According to an annual survey released on June 10 by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Colombia not only led the world in number of trade unionists murdered but accounted for nearly 65% of all assassinations of unionists worldwide in 2008. The Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights for 2008 reported that at least 76 union members were murdered worldwide last year, 49 in Colombia, a 25% increase from the 2007 level of 39. The second most violent country in Latin America for trade unionists in 2008 was Guatemala, where nine trade unionists were murdered.
On June 15, the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center released Justice for All: The Struggle for Worker Rights in Guatemala, an extensive report documenting systematic violations of worker rights in Central America's largest country. The release of the report comes a few weeks before the Obama Administration is scheduled to review Guatemala's response to a CAFTA worker rights complaint filed last year by the AFL-CIO and several Guatemalan trade unions that included a focus on rising violence against trade unionists in Guatemala.
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