Nestlé

Memoria y Justicia

integrante del Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores del Sistema Agroalimentario, SINALTRAINAL, defensor de derechos humanos de la Fundación Comité de Solidaridad con los Presos Políticos fue secuestrado, torturado y asesinado con múltiples puñaladas en desarrollo de operaciones paramilitares con cuatro integrantes del Bloque Norte y dos funcionarios adscritos a la Subdirección Antisecuestro del DAS, hace siete años.

En 2002 Luciano había sido despedido arbitrariamente de la multinacional Nestlé ejerciendo sus derechos laborales gestionaba por vía judicial su reintegro, este hecho y su trayectoria sindical fue su sentencia de su muerte.

Desde muchos años atrás, las estructuras estatales encubiertas paramilitares le presionaron y le amenazaron de muerte lo que llevó a que la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, CIDH, adoptará medidas cautelares. Como ha ido sucediendo con este y muchos casos, la única respuesta estatal a las medidas de prevención fue un teléfono celular.

En 2004 Luciano fue acogido por un programa de protección en Asturias, España, poco tiempo después de su regreso fue desaparecido y luego asesinado. El 10 de septiembre de 2005 sus familiares denunciaron su desaparición y el 11 de septiembre lo encontraron atado y su cuerpo con signos de tortura de arma blanca.

El ex jefe paramilitar extraditado a EU, Salvatore Mancuso, en su versión libre en 2007, aseguró que Cicolac empresa de Nestlé era una de las empresas financiadoras de las AUC. 

En un intento de desviar la investigación el múltiple crimen de Luciano quiso presentarse como un atentado pasional, los articuladores de esta estrategia de encubrimiento poco a poco fueron descubiertos. La impunidad no ha sido total debido a la presión internacional. Han sido detenidos y condenados 4 paramilitares del Bloque Norte y se han adelantado investigaciones contra dos funcionarios adscritos a la Subdirección Antisecuestro del DAS, Norberto Sotomayor González y José Antonio Riaño Noriega, que se entregaron voluntariamente ante el CTI de la Fiscalía en Valledupar.

Este crimen del nefasto período de la seguridad "democrática" fue cometido mediante una alianza criminal del DAS estructura dependiente del primer mandatario, Álvaro Uribe Vélez y los grupos paramilitares.

Los autores intelectuales y beneficiarios del asesinato de Luciano Enrique Romero Molina, siguen libres amparados por la impunidad sociopolítica, judicial y mediática. A pesar que el Juez 2 Penal del Circuito especializado de descongestión ordenó la investigación de los directivos de la multinacional Nestlé – Cicolac, no existen mayores avances. Hace un año el asesinato de Luciano fue denunciado en Suiza, sede la multinacional.

Luciano este hombre de las tierras de la  Ciudad de los Santos Reyes del Valle de Upar, sigue siendo parte de la memoria, no solo de las luchas sindicales en Colombia, de la solidaridad con los detenidos políticos si no de la construcciones de fraternidad entre europa y Colombia, entre Asturias y Valledupar.

Sin Olvido

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Memory and Justice

18 September 2017

Seven years ago our beloved comrade Luciano Enrique Romero Molina was kidnapped, tortured and assassinated by multiple stab wounds in an operation carried out by four members of the paramilitary group Northern Block (Bloque Norte) with the complicity and assistance of two State officials attached to the Anti-Kidnapping Sub-Directorate of the National Intelligence Agency. Luciano Romero was an active and extremely capable member of the Colombian National Food Industry Workers Trade Union (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores del Sistema Agroalimentario - SINALTRAINAL) as well as of the Executive Committee of the Foundation in Solidarity with Political Prisoners (Fundación Comité de Solidaridad con los Presos Políticos).

In 2002 Luciano was arbitrarily and unjustly dismissed by the multinational Nestlé. In exercising his constitutional and legal labour rights he secured his reintegration by successful recourse to judicial proceedings. This development, as well as his exemplary efforts and example in the activities of our trade union (Sinaltrainal), ended up being his death sentence.

For many years prior to his assassination the covert State paramilitary structures had been exerting intense pressure on him, including numerous death threats, in an attempt to force him to abandon his trade union and human rights activities. Consequently, the Inter-American Human Rights Commission directed the Colombian Government to take precautionary measures to safeguard Luciano’s life. As has occurred in many similar cases over the years, the only State response to institute protective measures was to assign Luciano a cell phone.

In 2004 Luciano was inducted into an autonomous international protection program and relocated to Asturias, Spain. Shortly after his return to Colombia he was forcibly disappeared and assassinated. On the 10^th of September 2005 his family denounced his disappearance, and the following day his body was discovered with signs of having been brutally tortured prior to his death.

In 2007, former paramilitary commander Salvatore Mancuso, who was subsequently extradited to the US, declared in statements related to the demobilization process for the paramilitary groups that Cicolac (a Nestlé subsidiary) was one of the companies that provided financial support to the AUC (‘Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia’, the national paramilitary umbrella group structure).

The perpetrators tried to portray Luciano’s assassination as the result of a personal dispute in order to mislead the investigation, however over time the deception was revealed. Due to the international attention and pressure that resulted from the case impunity has not been total in this instance. Four members of the paramilitary group Northern Block have been detained and prosecuted and investigations have been undertaken against two officials attached to the Anti-Kidnapping Sub-Directorate of the National Intelligence Agency, Norberto Sotomayor Gonzalez and Jose Antonio Riaño Noriega, who turned themselves in to the criminal investigation unit of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Valledupar.

The crime, committed during the oppressive and ruthless period of ‘democratic security’, was perpetrated by way of a criminal alliance between paramilitary groups and the national intelligence agency which had become an unaccountable structure under the personal control of then president Alvaro Uribe Velez.

Despite the progress that has been made, the intellectual authors and beneficiaries of the assassination of Luciano Romero remain under the protection of social, criminal and political impunity. Notwithstanding a court order proclaimed in the course of judicial proceedings relating to the case which demanded an investigation of the possible complicity of Cicolac-Nestlé directors in the crime, no progress has been made in this respect. Due to the failure to comply with the order to investigate the possible complicity of Nestlé management in Colombia, proceedings were commenced in Switzerland in an attempt to discover the truth as to the extent of Nestlé’s possible involvement in or awareness of the preparation and execution of the assassination. However, the Swiss tribunals have also failed to conduct a proper investigation.

Luciano, our beloved comrade from the lands of the City of the Sacred Kings of Valle de Upar, continues to be an integral part not only of the fight of the trade unions for justice in Colombia, but also of solidarity with all political and economic prisoners and the strengthening of fraternity and goodwill between Europe and Colombia, between Asturias and Valledupar.

You will always be treasured in our memory, Luciano Enrique Romero Molina.

Sinaltrainal