New York Times
Reuters
January 26, 2001

BOGOTA, Colombia, Jan. 25 -- Gunmen have shot and killed a union leader in a banana-growing region in northern Colombia, authorities said on Thursday.

Police said two men fired three rounds from close range into Jose Luis Guette in the Caribbean city of Cienaga, which is the scene of frequent clashes between leftist rebels and outlawed right-wing death squads.

No group has claimed responsibility for Wednesday's killing, which underscores Colombia's reputation among labor rights groups as one the most dangerous countries in the world for unions.

Since 1995, 1,522 labor leaders have been killed in Colombia, mostly by paramilitary groups, according to figures by the country's leading labor organization, the Unified Labor Confederation (CUT).

In 2000 alone, 116 labor leaders were killed in Colombia, whose 36-year civil war has claimed 35,000 civilian lives in the last decade alone.

Last December, right-wing gunmen shot and wounded labor leader Wilson Borja, head of of Colombia's 700,000 strong-public sector workers' union Fenaltrase.

Borja, who was attacked as he left his home in the capital Bogota, is also a member of the the central committee of Colombia's small Communist Party.

The Geneva-based International Labor Office in December called on President Andres Pastrana's government to crack down on violence against organized labor.