Regulators, investors, and communities are increasingly aware of the potential environmental and social harm associated with open-pit mining projects. Local-level conflict is now commonly associated with proposed and operating mines as community members struggle to protect economic and social values of importance to them, to assert the right to refuse a mine, or to advance claims on mining companies for damages. In response, mining companies seek partnerships to help them secure a so-called social license to operate and manage risk to reputation.
Read more
The emergence of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) represented the largest and most violent paramilitary group in the country, funding its murderous activities by means of the immensely enlarging ongoing drug trade. The Colombian government enacted Decree 128 and the Justice and Peace Law to launch and subsequently monitor the demobilization process, which failed under the Uribe administration, and led to the emergence of neo-paramilitary drug gangs known as the Bacrims.
Read more
Tim Martin Canadian Ambassador in Colombia Carrera #114-33, Piso 14 Bogotá Email: bgota-td@international.gc.caSent by electronic mail RE: Concerns arising from October 26, 2011 complaint from the Cañamomo Lomaprieta Indigenous Resguardo in Caldas, Colombia regarding free, prior and informed consent Dear Ambassador Martin,
Read more
Diego Felipe was 16 years old, he was in 11th grade, loved painting- you can see his room and it's full of drawings and graffiti everywhere. He was out one night around 10 pm with some of his friends, a police car drove by. They were young and they obviously got scared and ran away, two boys ran one way and the other two ran in the opposite direction. The police shot into the air and chased the boys; unfortunately one of the shots hit my nephew in the back and killed him". Cristina Lizarazu testimony. Aunt of Diego Felipe Becerra, urban artist who died in Bogotá on August 19th 2011
Read more
At times masked beneath decades of paramilitary repression and hidden behind headlines about Colombia’s armed guerrilla armies, Colombia’s mass movement has survived against all odds. It is now reemerging into the light of day, seemingly without notice in the international press. On November 9, Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos seemed to retreat in the face of a massive nationwide student strike that has lasted since October 12. Santos offered to withdraw his “educational reform” bill from the Colombian congress and sit down to negotiate with the student movement.
Read more
The people of Arboleda and San Lorenzo (Nariño), tired of constant aggressions and the lack of consultation on mining development projects in their communities, reject the presence of the multinational Mazamorras Gold.
Read more
Colombia is the first Latin American country to become subjected to the theatre of United States anti-guerrilla warfare. Colombia has also one of the richest histories of revolutionary politics on the continent extending well over half a century. It is throughout this time, that Colombia has been the battleground of an undeclared civil war.
Read more
Squeezed between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes, covered by thick, forbidding jungle and drenched by so much rain that it’s among the wettest places on Earth, the Colombian region of Chocó was described by the anthropologist Michael Taussig as “one of the most remote regions of the world.”
Read more
A Colombian Army officer charged with multiple civilian killings, known as “false positives,” last month publicly charged the commander of the U.S.-assisted unit – General Javier Fernández Leal - with collaborating in the killings. Fernández Leal has been promoted to chief of joint intelligence for the Colombian military.
Read more
A TV special by PBS details the threats community activists in Colombia face from armed groups, as they try to keep an industrial gold mining company from seizing their land. "The War We Are Living," which airs November 1 and is part of a five-part series on women and war, raises new questions about the evolution of the Colombian conflict, and the extent to which the new generation of criminal organizations will continue to protect
Read more