Colombia’s largest trade union federation, the CUT, has condemned threats and smears made against a number of its executive committee members and those of the FECODE teacher federation, particularly on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). The trade unionists targeted include several who have worked with JFC, including participating in JFC online events, meeting delegations to Colombia and visiting Britain to attend trade union conferences.
On 22 April, the CUT issued a statement that said those named ‘had been the object of unfounded and slanderous smears that labelled them as “guerrillas” over their legitimate support for the campaign of President Gustavo Petro. These accusations not only lack any basis, but constitute a grave attack on their honour [and] dignity and, more worryingly still, put their physical safety and that of their families at risk’.
The trade unionists impacted include the CUT’s Director of Young Workers, Lina Montilla Díaz. Last June, Lina was a keynote speaker at GMB Conference, UNISON Local Government Conference and BFAWU Conference in a tour organised by JFC. She has also spoken virtually at TUC and UNISON conferences and met with JFC delegations to Colombia. Other CUT executive members targeted are Carlos Enrique Rivas and Nelson Alarcón, who in his former capacity as FECODE president has spoken at online events co-organised by JFC and British education unions.
The FECODE executive members targeted include international secretary Martha Alfonso, who attended NEU Conference in April 2024 and EIS Global Solidarity Conference in January this year. On the latter visit, she was joined by fellow FECODE executive member María Eugenia Londoño, who has also met JFC delegations in Colombia and was among those named in the latest threats, along with Miguel Ángel Pardo, another executive member.
The latest cases of anti-trade union aggression come amid a context of ongoing violence against organised labour in Colombia. Since the start of 2025, five teacher trade unionists have been murdered, while two transport sector trade unionists have been killed in the city of Cali since November. In its statement, the CUT said ‘Colombia has a painful history of violence against trade union leaders and human rights defenders, in which stigmatisation has been the first step to subsequent aggressions. It is unacceptable that, in 2025, these dangerous practices are still being utilised to attack democracy and the right to free expression and association’.
Last year, FECODE faced a legal attack when authorities raided its Bogota offices after the then-Attorney General insinuated financial wrongdoing in its support for the Historic Pact coalition of President Petro, despite the federation demonstrating that it had provided legal and transparent contributions. FECODE has also suffered historically high levels of violence, with over 1,000 affiliated teachers murdered or disappeared between 1984 and 2010. Ongoing violence this year demonstrates the urgent need to improve security for trade unionists, activists and all those striving to improve conditions in their workplaces and communities.