Colombia - Trade union leader attacked by security forces

On 10 January 2014 workers of the hydroelectric Caldas-CHEC (Central Hidroeléctrica de Caldas) – members of SINTRAELECOL-CUT, an IndustriALL Global Union affiliate – conducted a demonstration demanding the right to implement their Collective Agreement. The demonstrators also denounced the abuses committed by the Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM) against the communities in Caldas.

Demonstrators were violently attacked and beaten by the Escuadrón Móvil Antidisturbios, using explosive devices; one of these explosives seriously injured several workers and their families. Among them, the President of CUT and SINTRAELECOL-Caldas, Arturo Oscar OROZCO, who is still in hospital in a very serious condition, suffering critical injuries to his eyes. Reports say that Arturo Orozco has lost his left eye, and that doctors are struggling to save his right eye and to reconstruct his face.

This is fourth attack on Oscar Orozco’s life, who has suffered persecution by the security and justice agencies of the Colombian state and in particular by the Attorney General’s Office. Deliberately ignoring his role as a trade union and community leader, the Attorney General’s Office has attempted to convict Oscar Orozco claiming that he has staged “self- attacks”.

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