On June 6, 2013, Luzmila Ruano Gavira, human rights activist and member of the Committee for the Integration of the Colombian Massif (CIMA), received death threats for her community organizing against mining exploration projects in the Department of Nariño, Colombia. At 9:50 am, Ms. Ruano Gavira was approached by a man in downtown Pasto, the capital of Nariño, who yelled: "Ms. Luzmila, Ms. Luzmila, stop with the mining organizing because you are too pretty a woman to die."

Ms. Ruano Gavira was in the process of organizing a meeting with communities and the Government of Nariño, to take place on June 7, 2013. The event was aimed at developing a new mining policy for the region. The threat follows another incident, in August, 2011, in which contract workers for Canadian mining company Gran Colombia Gold sent around texts asking, "Who is this son of a bitch light-skinned girl Luzmila who is the intellectual author of social disorder, who doesn't like municipal development?"

Apart from owning the controversial Marmato mining project in Colombia, Gran Colombia Gold also headed the hotly-contested Mazamorras exploration project in Nariño until July, 2012 when it sold the venture to Andean Minerals and Metals Corp. The buyer is registered in Panama, has no website and is owned by José R. Oro, the former Vice President of Exploration and Corporate Development for Gran Colombia Gold. Mr. Oro resigned from the company effective on June 30, 2012 (1).

Luzmila Ruano Gavira and the CIMA have been peacefully organising against the Mazamorras project and against Colombia's mining policy for a number of years. In this time, other threats and attacks have been levied against community members and CIMA organizers. For example, in September 2012, CIMA member Robert Daza Guevara was arbitarily detained by the Colombian National Police in the municipality of Buesaco. In February 2013, CIMA member María Duby Ordóñez, was threatened via cell phone.

Please call on the Government of Colombia to provide protection for Luzmila Ruano Gavira and CIMA members, and to immediately and fully investigate the threats made to her life on June 6, 2013.

Read the original and more-detailed denunciation (Spanish).

(1)http://www.grancolombiagold.com/investors/press-Releases/press-releases…