Interim Report - Report No 171, November 1977

Case No 823 (Chile) - Complaint date: 12-AUG-75 - Closed

44. The Committee already examined this case in February, May and November 1976 and in February 1977 and submitted an interim report at each of these sessions.

1. 44. The Committee already examined this case in February, May and November 1976 and in February 1977 and submitted an interim report at each of these sessions.
2. 45. The allegations outstanding concern the arrest or disappearance of trade unionists or former trade unionists, the financing of agricultural trade union organisations and the raiding of trade union premises.

A. A. The complainants' allegations

• Arrest or disappearance of trade unionists or former trade unionists
  46. 46 The complainants communicated the names of a large number of serving or former trade union leaders and workers who had been arrested or who had disappeared. The Government had supplied information on several of the persons mentioned by the complainants. It had also stated on several occasions that nobody was or had been under arrest on account of his status as a trade unionist or his trade union activities, but for breaches of the law or reasons of public order.
  47. 47 At its February 1977 Session, the Committee recommended the Governing Body:
      • (i) to note the information supplied by the Government, particularly as concerns the release of most of the persons about whom it had furnished information;
      • (ii) to note, however, that the Government had not supplied any information about many of the persons on the lists forwarded since the Committee's last session;
      • (iii) to express once again its concern as regards the allegations that trade unionists had disappeared after being arrested, at the same time noting that several of the persons mentioned by the complainants as having disappeared had, according to information supplied by the Government, left the country, to request the Government to indicate whether further investigations were being made into the cases of other persons alleged to have disappeared, and, if so, to communicate the findings;
      • (iv) to note that a judicial inquiry was being conducted into the death of Marta Lidia Ugarte Román, and to request the Government to communicate its findings;
      • (v) to request the Government to take the necessary steps to communicate all the information still awaited by 1 April 1977;
      • (vi) to point out that the forced exile of trade unionists cannot be considered to be equivalent to release, since not only is it in violation of human rights but it is also in violation of the principles of freedom of association, particularly when it deprives trade union organisations of their leaders.
  48. 48 On 10 February 1977 the World Confederation of Labour (WCL) sent a further communication which the Committee was unable to examine at its last session.
  49. 49 In this communication the WCL stated that the Chilean Government was continuing its repression of the trade union movement. The complainant organisation attached to its letter a list of trade unionists who had disappeared. In addition to a number of persons whose names had already been communicated to the Government, the following were mentioned: Mario Jesús Fuica Vega, a former leader of the municipal workers of Renca; Fernando A. Lara Rojas, a national leader of textile workers; Gmo. Albino Martinez Quijón, a leader of the Book Trade Workers' Union; Luis Antonio Silva Correa, a leader of the municipal workers of Pudahuel; César Contreras Sasal, a national leader of ENDESA; Jorge Salgado Salinas, a peasant union leader; Victor Iván Macaya Molina, Secretary of the Oveja Tomé textile workers' union; Roberto Saavedra Quiroz, President of the Oveja Tomb textile workers' union; and Augusto Diaz Aranda, a leader of AICH.
  50. 50 The Government also sent information by communications of 12 April 1977.
  51. 51 In its communications of 12 April 1977 the Government confirms the information already communicated for the previous session of the Committee, according to which a number of the persons mentioned by the complainants as having disappeared have left the country. In this connection the Government again refers to information from the Argentine Ministry of the Interior confirming that certain of these persons have entered its territory.
  52. 52 In addition to information already sent in earlier communications, which had been mentioned by the Committee in its previous reports, the Government supplies in its two communications details of certain persons mentioned in the complaints. Some of these persons are free in the country; others have left the country. The persons concerned are Luis Antonio Silva Correa, César Contreras Sagal, Roberto Saavedra Quiroz, Raul Montoya Vilches, Augusto Diaz Aranda, Maria Antonieta Castro Ramírez, José Manuel Aguilera Belmar, and Luis Salazar Valle, Eduardo Barros Ibañez, Victor Liberona Orellana, and Luis Valencia Ferguson.
  53. 53 The Government also supplied information concerning persons who are actually being sought. These are:
      • - Uldarico Donaire, in respect of whom a search warrant had been issued on 23 June 1976, since he was presumed to have disappeared;
      • - Hector Contreras Rogas, concerning whom two arrest warrants had been issued for passing fraudulent cheques and misappropriation of funds. A search warrant for him had also been issued in June 1976 since he was presumed to have disappeared;
      • - Fernando Navarro, Fernando Ortizet, Waldo Pizarro, concerning whom a judicial inquiry as to their presumed disappearance was continuing. The Government states that the results of these inquiries will be communicated when available.
  54. 54 The Government also points out that in the other cases of presumed disappearances, exhaustive inquiries have been made in order to verify the truth of the complaints on these matters.
  55. 55 As regards the death of Marta Lidia Ugarte Román, the Government states that the Valparaiso criminal court undertook an extensive investigation, following which the court of appeal appointed a special magistrate to conduct an inquiry. The Government attaches an excerpt from the report on the inquiry which states, among other things, that there is insufficient evidence to enable charges of homicide or complicity in homicide to be brought against specific persons. Consequently, the inquiry has been temporarily suspended until further information cues to light.
  56. 56 The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government according to which some of the persons mentioned by the complainant as having disappeared are free in the country and that others have left the country. The Committee nevertheless notes that, even taking account of the last communication, the Government has not transmitted information on a large number of persons. The Committee notes that exhaustive inquiries have been carried out in cases of presumed disappearance. The Committee would point out that it has noted in the report of the Ad Hoc Working Group set up by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, statements made under oath by witnesses who were present at the arrest by the information services of certain persons mentioned by the complainants, namely Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño and Victor Manuel Diaz López.
  57. 57 The Fact-Finding and Conciliation Commission on Freedom of Association has already referred to the importance, for the normalisation of trade union activities, of dissipating all feelings of fear. The Committee therefore considers it vital that thorough investigations should be made into the disappearance of trade unionists in respect of whom the Government states that it has no information. The Committee wishes to stress to the Government that such inquiries should continue in order to obtain full details of the fate of the trade unionists mentioned by the complainants.
  58. 58 As regards the death of Marta Lidia Ugarte Román, the Committee notes that the inquiry has been temporarily suspended until further information comes to light, since insufficient evidence has been obtained to enable charges of homicide or complicity in homicide to be brought against specific persons. In connection with this case the Committee has taken note of a statement made before the Ad Hoc Working Group set up by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights according to which Marta Lidia Ugarte Román had been seen in a place of detention. The witness declared that he had been able to speak to her when she was in a room next to that in which he himself was detained. In the light of this information the Committee considers that the inquiry which has been opened into this case should be pursued with the greatest care and objectivity.
• Financing of agricultural trade union organisations
  59. 59 One of the allegations made by the World Confederation of Labour concerned the promulgation of vocational training and employment regulations introducing a new system of financing vocational training. Under the former system, agricultural employers had been required to pay contributions, half of which went into the Trade Union Education and Development Fund while the other half was paid to the federations and Confederations of agricultural workers. According to the complainants, the agricultural organisations were certain to disappear as a result of being deprived of these resources. The Government, for its part, maintained that these contributions had been tantamount to a tax on labour, which was prejudicial to the development of employment in agriculture. In any case, the sums thus collected were inadequate for the purposes of training and the system was discriminatory, since it did not exist for other branches of activity.
  60. 60 At its November 1976 Session, the Committee took the view that it was not within its competence to make a judgement on the financing of vocational training except to analyse questions affecting the exercise of trade union rights. In the Committee's opinion the stoppage of the compulsory employers' contribution could not be considered a violation of the principles of freedom of association. However, the Committee pointed out that it did constitute a measure which considerably limited the funds to which agricultural unions had access. These unions would thus be seriously handicapped in performing their essential task of defending the occupational interests of their members. The Committee concluded that the Government, together with workers' and employers' agricultural organisations, ought to seek ways of offsetting this loss of resources. At its February 1977 Session the Committee referred to the considerations set forth at its previous session.
  61. 61 In its communication of 12 April 1977, the Government once more describes the former system of union financing in the agricultural sector which, it says, applied to all the 85 provincial federations and 6 national Confederations in the agricultural sector which possessed legal personality. The financing of agricultural trade unions by the employers, adds the Government, constituted a danger to the independence of these organisations by making it possible for employers to intervene or interfere. Furthermore, it led to serious discrimination between agricultural organisations and industrial organisations or occupational associations which did not enjoy this source of financing.
  62. 62 The financing of agricultural workers' organisations is now ensured by the contributions of their members, as in the case of other organisations. In this connection the Government points out that under section 14 of the Act respecting trade union organisation in agriculture contributions are fixed by the regulations and union leaders may request employers to deduct these contributions from members' pay. The government also draws attention to the fact that the complaint concerns only two organisations, the Ranquil Confederation and the United Confederation of Workers and Peasants, whereas the other organisations normally carry on their activities without assistance from either the State or employers.
  63. 63 As regards this point the Committee recalls that the complaint presented by the WCL referred in a general way to the new system of financing introduced by the vocational training regulations and not to specific organisations. The Committee must add that it has been apprised through the Chilean press of statements by the president of an organisation other than those mentioned by the Government, namely the Peasant Triumph Confederation, which were critical of the measures adopted in this connection.
  64. 64 The Committee therefore renews its appeal to the Government to find a solution to the problems of financing of the agricultural organisations.
• Raiding of trade union premises
  65. 65 The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) and the WCL had alleged that an armed group had raided the premises of the National Association of Public Employees (ANEF). The complainant organisations added that the Vice-President of the ANEF, Milenko Mikovilovic, had been brutally assaulted on this occasion.
  66. 66 The Government had stated that criminal proceedings had been initiated in this case in the courts of Santiago. In addition, the Minister of the Interior had requested the Director-General of the Investigation Service to ensure that the inquiries reached a satisfactory conclusion as speedily as possible.
  67. 67 At its February 1977 Session, the Committee had recommended the Governing Body to note that criminal proceedings had been initiated in this connection and to request the Government to communicate the findings as soon as they were made known.
  68. 68 On 11 February 1977 the Trade Unions International of Workers in Commerce sent a communication alleging that the premises of the Chilean Confederation of Employees in the Private Sector (CEPCH), in Calle Huérfanos 1273, Santiago, had been raided by order of the Chilean Government. The General Secretary of the CEPCH, Patricio Gonzales Verdugo, had been kidnapped by the security police.
  69. 69 In connection with the case of ANEF, the Government points out in its communication of 12 April 1977 that the matter has not vet been cleared up. It confirms the information which it had already given for the earlier session of the Committee as regards the opening of a judicial inquiry.
  70. 70 As regards as the CEPCH, the Government states that its headquarters are not located at the address given by the complainants. The address given is that of the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Public Health. The CEPCH normally operates from premises in Calle Teatinos, 601, and there has been no interference with these premises by the authorities.
  71. 71 As regards the allegations concerning Patricio González Verdugo, the Government indicates that this person is no longer General Secretary of the CEPCH, from which he resigned in November 1973. He is at liberty and is authorised to travel abroad. The Government attaches to its communication copy of a letter from the President of the CEPCH to the Trade Unions International of Workers in Commerce confirming the information given by the Government concerning the address of the headquarters of the organisation and concerning Patricio González Verdugo whom he personally had the opportunity of meeting in February 1977.
  72. 72 The Committee notes that the inquiry into the raid on the ANEF headquarters has been concluded. In the Committee's view it is desirable that the investigations be intensified in order that the judicial inquiry may be brought to a close as quickly as possible.
  73. 73 As regards the allegations relating to the CEPCH, the Committee notes that this organisation is operating from premises other than those mentioned in the complaint, that, according to the Government, its headquarters have not been interfered with by the authorities and that its former General Secretary is at liberty.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 74. In these circumstances, and regarding the case as a whole, the Committee recommends the Governing Body:
   • (a) regarding the allegations concerning the arrest or disappearance of trade unionists or former trade unionists:
   • (i) to note that some of the persons mentioned by the complainants as having disappeared are at liberty in the country; others, however, have left the country;
   • (ii) to remind the Government that it has not yet transmitted information on a large number of persons;
   • (iii) to urge the Government to continue its investigations into the disappearance of the trade unionists in respect of whom it states that it has no information, to request it to communicate its findings, and to request it to supply information on the situation of the persons listed in the annex to the present case;
   • (iv) to request the Government to allow the inquiry into the death of Marta Lidia Ugarte Román to be pursued with the greatest care and objectivity, and to communicate the findings of the inquiry;
   • (b) as regards the financing of agricultural trade union organisations, to draw the Government's attention to the considerations set forth in paragraph 63 above and to renew its appeal that a solution should be found to the problems of financing of agricultural organisations;
   • (c) as regards the allegations concerning the raiding of trade union premises:
   • (i) to request the Government to intensify the investigations into the case relating to the premises of the ANEF and to communicate the findings;
   • (ii) to decide, for the reasons set forth in paragraph 73 above, that the complaint concerning the CEPCH and its former General Secretary does not call for further examination on its part;
   • (d) to take note of the present interim report.
     • Geneva, 26 May 1977. (Signed) Roberto Ago, Chairman.

Z. ANNEX

• Persons mentioned in the list sent to the Government and in respect of whom it has supplied no information or has supplied no further information
• I. Persons mentioned in the report of the Fact-Finding and Conciliation Commission on Freedom of Association
• Aros Cruz, Jaime Leader of the Industrial Union of the Bradden Copper Company, Sewell and Mina.
• Barria A. Pedro, Abel A CUT youth leader, Valdivia.
• Carreño Díaz, Alfonso A CUT leader, Nuñoa.
• González, Juan Elpidio A leader of the National Seamen's , Association.
• Lobos, Edgar A schoolteachers' leader, San Felipe.
• López, Patricio Supervisor of the Textile Workers' Federation at Tomé and Santiago.
• Mardones, Guillermo A trade union leader at Cholguán.
• Oñate Zambrano, Rolando A leader of the industrial union of Maderas Presensavas Cholguán, SA, Yungay.
• Peiford, Isabel Secretary of the Fishermen's Union.
• Rodriguez Moya, Edmundo A former national leader of the leather and footwear workers' union.
• Tello Gómez, Osvaldo President of the Chuquicamata industrial union.
• Vásquez, Rolando A CUT national leader.
• Venegas, Hernán A CUT leader, Nuble.
• II. Persons mentioned in Case No. 823
• Cáceres, Jorge A trade union official.
• Cortes Alruiz, Juan A trade union official, National Health Service, San Juan de Dios Hospital.
• Corvalán Valencia, José A former trade union official, municipality of Santiago.
• Diaz López, Victor A former CUT official.
• Donato Avendaño, Jaime Former Chairman of the National Federation of Electricity Company Employees of Chile.
• Fuica Vega, Mario Jesús A former leader of the municipal workers of Renca.
• Lara Rojas, Fernando A. A national textile workers' leader.
• López Suárez, Nicolás A former CUT national official.
• Macaya Molina, Victor Iván Secretary of the Oveja Tomé Textile Workers' Union.
• Martinez Quijón, Gmo. Albino A leader of the Hook Trade Workers' Union.
• Miranda Godoy, Dario A member of the Metalworkers' Federation.
• Moraga Garcés, Juan A member of the Building Workers' Federation.
• Morales Ramírez, Miguel Chairman of the Itinerant Traders' Union.
• Navarro, Fernando A railwaymen's leader.
• Orellana Catalán, Juan A former official of the Ranquil Confederation.
• Ortiz, Fernando An official of the APEUCH.
• Pizarro, Waldo A textile workers' leader.
• Recabarrén González, Luis A former trade union official at the State Technical University.
• Recabarrén Rojas, Manuel A trade union official of the Printing Workers' Union.
• Riquelme, Aníbal, Reimundo Former Chairman of the Gas, Heating and Sanitation Workers' Union of Santiago.
• Salgado Salinas, Jorge A peasant union leader.
• Santos Guerra, José Secretary of the Hook Trade Workers' Union.
• Silva Bustos, Pedro Former Vice-Chairman of the National Association of Municipal Employees.
• Solovera Gallardo, Jorge A member of the Metalworkers' Federation.
• Vizcarra Cofré, Carlos An official of the FIAT industrial union of Santiago.
• Weibel, José A former leader of employees of San José Hospital, Santiago.
• Weibel, Ricardo.