Interim Report - Report No 199, March 1980

Case No 904 (El Salvador) - Complaint date: 04-APR-78 - Closed

174. Cases Nos. 844 and 904 were examined by the Committee in May and November 1978, on both of which occasions it submitted an interim report to the Governing Body.

1. 174. Cases Nos. 844 and 904 were examined by the Committee in May and November 1978, on both of which occasions it submitted an interim report to the Governing Body.
2. 175. Case No. 873 was examined by the Committee in November 1977 and May 1978, on both of which occasions it submitted an interim report to the Governing Body.
3. 176. Since it last examined these cases the Committee has received communications from the Trade Unions International of Textile, Clothing, Leather and Fur porkers (30 October 1978), the Latin American Central of Workers (4 April 1979 and 13 August 1979) and the World Confederation of Labour (25 September 979). The Government sent two communications dated 5 and 7 December 1979.
4. 177. El Salvador has ratified neither the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), nor the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining - Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. Last examination of the cases by the Committee

1. 178. Case No. 844 concerns various allegations, one of which refers to incidents which occurred on 28 October 1977 during a strike at the El León factory, when workers were attacked by the police and two of them lost their lives. Other allegations relate to the arrest and torture of 12 workers of the undertaking Quality food de Centro América and the arrest of 20 workers and disappearance of two trade union officials during an attack on the offices of two trade unions. According to the complainants all these situations fitted into the general pattern since the passage of an "anti-terrorist Act" designed to legalise the repression of the workers.
2. 179. Case No. 873 referred to the imprisonment of a peasant militant, Francisco Girón Ramos, who had been charged with slandering the authorities of Rosario de Mora. According to the complainants the real reason for this arrest lay in the trade union activities of Mr. Girón.
3. 180. In Case No. 904 the complainants alleged that the Government had launched a bloodthirsty campaign of persecution against agricultural workers and their organisations, resulting in many deaths, injuries and arrests.
4. 181. In connection with the above allegations the Government stated that various self-styled trade union groups were operating unlawfully, propagating anarchist and anti-democratic doctrines prohibited by the Political Constitution, and committing criminal acts. It was members of these groups, continues the Government, who killed Mr. Tránsito Vásquez. The Government professed its respect for freedom, but said that breaches of the law had occurred and that they would be punished by the competent authorities. In connection with the case of Francisco Girón Ramos, the Government said that his release had been ordered and that proceedings had been instituted against him for the destruction of original documents; the text of the judgement would be communicated once it had been handed down.
5. 182. At its May-June 1978 Session, in connection with Case No. 873, the Governing Body, on the recommendation of the Committee, requested the Government to communicate the text of the judgement rendered in the case of Francisco Girón Ramos, with the reasons adduced therefore.
6. 183. At its November 1978 Session, in connection with cases Nos. 844 and 904, the Governing Body, on the recommendation of the Committee, requested the Government to send its observations on the situation of various trade unionists named in an annex, and on the other aspects of the case referred to in paragraphs 414 to 418 and 431 of the Committee's 187th Report, and to communicate the judgement to be pronounced in the case concerning the death of Mr. Tránsito Vásquez, with the reasons adduced therefore. The Committee has so far not received the information requested.

B. Recent developments

1. 184. In a letter of 30 October 1978 the Trades Onion International of Textile, Clothing, Leather and Fur Workers alleges that José Guillermo Rivas González, General Secretary of the Union of workers in the Cotton, Kenaf, Synthetic Fibre and Allied Textile Industries of El Salvador, was murdered on 2 September 1978, and that Miguel Angel Solis and Orlando Platero, officials of the Union of Textile Industry Workers, were murdered on 12 September 1978; the reason for these alleged murders is said to be the trade union activity of the victims it is also alleged that other trade union officials have been imprisoned.
2. 185. By a telegram of 4 April 1979 the Latin American Central of porkers alleges that the workers of the unions of the national undertakings La Peca, La Constancia, Embotelladora Tropical and STECEL were harshly repressed by the Government because they had demanded collective labour contracts; as a result, seven leaders and militants of these unions have been killed and a number injured.
3. 186. By letter of 13 August 1979 the Latin American Central of workers sends a list of 24 primary-school teachers allegedly murdered with "the undisguised complicity of the educational authorities of the country". In addition to mentioning the full names of the teachers, the list indicates their trade union activities or their relationship with the trade union organisations, their place of work, and the date, place and circumstances of their deaths. In the same letter CLAT repeats the need for the urgent dispatch of a special mission to investigate the situation complained of.
4. 187. By a communication of 25 September 1979 the world Confederation of Labour alleges that some 400 workers of the IMES undertaking (Industrial Manufactureras, S.A.) in the Republic of El Salvador have been deprived of their work for over three months, and that the undertaking has failed to fulfil its legal and contractual obligations; WCL requests that this document should be attached to the complaints against the Government of El Salvador for systematic violation of labour and trade union rights and "that the authorities should be asked to take the necessary measures to secure respect for the rights of the workers in order to defend them against the manoeuvres of the foreign firm".
5. 188. By letters of 5 and 7 December 1979 the Government has replied to the international Labour office in connection with the complaints. According to it, the Government of the Revolutionary Junta of El Salvador, since its installation on 15 October 1979, has adopted a policy entirely different from that of earlier regimes, a policy of absolute respect for human rights, including freedom of association; it accepts no responsibility for any violations which may have occurred in the past.

C. Conclusions of the Committee

1. 189. The Committee notes the statement made in December 1979 by the new Government that it will follow a policy of respect for human rights, including the aspects relating to freedom of association. Nevertheless, the Committee considers that a general statement of this nature does not provide the elements of information necessary for the elucidation of the present cases, since they are part of a well-defined series of circumstances and situations the examination of which requires it to be in possession of the information which the Governing Body has requested of the Government on repeated occasions.
2. 190. The Committee recalls that on earlier occasions, when examining allegations relating to the violation of trade union rights by a government, it has emphasised that there exists a link of continuity between successive governments in the same State and that although a government cannot be held responsible for events which took place under a preceding one, it has a clear responsibility for any consequences which those events might have produced since its accession to power. In this sense, the Committee has taken the view that, where a change of regime has taken place in a country, the new government should take all necessary steps to remedy any continuing effects which events complained of as having taken place under its predecessor might have had since its accession to power.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 191. In these circumstances the Committee recommends the Governing Body:
   • (a) to take note of the statement made in December 1979 of the new Government that it has adopted a policy of respect for human rights, including aspects relating to freedom of association;
   • (b) to request the Government to send:
   • (i) information in connection with paragraphs 182 and 183 of the present report, respecting the proceedings against Mr. Francisco Girón Ramos, the present situation of the various trade unionists listed in the annex to this case, the accusations of torture and persecution of trade unionists and trade union organisations, the stage reached in the proceedings in connection with the death of Mr. Tránsito Vásquez, and the incidents which occurred during a strike of workers of the El León factory;
   • (ii) its observations on the new allegations referred to in paragraphs 184, 185, 186 and 187 of the present report, relating to the murder of the workers, trade union officials and primary-school teachers mentioned in the annex to this case, to the repression of workers and trade unions which demanded collective labour agreements, and to the situation of 400 workers of the IMES undertaking;
   • (c) to take note of the present interim report.

Z. ANNEX

• I. Recapitulatory list of trade unionists alleged by the complainants to have been victims of reprisals
• Héctor Antonio Acevedo
• Juan Francisco Alvarenga
• Oscar L. Chaves
• Ricardo Erazo
• Daniel Garcia Guevara
• José Mauricio Gómez
• Carlos Humberto González
• Rufino González Avelar
• Miguel Guzmán
• Delia Cristina Hernández
• Rodolfo Hernández Rosales
• Pedro López
• Teresa Francisca Maldonado
• Carlos Ernesto Marin Ayala
• José Ricardo Martinez Flores
• José Napoleón Mina
• Alejandro Molina Lara
• Miguel Rivera Valle
• Gilberto Ruiz Ponce
• Julio C. Salazar
• Romeo Soto Crespo.
• II. List of trade unionists alleged by the complainants to have been murdered
• José Guillermo Rivas González
• Orlando Piatero
• Miguel Angel Solis
• Medardo Liverio Gómez
• Noé Saúl Ramos
• Ricardo López Villalobos
• Bessy Benavides
• Enma Guadalupe Carpio Rosales
• Rafael Vásquez Marin
• René Mauricio Pacheco
• Antonio Meriono
• Orlando Alfredo Guerrero Chamul
• Francisco Borja Carranza
• Pedro Federico Colorado Ramos
• René Guevara
• Lázaro de J. Arias
• José Misael Funes Minero
• Héctor Joaquín Torres
• Manuel de Jesús Chávez
• José Tránsito Rodríguez Funes
• Mario Rafael Calvo
• Angel Samuel Lorenzana
• Pablo Gómez Arias
• Manuel Aparicio Aguilar
• José Galileo Rosales
• José Belisario Soriano
• Oscar Antonio Celarié.