Colombian social movement has been building peace for the past decades of social and armed conflict, looking for ways to find a negotiated solution to this conflict.
A long lasting peace can only be the result of a peace process that would deal with the consequences and the causes of the conflict. Colombian social and armed conflict is rooted in the profound inequality of land distribution and has been growing with the imposition of an economic model based on extraction of natural resources: Palm oil, water, petroleum, gold, coal and other minerals.
"The model is not to be negotiated" said the president Juan Manuel Santos referring to peace dialogues in Havana that began in 2012. Santos went to Havana seeking to end more than 50 years of armed conflict in 6 months without acknowledging the social component of the conflict. We hope a real peace can be negotiated with insurgent groups but also with the rest of the society.
This extractive model has been imposing itself by using force, which is why political guarantees for the political opposition and for the social movement is a key step in building the peace.
When Union Patriotica and A luchar tried few decades ago to participate politically in election they suffered a internationally recognized political genocide, as did the social movement and anyone else who stood in the way of this development model.
The actual on-going war against peasants, afros, indigenous, workers, women, and human rights defenders makes us fear that the path to a real peace that Colombia deserves will be long. This on-going war has and continues to benefit Canada. Canadian companies have been profiting from war, with the full support of the government and various institutions of the Canadian state. Canada financed a mining code that benefit large companies and criminalizes traditional small mining. To name one of the many examples of canadian intervention in the colombian conflict, one can look to the fact that despite peace negotiations, in 2015 Canada sold 32 tanks to Colombian government to protect coal mining interest in La guajira close to the Venezuelan border.
Today on april 9th while thousands of people in colombia and around the world marched an gathered to defend peace with social justice, we have in our minds and in our hearts the painful memory of a friend, a social activist from the people's congress, who was killed just 2 months ago, executed after his disappearance when like any monday he left is house in the south of Bogota to reach a meeting downtown...The colombian government still isn't answering the demands of the congress to meet and end impunity for this case and many others.
To Carlos Pedraza, to the colombians in jails, or in exile in colombia and around the world !
2015-04-09 18:49 GMT-05:00 Projet Accompagnement Solidarité Colombie <info@pasc.ca>:
Blandine .rachel
9 avr.
À Projet, Leah
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donc une version brouillon a été envoyé a Toronto.. ups .. mais zoe a fait une version propre..veut on la publier ?
TO BE READ TONIGHT IN TORONTO
Colombian social movement has been building peace for the past decades of social and armed conflict, looking for ways to find a negotiated solution to this conflict.
A long lasting peace can only be the result of a peace process that would deal with the consequences and the causes of the conflict. Colombian social and armed conflict is rooted in the profound inequality of land distribution and has been growing with the imposition of an economic model based on extraction of natural resources: Palm oil, water, petroleum, gold, coal and other minerals.
"The model is not to be negotiated" said the president Juan Manuel Santos referring to peace dialogues in Havana that began in 2012. Santos went to Havana seeking to end more than 50 years of armed conflict in 6 months without acknowledging the social component of the conflict. We hope a real peace can be negotiated with insurgent groups but also with the rest of the society.
This extractive model has been imposing itself by using force, which is why political guarantees for the political opposition and for the social movement is a key step in building the peace.
When Union Patriotica and A luchar tried few decades ago to participate politically in election they suffered a internationally recognized political genocide, as did the social movement and anyone else who stood in the way of this development model.
The actual on-going war against peasants, afros, indigenous, workers, women, and human rights defenders makes us fear that the path to a real peace that Colombia deserves will be long. This on-going war has and continues to benefit Canada. Canadian companies have been profiting from war, with the full support of the government and various institutions of the Canadian state. Canada financed a mining code that benefit large companies and criminalizes traditional small mining. To name one of the many examples of canadian intervention in the colombian conflict, one can look to the fact that despite peace negotiations, in 2015 Canada sold 32 tanks to Colombian government to protect coal mining interest in La guajira close to the Venezuelan border.
Today on april 9th while thousands of people in colombia and around the world marched an gathered to defend peace with social justice, we have in our minds and in our hearts the painful memory of a friend, a social activist from the people's congress, who was killed just 2 months ago, executed after his disappearance when like any monday he left is house in the south of Bogota to reach a meeting downtown...The colombian government still isn't answering the demands of the congress to meet and end impunity for this case and many others.
To Carlos Pedraza, to the colombians in jails, or in exile in colombia and around the world !