Colombian Human Rights Defenders Targeted for Prosecution: The Case of Principe Gabriel Gonzalez
Principe Gabriel Gonzalez has been persecuted for his work as a human rights activist with Colombia‘s Political Prisoners Solidarity Committee.
Colombia
Colombian Music Festival Keeps Afro-Colombian Culture Alive
Due to the mainstream media neglecting Afro-Colombia music, there has for some time been little interest in their culture. According to festival director, Alberto Seviliano, Afro-Colombian music is never played on the radio, even in Cali where most the people are Afro-Colombian. This, he says, the festival wants to change.
The Pending US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement: False Claims Versus Hard Realities
Neoliberal free trade policies have been a big part of the reason that economic crises are taking place all over the world and have led to ever widening gaps between the rich and the poor. Colombia has the second largest gap between the rich and the poor in South America and the eighth largest worldwide, according to the World Bank’s World Development Institute. The FTA will make matters worse.
Colombia: Interview with Eberto Diaz Montes, President of FENSUAGRO (United National Federation of Peasant Farmers and Farm Workers)
The military aid of the United States and Plan Colombia constitute one of the greatest obstacles to peace in Colombia. We see every day how the US affects the situation here. The US must not continue intervening in this conflict and advocating for this idea that peace is not possible. It must stop calling the armed insurgency terrorists because this blocks dialogue and it also shows a double standard regarding political violence in the country.
Colombia Holds National ‘Peace Congress’ To Find Solution To Conflict
Over 15,000 Colombians descended on the oil rich city of Barrancabermeja in Central Colombia to attend a national ‘Peace Congress’. The slogan for the meeting was, ‘dialogue is the path’, and was attended by communities across the country who have been severely affected by the ongoing conflicts.
Mexico: March Against Drug War Rejects “National Security Law”, Calls for “Citizen Security”
Hundreds of people streamed onto Avenida Reforma from Mexico City’s Museum of Anthropology, further proof that Mexico’s peace and justice movement has the capacity to draw citizens out to protest the drug war. Protesters demanded that the Mexican Congress throw out proposed reforms to the National Security Law that is designed to provide legal underpinnings for continuing the war on drugs strategy launched by President Felipe Calderon in December of 2006.
The Andean Connection: Tracking the Drug War’s Coca Leaves and Failed Policies
How drug war-related violence in Mexico and Central America is connected to Andean coca leaves and the failed policies of Plan Colombia. […]
Colombia’s Indigenous Communities Demand Demilitarization as Fighting Escalates
The Nasa people have long struggled to keep their autonomy and unique way of life and governance. At the same time as having government indigenous representatives, they have a completely separate Nasa system of governing and democracy. For the native leaders, the attacks by the guerillas and positioning of state military in their territory is an attack on their autonomy.
The History of the Quimbo in Colombia: Dammed or Damned?
The Quimbo Dam in the Department of Huila, Colombia is one of the largest infrastructure mega projects the country is currently implementing. Not any smaller then the Dam is this megaproject´s ecological and social impacts.
Águilas Negras: Rising from the Ashes of Demobilization in Colombia
With extensive prior experience in irregular warfare and the exportation of cocaine shipments, the Águilas Negras freed itself from the ideological constraints that circumscribed the AUC’s code of conduct and rapidly became one of the most powerful armed criminal organizations in Colombia. The newfound freedom of association and action coincided with a marked rise in human rights abuses and violence attributable to the group, as it has recently expanded their operations into bordering states of Venezuela, a disturbing trend that has been met with official complaisance in Washington and Bogotá alike.
[…]
[…]
Copyright 2003-2018 Upside Down World