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Blueberries, Bullets and Blood-Soaked Bananas: The Violence of Free Trade in Guatemala

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Posted on: May 1st, 2008
Filed Under: Eye Openers, non-US news
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“Less than 24 hours after President Bush met with President Alvaro Colom at the White House on Monday, a worker from a union that filed a trade complaint with Washington against the government was murdered.

Carlos Enrique Cruz Hernández, a banana worker, was assassinated while working at a farm owned by a subsidiary of Del Monte. Cruz Hernández’s Union of Izabal Banana Workers (SITRABI), was one of six unions who, along with the AFL-CIO, filed a complaint allowed through labor provisions of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) on April 23, charging that the government was not upholding its labor laws and was failing to investigate and prosecute crimes against union members–which include rape and murder. The complaint states that violence against trade unionists has increased over the past two years (since CAFTA was ratified) and that the government may be responsible for some of the violence. The violence includes 8 murders, 1 attempted murder, 2 drive-by shootings, and the kidnapping and gang rape of a top union official’s daughter who was targeted because of her father’s union work.”*

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