This is what six Guatemalan unions denounced. The unions are made up by workers of Cobigua company, subsidiary of multinational company Chiquita Brands, the name adopted by notorious United Fruit Company.

The workers accuse the company of “serious and permanent” labour rights violations, and death threats against union leaders and peasants.

In fact, Leonel Perez Lara, member of the Political Council of the Guatemalan Unionist, Indigenous and Peasant Movement, has been threatened by unknown people.

This has to be added to the fact that since January, 2007, 43 union and peasant leaders have been murdered by paramilitary forces linked to private companies and the government.

The Guatemalan unions have denounced this situation before the International Labour Organization (ILO) and ask for the solidarity of other international organizations.

International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Secretary General, Guy Ryder, sent a letter to President Alvaro Colom, and fruit multinational companies, to demand the companies to respect union and labour rights.

According to ITUC´s website, Guatemalan workers denounce that Chiquita´s local representatives constantly threaten with closing work centers in case union measures are adopted.

United Fruit can be linked with some of the most tragic chapters of the history of Central America. Its influence on the US government and the CIA contributed to the ousting of Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz Guzman after he promoted in 1954 a law to expropriate great extensions of land to grant to the agrarian reform.

Photo: http://www.csa-csi.org