Rights group decries latest Colombia union murders
By Hugh Bronstein
BOGOTA, Nov 7 (Reuters) - The murder of two Colombian labor leaders last week underscores the need for the government to start prosecuting those who have killed more than two dozen union members this year, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.
A free trade deal with the United States is stalled and U.S. military aid is being reconsidered due to rights concerns and a scandal linking members of Colombia's Congress to right-wing death squads known for gunning down union members.
Against this diplomatically sensitive backdrop, Jairo Giraldo of the national fruit-workers union and Leonidas Silva of a teachers' union were murdered in separate incidents. The killers have not been caught.
"The authorities must ensure these cases are vigorously investigated and prosecuted," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director for New York-based Human Rights Watch.
More than 2,500 trade unionists have been killed over the last 20 years and 26 in 2007 alone, and almost all of the cases are unsolved, according to Colombian labor rights groups.
Vivanco called the government's prosecution record "dismal."
Silva was shot at his home in the eastern province of Norte de Santander on Friday. Giraldo has gunned down on Saturday in the western province of Valle del Cauca. A spokesman for the attorney general said both cases will be investigated.
The Andean country is in a decades-old conflict involving Marxist rebels, far-right paramilitaries and other illegal bands funded by Colombia's multibillion-dollar cocaine trade.
Violence has eased under conservative President Alvaro Uribe thanks to his U.S.-backed crackdown on the rebels and a paramilitary peace deal under which thousands of fighters have turned in their guns since 2003.
The government has also stepped up protection of union members by providing armored cars and bodyguards to those considered at risk of violence.
Uribe was re-elected last year and remains popular despite a scandal in which dozens of his political allies, including his ex-senator cousin Mario Uribe, are being investigated for their dealings with paramilitary thugs.
(Reporting by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Stuart Grudgings)
