Remembering Santiago Rafael Cruz - FLOC organizer killed in Mexico

Please take a minute today to send an email to the President of Mexico.

One year ago, on April 9, 2007, Santiago Rafael Cruz, an organizer for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO (FLOC), was found bound and beaten to death in the group’s Monterrey, Mexico, office. FLOC had opened an office in Monterrey next to the U.S. Consulate in 2005 to help members coming to North Carolina as guest workers in processing their visas, to fight corruption in the recruitment process and to develop leaders and train members. The office previously had been the target of break-ins with files and equipment destroyed. Cruz, 29, who worked for FLOC for more than four years in the United States, had headed up the Monterrey office for less than a month when he was murdered.

One year after the assassination of Santiago Rafael, the government of Nuevo Leon has not been able to show clearly what happened and has clearly demonstrated that it is not serious in investigating who is behind his vicious murder. Without a resolution of the murder, the FLOC staff and members cannot feel safe, as is the intent of the protective order of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Please send an email letter today to the President of Mexico. Ask him to have the Government of Mexico take over the investigation of the murder of Santiago Rafael Cruz, which it is entitled to do in a human rights case.

Note: FLOC is an organizational member of Central Indiana Jobs with Justice. Ken Barger of Indianapolis, who has worked with FLOC many years, has been travelling back and forth to Mexico in recent months as part of his continuing support for FLOC and its members.

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Assassination of Santiago Rafael Cruz, Staff Member, Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I am writing you about Santiago Rafael Cruz, who was assassinated in April of 2007 in the offices of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee AFL-CIO in Monterrey, Mexico. The investigation by the Government of Nuevo Leon of Santiago's brutal murder has been incompetent and deceptive. Santiago was a FLOC union organizer who defended the human and labor rights of Mexican farmworkers going to the United States. Following his murder, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights found sufficient evidence that the murder was politically motivated, and issued a protective order for FLOC staff and members in Mexico. We have been following this event for a year now, and we fear for the continued threat to the lives of FLOC staff and members in Mexico.

The government of Nuevo Leon has shown that it is not serious in the investigation of the assassination of Santiago Rafael. The Nuevo Leon government has not even considered investigating political motives in the murder. Instead, it has made unsubstantiated public statements with no evidence to support allegations, and has continually evaded the questions of FLOC lawyers. Eventually, the authorities announced that they had detained a minor criminal, whose "confession" was apparently obtained under torture, which is particularly shocking in a human rights case. We are also aware that the N.L authorities had not issued detention requests for other suspects in the case, resulting in the release of another man accused in the assassination. Last June, the Secretary General of the Nuevo Leon government stated to U.S. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur that "there is no political motive" in the case, even though the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued its protective order on the basis of such evidence.

As you are aware, the Secretary General resigned a few days later under allegations of corrupt ties to drug traffickers. In the meantime, the FLOC staff are being watched and followed in Monterrey and other areas.

Given the unwillingness of the Nuevo Leon government to pursue a legitimate investigation, the staff and members of FLOC in Mexico cannot feel safe. Any resolution of the murder of Santiago Rafael Cruz's murder has to provide a satisfactory resolution for FLOC, as is the intention of the protective order of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Therefore, I respectfully request that the federal Government of Mexico take over the investigation of the vicious murder of Santiago Rafael Cruz, which it is entitled to do in a human rights case. We ask that the investigation focus on political motives for the murder, particularly the corruption in the recruitment of Mexican migrant workers, which is in violation of Mexican national labor laws. As long as this threat remains unresolved, we fear for the safety of FLOC staff and members in Mexico.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
April 06, 2008

Background Information

SANTIAGO RAFAEL CRUZ
¡Presente!

One year after your assassination,
your family, friends, colleagues,
and members of FLOC
celebrate your life as our compañero.

"Tantas veces me mataron, tantas veces me mori, sin embargo estoy aquí resucitando...." ["So many times they killed me, so many times I died, however I am here resurrecting.. "], sings Maria Elena Walsh, the singer and composer from Argentina celebrating the life of the extraordinary who give everything they've got, even their lives, for justice and for a better world for all of us.

On April 9, 2007, Santiago Rafael Cruz, an organizer with FLOC, was brutally murdered at the FLOC offices in Monterrey, Mexico. The FLOC office in Monterrey was opened in 2004 after the union signed an agreement covering some 8,000 agricultural guestworkers from Mexico. The new members requested the union open an office in Monterrey as they explained many of their grievances arose during the recruitment process. Before the FLOC victory, workers used to pay on average $600 dollars to corrupt recruiters just for the benefit" of being recruited into the program. All of that was eliminated by the new FLOC contract, re-negotiated last February. An additional $346 that workers used to pay in visa and travel expenses was also eliminated per agreement between the union and the employers.

As the union challenged and changed the old system of recruitment and travelled all over Mexico educating the workers on the new regulations (which saved over $3 million dollars to the workers just the first year!) hostility towards union staff grew. These events led to the assassination of Santiago Rafael Cruz. As of today, the crime has not been resolved and it is under investigation. One person has been apprehended. He has presented a complaint arguing his confession was done under torture and blames two men and a woman as the actual murderers. One of the accused was caught by US authorities trying to cross the border last November and returned to Sonora to be liberated soon thereafter by Mexican authorities.

FLOC has hired two well known human rights attorneys in Mexico to pursue the case for the organization and Santiago's family. FLOC has pledged to continue the investigation until it brings justice to the investigation.