Gilberto Soto, a Salvadoran-born US resident and organiser for the US-based International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) was assassinated on November 5, outside his mother's home in Usulutan, El Salvador. After shooting him at close range, two men fled to a nearby car, making no attempt to rob him. Soto, who was to turn 50 years' old the next day, had been in charge of organising port container drivers in the north-east of the US. Over the previous year he had been involved in a joint project between the IBT and the Danish Specialised Workers Union (SID), aimed at documenting systematic violations of workers' rights by the AP Moller-Maersk Group, one of the largest shipping companies in the world. He was planning to meet with port workers in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, as well as drivers who haul Maersk containers in Central America.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, November 24, 2004.
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EL SALVADOR: Trade unionist assassinated
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