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
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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,
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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
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Today the US Office on Colombia published a report on the dramatic situation of land rights leaders and associations of displaced communities in Colombia. Against all Odds: the Deadly Struggle of Land Rights Leaders in Colombia documents the cases of 20 land rights leaders that were assassinated during the Santos administration’s first year in office and the multiple threats, attacks and stigmatizations that such leaders face.
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In 2010-2011, serious attacks continued against human rights defenders in Colombia, including numerous assassinations. Likewise, the climate of constant intimidation, threats and harassment continued against human rights defenders and their organisations. Among the most affected groups of defenders, were those working for truth, justice and reparation and land restitution, indigenous and peasants leaders, environmental defenders, leaders and members of trade unions, defenders of LGBTI persons, and organisations and journalists who denounced human rights violations.
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