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 The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) expresses its profound and deepest condolences at the news of the passing of Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT) President, Comrade Julio Roberto Gómez on the 25th of January 2021. Comrade Gómez succumbed to the coronavirus at the age of 70 in a health centre, where he was hospitalised since late December.

 Gómez began his career in the sixties and trained as a seminarian marked by the influence of the priest Camilo Torres. In the 1990s, he launched himself into the constituent national assembly but was not elected. He was Colombia's representative at the Latin American and Caribbean Workers' headquarters, and in 2008 Deputy President of the Union Confederation of Workers of the Americas.

 At the general workers' headquarters, he consolidated a career that turned 30 in which he was the visible face at the conciliation tables for the minimum wage. Gómez will be remembered as a great leader of world unionism, and for his role as an ILO Governing Body Member.

 The trade union movement has lost an unwavering social justice activist, and true Comrade at heart. Our heartfelt condolences go to the Gómez family, CGT Colombia members, and the trade union movement as a whole. 

May his revolutionary soul rest in eternal peace.  

La lucha continúa!!  

Issued by COSATU