In recognition of her extraordinary courage, strength and dedication to the cause of workers’ rights and justice in Colombia, and for her steadfast commitment to ending impunity for all those responsible for the violence committed against Colombian trade unionists and other human rights defenders, we are proud to nominate Ms.Yessika Hoyos and her fledgling organization, sons and daughters against impunity and for the memory of the fallen (Hijos e Hijas por la Memoria y Contra la Impunidad).
Ms. Hoyos is a brilliant and passionate Colombian human rights attorney, who recently graduated from law school. She is the daughter of the slain Colombian trade union leader Jorge Dario Hoyos Franco, who was assassinated for his union activism and leadership on March 3, 2001.
Brother Jorge Dario Hoyos Franco founded the agrarian workers’ union in Uraba, Colombia, and later served as a Latin American representative of the International Federation of Plantation and Agricultural Workers, a global union federation that later became part of the IUF (International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, and Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Association). From 1984 through 1991, Dario was the Education Director in Latin America for the International Federation of Miners, a predecessor organization to the current ICEM (International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions). Maintaining his leadership position in the Colombian labor movement until his death in 2001, Dario worked as an advisor and organizer for the national teachers’ union, FECODE; the national miners’ union, SINTRACARBON; the bank workers’ union, UNEB; and the telecommunications workers’ union, SITTELECOM. He also provided support and training for conflicts and collective bargaining negotiations for numerous other unions.
After Brother Dario’s assassination in 2001, the police authorities and the Colombian Attorney General’s office immediately announced an unfounded conclusion that the motive of the murder was a “crime of passion,” without conducting a full investigation. The day after the killing, Ms. Hoyos stated emphatically on local radio stations that she was not going to leave her father’s assassination in impunity like the hundreds of recent killings of union leaders, and that she was not going to allow her father’s cause and life’s work to be silenced . She made clear that her father and his life were her example, and that she was going to demand justice in her father’s murder. She had just turned 17.
Less than 48 hours after Dario’s assassination, the Hoyos family received death threats, warning them to keep silent regarding Dario’s murder. A week later, they were forced to flee and go into hiding, and forced to move five more times in the next year. All the while, Ms. Hoyos pushed on with the case, pressuring the authorities to continue investigating.
In 2003, a Colombian court found two young men guilty of shooting and killing Dario Hoyos. The two young men were carrying out orders from a higher authority and declared they had killed Dario for “being a subversive.” Refusing to accept this unfounded conclusion, Ms. Hoyos pressed the Attorney General’s office to continue the investigation. She often provided new information to the authorities based on her own investigations, which often provoked new threats and warnings to drop the case.
In August 2007, a special judge with jurisdiction over cases involving the murder of trade unionists convicted a police sub-lieutenant for organizing Dario’s assassination. It was established that this police officer was the contact for the two young hit men. The judge also concluded that Dario was killed for his union activism and not for being a member of a subversive organization, nor for his involvement in a “crime of passion.” However, the police officer was convicted in absentia, and it was later established that the defendant had actually died prior to his conviction. Moreover, Ms. Hoyos has obtained persuasive evidence indicating that higher ranking military officers were the real intellectual authors of the crime.
Ms. Hoyos, in spite of great risk to her life, is continuing to press for full justice in the case of her father’s unconscionable murder, as well as for the cases of the more than 2,500 Colombian trade unionists who have been assassinated since 1986. After her father’s death, she picked up the banner of social justice, which Dario had taught her to hold up, and pushed forward the important work he had begun as a union leader. In 2006, she founded an organization, along with the relatives of other slain trade unionists and human rights advocates, to build a social movement that will preserve the memory of the murdered and will help bring an end to the impunity brought on by a failed prosecutorial and justice system. The impunity rate for the assassinations of labor leaders committed over the past 23 years remains more than 96 percent.
For outstanding and selfless commitment honoring her father’s lifelong struggle for labor rights and justice in Colombia, the AFL-CIO is pleased to nominate Yessika Hoyos and the Sons and Daughters Against Impunity and for the Memory of the Fallen for the 2008 George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award.