ESMAD (riot police) in Huila, Colombia began the forced removal of the fisher-people, campesinos, miners, day laborers and others who have been blocking the diverting of the Magdalena River for the Quimbo Dam early Tuesday morning. The diverting of the river was being blocked by a peaceful occupation of the area known as Domingo Arias. The ESMAD used tear gas, pepper spray and brutal force to corral the people protecting the Yuma/Guacahayo/Magdalena River. At least six people have been injured, including Asoquimbo member Luis Carlos Trujillo who lost an eye.
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“We can live without gold and silver but not without water. Not without peace and quiet.” At El Volador (near Arboleda, Nariño Department, Colombia), the people considered moving the school due to its proximity to drilling noise. The mining company Gran Colombia Gold gave gifts of school supplies and toys for the children. The notebooks read: “The calm follows the storm. The mining company is your friend.” A forum is being held at the Universidad de Nariño (Pasto) on February 28–29, 2012 to lay the table for dialogue with the departmental and national governments.
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The Canadian International Development Agency's funding of Corporate Social Responsibility projects mostly near mine sites is intended to help Canadian mining companies compete for access to lucrative ore bodies in developing countries in the face of increasing local opposition to mining. As I write this, thousands of Cajamarcans in Peru are protesting Newmont Mining Corp.'s proposed Conga mine that will destroy four lakes they depend on for their water supplies and livelihoods.
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The Francisco Cifuentes human rights organisation in Southern Colombia has reported a series of battles in the region in which troops have injured civilians. They accuse the armed forces of fighting in populated areas, of causing damage to civilian homes and to religious and cultural centres, as well as wounding villagers.
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While the tone of Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos, is much more diplomatic than his predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, the state policies of militarizing territories to facilitate resource extraction under the guise of economic development and counter-insurgent security have not changed. The forced displacement of inhabitants that it spurred has also not abated.
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The media announced a new corruption scandal in the “Picota” National Prison last week, this time due to the Nule businessmen (brothers Miguel, Manuel and Guido), being sentenced for the so-called "Contracting Carousel in Bogota" to paltry sentences of 7 years (and in the case of their business partner Mauricio Galofre, to only 6 years 8 months), for the crime of embezzlement by irregular management and for the appropriation of about 70 billion Colombian pesos as an advance on three contracts given by the IDU (Urban Development Institute).
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Work at La Caypa coal mine in northern Colombia resumed after police broke up an "illegal" strike, confirmed Pacific Coal in a statement released Monday.
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“It’s hard for us to do human rights work where we are. We have to hide what we are doing so they don’t watch us. Our comings and goings are monitored. Our emails are monitored. Our leaders are in a permanent state of stress, not just for themselves but for their children. It was hard for us to even get out to talk to you.”
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Increasingly, politically-motivated incarceration threatens Colombian unionists, human rights workers, and political activists. They are already too familiar with killings and disappearances at the hands of armed enforcers. International solidarity with victims has grown over recent decades, with the labor movement in particular taking on a prominent role in defending human rights in Colombia.
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