Last July, Jesús Cometa was shot dead while driving through the Gurga Valley in southwestern Colombia.

The gunman on a motorcycle pulled up next to his car and sprayed with bullets. Mr Cometa was not injured, but his bodyguard was hit.

"He still has a bullet in his chest," he said.

Mr Cometa is one of the thousands of trade unionists attacked in Colombia in recent years, and by some measure it is the most dangerous place in the world for organized labor.

The Caucasus Valley is home to the country's sugar industry, and it is a local representative of Colombia's largest agricultural union.

"When you play these roles in the league, you lose your social life," Mr Cometa said. "You can't just go to crowded bars or street corners because you never know when to be a target.

“Your family suffers too because they know they are also a goal.”

This is a long history issue.

Colombia's Nobel Prize-winning writer Gabriel García Márquez famously highlights the massacre of banana plantations in the 1920s in his groundbreaking novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude".

The Labor Department said more than 3,000 unionists have been murdered in Colombia since the early 1970s.

Even if the country is more peaceful than ever, the attack continues.

"Unfortunately, Colombia is already the deadliest country and the country where trade unions work," said Luc Triangle, general secretary of the International Federation of Trade Unions, a global umbrella organization based in Brussels.

Every year, ITUC publishes investigations into atrocities conducted by trade unionists around the world. Its latest version covers the year at the end of March 2024.

It found that during the 12 months, 22 unionists were killed for their activism around the world. Eleven of them were murdered in Colombia.

"Normally, these are targeted murders," Mr Triangle said. "They know what they are doing. They know who to murder.

“It’s not about the big bosses of the union or leaders. They target small villages that work actively in union work.

“Between 2020 and 2023, we recorded 45 murders in Colombia. In 2022, there were 29 murders. This is less violence than before, but it is still very violent, of course, if you compare it to other countries.”

Why does this happen?

Fabio Arias, head of Colombia's largest union union, said it was part of Colombia's long and complex civil war that brought left-wing rebel groups to right-wing paramilitary people, drug traffickers and Colombian countries, which remained grand in some parts of the country.

"The union movement has always been linked to the left-wing parties, and unfortunately many of the right-wing governments we have in Colombia have always claimed that any left-wing person is a guerrilla, a terrorist," Arias said.

“Once you’ve determined that, then people feel it makes sense to attack them.”

He said the attacks on workers were also linked to illegal Colombia's economy, especially the cocaine trade and illegal mining.

“If you look at the locations where these attacks occurred, it’s in the Caucasus, Nalinho, Plumio, Arauca, Nott de Santander and Caqueta because that’s the largest Coca-Cola plantation, and where illegally mined.”

It is not clear who is doing these killings and who orders. Some unionists blame the private sector, saying businesses are desperate to kill any attempts from workers’ organizations and they are paying these atrocities to armed groups.

They noted that threats and attacks sometimes soar when businesses and unions are in wage negotiations.

But since many attacks are not punished, it is difficult to know who should be blamed.

Another Sugar Cane Worker, local representative of Sintrainagro, said: “In the Caucasus Valley, there are many different armed groups and you never really know who is behind the attack, who is doing them, who is ordering them.”

The threat to Paleo Valley is not limited to sugar manufacturing.

“In 2007, I was in a van and the guys pulled us next to the motorcycle, then proposed to me and fired,” recalled Jimmy Núñez, the head of the alliance representing street traders in the regional capital Cali Cali.

“My colleagues sitting next to me were killed and my wife was injured. In 2010, they attacked me again on the road between Gundam and Kali.

“They opened fire at my car. In 2012, we were attacked at a shopping mall in Cali and one of them was killed. In 2013, my family had to leave the Caucasus due to the threat.

“In this country, every day, social leaders and trade union leaders are killed every day.”

The government said it is doing everything it can to protect unionists. Colombian President Gustavo Petro is in charge of the left-wing government, which is very sympathetic to the country's workers.

In 2023, a step towards correcting the past is taken by formally recognizing the trade union movement (collected) as a victim of the conflict in Colombia. This gives victims a greater chance to investigate the case.

"We think this is an important step to recognize the violence against unionists in Colombia, which was not the case before," said Luc Triangle of ITUC.

He also said foreign companies that operate in Colombia must do more.

“If I were CEO of a multinational company, I would question my activities in Colombia,” he said.

“There is a huge responsibility for multinational corporations. They cannot have a good code of conduct, and at the same time, they remain silent when unionists are killed.

"This is unacceptable. Global companies and foreign investors in Colombia must strengthen."

Other reports from Immie Rhodes.