Guatemala: Trade Unionist Shot at by Municipal Official

[Judi Lynn]

Guatemala: Trade Unionist Shot at by Municipal Official

Brussels, 28 January 2010: The ITUC and its Guatemalan affiliates – the Confederation of Trade Union Unity of Guatemala (CUSG,) the General Guatemalan Workers Centre (CGTG) and UNSITRAGUA (Trade Union of Guatemalan Workers) – roundly condemn the attack suffered by Abel Barsilai Girón Roldán, a member of the Zaragoza municipal workers’ union.

The trade unionist was shot at by Héctor Marroquín, a senior member of the municipal council. According to reports received by the ITUC, the assailant fired 13 shots but fortunately failed to hit Girón Roldán. The police were informed of the attack, but said that "firing a weapon is not a crime". Members of Girón Roldán’s family have also received death threats.

Since 15 January 2008, 60 members of the Zaragoza municipal workers’ union have been dismissed on charges of "forming a trade union organisation". Their dismissal coincided with the appointment of municipal council members.

In aletter to the Guatemalan authorities, ITUC and TUCA (ITUC’s regional organisation for the Americas) call on President Álvaro Colom to promptly take every possible measure to shed light on this latest in the constant succession of acts of violence against the trade union movement and to protect Abel Barsilai Girón Roldán and his entire family.

More:
http://www.ituc-csi.org/guatemala-trade-unionist-shot-at.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. "firing a weapon" (13 shots at a trade unionist) "is not a crime"? LOL! Gasp!

And attempting to form a union is a "crime"?

A lot of work yet to be done to reform Guatemala. A country where TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND Mayan villagers were slaughtered by the military and its rightwing death squads, with Reagan's complicity, in the 1980s, still has vestiges of that psychotic element around, and I'm sure is not being helped one little bit by the U.S. State Department, the USAID and the CIA. In fact, I wouldn't at all be surprised if our mercenary assassins, so active in Afghanistan and Iraq, and CIA psyops teams, are not also operating in Latin America, and/or recruiting/training local assassins and dirty tricksters, to destroy democracy and install rightwing dictators once again. That is what is happening in the two most prominent U.S. client states--Honduras and Colombia. We have to presume that that is what the U.S. government wants everywhere: dead leftists, rightwing dictators.

Guatemala had a rash of political assassinations around the last election (the one that Colom--a leftist--won). Some 50 political candidates or their aides--mostly leftists--were killed. Interesting how little coverage this got in our corpo-fascist press. Guatemala is only two countries away, and is one of the U.S. government's prime "shock doctrine" basketcases.

I've been following various CIA psyops/disinformation activities against leftist leaders in Latin America--in so far as the tips of the icebergs leak into the press--and that strange event in Guatemala, recently, targeting President Colom--a man committed suicide and left behind a tape saying Colom murdered him--has that smell, if you know what I mean. That "Mission Impossible" smell. It was reminiscent of the CIA "suitcase full of money" caper out of Miami, trying to sully Hugo Chavez and Cristina Fernandez (leftist president of Argentina). Colom was cleared of any connection to that suicide by an independent, international investigative commission. But, jeez, what the hell could have been behind such a bizarre plot? (Same with the Miami caper: Hugo Chavez sends $700,000 in bricks of campaign cash to Fernandez, using a Miami mafia character named "Guido" to take it in a suitcase through customs in Argentina???? As Chavez's VP pointed out, if they had wanted to do this, they could've taken it on Chavez's plane the next day with full diplomatic immunity. Why would they take such a risk (--not to mention using Miami mafia, for godssakes)--if that's what they intended to do? Smell-l-l-l-l-y! But still, the Miami Hairball made a lot of headlines out of it.)

Just imagine what it would be like to be the target of such a plot. You would start looking over your shoulder. You would start suspecting everybody. You could become victim to paranoia. You might start zipping your lip, as to criticizing the powers that you suspected were behind the plot, and fearing to cross them. You would feel helpless, as to defending yourself--because it's a set up. You're made to look guilty whatever you say--and even if you are exonerated.

Kudos to Chavez, who has been one of the main targets of this sort of thing--and a lot else. It has not shut him up.

In any case, Colom has his hands full trying to un-shock Guatemala after decades and decades of exploitation, impoverishment and horrendous violence, made-in-the-USA.