Colombia Solidarity Campaign

COMITE AMBIENTAL Y CAMPESINO DE CAJAMARCA
100 years defending the land

Press release: Monday, 25 February 2013

Item: Threats, stigmatisation and criminalisation of the campesino social movement of Anaime and Cajamarca, which opposes AngloGold Ashanti’s La Colosa project in Colombia.

We, the environmental and campesino committee of Cajamarca, the Environmental Committee for the Defence of Life (Comité Ambiental por la Defensa de la Vida) and the organisations and groups that are voicing our opposition about the dangers of the La Colosa Regional mining project of the company AngloGold Ashanti, report the following facts to the Tolimense community, and the national and international community:

The Bogotá office of Colombian human rights organization COSPACC was robbed and looted.  Electronic and hard-copy files containing information about human rights violations are missing.

On 23rd of January, after entering the building, COSPACC managers noticed that their office doors were opened and locks were damaged. The managers immediately called the police and with their presence entered the offices. They found that the drawers of the desks, library and archive were opened; external hard drives and memory sticks with electronic archives, hard-copy files and photo cameras were taken.

COSPACC workers have noticed that the main entry door to the building was not damaged and that some valuable items, such as computers, were not stolen from the office.

In early November 2012, Colombia Solidarity Campaign, London Mining Network and War on Want issued an urgent action request asking people to write to the mining companies involved at the Cerrejon coal mine in La Guajira, and to the Colombian government, objecting to the mining company's planned diversion of the River Rancheria, the only river of any size in La Guajira, so that the massive opencast operations can expand even further and gain access to 500 million extra tonnes of coal.

Foto credit: http://notiwayuu.blogspot.com/

Joint urgent action request from Colombia Solidarity Campaign, London Mining Network and War on Want. London 6 November 2012

Three huge mining companies listed on the London Stock Exchange own Colombian company Cerrejon Coal, operator of the Cerrejon opencast coal mine in the department of La Guajira in Colombia. Mine expansion over the years has caused forced displacement of agricultural communities, and more communities face displacement for further expansion. Cerrejon Coal also want to divert the River Rancheria, the only river of any significant size in La Guajira, in order to get at coal underneath its bed. Local communities fear an ecological disaster.

Official Statement of the Afrodescendent community of Villa Rica, Cauca

In the presence of different social actors, state entities and international organisations, the Afrodescendent community in the town of Villa Rica, Cauca, lodges a complaint against the state public prosecutor, regarding the arrest of the young woman MARI SOLIANA COLORADO. They have labelled her as belonging to the revolutionary armed forces of Colombia, FARC-EP, and have accused her of a series of crimes.

The Orewa association denounces the selective murder of the Cabildo elder of an Awá community in Nuquí-Chocó during the morning of today, 21 October 2012.  The leader of the community, known as  Leobigildo Cunanpi Quiro, approximately 39 years old, was viciously killed by an armed group after  finishing an important meeting with his community.  The perpetrators have still not identified themselves, and there is no clear understanding within the community as to the exact causes which brought about this terrible act, but which certainly originated from his position of leadership, struggle and resistance, in the face of the violation of human rights in this territory of the Department of Chocó.