Following recent mobilizations against Canadian mining company Gran Colombia Gold, and clashes with between residents and police in Nariño, Colombia, the governor of the department signed an open letter on November 23rd, stating his opposition to open-pit mining on land currently being cultivated by campesinos [small farmers].
Recent statements by President Juan Manuel Santos and other senior state and government officials calling into question the integrity of the José Alvear Lawyers’ Collective (CCAJAR), which represents victims of human rights violations, may put CCAJAR at risk of physical attack and undermines the work of all human right defenders, Amnesty International said today.
In the provincial reserve in the jurisdiction of the Barrancas municipality in the department of Guajira, from November 18th to 20th, 2011, we consider the issues that have arisen as a result of the request for permission to expand the Cerrejón mining project, as well as the impacts from this project's open pit mining activities for the las 35 years in La Guajira.
Especial attention was drawn by the active participation during these meetings on the part of traditional autorities, women, youngsters and children.
Diego Felipe was 16 years old, he was in 11th grade, loved painting- you can see his room and it's full of drawings and graffiti everywhere. He was out one night around 10 pm with some of his friends, a police car drove by. They were young and they obviously got scared and ran away, two boys ran one way and the other two ran in the opposite direction. The police shot into the air and chased the boys; unfortunately one of the shots hit my nephew in the back and killed him". Cristina Lizarazu testimony.
At times masked beneath decades of paramilitary repression and hidden behind headlines about Colombia’s armed guerrilla armies, Colombia’s mass movement has survived against all odds. It is now reemerging into the light of day, seemingly without notice in the international press.
The people of Arboleda and San Lorenzo (Nariño), tired of constant aggressions and the lack of consultation on mining development projects in their communities, reject the presence of the multinational Mazamorras Gold.
Colombia is the first Latin American country to become subjected to the theatre of United States anti-guerrilla warfare. Colombia has also one of the richest histories of revolutionary politics on the continent extending well over half a century. It is throughout this time, that Colombia has been the battleground of an undeclared civil war.
A Colombian Army officer charged with multiple civilian killings, known as “false positives,” last month publicly charged the commander of the U.S.-assisted unit – General Javier Fernández Leal - with collaborating in the killings. Fernández Leal has been promoted to chief of joint intelligence for the Colombian military.