Colombia’s largest labor union CUT says not six, but nine labor activists have been assassinated so far this year.
According to the Presidential Program of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Right, the number of unionists killed in Colombia is six, after the assassination of a labor rights leader last weekend.
But according to Tarcisio Mora, chairman of the Colombia’s largest workers union CUT, Hernán Polo was the ninth murdered unionist.
“The policy of extermination of union leaders and especially those of the Central Union of Workers continues, because we had the civilian courage to distance ourselves from the government policies,” Mora told Terra Colombia.
Labor rights and the situation for labor rights activists in Colombia is one of the main reasons for the Democratic majority in U.S. Congress to block a free trade agreement with Colombia. The Obama administration demands Colombia to improve the situation of the labor movement before agreeing to approve free trade.