Miami Herald
March 17, 2001
By Frances Robles

PUERTO BARRIOS, Guatemala -- The banana workers in Morales, Guatemala, planned something of a strike one night, and the townspeople wouldn't hear of it.

So its doctors, lawyers, bakers and cattlemen -- even the mayor and president of the chamber of commerce -- piled into pickups for a ride to the local union hall, according to testimony at a trial now going on here. They allegedly packed pistols and made threats so they could walk out with resignation letters from five leaders of Guatemala's largest private sector labor syndicate.

What happened Oct. 13, 1999, on the Atlantic coast of Guatemala is now being disputed in court: 24 men are on trial for coercion and false imprisonment. But it is also being debated from Guatemala City to the halls of Washington, because depending on what happens with this case and others, Guatemala's $2.6 billion in U.S. exports could see higher taxes and lower quotas.

"They told us that because of us, Morales was going to turn into a ghost town," said Jorge Palma, secretary of SITRABI, the Banana Workers Union of Izabal. "They said, 'Kill them! People like these ruin this town! We'll kill you one by one!"'

Taken from their homes by force, the men signed the letters resigning from Bandegua, a subsidiary of Coral Gables-based Del Monte Fresh Produce. Then they went into hiding and never came back, triggering one of the most closely-watched labor-rights cases in years.

"If they had asked me to do anything, I would have done that too, because I wanted to save my life and my co-workers lives," he testified between sobs. "We were thankful it didn't get bloody, but we wanted to go free. They didn't have to do this. This was a labor issue."

International observers have packed the courtroom in the hopes that American trade benefits can be used as leverage to force labor rights improvements and judicial reform in a country where 12 labor leaders have been murdered in the past seven years. The U.S. Trade Representative held hearings on the case last week in Washington to decide whether Guatemala's labor rights record should effect the $45 million it made in trade benefits last year.

"We're watching it and letting agencies know what we see," said embassy spokeswoman Kay Webb Mayfield. "We're looking at past labor disputes and seeing if they improve the way disputes are handled."

Stephen Coats, executive director of the U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project, said the case is the most prominent test case seen in at least five years. What's extraordinary, he said, is that it made it to court at all.

The union's conflicts secretary Angel Enrique Villedas began his testimony Thursday with a solemn opening: "First I want to be clear: if any physical harm comes to me or any of our families, the people responsible would be these."

He glanced over at the defendants.

Villedas, the four other witnesses and their families are now in hiding.

A spokeswoman at Del Monte's Coral Gables headquarters did not return a call seeking comment. Its subsidiary, Bandegua, denies involvement and said it encourages international observers. The company has since resolved the illegal firings of 900 workers -- the incident that sparked the labor dispute.

"As soon as they told us there were anomalies with the resignation letters, we did not accept them," said the company's lawyer, Vinicio Garcia Pimentel. "This had absolutely nothing to do with the company. This was between the town and the union. This has nothing to do with labor relations. This had to do with something else: criminal acts."

Lawyers for the suspects say there were no crimes, just friendly chats between the five union leaders and 600 friends who sought to stop a strike.

"There were 600 people there that night, including the mayor. They definitely weren't armed, some defendants weren't even there and others will have alibis," said Mario Porta Navas, who represents 16 defendants. "These are honorable people -- bakers and market owners. The whole town was there that night. If something really happened, then they'd have to charge 300 people."