Three union leaders killed by Colombian military

BOGOTA (AFP) Aug 07, 2004
A human rights group Friday accused the Colombian military of executing three union activists in northeastern Colombia, but the army said the men were meeting with leftist guerrillas when they were killed during a shootout with soldiers.

General Luis Garcia said the union leaders -- Jorge Prieto, Leonel Goyeneche and Hector Martinez -- were shooting at soldiers when they were killed in the town of Saravena in the northeastern province of Arauca on Thursday.

Garcia said the three men were meeting with members of the National Liberation Army, Colombia's second-largest leftist guerrilla group, and were found with two guns and dynamite.

But Gloria Florez, director of the human rights group Minga, said witnesses saw the men taken from a house by soldiers and "executed extra-judicially."

Union leaders denied that the men had links to the guerrillas. Colombian prosecutors are investigating the incident.

According to the Central Workers Union, 574 union members have been killed in Colombia since 2000.

WAR.WIRE