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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 October 2021 A half-century of struggle to defend the land in Arauca department   Saravena, Arauca department, 22 July 2021. With no explanation given, we are taken to a room in a community building to wait. It’s nothing out of the ordinary in this region of Colombia, where daily experience of a “red zone” in the armed conflict teaches people not to confide in new arrivals.    Killing of social leaders and human rights defenders continues unabated   The systematic assassination of social leaders and human rights defenders continues unceasingly at a horrifying rate. On average, everyday, at least one violent incident and more than one death is recorded in Colombia. On September 20, INDEPAZ reported that five social leaders were murdered in different parts of the country on that same day.   Violent repression, paramilitarism, illegal detention and torture in Cali   The practices described in the new report Cali: In the epicentre of repression – which include the use of lethal weapons against protesters, excessive and unlawful use of less lethal weapons such as tear gas, unlawful detentions and torture – are representative of hundreds of reports by protesters and human rights defenders and organizations and illustrate the modus operandi implemented throughout the country.   Anglo Gold and its Colombian Quebradona project   First mine production is projected for the second half of 2025, preceded by a four-year construction period. The article describes the proposed copper-gold mine as a “megaproject.” The physical dimensions of the mine are indeed gigantic. I’ve converted the measurements from the metric system to the more familiar measures of feet and miles.  The project will treat 6.2 million tons annually over a 23-year life.  The project will produce 3 billion pounds of copper, 1.5 million ounces of gold and 2.1 million ounces of silver.   18 arrest in Valle del Cauca   We reject the systematic aggressions against the population that have protested peacefully and with dignity during the National Strike, which started on April 28th. We denounce the accusations, persecution, judicialization and murder (both planned and arbitrary) that has been taking place in several areas of the Valle del Cauca region, specifically focusing on yesterday's events in which 18 demonstrators were arrested, adding to those that have occurred in the last three months.     Eco Oro wins against the colombian state    On September 9, an investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS) tribunal released its final decision on a case pitting Eco Oro Minerals, a Canadian mining company, against Colombia. The tribunal handed a devastating win to Eco Oro with implications for environmental protection, human rights and climate change policy.   Anti-government protests earlier this year were met with a savage police response, Colombians began to wonder if their troubled country would ever be at peace. 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.