Ever Luis Marin Rolong

Ever Luis Marín Rolong was a regional leader of SINALTRACEBA, a brewery workers’ union. He joined Bavaria Brewery –maker of the popular Cerveza Águila– at the age of 20. He worked there uninterruptedly until one afternoon he was killed while waiting for the bus to go to work. Unknown gunmen fired six times at him.

Though no suspects have been captured or positively identified by police, his death fits a pattern of targeted killings of union activists in the region.

Marín had recently participated in all of the union actions that had resulted in a collective bargaining agreement signed a month earlier. And, one day after his death, during the union’s General Assembly, the president of SINALTRACEBA, Rafael Maldonado, received death threats over the phone from someone who stated that they had already taken the life of Ever Luis and that he would be next.

The killing took place a Saturday afternoon in front of the Church El Divino Niño, El Parque in the in the northern Colombian city of Soledad.

In a press release, the Central Única de Trabajadores, CUT, blames Marín’s death on the multiple paramilitary groups that operate in the Colombian department of Atlantic.


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Region:Americas

Country:Colombia

Department/Province/State:Atlantico

Sex1:Male

Age:46

Date of Killing:04/01/2014

Previous Threats:No information

Type of Work:Trade Unionist

Organisation:Sindicato de Trabajadores de Cervecerías Bavaria

Sector or Type of Rights the HRD Worked On:ESC Rights

Sector Detail:Labour/Trade Union

More information:Front Line Defenders

1This database records an individual's chosen gender identity. If they do not self-identify as male or female they can use the option of recording other/neither or use the term NBGI (non binary gender identity).