Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | N | NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs

INVESTIGATION OF UNIONIST'S MURDER DENOUNCED AS A RETURN TO EL SALVADOR'S REPRESSIVE PAST.

Article Excerpt
On Nov. 5, a US union organizer of El Salvadoran origin, Gilberto Soto, was murdered in Usulutan while visiting family. He was about to meet with port workers to document abuses of their labor rights by a Danish shipping company. He was working in conjunction with the Sindicato de Dinamarca (SID) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). Soto worked in the US organizing port workers. Salvadoran authorities discounted the premise that the murder was related to these activities, concentrating instead on the theory that his mother-in-law arranged it. Suspects were soon rounded up, but further investigation has led to charges of police abuse of those suspects and a cover-up.

Police chief Ricardo Menesses told the media that Soto's mother-in-law, Rosa Elba Zelaya de Ortiz, "took it upon herself to contract assassins to commit the act because of alleged family problems."

Prosecutor Rodolfo Delgado added, "We have against her the statement of the 'subcontractor' through whom the money to pay the assassins was obtained. We have consistent evidence from witnesses to the act, admissions from the perpetrators, and, regarding the intellectual authorship, the testimony of two accomplices has helped us."

An airtight...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!