Saturday March 4th, more than 200 paramilitaries in camouflage uniforms wearing an armband identifying them as Autodefensas Gaitanistas entered the afro-descendent community of Pena Azul, in the municipality of Alto Baudo in the department of Choco. The paramilitaries shot in direction of the population and occurred a confrontation with members of the ELN guerilla. The population fled. Only 5 of the 28 families of the community managed to get to Pie de Pato village (on March 4th). We currently ignore where are the other members of the community, of which many children and elderlies.
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The Colombian Constitutional Court has found in favour of an indigenous peoples’ centuries-old fight for their territory, granting the petition for the protection of constitutional rights requested by the Embera Chamí people of the Indigenous Resguardo Cañamomo Lomaprieta, in western Colombia.
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For thousands of undocumented immigrants across the country, cities such as Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver are sweatshops. Immigrants and refugees work the most precarious and dangerous jobs. The Canadian economy cannot survive without this super-exploited work force, made particularly vulnerable by their lack of permanent status and the threat of deportation.
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There have been further paramilitary incursions into several hamlets in or near the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in north-western Colombia. This is posing an increasing risk to the security of Peace Community members and others in the area.
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Concerning the Ministery of the Environment’s resolution which extends from 11 thousand to 18 thousand hectares authorized for mining in Cundinamarca, the mayor of Tausa (Cundinamarca), Jaime Rodríguez warned that his municipality could only comply with the resolution in some sectors.
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To understand what is happening with the Colombian Peace Accords, it is necessary to identify the enormous political power held by Colombia's large landowners. Without understanding the problem of the concentration of land ownership, it is impossible to understand anything that has happened in the country in the past eighty years.
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In October, we learned of an important change made to Colombia’s legal framework: mayors have been granted veto power to oppose unwanted oil and mining projects.
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For many months now, millions of people – Indigenous peoples and their accomplices, also know as water and earth protectors – have been directly challenging the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL).
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Up to recently, PASC was denouncing the threat caused by Alange Energy1, a subsidiary company of the giant Canadian oil company Pacific Rubiales (now named Pacific Exploration & Production, or Pacific E&P)2, in the páramo of Sumapaz. Thanks to the local movements’ advocacy against the oil exploration in their region, the Colombian authorities have refused to issue the environmental license necessary to pursue exploration activities in the territory.
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