SPOTLIGHT
Women Defending Peace in Colombia–A Gendered, Environmental, and Rural Perspective
Washington Office on Latin America, 4 April 2023
“Join us to hear from three amazing female activists to learn about how they are advancing the peace, women’s rights, security, and a human rights agenda in their regions. The three women are representing the winners, organizations and social processes awarded the 2022 Colombia National Human Rights Prize. This prestigious annual prize, organized by Diakonia and the Church of Sweden, began eleven years ago with the purpose of elevating the work of Colombian human rights defenders. Wednesday, April 19, 2023, 12:30pm -2pm”
Global Analysis 2022
Front Line Defenders, April 3, 2023
“Front Line Defenders launched its Global Analysis 2022 on the situation of human rights defenders (HRDs) at risk around the world today, an in-depth annual publication detailing the variety of risks, threats and attacks faced by HRDs around the world. Front Line Defenders’ Global Analysis 2022 gives a panorama of the threats faced by HRDs in all regions of the world. Despite an assault on human rights and the rule of law in many countries, human rights defenders (HRDs) showed remarkable courage and persistence in advocating for more democratic, just and inclusive societies in 2022.”
US-COLOMBIA RELATIONS
EE.UU. invita a Colombia a cooperar más en migración, narcotráfico y clima
Yahoo Noticias, 27 de marzo de 2023
“Estados Unidos invitó este lunes a Colombia a profundizar la cooperación en materia de migración, de combate al narcotráfico y de lucha contra la crisis climática, durante el Diálogo de Alto Nivel que mantienen funcionario de ambos Gobiernos en Washington”.
Colombia asks for legal status for its people already in US
Manuela Rueda and Elliot Spagat, Associated Press, November 29, 2022
“Colombia wants the Biden administration to grant temporary legal status to its citizens now living in the United States, noting its own efforts to address regional migration by hosting 2 million Venezuelans who fled their homes.”
PEACE PROCESS
Colombian President calls for agreement on ceasefire in the third round of talks with ELN
People’s Dispatch, April 5, 2023
“In response to the government’s call, on Monday April 3, the ELN issued a statement in which it reiterated its willingness to work to reach a bilateral ceasefire with the Petro government.”
Dia internacional para la sensibilización contra las Minas Antipersonal
Oficina del Alto Comisionado para la Paz , 4 de abril de 2023
“La Oficina del Alto Comisionado para la Paz, a través de su program de Acción Integral contra Minas Antipersonal (AICMA), conmemora el Día internacional para la sensibilización contra las minas antipersonal declarando el municipio de Santander de Quilichao como territorio libre de sospecha de minas antipersonal”.
¡EN PASCUA, UN RESPIRO DE PAZ EN LOS TERRITORIOS!
Colectivo OFB, 3 de abril de 2023
“Los pueblos Indígenas, Campesinos, Afrodescendientes, movimientos y organizaciones sociales de la Orinoquia Amazonía y del nivel nacional hacemos un llamado al diálogo y la construcción de Paz, en esta Semana Santa, semana de pascua, llamamos a cesar todas las agresiones, a manifestar intenciones de paz con expresiones y hechos tangibles. Exigimos a todos los actores armados incluyendo la Fuerza Pública, que escuchen el clamor de la población y paren la guerra, mostrando una voluntad real y verificable”.
Colombia’s most powerful drug trafficking group wants to talk peace
Samantha Schmidt, Washington Post, April 3, 2023
“The morning’s drills began on the fog-coated side of a mountain, with two dozen rifle-armed men at the ready. ‘Attention!’ a voice shouted, and up went a green-and-white flag emblazoned with three letters — the same letters, spray-painted on buildings and street signs across northern Colombia, that tell everyone who is in charge: AGC.”
ALTO COMISIONADO DE PAZ DANILO RUEDA HABLA DE PAZ DESDE EEUU
Colombia Acuerdo de Paz, 31 de marzo de 2023
“Esta reunión anual sirve para que ambos países conversen a los niveles más alto acerca de los temas prioritarios dentro de la relación estrecha que existe entre ambos países. Acorde a un comunicado de la Cancillería de Colombia se discutirá: ‘la reforma rural integral, la acción climática y la contención de la deforestación, la transición energética justa, el problema mundial de las drogas, la seguridad y los asuntos migratorios. También se abordarán aspectos relacionados con la salud, el deporte, la ciencia, la cultura, la infraestructura; la democracia, los derechos humanos y la justicia’”.
CONTINUED ARMED CONFLICT
Brazil Gangs Behind Surging Violence on Colombia, Peru Tri-Border
Juan Diego Cárdenas, Insight Crime, April 4, 2023
“A wave of murders in the Colombia-Brazil-Peru tri-border area has raised concerns about the increasing power of Brazilian groups and the violence they may commit in order to control this key drug trafficking corridor.”
Concerns over violence ahead of Colombia’s local elections
Adriaan Alsema, Colombia Reports, April 3, 2023
“Colombia’s Inspector General’s Office urged the government to protect the lives of community leaders and rights defenders ahead of local elections that are set for October. In a press statement, the Inspector General’s human rights delegate, Javier Augusto Sarmiento, warned that the situation in regards to violence against requires ‘urgency,’ particularly in the southwest of the country.”
HUMAN RIGHTS
Almost half of human rights defenders killed last year were in Colombia
Iñigo Alexander, The Guardian, April 4, 2023
“Colombia was the deadliest country in the world for human rights defenders in 2022, accounting for 186 killings – or 46% – of the global total registered last year, according to the latest report from the international human rights group Front Line Defenders. Front Line Defenders found that killings of rights defenders across the globe increased in 2022, with a total of 401 deaths across 26 different countries, compared with 358 deaths in 38 countries registered in 2021.”
Relatoras y relatores ONU cuestionan judicializaciones de manifestantes del #ParoNacional 2021. Exigimos su libertad inmediata
Coordinación Colombia Europa Estados Unidos, 3 de abril de 2023
“La reciente comunicación presentada por cinco relatores especiales adscritos a la ONU y el Grupo de Trabajo sobre la Detención Arbitraria,, se suma a las denuncias que las organizaciones sociales y defensoras de derechos humanos hemos venido realizando que cuestionan la legalidad de las privaciones de la libertad de jóvenes judicializados en el marco del paro nacional de 2021”.
Boletín CONPA 23: Comunicado Juntanza Departamental Sucre
Consejo Nacional de Paz Afrocolombiano, 3 de abril de 2023
“En el marco del fortalecimiento de la articulación nacional denominada Juntanza Nacional Afrocolombiana y el trabajo que desde hace varios años viene impulsando el Consejo Nacional de Paz Afrocolombiano – CONPA, algunas organizaciones del territorio del Departamento de Sucre, nos reunimos en Sincelejo, donde abordamos los siguientes temas: Contexto Departamental, Nacional e Internacional: la Juntanza Nacional Afrocolombiana, el CONPA como proceso y sus proyecciones en la construcción de la Paz Territorial desde lo individual y colectivo, y la implementación del Capítulo Étnico”.
Durante los primeros meses del año, 33 líderes sociales fueron asesinados en Colombia
El Diario, 1 de abril de 2023
“Según un informe publicado por Human Rights Watch (HRW), al menos 33 líderes sociales y defensores de derechos humanos han sido asesinados en Colombia en los primeros tres meses de 2023, según reveló Juan Pappier, subdirector en funciones de HRW para las Américas, en su cuenta de Twitter”.
“Dragón negro”, el hombre de la Colombia Humana que amenazó a mujeres feministas
Laura Duarte Sandoval, El Espectador, 1 de abril de 2023
“Una mujer congresista y activistas feministas denunciaron ante la Fiscalía a un tuitero que las habría amenazado moral y físicamente. En exclusiva para El Espectador, el partido contó quién es Dragón negro, militante afiliado a la Colombia Humana, y cuál fue el tratamiento que dieron al caso”.
Continúa grave situación de violencia contra líderes y lideresas sociales en el Pacífico Nariñense
Colectivo FB, 31 de marzo de 2023
“La Red de Derechos Humanos del Pacífico Nariñense y Piedemonte Costero, REDHPANA, denunció el pasado 26 de marzo, el asesinato de la lideresa y defensora Mariela Marinez Gaviria, presidenta de la Junta de Acción Comunal del Barrio Villa del Prado en Tumaco, además era promotora de salud del Hospital Divino Niño. Hombres armados acabaron con su vida en su propia casa”.
Colombia: Misuse of counter-terrorism measures to prosecute protesters threatens human rights, say UN experts
United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, March 29, 2023
“UN experts today called on Colombia to stop misusing counter-terrorism measures and serious criminal offences, such as terrorism, to prosecute individuals for taking part in protests against government policies.”
Red Cross says violence displaced more Colombians in 2022
Manuela Rueda, AP News, March 22, 2023
“The number of internally displaced people in Colombia increased significantly last year as several armed groups fought for control of rural pockets of the country, the Red Cross said Wednesday. In its annual assessment of humanitarian challenges in the South American country, the organization said that while confrontations between Colombia’s army and rebel groups decreased last year, fighting among rebel groups continues to take a heavy toll on civilians.”
THE ENVIRONMENT
Construction of wind turbines wreaks havoc on Indigenous people in Colombia
France24, April 4, 2023
“Indigenous Wayuu communities in the far north of Colombia are particularly affected by the massive construction of wind turbines. In 2016, the Portuguese company EDPR and the Italian company ENEL asked the Jusayu family for permission to build a wind farm and access road on their land in the department of La Guajira. The Jusayu family, goat farmers, refused. But that prompted a campaign of harassment that left one person dead, several injured and 34 displaced, they say.”
Colombia to evacuate those closest to Nevado del Ruiz volcano
Julia Symmes Cobb, Reuters, April 4, 2023
“Colombian authorities plan to evacuate people living within 15 kilometers of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano, which is being monitored for a possible eruption, with more evacuations possible in the coming days.”
Pablo Escobar’s Hippos Make A Dramatic Move To Mexico
Catalina Oquendo, El Pais- International, April 2, 2023
“The heated debate over Pablo Escobar’s imported hippopotamuses is missing a prominent voice — Colombia’s Ministry of Environment. Many have weighed in on what to do with this invasive species, but Environment Minister Susana Muhamad is not one of them. In the meantime, department officials in Antioquia, northwest Colombia, have launched a plan to send 70 hippos abroad — 10 to Mexico and 60 to India. The first 10 are scheduled to leave in two months for Mexico, a move that will be filmed by an Argentinean production company for an episode of Cargas Imposibles (or, Impossible Cargo), a television series about shipments that require extra-special handling.”
Battle in Colombia over river-wrecking gold ‘dragons’
Radio France Internationale, April 1, 2023
“The giant skeletons of burnt and dismantled gold dredgers litter the rivers of northwest Colombia, where the government is waging a full-out war on illegal mining. Nicknamed ‘dragons’ by locals, the massive machines used to suck gold from riverbeds are blamed for destroying the environment and financing organized crime.”
Plan to mine ‘clean energy’ metals in Colombian Amazon splits communities
Natalia Torres Garzón, Mongabay, March 22, 2023
“In this richly biodiverse region, where the cool mountains of the Andes meet the Amazon Rainforest, opinions are divided and emotions are high among communities over the environmental and social costs of hosting this green mining project and the jobs it promises to bring.”
DRUG POLICY
Plunging coca prices create ‘humanitarian emergency’ in Colombia
Joshua Collins, Al Jazeera, March 31, 2023
“Farmers in parts of Colombia say sales of coca, the raw ingredient used to make cocaine, have collapsed after a recent surge in production of the illicit drug. ‘We’ve seen a complete collapse of buyers,’ said Andres Rojas, a coca farmer in the Catatumbo region who advocates for sustainable farming practices among growers. ‘Entire crops are going unsold, and families are going hungry.’”
VENEZUELAN CRISIS
Qualitative assessment of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on migration, access to healthcare, and social wellbeing among Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Colombia
Megan Stevenson, José Rafael Guillén, etc., Science Direct, 2023
“Colombia hosts a large number of Venezuelan migrants and refugees who are uniquely vulnerable and have been markedly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is necessary to understand their experiences to inform future policy decisions both in Colombia and during disease outbreaks in other humanitarian contexts in the future. As part of a larger study focused on HIV among Venezuelans residing in Colombia, qualitative interviews were conducted to understand this population’s experiences and access to healthcare.”
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