International Day for Peace in Colombia
Speak Out Against Murders of Colombian Human Rights Activists
Last year was the most lethal year of the last ten for human rights defenders, eco-defenders, and popular movement leaders in Colombia. This summer it has gotten even worse! Our contacts in Colombia are hearing daily reports of new assassinations – particularly of people organizing with the Marcha Patriótica social movement and from indigenous, Afro-Colombian, and campesino communities. Many in Colombia are concerned that they are witnessing another genocide against the Left, such as the one that took place against the political party, La Unión Patriótica, during the 1980s and 90s.
Death Squads Have Killed the Peace Process
Colombia’s Congress approved a peace accord with the FARC-EP, the country’s largest rebel group, in November 2016, which opened the door for the Left to run in this year’s presidential election. This June, Gustavo Petro became the first truly progressive candidate in the history of Colombia to be allowed to live and participate in the elections. However, the peace process has not been implemented in accordance with the negotiated Accords. INDEPAZ, a peace-monitoring NGO, reports that more than 300 human rights defenders have been killed by paramilitaries since the signing of the peace treaty in November 2016.
New President Will Promote More Death Squad Violence
The June 17, 2018 election of Ivan Duque as Colombia’s president has given a green-light to right-wing paramilitary and state forces to continue to terrorize Colombia’s most vulnerable communities. As of July 4, at least 20 popular movement leaders had been assassinated since the election. Duque is a disciple of death squad patron, narco-trafficker, and former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe. Duque has pledged that when he takes office on August 7th, he will immediately undertake measures to start dismantling the peace accords that ended a 52-year war between the Colombian Government and the FARC-EP.
U.S. Undermining Peace Efforts
The Trump Administration has been giving Duque and his ilk tacit approval in their attempts to renege on the peace accords. The U.S. has been attempting to extradite FARC negotiators and candidates, after apparently framing them in the first place for supposed drug crimes. The Administration has pushed Colombia to use military and brutal coca eradication methods, rather than the crop substitution programs called for in the Accords. The U.S. is projected to give Colombia’s right wing government $265.40 million (the vast majority of which is in military aid) in 2019. We know from Colombia’s bloody past that the Colombian government uses US aid to fund their right wing paramilitary death squads. The U.S. must terminate aid immediately because the Colombian government is violating the Havana Accords. Further the U.S. needs to back off and stop actively encouraging Colombia to break those agreements.
August 7: International Day for Peace in Colombia
Various groups, including the Observatorio de los Derechos Humanos del Pueblo (People’s Human Rights Observatory), The Coordinadora Americana por los Derechos de los Pueblos (American Coordinator for the People’s Rights), Alliance for Global Justice (AfGJ), School of the Americas Watch, and Camino Común (Common Path) are calling for August 7th to be an International Day for Peace in Colombia and against State and Paramilitary Terror. There are also calls that have been issued in Colombia for national mobilizations on that day, including by presidential candidate Gustavo Petro. The Anti-War Committee will mobilize to protest in solidarity with the movements for peace and justice in Colombia on August 7th and we will renew calls for an end to U.S. aid to Colombia!
Call in to Congress on August 7th to say NO to US aid to Colombia
Senator Amy Klobuchar: 202-224-3244
Senator Tina Smith: (202) 224-5641
Demonstration for Life & Peace in Colombia!
Join us for a bannering outside of the Minneapolis Federal Building in DT MPLS @ 300 S 4th St.
The MN Anti-War Committee, July 2018