Colombia Is World’s Most Dangerous Country For Trade Unionists

In his ground-breaking novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, Colombia’s Nobel Prize-winning writer Gabriel García Márquez famously highlighted the massacre of workers on banana plantations in the 1920s.

During the year through the end of March 2024, 22 trade unionists were killed for their activism around the world—11 of them in Colombia.

Since the early 1970s, well over 3,000 trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia, according to the Labor Ministry, as reported by Gideon Long for BBC News.

And even though the nation is more peaceful than it once was, the attacks continue.

“For many years now already, unfortunately, Colombia is the deadliest country in the world for trade unionists and for trade union work,” says Luc Triangle, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), a global umbrella organization based in Brussels.

Each year, the ITUC publishes a survey documenting atrocities committed against trade unionists worldwide. Its most recent edition covers the year through the end of March 2024.

It found that, during those 12 months, 22 trade unionists were killed for their activism around the world—11 of them in Colombia.

“Generally, these are targeted murders,” Triangle says. “They know what they are doing. They know who they want to murder. It’s not targeting the big bosses of the trade unions or the leaders. They are targeting, in small villages, people that are doing active trade union work.”

He added, “Between 2020 and 2023, we recorded 45 murders in Colombia. In 2022 alone, 29 murders. It’s less violent than it once was, but it’s still very violent—certainly if you compare it with other countries,” reported Immie Rhodes for BBC News.