DAS officials arrested for unionist’s murder

Two officials from Colombian security agency DAS were apprehended on Saturday for the murder of a union leader in 2005.

The two agents turned themselves in to authorities in the city of Valledupar, in the northern part of the country.

DAS detectives Sotomayor Gonzalez and Jose Antonio Riaño Noriega are being investigated for the murder of Luciano Enrique Romero, the leader of the food industry union SINALTRAINAL, which known for its legal actions against Coca Cola.

The two officials will have to respond to charges of murder and conspiracy to commit a crime.

The murder victim, who was working for a local Nestle factory, was found dead on September 11, 2005, one day after he disappeared. According to his union, he was “found strangled, tortured and his body had 46 stab wounds.”

Colombia is criticized worldwide for its violence against labor union workers. In 2009, more than half of all labor unionists murdered worldwide were from the Andean nation.

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