10 November, 2014After spending one year and three days in detention as a result of a campaign calling for the nationalization of the Rubiales oil field, Darío Cárdenas, vice-president of the Meta branch of the Colombian oil workers’ union, Unión Sindical Obrera (USO), has been released from custody.
Cárdenas was acquitted of the charges brought against him by the public prosecutor in a decision taken by judge Segundo Promiscuo in Puerto López on 5 November 2014.
Cárdenas was detained at Villavicencio, Meta, on 2 November 2013 after the first criminal court issued an order accusing him of obstructing the public highway; causing damage to natural resources; and aggravated damage to private property.
USO, which is affiliated to IndustriALL, released a statement saying: “This puts a brake on attempts to criminalize and discredit USO’s leaders who were protesting against oil multinationals and poor working and living conditions, particularly Pacific Rubiales Energy in Puerto Gaitán (Meta) in 2011 and 2012.”
IndustriALL congratulates our USO colleagues on their determined struggle since these injustices were committed. It condemns the attempts to frame them with the sole aim of attacking and intimidating trade unions and anyone acting in solidarity with them.
Fernando Lopes, Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL visited Darío Cárdenas at Villavicencio Prison in May this year and personally communicated the federation’s support and solidarity.
In its statement, USO said: “This ruling encourages us to keep on working and to insist that the government stops persecuting the country’s oil workers and the trade union and social movements. We call for the sovereignty of the Colombian justice system over transnational interests; the recognition of trade union freedoms and workers’ rights; repeal of the Citizen Security Statute and other arbitrary legislation that criminalises social protest and rides roughshod over workers’ rights, configuring what is effectively a civilian dictatorship in this country.”
IndustriALL has often expressed its concern about the persecution of the trade union movement in Colombia. It will continue to support the USO in its campaign for the release of Rafael Rodríguez Moros, leader of USO’s Centre branch who is still in detention.