Tag Archive for 'Colombia'Page 5 of 6

14
Mar

Colombians Gather for the 2nd Permanent Tribunal of the People

Colombians Gather for the 2nd Permanent Tribunal of the People
Vanessa Burgos, http://upsidedownworld.org
March 14, 2007

As Bush made his way around Latin America promoting neoliberal policies and free-trade in the region, Colombia’s poor closed the 2nd convocation of the Permanent Tribunal of the People, showing they have a different vision of democracy.

On February 26th and 27th, community members from Colombia’s Choco region, along with other national and international organizations and NGOs, gathered in Cacarica, Colombia, for the second in a series of trials that are part of the Permanent Tribunal of the People, a process due to culminate next year in Bogotá. The largely symbolic public trial focused on the issue of biodiversity, presenting cases against transnational companies’exploitation of Colombia’s natural resources as a direct result of neoliberal policies supported by the Colombian government.

The public trial convened on the tenth anniversary of Operation Genesis, a military operation carried …

Published on
March 14, 2007
  0 Comments 946 views

13
Mar

Colombia - Violence is increasing

Colombia: Increasing Violence Requires More Security, Humanitarian Services
Sean Garcia and Andrea Lari refugeesinternational.org
March 9, 2007

Violence in Colombia is continuing and even escalating in various parts of the country, despite growing government rhetoric that it is gaining control over the internal conflict that has plagued the nation for the past four decades. Refugees International (RI) teams visited Nariño and Chocó departments in June 2006 and February 2007 and found that security conditions have seriously worsened. As a result, increased civilian displacement in the coming months is likely and Government authorities are unprepared to respond adequately.

Growing Violence Increases Displacement

Civilians continue to flee their homes due to newly formed narco-paramilitary groups entering their lands and ordering people to leave. The displaced are also subject to violence upon return. Since the June 2006 displacement from the Remolino demonstration in Nariño (see Colombia: Political Considerations Used to Deny Assistance to Displaced People), and …

Published on
March 13, 2007
  0 Comments 841 views

01
Mar

Court orders Ecopetrol to halt production on Bari land

Colombian court orders Ecopetrol to halt production on Bari land
by: Lisa Garrigues - www.indiancountry.com
February 26, 2007

LA PAZ, Bolivia - In a victory for the Bari people of Colombia, the national constitutional court has ordered the state oil company Ecopetrol to halt oil production on their land.

According to the judgment, ”We have observed not just damage to the fundamental right of the Motilon Bari Indigenous People to be consulted beforehand, but profound harm to the legitimate confidence that traditional authorities have deposited in government authorities.”

The judgment was first reported Feb. 2 in the Colombian newspaper La Republica, and later confirmed by Ecopetrol officials, who have not commented on the decision.

It called for the suspension of oil exploration in the Alamo 1 installation in the municipality of Gebarra, in Norte de Santander, and asked for the Minister of Defense to provide the necessary support to ensure company compliance with the judgment.

Though …

Published on
March 1, 2007
  0 Comments 936 views

07
Feb

Oil expansion threatens Colombia indigenous

Oil expansion threatens Colombia’s indigenous
by Bill Weinberg
Indian Country Today

NEW YORK - Colombia’s U’wa indigenous people, in the forested mountains overlooking the oil-rich and war-torn eastern plains, are facing reversal in a hard-won land rights victory over the state oil company. The move comes just as the company is to be partially privatized to fund a new thrust of expansion. Meanwhile, despite a supposed ”demobilization” of the right-wing paramilitaries, illegal gunmen continue to threaten Indians and campesinos organizing to defend their lands from oil development.

The U’wa victory came in May 2002, when Occidental Petroleum Corp. announced at its annual shareholder meeting in Los Angeles that it was quitting its oil exploration bloc in the high cloud forest region. The company cited economic reasons for the move, including a negative result from its first exploratory drill. However, the announcement came after 10 years of effort by the U’wa people and their international …

Published on
February 7, 2007
  0 Comments 1,308 views

10
Oct

World Indigenous Empowerment Summit

World Indigenous Empowerment Summit
La Paz, Oct 9 (Prensa Latina) The multinational state, the Constituent Assembly, resistance and democracy are on Monday s agenda for delegates at the Continental Summit of the Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of Abya Yala.

Over a thousand representatives from Bolivia, the US, Canada, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Uruguay are presenting their experiences with unity in native peoples.

They will discuss international rights, identity and coexistence as well as culture, education, language and historical social debts in work commissions.

The event ending October 12 will spurn Washington´s new colonization strategy through the Free Trade Area of the Americas and the Free Trade Agreements. I aims at creating a mechanism that consolidates brotherhood and complementary capacity among peoples.

Delegates will especially honor President Evo Morales, the first indigenous statesman.

Likewise, attendees will say no to interventionism, militarization and all policies and actions that damage sovereignty and …

Published on
October 10, 2006
  0 Comments 1,044 views

05
Oct

Colombia: Amazon Nomads ask to go home.

SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE
5 October 2006

COLOMBIA: AMAZON NOMADS ASK TO GO HOME

The nomadic Nukak tribe, who were recently moved by Colombian authorities to a new camp far from their traditional lands, have asked to return to their own homes.

The plea comes after the death of a nine year old Nukak boy and a severe flu epidemic which struck down almost a quarter of the tribe.

In the new camp the Nukak are forced to live together in one place which, as experts had warned, has led to outbreaks of disease; traditionally they live in small, nomadic groups. Since first contact in 1988, flu and malaria have killed more than half of the tribe.

‘I want to go back home. There was more meat there, there was more fish,’ said Rosa, a Nukak woman.

The new camp is just 2% of the size of the Indians’ own territory and their …

Published on
October 5, 2006
  0 Comments 983 views

05
Sep

COLUMBIA: Indigenous rights violated by state forces

Following meetings with local spiritual and institutional indigenous authorities, the observers of the Mission in Support of the Kankuamo Indigenous People express a strong condemnation for the evident violations of human rights persistently made against the Kankuamo indigenous people in Colombia. After gathering direct testimonies from the families of men and women who have been unjustly imprisoned and threatened with violence, they demand the release of all of these prisoners.

[Adital] A declaration, made as part of the Second Mission in Support of the Kankuamo Indigenous People of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, condemns the repeated violations of international humanitarian laws by the Colombian ‘public forces’ (a term that envelopes the country’s army, navy, air force, and national police force) that have been proven to occur within the Kankuamo reserve.

The Mission is particularly concerned by the militarization of the lands, an open violation of the Colombian Constitution which recognises the …

Published on
September 5, 2006
  0 Comments 731 views

Video activism and the Chiapas Media Project

In the following presentation, Claudia Magallanes-Blanco from the University of Western Sydney talks about the role of video activism as a world-wide tool for empowerment and the Chiapas Media Project, a collaborative effort based in Mexico that provides indigenous Zapatistas in Chiapas and peasants in Guerrero with training and equipment to produce their own videos.

Since forming in 1998, CMP has distributed over 6000 videos, including: Zapata’s Garden, a film that looks at the society the Zapatista’s are building; …


I Am A Defender of the Rainforest

Known as ‘Soy defensor de la selva’ in Spanish, I am a Defender of the Rainforest is an award-winning documentary that was filmed, edited, and directed by members of the Sarayaku community in southern Ecuador.

The film shows how the …


Underreported Struggles #19, October 2008

In this month’s Underreported Struggles: 400,000 Guatemalans Reject Development Model, Philippines Indigenous People Unite for the Land, Riot Police Target Algonquin Blockade, Chagos Islanders Denied the Right of Return, and 17 other stories …


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