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Article

25 Nov 2019

Author:
Action Network

Honduras: Union leader for SITRATERCO, which represents Chiquita banana workers, killed

“Justice for Jorge Alberto Acosta!”, 18th November 2019

…On November 16, 2019, two men shot and killed Jorge Alberto Acosta in a billiard parlor just four blocks from his house in La Lima, Cortes, Honduras. Jorge, 62, was a union leader for SITRATERCO, the oldest union in the country, which represents Chiquita banana workers.

In early 2018, banana workers held a 77-day strike after Chiquita illegally relocated its medical center — which provided full healthcare to working families for over 60 years — to a far-off location and replaced it with an expensive, low-grade private medical center. Workers on the picket line were met with live bullets from military police and mass layoffs from Chiquita.

After the strike ended, in April 2018 Jorge and his fellow trade unionist began receiving death threats, and were subject to physical attacks, surveillance, and break-ins. They repeatedly denounced these threats to government officials, who are obliged to investigate and provide adequate protective measures for threatened union leaders — but never did.