Interim Report - Report No 76, 1964

Case No 352 (Guatemala) - Complaint date: 06-AUG-63 - Closed

320. This case has already been considered by the Committee at its meeting in November 1963. On that occasion the Committee, in paragraph 198 of its 72nd Report, recommended the Governing Body:

1. ......................................................................................................................................................
2. (a) to decide, with regard to the allegations relating to the detention of the trade unionists from the Cerro Redondo and Viñas Estates, while taking note of the fact that the trade union leaders and workers who were detained have been released and of the Government's statement that employers will not use a state security law as a cover for certain abuses, to draw the attention of the Government to the fact that the detention by military authorities of trade unionists concerning whom no grounds for conviction are subsequently found is liable to involve restrictions of trade union rights, and to request the Government to consider whether the authorities concerned have instructions for trade union activities ;
3. (b) to request the Government to be good enough to furnish details as to the outcome of the proceedings now pending before the courts with a view to elucidating the facts connected with the attack on Mr. Tereso de Jesús Oliva, and, in the meantime, to defer its consideration of this aspect of the case ;
4. (c) to take note of the present interim report of the Committee, it being understood that the Committee will submit a further report on the case to the Governing Body when it has received the other information and observations requested from the Government.
5. 321. The 72nd Report of the Committee was approved by the Governing Body at its 157th Session (November 1963) and the conclusions contained in the above-cited paragraph 198 were communicated to the Government of Guatemala in a letter dated 20 November 1963.
6. 322. The Government forwarded certain additional observations in its communication of 25 March 1964.

A. A. The complainants' allegations

• Detention of Trade Unionists from the Cerro Redondo Estate
  323. 323 The Government states that the case of the Cerro Redondo Estate is now definitely closed and that the workers have gone back to their work in possession of all their rights under the Labour Code. On this occasion the military authorities acted in accordance with specific rules to ensure the security of the State. Those authorities are not competent to carry out investigations but act in accordance with orders from higher authorities and on the basis of previous denunciations or investigations by the police. The examination of the veracity of the facts alleged is a matter for the competent courts, which in the present case found the accused workers to be innocent ; it accordingly declared them to be free and to have regained their rights.
  324. 324 The Committee notes that this information differs to a certain extent from that which the Government communicated on 2 October 1963, stating that several workers had been reported to the military authorities for alleged infringements of the law concerning the defence of democratic institutions, and the military authorities were thus obliged to take the necessary measures to carry out a thorough investigation of the facts with a view to establishing the truth or falsehood of the report. When it was proved that the charges were false, the workers were set free.
  325. 325 According to this first communication from the Government it seems that it was the military authorities who intervened right at the beginning, carried out the necessary inquiries and enabled the detainees to regain their liberty once it had been proved that the denunciations were false. In view of these circumstances and on the basis of the principles previously stated, the Committee decided to make a recommendation to the Governing Body which is reproduced in paragraph 198 (a) quoted above.
  326. 326 In view of the new communication from the Government referring to these facts, the Committee recommends the Governing Body to take note of the information supplied, both as regards the procedures followed in this case and as regards the reinstatement of the workers in their employment without loss of their rights under the Labour Code.
• Criminal Attacks against Mr. Tereso de Jesús Oliva
  327. 327 The complainants in their communication dated 6 August 1963, alleged that on 29 July 1963 a member of the national police force committed a criminal attack against Mr. Tereso de Jesús Oliva, Secretary of the Union of Agricultural Workers and Secretary-General of the Rural Christian Social Movement of Guatemala. The Government in its reply of 2 October 1963 pointed out that the law courts were examining this criminal act, that the injured person had not accused anybody in particular but had merely mentioned on the strength of certain rumours heard in the street that he had been attacked by a member of the police force.
  328. 328 In its new communication, the Government points out that Mr. Tereso de Jesús Oliva has not provided actual data that would be of assistance to the national police in the inquiry they are now conducting and that he contradicted himself when certain questions were put to him in the course of the inquiry. For this reason the criminal courts had been unable to order the arrest of any person since the individual concerned had not accused either the police authorities or the persons who, according to him, are his enemies and could have carried out an attack on his life. On the other hand, the injured party states that he became unconscious as a result of the attack and was unable to identify any person, and that through some observations of third parties whom he has not mentioned (and who did not come forward to testify in the present proceedings) he learnt that it was the police authorities who had attacked him. In view of the foregoing, and in the absence of any basic evidence regarding the person who might have been responsible for the criminal act, the courts were unable either to arrest or prosecute any particular person.
  329. 329 In view of all these circumstances, and bearing in mind that the complainants themselves have not added to the information originally forwarded to the Committee on Freedom of Association, as they were entitled to do, the Committee recommends the Governing Body to request the Government to keep it informed as to any further developments in this matter, but to decide that it would be purposeless at the present time to continue its examination of this aspect of the case.
• Acts of Discrimination against Trade Unionists in the GINSA Factory
  330. 330 On 12 December 1963 the Latin American Federation of Christian Trade Unions sent some additional items of information which were forwarded to the Government on 20 September 1963.
  331. 331 According to the complainants a union of rubber workers existed in the GINSA factory which, although a majority union, did not succeed in obtaining registration by the labour authorities, which instead had just registered a union favoured by the employers. The first of these unions was practically put out of existence by the company with the connivance of the Ministry of Labour by the use of coercive means of all kinds, including the dismissal of workers who did not want to join the employers' union. The complainants sent a list of workers who were dismissed because they would not join the union, in addition to a list of persons who changed their union because of coercion practised on them.
  332. 332 The Government has not as yet forwarded any specific observations regarding these two allegations. In these circumstances the Committee recommends the Governing Body to request the Government to be good enough to forward its observations on this aspect of the case as soon as possible.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 333. With regard to the case as a whole the Committee recommends the Governing Body:
   • (a) with reference to the detention of trade unionists from the Cerro Redondo Estate, to take note of the information supplied by the Government in its latest communication both as regards the procedure followed in this case and as regards the reinstatement of the workers in their employment without loss of their rights under the Labour Code ;
   • (b) with reference to the criminal attack committed against Mr. Tereso de Jesús Oliva, to request the Government to keep it informed as to any further developments in this matter, but to decide that it would be purposeless at the present time to continue its examination of this aspect of the case ;
   • (c) with reference to the acts of discrimination against trade unionists in the GINSA factory, to request the Government to be good enough to forward its observations on this aspect of the case as soon as possible.