Four teacher trade unionists murdered in Antioquia
News from Colombia |
on: Wednesday, 26 September 2007
The Colombian trade union federation CUT has notified Justice for Colombia of four recent assassinations of teachers – all of whom were active in the teachers' trade union FECODE – in the department of Antioquia.
The most recent killing, on Wednesday 19th September, was of Rosalino Palacios Mosquera an English-language teacher in the town of Bello in Antioquia department. The 39-year-old was gunned down as she walked with her brother through the town. Her brother also died during the attack.
On 12th September Alberto Valencia Correa, the head of a small primary school in the Envigado region of Antioquia, was also assassinated. In addition Augusto Ramirez Atehortua, a teacher in the 'La Inmaculada' school in the town of Guarne, also in Antioquia, was murdered the previous week on September 6th.
According to the CUT document received by Justice for Colombia another assassination took place on June 23rd. This time the victim was Julio Cesar Gomez Cano, the leader of the regional branch of FECODE, known as ADIDA.
The CUT reports that these latest killings bring the number of assassinations of trade unionists in the department of Antioquia alone to over 1000 (one thousand) of whom 257 have been members of ADIDA-FECODE.
To read the original CUT document in Spanish please visit their website at http://www.cut.org.co//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=323&Itemid=1
