Adán Alberto Pacheco Rodríguez, a former leader of the electricity workers’ union, was shot dead on 2 May 2005 by two gunmen. Two days later a written death threat against trade unionists was received from a paramilitary group. Trade unionists in Colombia are at grave risk of human rights abuses. Successive Colombian governments have implemented a series of policies to improve the protection of trade unionists. The long-term security of trade unionists depends on decisive action by the Colombian authorities to end the impunity which protects the vast majority of those responsible for the human rights abuses against them.
