Fighting fund banner

 

Trade union leader Huber Ballesteros freed

27 January 2017

After 40 months in jail, prominent trade union leader Huber Ballesteros has been released from La Picota prison in Bogota.

Huber, one of the leaders of the Patriotic March, a member of the National executive of the Colombian trade union congress (CUT) and vice-president of the agricultural workers' union FENSUAGRO, was arrested in 2013 when he was leading the National Agrarian Strike. His arrest and imprisonment on trumped-up charges, accused of rebellion and financing terrorism, was interpreted as an attempt to undermine the strike and silence social protest in Colombia.

UCU and other trade unions have campaigned for his release and for an end to the persecution of trade unionists in Colombia. 

Last updated: 17 March 2021