Interim Report - REPORT_NO218, November 1982

1. 391. The complaint appears in a communication from the Trade, Unions International of Transport Workers dated 19 August 1982. The Government replied in a communication dated 4 October 1982.
2. 392. El Salvador has not ratified the freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), or the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. The complainant's allegations

1. 393. The complainant alleges that on 12 August 1982 the police broke into the transport workers trade union premises and detained without any justification the trade union militants Maximiliano Castro Nava, Héctor López Rivas, Gabriel Argueta, Jorge Rodriguez Dueñas and Alejandro Martinez Alvarado.

B. The Government's reply

1. 394. The Government declares that the persons referred to by the complainant were apprehended by members of the police on 9 August at the headquarters of the Trade Union of workers in the Transport, Similar and Allied Industries and handed over to a military examining judge in pursuance of Decree No. 507 of 3 December 1980 for possession of communist propaganda. Subsequently, continues the Government, the military judge set them free, with the exception of Alejandro Martinez Alvarado who is imprisoned in the "La Esperanza" penal establishment.

C. The Committee's conclusions

1. 395. The Committee observes that this case refers to the forcible entry of the headquarters of the Trade Union of workers in the Transport, Similar and Allied Industries (STITSC) and the detention of five trade union leaders.
2. 396. The Committee notes that, according to the Government's statement, the trade union leaders in question were apprehended in pursuance of Decree No. 507, dated 3 December 1980, for possession of communist propaganda and were subsequently brought before the military judge and set free, with the exception of Alejandro Martinez Alvarado who is now imprisoned. The Committee observes that Decree No. 507 regulates the judicial proceedings to be followed in respect of certain offences while the constitutional guarantees continue to be suspended.
3. 397. In this respect the Committee considers that, even in the extremely grave circumstances which gave rise to the suspension of constitutional guarantees, the detention of trade union leaders or the entry of the police into the headquarters of a trade union without a court warrant should only be possible in cases where there are objective grounds for believing that a crime has been or is about to be committed. Consequently, bearing in mind that the alleged events occurred, as the Government's reply seems to indicate, because of the possession of communist propaganda in the headquarters of the STITSC and bearing in mind, also, that the right to express opinions is one of the essential aspects of trade union rights, the Committee can only express regret at the forcible entry of the headquarters of this trade union and the detention of the four trade union leaders who were subsequently set free.
4. 398. As regards the trade union leader Alejandro Martinez Alvarado, who - according to the Government's statements - is imprisoned in a penal establishment, the Committee requests the Government to send detailed information about the acts with which he was charged and, where appropriate, the text of the judgement handed down by the judicial authority.