Colombia can be viewed at the bastion of United States sponsored neoliberalism. Rich in natural resources like coal, gas, and gold- the history and success of extractive industries in Colombia are a testament to globalization's remarkable ability to seek out and penetrate new markets. For most of the 20th century, the developed world's inexhaustible consumption habits have fueled the multinational business of extractives, all the while wreaking havoc on largely rural, Afro-Colombian communities.
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A protest by workers in the petroleum company Cepcolsa Petróleo and canadian Pacific Rubiales was violently repressed yesterday. The protest occurred in Campo Rubiales, in the department of Meta, Colombia. It is an important area of petroleum production. The workers were demanding better working conditions and salaries. More than a thousand workers started to demand these changes 29 days ago. Currently the workers are being kept in permanent assembly.
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During the period between May to July 2011,the THE INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR TRADE UNION RIGHTS received the following reports from Colombia, including serious violations of trade union rights: On 11 May, unionists members of the national transports’ union, branch Madrid Cundinamarca Department, were sacked by the bus transport company – SOTRAM S.A., in connection with their activism as members of the trade union.
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Some days ago, journalists of Fault Lines, a programme of the international news channel, Al Jazeera, showed up in Marmato to make a documentary related to the town and about what it called the “gold fever in Colombia”. The programme has an interview with Juan Carlos Santos, corporate manager of Medoro Resources and cousin of President Juan Manuel Santos.
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Colombian human rights organisations report that the leadership of the SINTRAPETROPUTUMAYO oil workers union and community leaders from around Miraflores have been on the receiving end of threats as a result of their protests to defend labour rights and community rights in Putumayo, one of Colombia’s most conflicted regions.
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Gold fever is sweeping across South America. Nowhere is it more lethal than in Colombia, where the gold rush has become a new axle in Colombia's civil war. Turf wars are erupting between paramilitaries, and leftist rebel groups fighting to take control of mining regions. It's fueling an old ideological conflict and has displacing hundreds of people.
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The price of gold is rising for the tenth consecutive year. As a result, more and more investors, financial market operators and central banks are turning to gold as a safe haven in the face of global economic instability. This has troubling consequences, because gold mining is one of the most destructive and polluting of all mining activities.
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Valledupar High Security Prison On the evening of June 11th security guards at the high security prison in Valledupar, known as ‘La Tramacua’, led by the prison director Leopoldo Lopez Pinzon, stormed several towers of the prison. These had been peacefully occupied by prisoners since May 2nd when they began a campaign of ‘peaceful disobedience’ to highlight the intolerable conditions they endure in the prison.
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Our message is in memory of those who were victims of extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances and those who have lived or are in condition of forced displacement, dispossession and violent prosecution, crimes that reflect a way of persecution and extermination which are being committed by state structures from the 70’s. Mister BAN KI-MOON, General Secretary of the United Nations Ref: Request for intervention on the law of victims and the right to peace
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According to reports from SER, the Risaralda teacher trade union, environmental campaigner and teacher Jorge Eliecer de los Rios was assassinated by gunmen on Wednesday 8th June. He was shot several times from a motorbike as he was going from one building to another of the Santa Sofia School, in Dosquebradas, in the city of Pereira, Risaralda where he taught social sciences.
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