A protest by workers in the petroleum company Cepcolsa Petróleo and canadian Pacific Rubiales was violently repressed yesterday. The protest occurred in Campo Rubiales, in the department of Meta, Colombia. It is an important area of petroleum production. The workers were demanding better working conditions and salaries.

More than a thousand workers started to demand these changes 29 days ago. Currently the workers are being kept in permanent assembly.

SINTRAPETROPUTUMAYO the Putumayo oil workers’ union has reported that on July 22^nd Yesid Calvache, the union’s President, was the target of an assassination attempt.

At 5.00am, unknown assailants tried to hurl a firebomb into his house in Villagarzon, Putumayo department. Fortunately the device did not manage to set fire to the building and Mr Calvache and his family escaped injury.

Colombian human rights organisations report that the leadership of the SINTRAPETROPUTUMAYO oil workers union and community leaders from around Miraflores have been on the receiving end of threats as a result of their protests to defend labour rights and community rights in Putumayo, one of Colombia’s most conflicted regions.

The fact that communities around the world protest oil exploitation for the damages it produces is nothing new. But through a grotesque misuse of power, the multinational corporation Emerald Energy has successfully dictated the overruling of a Security Council decision that led to the re-incarceration of several peaceful demonstrators. On October 18, 2010 a Security Council was held in Mocoa, Putumayo to determine the fate of six illegally detained and severely injured protestors, and the decision was made to set them free.

Since April 2010 the indigenous and peasant communities of this region have exercised our constitutional right to demonstrate and hold social protests against the grave impacts of the petroleum exploitation that has occurred between 1961 and today, leaving in its wake corruption, death and destitution for the Putumayo communities.

CCFTA among a host of initiatives that create "huge opportunities for easy profits"

Ms. Dawn Paley (Journalist, As an Individual):

Thank you for inviting me here this afternoon.

My name is Dawn Paley and I'm a journalist based in Vancouver. I've travelled to Colombia twice, for a total of about three months, and I've spent a great deal of time researching Canada's relationship with Colombia from here.

August 2011: British Petroleum  Sells colombian buisness to Talisman Energy a canadian company

In the December 2000/January 2001 Monitor, I reported that Enbridge Inc., one of Canada's leading energy corporations, was linked to death squads in Colombia according to information provided by Amnesty International. Below, I examine the impact of this revelation in Canada as well as detail the further damage caused in Colombia by the consortium of which Enbridge is a part.