At least 18 unionists where killed in Colombia and 359 received death threats in 2012.
In July 2012, Eder Tomás Cárdenas Chitiva, a union leader of SINDISPETROL, was murdered in the town of Paratebueno, Cundinamarca. He was part of a group of workers of the Spanish group Masa Acciona, who staged permanent assembly to press for the initiation of negotiations. According to union representatives, since the beginning of the permanent assembly, workers have begun to receive death threats from criminal armed groups.