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View the content of this email in your browser Information and analysis bulletin on extractivism here and in Colombia Project Accompaniment Solidarity Colombia May 2021 Indigenous people in the department of Caldas continue in Minga    Since April 28th, thousands of Colombians have joined the national strike which started mainly against a regressive tax reform bill proposed by the Colombian government and now has become a wider and diverse protest of indigenous, afro-descendant, peasants, workers, women and LGTBQI collectives, unions, youth, students, academics and health workers to challenge the nation’s violent and unequal order.   The Colombian state rewards those who ransack public services and cause social breakage   ALBERTO CARRASQUILLA was Minister of Finance under President Uribe (2003-2007) and under President Ivan Duque from 2018 to May 2021. This former finance minister privatized the water supply service, draining funds from already poor municipalities for his own private companies. In April 2021, he presented an obscene tax reform bill, contested from all sides.    Colombians continue to resist as national strike completes 15 days   The national strike was called for by the trade unions, social organizations and left-wing political parties against the Sustainable Solidarity Bill, a tax reform bill presented by the national government that sought to finance the fiscal deficit incurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic from the pockets of the working class.   Racism, Exclusion and State Violence: The Brutal Repression of Peaceful Protest in Colombia   Mobilizations took to the streets of Colombia on April 28 in a national strike to protest social injustice and aggressive tax reforms proposed by the  government. Student, trade unions, youth organizations, feminist groups, and indigenous and Afro-descendant marched, blocked roads  throughout the country, exercising their right to peaceful protest.    The Colombian State Is at War with Its People    The proposed tax reform, which was withdrawn as a result of the protests, would have mainly hit the middle and lower classes. But this was just the tip of an iceberg of economic inequality, corruption, and human rights violations in the midst of a pandemic in which urban sectors feel more than ever the threat of economic precarity, unemployment, and further debt.    Have Canadian-made LAVs been deployed on the streets of Colombia during the Strike?   In July 2015, the Ottawa Citizen reported: “New questions are being raised over the Conservative government’s push to sell arms to developing countries following explosive allegations linking Colombian military officers to the killing of hundreds of civilians during the country’s bloody civil war.” Canada must condemn government violence and defend Democracy in Colombia   Canada has a responsibility to speak out due to its strong political and economic ties with Colombia, given the signing of a contentious bilateral free trade agreement in 2008.  As a key ally to the Colombian government, Canada has a responsibility to address the rampant violence unleashed on the population.  Des-terres-minées! videos are now available in english !    News about Colombia in english Peoples Dispatch, formerly The Dawn News, is an international media organization with the mission of bringing to you voices from people’s movements and organizations across the globe.  Piedra, it is the rock of resistance, the rock which, placed in the powerfuls’ shoe, bothers. It is the one that, in all its diversity, constitutes our habitat, vital to our existence. It is the rock we throw. And, of course, it is the exploited rock. Extractivism, an economic model based on the exploitation of resources, ravages always increasingly here and elsewhere. It is in “Canada”, on colonized lands, that the majority of mining companies hold their headquarters. As so, the Canadian companies deploy their activities in Colombia in all impunity, and take advantage and participate in the political and social violence that hits this country living in war. --- The Project Accompaniment Solidarity Colombia is a collective which realizes accompaniment with Colombian communities and organizations since 2003, while also creating links here and in Colombia of groups and individuals struggling against the imposition of mega-projects of resource extraction.