Delegation to Seek Justice for Guatemalan Trade Unionist

Pedro Zamora had just collected two of his children from a clinic in the docklands area of Puerto Quetzal, southern Guatemala, and was driving home when the gunmen opened fire, spraying more than 100 bullets into his pick-up truck. As he crashed into a wall, he threw himself over the children to try to protect them. While he lay bleeding, one of the five gunmen walked up to him and fired a final bullet into his head at point blank range. His three-year-old son, Angel, was wounded.

The killing of Zamora, 36, the general secretary of the Guatemalan dockers' union, STEPQ, on January 15 this year, was the latest act of intimidation faced by trade unionists in that country. The four remaining members of the union's executive have all since received death threats.

Today a delegation of trade unionists and human rights activists from Europe, the US and Latin America is due in Guatemala to urge the government to bring Zamora's killers to justice. Zamora and his union had been in dispute last year with the state-owned port authorities over plans to privatize the port.

His death has highlighted the dangers faced by union activists in Latin America who try to preserve their rights in the face of increasing deregulation and privatization.

The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) which represents around five million transport workers in 148 countries, says Zamora's death should be properly investigated. ITF general secretary, David Cockroft said: "This was an execution-style killing and the perpetrators and the person who ordered it are still free to go about their murderous business. We don't think that's good enough."

Sam Dawson of ITF, which has its headquarters in London, said that Guatemala and Colombia were the two most dangerous countries in Latin America for trade unionists. The delegation will visit Zamora's family and meet senior government ministers and human rights groups.

Amnesty International is also calling for action to ensure the safety of Zamora's colleagues, saying that their lives "are in serious and imminent danger". A spokesperson said they believed there was a "lack of political will [in Guatemala] to deal with the longstanding issues of impunity, a weak judicial system, clandestine groups and hostility to human rights".

A spokesman for the Guatemalan embassy in London said an investigation into the murder was under way and they were hopeful the killers would be brought to justice. He said that one of the problems was that there were so many other cases to be investigated.