The former president of the Colombian Congress was sentenced Wednesday to seven and a half years in prison for his ties to now defunct paramilitary organization the AUC. Following a trial that began in March 2011, the Criminal Chamber of Colombia's Supreme Court found Miguel Pinedo Vidal guilty of engaging in parapolitics, by having political and electoral ties to the AUC's Tayrona Bloc, in northern Colombia.
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The CUT and the USO oilworkers’ union have reported the assassination of trade union leader and community activist Mauricio A. Redondo and his wife Janeth Ordonez. The two were killed at 19.30 on January 17th in Puerto Asis. The couple leave behind 5 children. Mr Redondo was from the settlement of Teteye, near Puerto Asis in Putumayo department in Southern Colombia. He worked in PEI, a services company for the oil sector. As a community leader he had recently had an active participation in a forum on the right to work.
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Despite multiple accusations that the Colombian branch of Anglo-French oil company Perenco funded paramilitary organization AUC, the company is only investigated for the alleged bribing of government officials, newspaper El Espectador reported Sunday. Apart from the alleged paramilitary funding, the oil company has come under increasing pressure by locals and its workers' union for an oil spill allegedly due to the company's disregard of environmental protection procedures and the ongoing harassment of unionists.
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The Regional Movement for the Defense of the Territory launched a regional strike in Huila, Colombia on Jan. 3 to protest the destructive impacts of the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project and the entering of UK-based petroleum company Emerald Energy into the biodiverse mountaintop moor ecosystem of the Páramo of Miraflores.
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Source: www.confederacionminera.org This past November 30 2011, the National Confederation of Miners of Colombia, Conalminercol, signed an agreement with the national government putting an end to the strike planned for December 1. In the document, it was agreed to begin talks to identify "points that will lead to formalizing traditional or informal mining," involving two million Colombians carrying out this activity.
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p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }a:link { } Communiqué: Marmato Defence Committee and Regional Indigenous Council of Caldas (CRIDEC), December 22, 2011 The residents of Marmato detain open-pit mining in their territory, impede the resettlement of their municipal centre and prohibit the demolition of local heritage
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On December 5, 2011, representatives from Mexico, Colombia and the countries of Central American attended the 13th Summit of the Tuxtla Mechanism for Dialogue and Coordination in Merida, Mexico. The summit’s main purpose was to discuss the progress of different initiatives included in the Mesoamerica Project’s framework, which is the new version of the Plan Puebla-Panama (PPP).
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Colombia's internal armed conflict continued to result in serious abuses by irregular armed groups in 2011, including guerrillas and successor groups to paramilitaries. Violence has displaced millions of Colombians internally, and continues to displace tens of thousands every year. Armed actors frequently threaten or attack human rights defenders, journalists, community leaders, teachers, trade unionists, indigenous and Afro-Colombian leaders, displaced persons' leaders, and paramilitaries' victims seeking land restitution or justice.
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In 1994, Manuel Cepeda, a Senator of the Patriotic Union Party in Colombia, was executed by paramilitaries under the command of the state. Since then his son, Iván Cepeda, devotes himself to the fight against impunity by working with the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE). The lawsuit filed by the Foundation goes to the Inter-American justice system, has led the current Santos administration to admit the State’s responsibility in this crime. Since 2010 Cepeda has been a deputy in the Congress of the Republic for the Alternative Democratic Pole.
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With implications for Canadian multinational Gran Colombia Gold's proposed open-pit mine, this communiqué from the Marmato Defence Committee and the Regional Indigenous Council of Caldas (CRIDEC) indicates that the local municipality will now prohibit open-pit mining and resettlement of the historic town centre. Recent changes to the municipal land use plan also include recognition of the Embera Chamí indigenous community within Marmato and prioritization of water and environmental protection.
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