Tactics and tools for the protection
of Human Rights Defenders

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has joined with its Guatemalan affiliates in denouncing the murder of Lorenzo Godoy Asencio, general secretary of the tricycle taxi drivers’ union Sindicato de Tricicleros de la Ciudad Pedro de Alvarado and the transport workers’ union Sindicato de Trabajadores del Transporte y Similares de la Ciudad Pedro de Alvarado, in Moyuta, Jutiapa. The working class of this country is once more in mourning.

The trade union leader disappeared on 2 May with his moto-taxi; he had left the house to buy bread for dinner and did not reappear. On seeing that he was not coming back, a search was launched the following day in the area bordering El Salvador. His body was found on Thursday 5 May in Aldea Los Angeles, showing stab wounds thought to have been inflicted with a screwdriver, found not far from where Lorenzo Godoy Asencio’s body and the moto-taxi he was driving were discovered, two hundred metres from the scene of the crime. This murder has once again plunged into mourning the workers of Guatemala.

The ITUC, in a letter to the president of Guatemala, called for a full and immediate investigation to ensure that those responsible for this crime are brought to justice without delay and punished with the full force of the law.

ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow, appalled by the repeated murders of trade unionists in Guatemala, underlined: "This new murder must not go unpunished, as, unfortunately, have all the other murders carried out against trade unionists in Guatemala thus far. It is essential that the government react by strengthening the rule of law and ensuring respect for the fundamental rights enshrined in the ILO Conventions ratified by Guatemala."

The serious and constant violations of ILO Convention 87 in Guatemala will be examined by the ILO Committee on the Application of Standards during the International Labour Conference in June.