 2019, and last year alone, the institute had more than 251 murders, with Cauca (84) and Antioquia (26) being the most affected departments. This means that, on average, according to Indepaz figures, in 2020 each week six defenders were killed.


The most striking characteristic in this phenomenon is actually how there remains a space for the unknown. The reasons why statistics tend to vary a lot is because of the increasingly common nature of cases leading to an inability on behalf of some organisations to effectively verify attacks; this leads to underestimated figures of the number of murders. More than half of the estimated cases have happened in “municipalities with illicit economies where criminal groups or armed groups operate” (Colombia Peace, 2020) and no matter how little humanity there is within such acts, it is often easy for some to assume that those killed were related to coca crops and drug trafficking as opposed to social leaders since sometimes those people responsible of the murders are not made public because of fear and threats or because they are strategically removed.

Unfortunately, one of the multiple reasons why it is so difficult to expect basic respect and justice for human rights defenders’ lives is because they are unfairly having to shoulder the burden of the bad decisions and weak structure that the Colombian government has been displaying for numerous years. It can not simply be ignored how 86% of the murder reports occurred in villages with a poverty rate above the national average (Colombia Peace, 2020). Similarly, there is little focus on how because of the power vacuum, illegal groups have decided to take over their territories, and even exploit them for illegal work activities. The government can not simply expect an agreement on paper alone to solve the many problems which allow these dynamics to exist and thrive. What is needed is true commitment to working in partnership with these long overlooked communities. Communities which face the worst of this wave of violence throughout the country. In the end, just focusing on statistics and possibilities will not explain the reason why these killings are happening in the first place.


In this sense, bearing in mind how serious and alarming the situation is regarding murders and harassment of Trade Union Leaders in Colombia is, it is necessary to consider the institutional responses to the current circumstances and how effective they have been. One of the Colombian government’s first actions on this issue was the result of international pressure from labor and human rights organizations on internal institutions. These numerous criticisms led to the establishment of a “Plan of Action Related to Labor Rights” (Plan de Acción Laboral), in which the government committed to targeting the attacks and killings of trade unionists and to bring justice to the victims, intending to protect workers’ rights. Furthermore, as the AFL-CIO reported, the peace agreement with the FARC is another response to the violence against trade unionists that must be taken into account. This is because even though different government representatives promised to end the violence since 2016, investigations and complaints have been generated, and there has been a wide violation of work commitments and guarantees (“Murdered Trade Unionists: The Truth Behind Colombia’s Trade Agreement | AFL-CIO,” 2019). As was noted above, the agreement on paper means little without the commitment of all necessary parties.


In this context of recent responses and critics, it is worthy to look at some older political and security measures, but ones which are consolidated in the state for the defense of union leaders. According to the defense ministry, since 1999 in Colombia, the Ministry of Social Protection has established a high investment figure for the protection of the members of the workers’ unions, because even then there were signs of violence and persecution. With this investment, three committees of Regulation and Evaluation of Risk were established in the legal and political institutions of the country, and one of them specialized in trade union representative cases. This program of protection developed two types of measures: The Political Measures and the Security Measures. The first ones are related to the public recognition of activities in favour of human rights and the establishment of meetings, within the state and with civil society. The second one is more related to structure and elements which can be helpful to preserve the life and integrity of leaders in danger; such as communication devices, transport and mobilization, bulletproof vests, and others. Besides these security measures, one of the government’s most important advances in protecting trade union lives was the creation of the National Protection Unit (UNP) in 2011, which led to an expansion of the coverage of the number of protected leaders, an increment in risk studies, and the implementation of measures to speed up the response to protection requests (Escuela Nacional Sindical, 2018). Moreover, in March 2016, the UNP pointed out that some of its main achievements have been: the User Attention Group, the participation of the labor unions in CERREM, and the participation in the Commission of Human Rights of Workers (Escuela Nacional Sindical, 2018).


However, without ignoring the efforts of the Colombian government to respond to violence against union leaders, it is undeniable that these have been insufficient because it has not yet been possible to carry out profound transformations in the operational and institutional perspective. Leaders continue to be targeted and killed throughout the country despite these added security measures. Therefore, it is necessary to continue constructing the analysis, needing to consider which responses may be more effective according to trade union leaders and their organizations.


Taking into account everything mentioned in the previous paragraphs, many international and national actors have analyzed the situation and given recommendations on what should be done to stop the massacres and assassinations of social leaders, human rights defenders, and defenders of workers’ rights in Colombia. One example of such international actors is the United Nations and its High Commissioner for Human Rights, which periodically sends rapporteurs to Colombia to monitor the development in terms of the defense of human rights and to make new recommendations or insist on previous ones. During the last visit in 2018, the rapporteur made several recommendations, of which the one that stands out the most (because as of the time of writing it has not been accomplished despite being necessary to do so) is the invitation to the Colombian government to sign the Escazú agreement (“Declaración de fin de visita – Colombia”, 2019), which is an important international agreement for the conservation and protection of the human rights of those living in rural areas of the countryside; particularly those plagued by violence.


As another example, the UNCaribe Think Tank compiled data presented in 2020 by the Observatory of Armed Conflict Dynamics in the Colombian Caribbean and presented such data in the categories of armed actions, and breaches of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), to recommend to the Colombian Government certain guidelines for the eradication of violence and the preservation of human rights in the Caribbean area. Among these recommendations is the highlighting of the work of human rights defense leaders: “The national and local governments should promote campaigns in different media highlighting the work of human rights defenders and the importance of their activity for communities and democracy.”. UNCaribe also promotes the involvement of different governmental actors to provide better solutions to the population: “Actively involve mayors and governors of municipalities and departments where this problem is critical in order to formulate public policies with a specific territorial approach, taking into account the real institutional capacities of these administrations.”, and to “Promote the signing of local humanitarian agreements or pacts between communities and illegal armed actors or the de facto powers that control these territories.” (Trejos Rosero & Badillo Sarmiento, 2020). This last recommendation underlines the uncomfortable truth that in certain sub-regions, illegal actors hold more authority than the state.


Thanks to the data collected at the time of writing, and bearing in mind that over the years the Colombian government has repeatedly and intentionally ignored the recommendations that various entities such as the United Nations (UN) have made in their annual reports, we strongly invite the Colombian Government to consider the various recommendations made by national and international actors; to reinforce the efforts to establish state presence in the most affected territories in order to prevent illegal armed groups from continuing to gain territorial control of those areas; to ensure investigations of human rights violations in vulnerable Colombian territories, and finally, we extend an invitation to Colombian citizens as those principally affected by this grave situation to raise awareness in different fields, whether it be social, political or via the media.


In this vein, it is possible to conclude that the current situation of systematic murders of union leaders is only one layer of the systematic violence against human rights defenders in Colombian territory. Likewise, it was possible to analyze the seriousness of this phenomenon, which endangers the lives of trade unionists and involves not just collective statistics, but painful individual cases.


Although measures have been taken by the government to protect the lives of trade unionist, there is still a long way to go; therefore, it is relevant to listen to those directly affected, and follow the recommendations of the specialists on the subject, such as international and national actors. Responding to and acknowledging the violence against human rights defenders, social leaders and trade unionists is not only a necessity but also a historical debt that needs to be paid.


*Article written by Alejandra Cabello De Ángel, Gary Suarez, Isabella Palacio & Tania Charris


References

Castaño, J. (n.d.). Panorama del sindicalismo en Colombia. http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/kolumbien/09150.pdf

Castle Associates Ltd. (2017, August 14). What does a trade union rep do? Understanding the role of a trade union representative. https://castleassociates.org.uk/blog/what-does-trade-union-rep-do-understanding-role-trade-union-representative

Escuela Nacional Sindical. (2018). Informe de Especial: Violencia antisindical, impunidad y protección a sindicalistas en Colombia 2012 – 2017. Medellín, Colombia: Gobernación de Antioquia https://ail.ens.org.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/Violencia-antisindical-impunidad-y-protecci%C3%B3n-a-sindicalistas-en-Colombia-1.pdf

INDEPAZ. (2020). Radiografía de la violencia contra los líderes asesinados en Colombia – Indepaz http://www.indepaz.org.co/radiografia-de-la-violencia-contra-los-lideres-asesinados-en-colombia/

ITUC Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights. (2019). Global Rights Index. https://survey.ituc-csi.org/Colombia.html?lang=en#tabs-3

M. (2020). El país de los 3.240 sindicalistas asesinados. Agencia de Información Laboral – AIL. https://ail.ens.org.co/informe-especial/el-pais-de-los-3-240-sindicalistas-asesinados/

Murdered Trade Unionists: The Truth Behind Colombia’s Trade Agreement | AFL-CIO. (2019, May 16). AFL-CIO. https://aflcio.org/2019/5/16/murdered-trade-unionists-truth-behind-colombias-trade-agreement

Soto, L., Ávila, A., Ortiz, A., & Pacheco-Girón, A. (2020, October 22). Estos son los líderes asesinados desde que Duque llegó al poder hasta marzo. La Silla Vacía. https://lasillavacia.com/estos-son-los-lideres-asesinados-desde-duque-llego-al-poder-hasta-marzo-78865

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