We condemn the physical attack on Cajar’s lawyer, Santiago Salinas Miranda, and the harassment against members of this human rights organization
Bogotá, January 10th, 2024
The José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (Cajar) denounces to the public opinion and the national and international community that the organization’s lawyer, Santiago Salinas Miranda, was the victim of a physical attack on Monday, January 8th. The attack was carried out by two women who had harassed other members of this human rights organization in the past.
We are joining voices with social organizations and communities in resistance in order to declare loud and strong: the conflict in Colombia is part of an imperialist war, financed and fuelled by the economic interests of the North.
In 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Canada’s new “Americas Policy,” through which Canada would build trade ties with governments that shared Canada’s values of “democracy, human rights, rule-of-law and good governance.” The Canadian government then announced negotiations for a free trade and investment deal with Colombia, the country with the worst human rights record in the hemisphere.
Rios Vivos, a movement born in 2008 in opposition to the Hidroituango project, is touring Canada to demand an end to international complicity with the hydroelectric company's death practices. Like the current of rivers, which resist horror, peoples support dignity in every corner of the world.
Canada is the largest investor in the Colombian extractive sector, an industry which covers forty percent of the country’s territoryi. The growth of this sector has been accompanied by increases in human rights abuses committed by transnational corporations (TNCs) operating in the region.
Two Canadian mining companies are invoking the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, signed in 2008, as a means of extracting US $1 billion from the government of Colombia. The government’s crime: having had the temerity to protect its water resources while not doing enough to repress demonstrators.
The veredas (administrative districts) of Pio XII and Orotoy de Guamal, in the Meta department of Colombia, have been campaigning since February to prevent Ecopetrol from operating an exploratory well on the “La Porfía” property.
Originally published March 26.
The result is now expected to force local authorities to prohibit mining in the town, according to lawyer Diana Rodriguez.
With a majority voting “No” in a popular referendum Sunday, local communities in Colombia's Cajamarca department scored a historic victory against transnational mining giant AngloGold Ashanti, likely putting a definitive end to the La Colosa project and setting a precedent for the whole country.