By: Equipo Jurídico Pueblos and Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (goloing@gmail.com)

(25/03/2020)

An escape plan in question

On the night of March 21st and the early morning of the 22nd, the forces of the Colombian state forcibly erupted into the Modelo prison in Bogotá, murdering 23 prisoners and injuring 83 in response to the protests and demands of the prisoners regarding the appalling sanitary conditions that reign in the prisons and are objectively a matter of concern regarding a future outbreak of Covid-19.  The director of the INPEC (Colombian Prison Service) and the Minister for Justice, Margarita Cabello tried to justify the massacre alleging that they hadn't sought to put down the protests but rather to prevent a mass escape plan they had uncovered some days previously.

This lie was unquestioningly repeated by the entire media.  Caracol (TV and Radio channel) even published recordings of prisoners speaking by phone.  But anyone, with any knowledge of the dynamics in prison who listens to the fragmented conversations filtered to the press would notice that one couldn't reach the conclusion from them that there was an escape plan being hatched.  But even if it were true, more questions arise than answers given.

]]> siemprevivamos@gmail.com (Maggie) Press Tue, 31 Mar 2020 09:21:16 +0000 https://www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk/campaign-media/51-press/655-colombia-killings-a-dirty-war https://www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk/campaign-media/51-press/655-colombia-killings-a-dirty-war In response to the Guardian's article on 23rd March (see link below) Dr Andy Higginbottom, Secretary Colombia Solidarity Campaign wrote this letter:

Dear Guardian Letters

The sad thing about the constant assassination of social leaders and human rights defenders is that it has been normalised and no longer seen as newsworthy, so your report  “Colombian death squads exploiting coronavirus lockdown to kill activists” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/23/colombian-groups-exploiting-coronavirus-lockdown-to-kill-activists is welcome for returning the spotlight on this ongoing nightmare. Three such killings occur every week, and have been since the signing of the peace agreement between the FARC guerrillas and the government on 26 November 2016.

The principal responsibility lies with right-wing paramilitaries targeting presumed leftists; according to allegations cited in the UN’s 2018 report, five times more so. https://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/40/3/Add.3 Moreover, the latest UN mission records that 173  demobilised FARC combatants  have been assassinated, alongside the ‘303 killings of human rights defenders and social leaders’, up to the end of 2019. https://colombia.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/n1942147.pdf

There is a further Covid-19 twist to the appalling human rights situation in Colombia. In the early hours of Sunday morning, at La Modelo prison in Bogotá, state forces killed at least 23 prisoners and injured another 80 or so. The inmates were protesting “against overcrowding and poor health services during the coronavirus outbreak”.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-51999594

This is not peace, it is a very dirty war.

Yours

Dr. Andy Higginbottom

Secretary Colombia Solidarity Campaign

(Hello friends, I am sending you a letter by one of the girls who has been imprisoned in the case of the bombing in the Andino Shopping Centre, Bogota. It explains well the whole case and the absurd show surrounding her and her peers.)

My name is Violeta Arango Ramirez, I am a sociologist, graduate of the National University of Colombia. On Saturday 24th June my life changed dramatically with a warrant for my arrest and a raid. Agents from the police intelligence department (SIJIN) and the police arrived at my house in the Chapinero district. Without understanding what had happened, in the anxiety and stress of the moment, my parents asked what was it about: I was wanted in relation to the terrible attack on the Andino shopping mall, accused of terrorism, homicide, conspiracy to commit a crime.

Demonstration in  Ibagué - Tolima. June 2013. The sign reads: "Yes to Life, No to the Mine". Photo credit: Viviana Sánchez.

London-based human rights organisation Colombia Solidarity Campaign has published an Alternative Report about La Colosa, the AngloGold Ashanti gold mining project in Colombia’s municipality of Cajamarca (Tolima), entitled La Colosa: A Death Foretold.

The report unveils, for the first time, findings which clearly show that if the production phase of the La Colosa gold mine goes ahead, its implications to local communities would be much graver than previously anticipated. Community leaders and human rights defenders are already paying the highest price - their lives - for their opposition to the large-scale corporate mining project.

This report is a result of extensive research that included more than 100 interviews on the ground, legal document analysis, and technical assessment by Dr. Mark Muller, a highly respected international expert on mining.

AngloGold Ashanti is a company listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Marcha Carnaval en Ibagué - Tolima. Junio 2013. Fotógrafa: Viviana Sánchez

Colombia Solidarity Campaign (Campaña de Solidaridad por Colombia), organización de derechos humanos basada en Londres, ha publicado un Informe Alternativo acerca del proyecto de Minería de Oro de AngloGold Ashanti en Cajamarca, Tolima, intitulado La Colosa: Una Muerte Anunciada.  Este informe es resultado de una investigación que abarca 108 entrevistas, análisis de documentos, y asesoría técnica del Dr. Mark Muller, reconocido experto internacional en minería.

El reporte desvela hechos que no han sido revelados antes por investigadores o medios que han trabajado en el tema. Demuestra además, que los impactos de una eventual fase de explotación minera serían mucho mayores a los anunciados e imaginados por los tolimenses y por la nación misma.

Audio is clipped at the beginning, the interviewer asks - Why are you here at the Climate Camp? 

Download MP3

Recording by Climate Camp Radio

Colombian segment:

Andy Higginbottom (from Colombia Solidarity Campaign) and Juan, London 15 March 2008

Download MP3

Recording by Nadim Mahjoub

10th July 2008

The talk is viewable online here:

View in Ustream website