Effect given to the recommendations of the committee and the Governing Body - Report No 401, March 2023

Case No 2445 (Guatemala) - Complaint date: 31-AUG-05 - Closed

Effect given to the recommendations of the committee and the Governing Body

1. 27. The Committee last examined this case, which concerns allegations of serious acts of anti-union violence, at its meeting of June 2018 (see 386th Report of the Committee, paragraphs 297–314). On that occasion, the Committee urged the Government, with regard to the investigations into the murder of trade union leader Mr Julio Rolando Raquec Ishen, to continue taking all necessary steps to ensure that all of the perpetrators and instigators of this murder and also the motives for the crime are identified once and for all, and that the guilty parties who are still alive are prosecuted and punished by the courts.
2. 28. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government in its communications of 27 January 2022 and 30 January 2023 concerning the investigations into the homicide of Mr Julio Rolando Raquec Ishen, General Secretary of the Trade Union Federation of Informal Workers, which occurred on 28 November 2004. The Committee notes the Government’s indication, first of all, that it appears, from the supporting analysis provided by the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala and from various interviews with local residents, who withheld their names for fear of possible reprisals, that drunk and drugged individuals with firearms robbed an informal food stall and threatened a woman who refused to hand over her money, provoking a reaction from Mr Julio Raquec Ishen, who then became the target of the assailants, who fatally wounded him. The Government further indicates that: (i) the Public Prosecutor’s Office identified two suspects in the incident, Mr Víctor Alfonso Cruz Zacarías and Mr Pedro Luis Gómez Herrera; (ii) it was established that Mr Víctor Alfonso Cruz Zacarías had passed away, for which reason the tribunal was requested to drop the criminal prosecution against him; (iii) although Mr Pedro Luis Gómez Herrera has still not yet been located, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has established a line of investigation to pursue in this regard in order to do so (request information from different registries that would allow the whereabouts of Mr Pedro Luis Gómez Herrera to be established, reach out to the Directorate-General for the Control of Arms and Munitions with a view to establishing whether any weapons are registered in his name, ask the Prison System for a record of admissions to the various detention centres for which it is responsible); and (iv) the Prosecutor’s Office continues to consider the collaboration of Ms Lidia Mérida Coy, an eyewitness to the events and the victim’s spouse who, despite repeated summonses, a search by human rights investigators and contacts with her family has not been possible to locate, to be important and necessary.
3. 29. Lastly, the Committee notes the Government’s request that the investigation into the murder of Mr Raquec Ishen be examined in the context of Case No. 2609, to the extent that the complainant organizations also referred to this investigation in their latest communication of 14 October 2021 in relation to the aforementioned case.
4. 30. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government, in particular that relating to the ongoing investigations to locate the remaining living suspect in the murder of Mr Raquec Ishen and the victim’s wife. Noting with regret that, more than 18 years after the events, the murder of Mr Raquec Ishen remains unpunished, the Committee emphasizes that it is important that investigations into the murders of trade unionists should yield concrete results in order to determine reliably the facts, motives and persons responsible in order to apply the appropriate punishments and to prevent such incidents recurring in the future [see Compilation of decisions of the Committee on Freedom of Association, sixth edition, 2018, para. 96]. Noting with concern that certain basic investigative procedures to locate the suspect have not yet been undertaken, the Committee urges the Government to take the necessary steps to ensure that the competent authorities make every effort to locate and bring the person suspected of the crime to trial.
5. 31. To the extent that Case No. 2609 deals with numerous homicides of members of the trade union movement and other acts of anti-union violence, the Committee will henceforth examine the follow-up by the competent authorities to the murder of Mr Raquec Ishen in the context of Case No. 2609 and considers the present case closed.