Appendix: Los Alamos 2002 Labor ConflictIn October 2002, not only did Ecuador agree, generally, to improve its labor law enforcement but, specifically, to investigate fully and prosecute those responsible for the May 2002 anti-union violence on the Los Alamos banana plantations and to assess the adequacy of the police response.39 Almost two years later, Ecuador has failed to uphold these commitments. The Ecuadorian government has still not fully investigated nor prosecuted the perpetrators of the anti-union violence. Only sixteen of the roughly two hundred men who allegedly participated in the attacks and none of the individuals who may have planned the violence were charged and prosecuted. The prosecutions that occurred were based on a fundamentally flawed investigation that omitted one of the two violent confrontations, failed to mention who might have conceived and planned the alleged crimes, and omitted eight of the nine workers injured, indicating only that one policeman and one worker were shot.40 The sixteen defendants were convicted in January 2003 of illegal possession of fire arms, carrying a prison term of only six months to one year.41 All sixteen convictions were later overturned on appeal. The government has given no indication that it intends to initiate a new investigation. In addition, although an internal review of the police response was allegedly conducted, no conclusions were reached regarding whether the police upheld their duty, set forth in Labor Code article 506, to “take all measures necessary to ensure order, guarantee workers’ and employers’ rights, and prohibit the entry into the workplace of agitators and strikebreakers.” As a result, officers who may have failed to fulfill this legal duty were not sanctioned nor were any striking workers compensated for injuries suffered due to an inappropriate police response. Instead, in February 2004, the minister of labor published police guidelines to be followed in future responses to labor strikes. The minister presented the guidelines to the head of police, to be distributed to regional police commanders and their subordinate officers. Human Rights Watch welcomes the guidelines and encourages their effective implementation. The publication of the guidelines, however, does not fulfill Ecuador’s obligation to conduct a meaningful review of the police response to the Los Alamos labor conflict, hold accountable those officers who may have acted illegally, and provide redress for workers who may have suffered as a result of improper police conduct. In addition, we are troubled by reports that workers’ organizations were not informed of the development of the guidelines. When we told a local trade unionist earlier this year that the new guidelines had been issued, for example, he consulted with major labor federations and prominent workers’ representatives in Quito, Guayas, Pichincha, Cuenca, and Manabí and reported back that none of them knew of the guidelines. [39] On May 6, 2002, the workers of the Los Alamos banana plantations implemented a strike declaration that they had first issued on March 26. On the morning of May 16, roughly two hundred hooded, armed men entered the Los Alamos plantation group, where workers living on the plantations were sleeping. Credible reports from workers’ representatives indicate that the men banged on workers’ doors with rifle butts, dragged roughly eighty of them from their homes, hit many with rifle butts, insulted them, looted their homes, and told many that they would be killed and dumped into the river. The hooded men also fired at at least one striking worker, Mauro Romero, seriously injuring him in the leg, which subsequently had to be amputated. Approximately six hours later, about six policemen reportedly arrived at the plantations. The armed men remained on the Los Alamos premises throughout the day and into the early evening, at which time they allegedly told all striking workers to leave the premises by 6:30 p.m. or be forcibly evicted. Shortly after 6:00 p.m., with the workers showing no sign of leaving, the armed men allegedly began shooting, injuring several workers and a policeman. Roughly nine workers suffered gunshot wounds. Reports indicate that by 8:00 p.m., police reinforcements arrived and arrested sixteen of the armed men. Workers report that a police presence remained on the plantations for roughly one month and that during that time, and over approximately the subsequent six months, they were the victims of anti-union dismissals, employer interference in the operation of the workers’ organizations, and the unlawful use of strikebreakers. [40] Report from Jaime Shamby Huilcapi, prosecutor for Guayas province in Naranjal, to the seventeenth criminal judge of Guayas province in Naranjal (no date). [41] Resolution, seventeenth criminal judge of Guayas province in Naranjal, January 28, 2003.
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