Police arrived at the Santa Isabel mine in Colón-Génova on February 21, 2012. The officers asked these local miners to attend a meeting to see if they could sort out their licensing request; However, when the roughly twenty-five miners arrived, they were read their rights and arrested.
We who participated at the international meeting in Switzerland, express our fraternal greetings in support of all political prisoners in different jails of Colombia.
URGENT ACTION NEEDED BY COLOMBIAN AND U.S. GOVERNMENTS
HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS DEMAND GUARANTEES FOR LIFE AND THE DEFENSE OF INDIGENOUS AND AFRO-DESCENDANT TERRITORIES OF NORTHERN CAUCA
Human rights organizations demand that the Colombian and U.S. governments take immediate action to guarantee the right to life and territory of indigenous and Afro-descendant territories of Northern Cauca.
A thick fog flows over the eastern range of the Colombian Andes. Here and there, the constant wind lifts the clouds to reveal lagoons, cloud forests, and páramo, an Andean alpine ecosystem known as a “mountain-top sponge” for its massive water-holding capacity. Descending lower into the Upper Magdalena Valley, about 400 kilometers southwest from Bogotá, rural communities farm a wide variety of fruit and vegetable crops, and raise animals that not only sustain families, but help feed Colombia´s major cities.
It is with deep pain that we inform you of the death of comrade LUCIANO ENRIQUE ROMERO MOLINA, a leader of SINALTRANAL who was assassinated in the city of Valledupar, Cesar. Luciano was seen alive at approximately 9pm on 10 September, then on the morning of 11 September his dead body was found tied up, tortured and with 40 knife wounds. He was living under the PROTECTIVE MEASURES scheme of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission of the Organisation of American States.
In the heart of the Americas lies a human refuge embraced by three mountain ranges, lulled by lush valleys, dense jungles, and bathed by two oceans. Springs and flowing rivers convert its lands into wonders of fertility, culminating to the south in Amazonia -- all of which makes Colombia an object greatly coveted. And from that avarice begins the people's martyrdom: from the cartography of the greed of a handful.
ESMAD (riot police) in Huila, Colombia began the forced removal of the fisher-people, campesinos, miners, day laborers and others who have been blocking the diverting of the Magdalena River for the Quimbo Dam early Tuesday morning. The diverting of the river was being blocked by a peaceful occupation of the area known as Domingo Arias. The ESMAD used tear gas, pepper spray and brutal force to corral the people protecting the Yuma/Guacahayo/Magdalena River.
The media announced a new corruption scandal in the “Picota” National Prison last week, this time due to the Nule businessmen (brothers Miguel, Manuel and Guido), being sentenced for the so-called "Contracting Carousel in Bogota" to paltry sentences of 7 years (and in the case of their business partner Mauricio Galofre, to only 6 years 8 months), for the crime of embezzlement by irregular management and for the appropriation of about 70 billion Colombian pesos as an advance on three contracts given by the IDU (Urban Development Institute).
With implications for Canadian multinational Gran Colombia Gold's proposed open-pit mine, this communiqué from the Marmato Defence Committee and the Regional Indigenous Council of Caldas (CRIDEC) indicates that the local municipality will now prohibit open-pit mining and resettlement of the historic town centre.
The National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE) denounces and opposes the serious harassment and threats against various members of the Tolima Branch from the month of June until the present [December 2011].