Newswire
NPR: Colombia Tied to Paramilitary Murders of Unionists
Colombia's intelligence services compiled lists of union activists and gave them to right-wing paramilitaries, who then carried out assassinations, according to captured documents and a key witness.
The U.S. Congress is considering a proposed trade agreement with Colombia, and news of the government-paramilitary collaboration has put passage of that legislation in further jeopardy.
Aerial fumigation is contributing to the worst recent humanitarian crisis in Colombia, experts say
The Colombian Department of Nariño is experiencing one of the worst protection and humanitarian assistance crisis since Colombian President Alvaro Uribe began his second term in office. The U.S. financed aerial herbicide spray program (fumigations) compounds and exacerbates the myriad of hardships that Afro-Colombian communities are already facing: racism, disadvantaged access to state programs, food insecurity due to the internal armed conflict, internal displacement and vulnerability to human rights violations by the armed groups.
The Crimes of Chiquita Brands in Colombia
On December 6, 1928, in the municipal plaza of Ciénaga Magdalena, around 3000 men and women were assassinated for demanding that the U.S. transnational corporation, United Fruit Company, resolve the demands of the petitions presented to them by the union. On that day, the Colombian army, commanded by General Carlos Cortés Vargas, fired their arms against the masses of people to liquidate the workers’ protest.
Condemn the Repression of Campesino Activists
The Colombia Action Network has signed onto this letter circulating in
support for the Cimitarra River Valley Peasant Association. The CAN was
hosted by the CRVPA in 2004 & 2005 on delegations to Colombia. The letter
and the report from the International Peace Observatory explain the
repression faced by the CRVPA.
- Meredith Aby for the CAN
colombiasolidarity.org
Dear President Uribe:
We are writing to you today to express our deep concern for the present
situation of the civilian population and farmers' organizations in the
Antioquian Northeast, the Cimitarra River Valley and the Sur de Bolívar
Colombian prisoner wins second round in U.S. courts
The U.S. government’s attempt to railroad Colombian political prisoner Ricardo Palmera, alias Simón Trinidad, suffered another significant setback March 26 when chief judge of the District Court for Washington, D.C., Thomas F. Hogan, was forced to recuse himself from the case after a motion filed by defense attorney Robert Tucker exposed a conspiracy between Hogan and the prosecutors.
