Interim Report - Report No 81, 1965

Case No 396 (Guatemala) - Complaint date: 01-OCT-64 - Closed

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169. The complaint is contained in a communication dated 1 October 1964 transmitted to the I.L.O by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. It was then forwarded to the Government, which sent its observations on 11 December 1964.
170. Guatemala has ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

171. The complaint alleges that Mr. Eustaquio Paz Muralles, peasant leader of the Guatemalan Social Federation of Christian Peasants, has been subjected to unjust and pro longed imprisonment. The Latin American Confederation of Christian Trade Unionists (C.L.A.S.C.) requests intervention by the I.L.O to secure his release.
172. In its reply the Government states that it obtained a statement from the Secretary-General of the Guatemalan Social Federation of Christian Peasants, Mr. Adolfo Antonio Hernández Contreras, to the effect that in October 1963 Mr. Paz Muralles was elected Disputes Secretary of the Federation, a post which he held until April 1964 when he was elected to the Advisory Council of the Guatemalan Christian Democratic Party and left the Executive Committee of the Federation; he is now indicted for the murder of the brothers Padilla Garcia. The Government maintains that this occurrence has nothing to do with freedom of association and that the case of Mr. Paz Muralles is the sole responsibility of the courts.

173. In previous cases where allegations that trade union leaders or workers have been arrested or detained on account of trade union activities have been met by governments with statements that the arrests or detentions were made for subversive activities, for reasons of internal security or for common law crimes, the Committee has always followed the rule that the governments concerned should be requested to submit further information as precise as possible concerning the arrests or detentions and the exact reasons therefor. If in certain cases the Committee has concluded that allegations relating to the arrest or detention of trade union militants did not call for further examination, this has been after it has received information from the governments concerned showing in a sufficiently clear and detailed way that the arrests or detentions were in no way occasioned by trade union activities but solely by activities outside the trade union sphere which were either prejudicial to public order or of a political nature.
174. Moreover, in the past the Committee has always followed the practice of not proceeding to examine matters which were the subject of pending national judicial proceedings offering all the guarantees of normal judicial procedure where such proceedings might make available information of assistance to the Committee in appreciating whether or not allegations were well founded.

175. In these circumstances the Committee recommends the Governing Body to request the Government for a copy of the judgment in the case of Mr. Eustaquio Paz Muralles, together with the grounds on which it is based, and meanwhile to postpone examination of the case.