Definitive Report - Report No 24, 1956

Case No 131 (Guatemala) - Complaint date: 10-OCT-55 - Closed

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 174. There are four complaints before the Committee : one, dated 10 October 1955, from the Congress of Industrial Unions of Japan ; one, dated 19 October 1955, from the Union of Administration, Banking and Insurance Employees (East Berlin) ; one, dated 20 October 1955, from the Railway Workers' Union (East Berlin) ; and one, dated 3 November 1955, from the Postal and Telegraph Union of the German Free Trade Unions (East Berlin). All these complaints were transmitted to the I.L.O by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. As the four complaints contain similar allegations, they may be analysed together.
2. 175. According to the complainants, the authorities in Guatemala have taken a number of repressive measures against certain trade union leaders. In particular, the Government is stated to have instituted proceedings for subversive activities (an offence involving the death penalty) against Messrs. Alvarado Monzón, formerly Secretary of the Guatemalan Confederation of Labour, and Jaime Zavala, General Secretary of the Railway Workers' Union. In addition to these two names, some of the complaints also give the following : Francisco Hernández, Gabriel Camey, Andrés Tobar, Aristeo Sosa and Arsenio Conde, stating that this list is incomplete. According to the complainants what these persons really did was to take part in the struggle to defend the rights of the workers and of the Guatemalan people and to regain the land held by the United Fruit Company and other North American monopolies.
3. 176. The complaining organisations were informed - in the case of the Congress of Industrial Unions of Japan, by a letter dated 26 November 1955, and in the case of the three other complainants, by letters dated 6 January 1956 - that they might present further information in substantiation of their complaints within the time allowed by the Committee's procedure. None of them have availed themselves of this right.
   • ANALYSIS OF THE REPLIES
4. 177. In its first reply dated 16 January 1956, the Government states that Messrs. Bernardo Alvarado Monzón and Jaime Zavala Cordero were not prosecuted in the Supreme Court for their trade union activities but were tried by the Committee of National Defence against Communism as a result of their Communist activities and sentenced to six months' imprisonment as a security measure. The Government denies that it has prosecuted trade union officers because of their union activities and affirms that the authorities have fully respected freedom to organise. In its second communication dated 16 February 1956, relating to the three complaints transmitted subsequently, the Government merely repeats its first reply, considering that the later complaints resemble the first one.
5. 178. At its 14th Session (Geneva, 28-29 May 1956) the Committee, after noting the Government's replies summarised above, considered that it would require additional information on a number of points before formulating final conclusions. These points were as follows : the exact nature of the alleged subversive activities of Messrs. B. Alvarado Monzón and Jaime Zavala ; the evidence upon which these persons were sentenced to six months' imprisonment ; what procedural guarantees were available to the persons brought before the Committee of National Defence against Communism ; and, lastly, what action and sentence (if any) was there against Messrs. Francisco Hernández, Gabriel Camey, Andrés Tobar, Aristeo Sosa and Arsenio Conde, on whom the Government has submitted no comments. The request for further information was sent to the Government of Guatemala by a letter from the Director-General dated 12 June 1956. The Government submitted fresh comments in a letter dated 16 October 1956, which is analysed below.
6. 179. In this letter the Government submits new material to show that Alvarado Monzón and Jaime Zavala were not prosecuted or punished for trade union activity. B. Alvarado Monzón is stated to have been a member of the Communist Party, as proved by his public acts : in 1947 he was one of the founders of the Freedom Popular Front Party (Partido Frente Popular Libertador) and of the Alliance of Democratic Youth, the latter being controlled by the World Federation of Democratic Soviet Youth. He headed the Marxist-line periodical El Libertador, organ of the Revolutionary Action Party (Partido Acción Revolucionaria). He was a member of the Saker-Ti group controlled by Communist artists. In 1950 he actually joined the Communist Party and was arrested when he was at the Communist training school called " Jacobo Sánchez ". He held card No. 4 of the base unit " Luis Carlos Prestes " of the First Sectional Committee of the Department of Guatemala of the Communist Party. He was candidate for the Central Committee of the Communist Party on the Presidium of the Second Party Congress. When the party changed its name to " Guatemalan Labour Party " Alvarado Monzón dealt with the organisation of its central committee, being a member of the elections board. He gave lectures on the Malenkov Report to the XXth Congress of the U.S.S.R. Communist Party ; on the thirtieth anniversary of Lenin's death, he gave lectures in praise of Lenin. As regards Jaime Zavala Cordero the Government states that he used trade unionism as a cloak for underground work in forms of communism. He campaigned for the interests of the unionised workers, against the economic exploitation and intervention of the United States but not against that of the Soviet Union. He has been a registered member of the Communist Party since 1945.

B. B. The Committee's conclusions

1. 180. The Government of Guatemala ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) on 13 February 1952 ; the Conventions came into force for Guatemala on 13 February 1953.
2. 181. In its 15th Report, the Committee examined a complaint against the Government of Guatemala relating to the detention of trade union officers. On that occasion, the Committee pointed out that " In several earlier cases, in which it had had before it allegations relating to the prosecution and sentencing of trade union leaders, the Committee has taken the view that the only question to be decided was the real reason for the measures complained of being taken, and that only if these measures were taken by reason of legitimate trade union activities could there be any infringement of freedom of association".
3. 182. In the present case, it appears from the Government's replies that security action was indeed taken against Messrs. Alvarado Monzón and Zavala Cordero by the National Committee of Defence against Communism, not (according to the Government) because of their trade union activities but because of their subversive activities. From the personal history data of B. Alvarado Monzón, as given by the Government, it appears that he was a person " with an extreme left ideology " and had actively participated in various Communist or Marxist organisations. Similarly, in the case of Zavala, the Government states that trade union activities were used by him to defend Communism.
4. 183. In several earlier cases the Committee has had to give an opinion on the application of measures which, although of a political nature and not directly intended to impede the exercise of trade union rights, in fact involve a limitation of trade union liberties. In such cases, the Committee has, before ruling out a complaint, always insisted that the information given by governments should be so precise and detailed as to enable it to conclude that the grounds of detention were genuinely unrelated to trade union activities and that other considerations were involved (protection of public order, political reasons, etc.).
5. 184. In the present case the sentencing of Messrs. Alvarado Monzón and Zavala Cordero to security measures by the Committee of National Defence against Communism for subversive activities seems precisely to be one of those measures of a political character which are in principle not intended to limit the free exercise of trade union rights as such. In Case No. 5 (India) and again in later cases such as Case No. 63 (Union of South Africa) the Committee examined allegations on the preventive detention of certain persons under public security laws. In the latter case the Committee pointed out that " measures of preventive detention may involve serious interference with trade union activities, which it would seem necessary to justify by the existence of a serious emergency and which would be open to criticism unless accompanied by adequate judicial safeguards applied within a reasonable period ". In particular, the Committee has emphasised that every person detained should fully enjoy the guarantees of due legal process to ensure his right of defence.
6. 185. In the present case the Committee considers that the information received from the Government does not enable it to conclude that the proceedings of the Committee of National Defence against Communism provide a guarantee of due legal process in the manner recommended by the Committee in other cases, and, therefore, considers that the attention of the Government of Guatemala should be called to the importance of ensuring that trade union officers are not detained on charges of subversive activities without enjoying the guarantees afforded by due legal process.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 186. In these circumstances, the Committee recommends the Governing Body to draw the attention of the Government of Guatemala to the importance of ensuring that trade union officers are not detained on charges of subversive activities without enjoying the guarantees afforded by due legal process.