News
The latest news for the struggle for human rights for all in Colombia
Share with Friends
Open Letter to Juan Manuel Santos about the Plan of Action for the Signing of the Free Trade Agreement
Original Source : RECALCA (Translated by Richard Henighan, a CSN volunteer translator. Edited by Chelsea Match a CSN Intern) May 30, 2011 To: President Juan Manuel Santos Bogotá Mr. President: We, the organizations that compose The Colombian Action Network on Free Trade (RECALCA), publicly express to you that we believe the Free Trade Agreement signed with the United States does not allow for the strengthening of the Colombian economy. This is true because of the inequalities between the two countries, and because the legal obligations agreed to by the State limit the possibility of undertaking public policies for the development and social welfare that bring about, guarantee and protect the Human Rights of the Colombian people. The debate about this Free Trade Agreement was not democratic because it did not offer assurances for its critics or for the effected communities. President Alvaro Uribe Velez's government, of which you were a part of, stigmatized the opposition. The Association of Municipal Councils of the North of Cauca, rice growers and university students held in-house meetings in which they disapproved your negotiations and the signing of the agreement. In fact, to facilitate the ratification by the US Congress you agreed with Barack Obama to develop a Plan of Action " to protect labor and union rights recognized at the international level, to prevent violence against union leaders, and to bring to justice anyone who caries out this type of violence." Next, we present our reasons for disagreeing with this Plan of Action. 1. The plan of action serves the interests of foreign businesses. It is obvious that the Free Trade Agreement is useful for the US government's goal of "seeking an ambitious commercial agenda to support US economic growth". It increases protection for the US economy, assuring " that our commercial partners fulfill basic labor standards and protect labor rights". In dozens of declarations, exporters and US businesses have reaffirmed that it will increase exports to Colombia. 2. The Plan of Action is totally insufficient to combat the dislocation and labor adjustments that have been pushed on us during the last two decades in Colombia. Throughout the last decades, the Colombian Labor Movement has denounced the progressive deterioration of labor rights in the country expressed in such laws as #50 of 1990 and #789 of 2002, which facilitated outsourcing, economized on labor costs, opened the doors to layoffs, and above all weakened the labor movement. This legislation paved the way to violent repression and the violation of the human rights of thousands of labor leaders. The measures included in the agreement that you support cannot reverse this direction. They will not succeed in giving back the labor movement's social base or the influence of its martyred leaders. 3. The measures expected to occur promptly with the Plan of Action are indicative of intentions not of results. A real agreement between the Government and the working class must close the door on subcontracting and free the hands of labor not only in private businesses but also in public entities, as well as restore the rights of workers who have been victims of subcontracting. The undo use of work arrangements such as workers' cooperatives, temp-work businesses, and the contracting of services will not be reversed solely by more work inspectors. Rather, the way forward demands the strengthening of the productive capacity of the Colombian economy, the dismantling of the laws that allow these harmful practices, the revaluing of the social, economic, and political contributions of workers in the construction of the present and future of this country, and the renewal of labor and union rights. 4. The agreements you have made, as President of the Republic, do not ensure that the impunity will be lifted for the crimes committed against the labor leaders. Now it is not possible, in such a short time, to reverse the effect of the failure of the Colombian Judicial system, which during the last decades turned its back on the protection of the human rights of those who dared to oppose the State and the interests of International Corporations. 5. The measures in the Plan of Action do not address the necessity of bringing to light the innumerable violations of Human Rights, which have affected the Indigenous peoples, and the Afro-Colombians. The Constitutional Court declared the forced displacement of millions of Colombians as an "unconstitutional state of affairs" in orders #005-2009, #004-2009, and #92-2008. These ordered the Government to take corrective and preventive measures, but they have not been carried out. The InterAmerican Court for Human Rights declared that " the prospect of the disappearance of any one of the sixty-five Indigenous Communities that have declared themselves at risk due directly or indirectly to the armed conflict; the discrimination; and the lack of protection implies a series of historic violations, both wide and deep, of both the individual and collective human rights protected by the American Convention on Human Rights." 6. The Plan does not even question the actions so enormously harmful to the economic and social rights of the Colombian people. Free trade in agricultural products makes the peasant farmers enormously vulnerable in the midst of a global food crisis and a difficult winter. Likewise, it establishes a new definition of intellectual property that benefits the Multinationals in the sale of medicines during the worst crisis in the Colombian Health System, which, as a result, restricts access to the right to health care. The Plan of Action signed by you is an illusion since it only appears to guarantee labor rights in our country. It replaces the Constitution's requirements and legal obligations of the State to guarantee, protect, promote and ensure human rights with a Free Trade Agreement. We call on you to cease the ongoing negotiations to further the Free Trade Agreement signed with the United States. Instead, go forward with what is demanded by basic human rights through policies that recognize the legitimacy of the social movements and welcome their proposals and demands. Enrique Daza Gamba, The Colombian Action Network on Free Trade (RECALCA) Signers: Colombian Peasant Action. Never-ending Action for Peace. APROCOLAT-Taluá. Friends of the Earth, Colombia (CENSAT Agua Viva). Colombian Association of Agricultural Engineers (ACIA). Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca (ACIN). Association of Sumapaz Bean-farmers. Cuntinamarca Department Association of Peasant Small-holders (ADUC). The National Association of Black and Indigenous Women Peasants (ANMUCIC). National Association for Agricultural Salvation. Union of University Professors (ASPU). The Right to Health Association. Women's Rights and Work. APPEAL. CENOA. Unified Workers Confederation (CUT). The Center for the Study of Work (CEDETRABAJO). Center for Popular Research & Education (CINEP). Josè Alvear Restrepo Lawyers' Collective. Committee in Solidarity with Venezuela. Committee for the Defense of the Páramo of Santurbán (a high mountain ecological zone in central Colombia). Colombian Pensioners Confederation (CPC). Federatiuion of Colombian Workers (CTC). The Coordination of Andean Women Workers, Colombian Chapter (COMUANDE). National Agrarian Coordination (CNA). The Colombian Company for an Integral Environment (Corambiental). Cactus Corporation ( Supporters of workers in the cut flower sector). Raúl Eduardo Mahecha School for the Development of Labor Policy. Foundation for Cultural Research (FICA). Colombian Federation of Public Schools for Accountants. Colombian Federation of Educators (FECODE). Federation of Women Farmers of Nariño (FEMUCAN). Nagtional Federation of University Professors. Fensuagro. Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (INDEPAX). Latin American Institute for an Alternative Society and an Alternative Law (ILSA). League of the Users of Home Public Services. Worldwide March for Women- Colombia. Roundtable for Agrarian Unity. Roundtable on the Political Power of Rural Women (MENCOLDES). Colombian Students Organization (OCE). National Organization of the Indigenous of Colombia (ONIC). The Newspaper from Below. Peaceful Planet. The Network of Citizen Investigators. International Network on Gender and Commerce, Colombian Focal Point. Colombian Network Confronting International Mining Conglomerates. Lanzas y Letras Magazine. The Union for Workers of the Colombian Institute for Family Wellbeing (SINTRABIENESTAR). The National Union of Cane Cutters (SINALCORTEROS). The Communications Network of ACIN. Barista Unity. The National Union for the Users and Defenders of Home Public Services. The Coordinator of Social Movements and Organizations (Comosocol). Note: RECALCA is made up of more than fifty organizations and social movements. Since 2003 it has been following the Free Trade Agreements that Colombia has negotiated. It has also promoted public debate over the effects they have on the rights of the people.
================================
Colombia Support Network P.O. Box 1505 Madison, WI 53701-1505 Phone: (608) 257-8753 Fax: (608) 255-6621
Saudi Cauca: This Used to be Called Fascism
Original Source: Camilo González Posso
[Translated by Steve Cagan, a CSN volunteer translator] Reiterating is useless, but it is still true. The FTA with Canada ( http://www.moir.org.co/Confirmados-los-danos-del-TLC-con.html), which is in effect and being implemented, takes advantage of the terror that has been created to empty the areas of people, so this treaty permanently legalizes getting rid of the people by the transnationals. The treaty with the US that is coming will do the same. Terror, death, laws kicking people off their land, Santos' locomotives, built on the Democratic Security of Uribe. ( http://www.moir.org.co/La-resistencia-social-contra-las.html) [Santos is the current President of Colombia; Uribe was the previous one. Santos has called extractive industries "the locomotive" for the economic development of Colombia—SC]. Cauca turned into a killing field, a concentration camp, for extractive projects. The war in Cauca, wherever the bullets may come from, was useful for that, has been useful for it, and hands it over in a blood bath and a flood of lies, in negotiations in the midst of terror to exchange resistance, territory, peoples, processes and riches for the accumulation of transnational capital. It is the very NATO bombing in Libya ( http://www.moir.org.co/La-sangrienta-farsa-Libia.html). The very war between tyrants, so that the people will lose everything and they will end up with what they came for. Human rights are not being violated in Cauca, Oh not as they are routinely understood and denounced, in the form of homicides and massacres. They are, taken together, a huge armed robbery. Cauca has already been turned over; the extraction of its wealth is beginning. Perhaps they will give one or another jobs to Afro-Colombians and Indigenous people who have been kicked off their land. Surely, they take everything away, from their lives to their dignity and consciousness. This used to be called fascism. Today it isn't called that, but it is implemented, and the equation also includes the effect of extreme violence, so people can choose between not handing everything over and being massacred, or handing it over and being enslaved and kicked off their land. Now the people have been displaced. Now the territories have been conceded. Now negotiations and agreements have been generated that cover these mega-projects while they move forward, the map of terror and death, the map of total occupation of the territories, the map of Plan Colombia ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a7TwMVB8_s) is in plain sight. The five locomotives come into the area behind death, lies and the pawning of the peoples and processes in their territories, of resistance and of dignity. This is "free trade." Reiterating was useless, it has been useless up until now, but it was and is the truth. The struggle is against the economic model that makes use of propaganda, of terror, of laws to drive people off their land, of the systematic violation of agreements and convents, and of the obligations of the State to move forward and carry out the project of death in order to advance accumulation, while the life projects and agendas of the people are postponed, become confused, are distorted, are negotiated away, are massacred, are buried and the people get tired of always hearing the same thing. The voices of Colombia Saudi Cauca Five hundred thousand hectares, which make up nearly 20% of the entire territory of the department of Cauca, are within the maps of the concessions given by the National Hydrocarbon Agency (ANH) to the Canadian company Gran Tierra Energy ( http://www.grantierra.com/operations/colombia/). This land, in which technical studies preliminary to the exploration phase are moving forward, covers from the Bota of Cauca and a good part of the Macizo, literally right up to the Parque Caldas Park in Popayán. Today, in the maps of the ANH this entire zone is part of the Cauna-Patía watershed, blocks Cauca 6 and Cauca 7. ( http://www.nasaacin.org/component/content/article/1-ultimas-noticias/2718-cauca-saudita)
(This translation may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the source, author, and translator are cited.)
===============================
Colombia Support Network P.O. Box 1505 Madison, WI 53701-1505 Phone: (608) 257-8753 Fax: (608) 255-6621
Environmentalists and multinationals see an opportunity in the collapse of the Mining Code
[Translated by CSN volunteer translated Diana Méndez. Edited by CSN volunteer editor Teresa Welsh.]
The decision by the Constitutional Court which brought down the reform to the Mines' Code (Codigo de Minas) took no one in the sector by surprise. But curiously enough its fall made both miners and environmentalists happy. This is the opportunity to get rid of a code in which both saw many problems and to present another one. The Constitutional Court brought it down because the Mining Ministry in the government of Alvaro Uribe implemented the reform to the Mining Code in Congress without consulting the ethnic minorities, the Ministry of the Interior, or the Ministry of the Environment. The Court could no longer ignore the government's obligation to previously consult [the concerned parties]: a good part of mining titles in Cauca, Nariño, and Chocó [departments] are on indigenous or Afro reservations. The reform would fall because it had to. And it did fall. At first, the concern was that the plateaus would be left unprotected and that the mining companies, for example, GreyStar, would take advantage of the opportunity to ask for permission to operate there since this prohibition was explicit in the code that fell, but not in the law currently in force after the Court's decision. But the Santos government protected itselfbefore the Court made a decision and took advantage of that the National Plan for Development was being debated in Congress to include a few articles that rescued what was good in the Code which they knew was going to fall (and by the same token score a point in favor of the mining companies). An article was included which prohibited realizing exploratory activities or exploitation of minerals in the plateau's ecosystems and the "ramsar" wetlands which are internationally recognized. There were already two court decisions (C-339 of 2002 and C-443 of 2009) which ordered the protection of the plateaus but with the Development Plan, the government reinforced during the next four years. According to an expert at the Mining Ministry, the government went overboard and created a new scale to measure the ecosystems in the plateaus and wetlands, that is so detailed that it will now take much longer to finish all the cartography. The plan also prohibits small time dredging which causes great environmental harm, an article which was in the original Code which fell. But this went farther and also prohibits medium dredges like the kind that miners use in el Chocó, by which an entire region's productive system would be deemed illegal. The point that the government scored in favor of the mining companies in the Development Plan is that they modified the length of time needed to grant environmental licenses. This is one of the articles most fiercely criticized by environmentalists. The article reduced the time for the granting of licenses and in addition the "administrative silence" will no longer be in effect. If the environmental does not reach a decision about the granting of licenses after receiving the solicitation, the decision is transferred to a body that in the Environmental Ministry ends up having the same weight that the mining sector representative. In any case, both for environmentalists and miners, what was approved in the Development Plan,although helpful, does not fill the regulatory gaps that exist in mining and this is why efforts must be directed at getting a new Code drafted. La Silla Vacia knew that two weeks ago the Mining Ministry had already decided to present a new mining reform. What begins now then is the competition between environmentalists and miners to draft a Code that meets their expectations. They have two years to do it in since the Court –to everyone's surprise- decided to defer the coming into effect of its sentence and keep current the reform to the Code, while Congress approves a new one (hopefully, this time with prior consultation).
The desires for a new Code The discussion of a new mining code is an opportunity to correct things that former Environmental Minister Manuel Rodríguez Becerra calls "perverse". One of the issues that urgently needs to be corrected is that mining titles should not remain in effect when the environmental license has been denied. Since people keep the title, they can take advantage of any changes in the environmental authority in order to request it again, and they often do so. It could also be included in the new reform that it be mandatory to have an environmental license in order to conduct mining explorations. The way it is now is that mine exploration does not require licensing. Licensing is only required when the mine is to be worked which makes the pressure exerted by the mining companies over the environmental authorities unmanageable. This is the case in the islands of Providencia where the deposits [of natural gas] have already been awarded to some multinationals associated with Ecopetrol who have no environmental license, because the natural gas is on a Biosphere Reserve which is protected internationally. But since the expectation has already been set, the pressure on Coralina will be great. The new Mining Code could also protect the water providing basins which are the first affected by mining and which are not regulated because the Environmental Ministry tried to include that initiative in the last legislation and did not get it passed. This reform also makes possible that Colombia adapt to international legislative tendencies in environmental and responsible mining laws. Fifteen days ago the UN approved a document in which it urges nations to subscribe to international covenants about mining which include higher requirements over the use of mercury and other chemicals and about working conditions and industrial safeguards, covenants which Colombia has not ratified. One of the critically important issues that environmentalists would like to include in the new code has to do with the environmental process and in particular with the functions of the environmental ministry which are now full of legal loopholes. Lastly, according to ex Environmental Minister Juan Mayr, this new reform is the chance to incorporate the decisions of the Interamerican court that speak to the need of reestablishing prior consultations. This issue of prior consultations –which ended up being that which brought down the reform of the Code- makes immediate the need for a creation of a public policy to realize consultations since the Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities occupy 40 percent of the national territory and the court's sentences are but a guide. The former minister knows that it won't be easy since the first requirement for that policy will be the consensus of the ethnic minorities with whom the government kept discussions blocked until the government of Juan Manuel Santos. "Now there is a good ambiance but there still are no results" he said. Miners also see an opportunity in this reform. For Francisco Urrutia, the sector's adviser, the new reform seeks to strengthen legal and responsible mining in the country, mining in which the working of mines is done in a professional manner and with enough industrial security to prevent accidents. That is to say, that illegal mining can be actively fought against.
The political environment The new reform will be discussed in a very different environment than before: now the issue of mining is central in the national agenda. The mining locomotive is a priority for the Santos government and, due to its environmental risks, the media, the environmentalists and public opinion will be paying attention to what gets approved or not by the congresspeople. In addition, the forces in Congress are not the same as in the Uribista epoch, when in the interests of investment's confidence the code that the Court brought down was quickly approved. It is expected that the mining lobby will be the same or stronger than it was for the previous reform. In the last legislature mining associations like Asomineros and mining representatives like AngloGold Ashanti were very active. For the discussion there is a new union, that of mining on a great scale, whose spokesperson is Claudia Jiménez and which is becoming more organizad. Without a doubt, they will play a very strong role in the debate. The problem is that the reform will get to Congress during a moment of great weakness in the Environmental Ministry. The Environmental Ministry is still in the process of division from the ministry of housing, the councilor Sandra Bessudo has not taken over as minister yet. The current minister has shown little interest in the environment and the plant is changing in form and employees. The technicians that defended the plateaus and wetlands in the previous legislature are no longer at the Ministry. And the Environmental Ministry is not the only one with no base. Just like former Minister Mayr sees that there is no strong environmemtal minister, a representative of large mining assures that there is also not strong ingeominas which could achieve responsible mining which would bring an end to illegality and informality. The fight to regulate Santos' locomotive is just taking off and this will test the strength and organization of the environmentalists and the mining union. The question is who will gain the votes in Congress. NOTE FROM CSN : For various reasons, the CSN office was closed for most of the summer. We apologize for posting this article late. Sorry for the inconvenience.
(This translation may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the source, author, and translator are cited.)
===============================
Colombia Support Network P.O. Box 1505 Madison, WI 53701-1505 Phone: (608) 257-8753 Fax: (608) 255-6621
Solidarity Message with Marmato/ Engllish and Spanish
ENGLISH SOLIDARITY MESSAGE WITH MARMATO Friday, September 23, 2011 Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America COLOMBIA SUPPORT NETWORK (CSN), joins in the Gathering for Solidarity with Marmato tomorrow, Saturday, September 24, 2011, and sends an affectionate greeting to the people of Marmato and to the members of the Committee to Defend Marmato. Be sure that our organization will do all that it can not only to make the very serious situation of what has happened in Marmato, but also will generate actions that will contribute to defend Marmato's rights and its history as a traditional small-scale mining town. More than ever we support you in maintaining your clarity of purpose and your unity in this long struggle for justice. Small-scale mining should not be treated as a crime, but rather as a source of work for Colombians in their own country. Marmato should be kept as a historical jewel, because a country that forgets its history ends up forgetting its identity and therefore its culture and its essence. Do not give up because you are not alone. The international community observes with great interest what is happening in Marmato and its struggle and asks you to keep united. Father Jose Reynel Restrepo has not died in vain. In spite of all the pain that his murder brought to us all, it has helped to spread outside Colombia the just cause you defend and the one he gave his life for. JOHN I .LAUN President CSN
ESPANOL MENSAJE DE SOLIDARIDAD CON MARMATO Viernes 23 de Septiembre de 2011 Madison, Wisconsin, Estados Unidos de América COLOMBIA SUPPORT NETWORK (CSN), se une a la Jornada de Solidaridad con Marmato próxima a celebrarse este sábado 24 de Septiembre de 2011 y envia un afectuoso saludo a los habitantes de Marmato y a los integrantes del Comité Pro-Defensa de Marmato,. Estén seguros de que nuestra organización hará todo lo que esté a su alcance para no solo difundir ante la comunidad internacional la grave situación de lo que pasa en Marmato, sino para generar acciones que contribuyan a la defensa de sus derechos y de su historia como una comunidad tradicional de pequeña minería. Mas que nunca les apoyamos en mantener su claridad y su unidad en esta larga lucha por la justicia. La pequeña mineria no debe ser un crimen sino una fuente de trabajo para los colombianos en su pais. Marmato debe ser conservada como una joya histórica porque un país que desconoce su historia acaba desconociendo su identidad y por ende su cultura y su esencia. No desfallezcan porque no están solos. La comunidad internacional observa con gran interés lo que pase en Marmato con su lucha y les pide mantenerse unidos. La muerte del Padre José Reynel Restrepo no ha sido en vano, a pesar del dolor que produjo este crimen, porque ha servido para difundir hacia otros países la justicia de esta lucha que él respaldó y por la que dió su vida. JOHN I. LAUN Presidente CSN Please be generous - Support our work! Click "Make a donation" from our home page: http://www.colombiasupport.net Colombia Support Network P.O. Box 1505 Madison, WI 53701-1505 Phone: (608) 257-8753 Fax: (608) 255-6621 E-mail: csn@igc.org
Correction of a January 29,2009 posting
NOTE: It has come to our attention that an urgent action message of Thursday, January 29, 2009 presented three officials of InfoMine, a Canadian company providing information on mining technology and mineral exploration, as if they were officials of Muriel Mining Corporation. We wish to clarify, based upon information provided to us, that these three officials---Andy Robertson, Julian Houlding, and Graham Baldwin---were not officials of Muriel Mining Corporation and should not have been identified as such. We are deleting our January 29, 2009 message to correct this erroneous information.
|
=========================== Please be generous - Support our work! Click "Make a donation" from our home page: http://www.colombiasupport.net Colombia Support Network P.O. Box 1505 Madison, WI 53701-1505 Phone: (608) 257-8753 Fax: (608) 255-6621 E-mail: csn@igc.org
Urgent Action message in response to Father Restrepo's murder
The Colombia Support Network (CSN) expresses its outrage at the September 1, 2011 murder of Father Jose Reynel Restrepo, parish priest in the town of Marmato in central Colombia. Father Restrepo had spoken out against a plan by the Canadian mining company Grand Colombia Gold which would require the town of Marmato to be moved from its present location so that an open-pit gold mine could be developed there. The Canadian mining interest in Colombia fits with the recent approval by Colombia and Canada of a so-called bilateral Free Trade Agreement, which we believe will have deleterious consequences for both countries, but particularly for rural communities in Colombia. Town residents in Marmato have opposed the Gran Colombia Gold plan, which would also close down small-scale artisan mining in the highland area where Marmato is located. This small-scale mining has been a feature of the area since the Spanish conquest and, according to the Mayor of Marmato, provides employment for some 2,000 miners, upon whose earnings the town depends. The Mayor also has pointed out that years ago an agreement had been reached to keep the highlands where Marmato is located available for small-scale mining, while allowing the Colombian government to develop mining projects in the lowlands. This accord would be breached by the proposed open-pit mine in the highland areas where the town is located. Father Restrepo critiziced publically the Canadian mining plan, which he noted would undermine the livelihood of Marmato's artisan miners and cause tremendous damage to the community and its residents. On August 28, 2011 a video (with English subtitles) in which he spoke out against the Medoro mining plan was placed on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuEboyypwV4 Or see this one in an article published by PASC; http://www.pasc.ca/en/article/colombia-priest-shot-dead-mining-town-where-canadian-company-lead-mining-project. Three days later Father Restrepo was murdered as he traveled by motorcycle between Marmato and a neighboring community. The persons responsible for his murder have not yet been identified, nor has the cause of the attack on Father Restrepo been determined. But few doubt that his murder was related to his outspoken objection to the Gran Colombia Gold mine plan. Please write to Colombian Vice President Angelino Garzón at : contactovicepresidencia@presidencia.gov.co and his Human Rights Director Hernan Ulloa at : hernanulloa@presidencia.gov.co We suggest the following as a model for Government officials : I am very distressed at the news of the murder of Father Jose Reynel Restrepo of the historic Colombian community of Marmato, who was killed after he spoke out publicly against the plan of Canadian gold mining company Gran Colombia Gold to destroy Marmato, eliminate the small-scale mining which has supported community residents for centuries, and relocate residents, so that an open-pit gold mine can be developed on the site of the community. I call upon you to stop this development at once. Preserve the livelihood of the residents of Marmato, and call for the prosecution and conviction of those responsible for Father Restrepo's murder. Sincerely, (Your Name and Address) ==================================== And write or call at Gran Colombia Resources to : Peter Volk, Gran Colombia Gold General Counsel and VP : pvolk@grancolombiagold.com 333 Bay Atreet, Suite 1100 Toronto, Ontario M5H 2R2 Tel (416) 603 - 4653 We suggest the following model for Grancolombia Gold : I am very distressed at the news of the murder of Father Jose Reynel Restrepo of Marmato, who was killed after he spoke out publicly against your company's plan to destroy Marmato, and relocate residents, so that an open-pit gold mine can be developed on the site of the community, which has existed there for nearly 500 years. I call upon you to stop this development at once. Preserve the livelihood of the residents of Marmato. And reveal any links of your company to the murder of Father Restrepo and call for the prosecution and conviction of those responsible. In light of his murder and in remembrance of him, renounce your company's destructive plan to mine in Marmato.
| ========================================== Please be generous - Support our work! Click "Make a donation" from our home page: http://www.colombiasupport.net Colombia Support Network P.O. Box 1505 Madison, WI 53701-1505 Phone: (608) 257-8753 Fax: (608) 255-6621 E-mail: csn@igc.org
[csn-web] Marmato Gold Mining Plans and Murder of Marmato Priest Jose Reinel Restrepo
We of the Colombia Support Network express our outrage at the September 1, 2011 murder of Father Jose Reinel Restrepo, parish priest in the town of Marmato in Caldas Department in west central Colombia. Father Restrepo had spoken out against a plan by the Canadian mining company Medoro Resources, which merged in July with a Colombian company, Gran Colombia Gold. The plan would require the town of Marmato to be moved from its present location so that an open-pit gold mine could be developed there. The Canadian mining interest in Colombia fits with the recent approval by Colombia and Canada of a so-called Free Trade Agreement between the two countries, an agreement which we believe will have deleterious consequences for both countries, but particularly for rural communities in Colombia.
Town residents in Marmato have opposed the Medoro-Gran Colombia Gold plan, which would also close down small-scale artisan mining in the highland area where Marmato is located. This small-scale mining has been a feature of the area since the Spanish conquest and, according to the Mayor of Marmato, provides employment for more than 2,000 miners, upon whose earnings the town depends. The Mayor also has pointed out that years ago an agreement had been reached to keep the highlands where Marmato is located available for small-scale mining, while allowing the Colombian government to development mining projects in the lowlands. This accord would be breached by the proposed open-pit mine in the highland areas where the town is located.
Father Restrepo spoke out publicly against the Canadian mining plan, which he noted would undermine the livelihood of Marmato's artisan miners and cause tremendous damage to the community and its residents. On August 28, 2011 a video (with English subtitles) in which he spoke out against the Medoro mining plan was placed on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=FuEboyypwV4 Four days later Father Restrepo was murdered as he traveled by motorcycle between Marmato to a neighboring community. Related video (Spanish)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u8ERxAaR9Y&feature=related The persons responsible for his murder have not yet been identified, nor has the cause of the attack on Father Restrepo been determined. But few doubt that his murder was related to his outspoken objection to the Medoro/Gran Colombia Gold Mine plan.
Please write to Colombian Vice- President Angelino Garzón, the Human Rights Office of the Ministry of Interior s, Minister of Mines Carlos Rodado, and Fiscal General Vivianne Morales to urge them to see that the murder of Father Restrepo is properly investigated and those responsible prosecuted for murder, and to stop the Marmato mine development by Medoro/Gran Colombia Gold. And write to or call the official of the gold companies to tell him to halt implementation of their damaging and fatality-producing project.
Señor ANGELINO GARZÓN, Vice President of Colombia - contactovicepresidencia@presidencia.gov.co Carrera 8a No.7-57 Bogotá, Colombia Señor HERNÁN JAIME ULLOA VENEGAS, Director of the Presidential Program on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Rights hernanulloa@presidencia.gov.co
Señor Carlos Rodado, Minister of Mining : crodado@minminas.gov.co
Señora Maria Paulina Riveros, Derechos Humanos Ministerio del Interior; maria.riveros@mij.gov.co Señora Viviane Morales, Fiscal General de la Nación : viviane.morales@fiscalia.gov.co Medoro Resources: Mr Peter Volk, Vicepresident and General Counsel: info@medororesources.com 333 Bay Street, Suite 1100 Toronto, Ontario M5H 2R2 Tel ( 416) 603 - 4653 Fax : (416) 360 - 7783
========================================
Colombia Support Network P.O. Box 1505 Madison, WI 53701-1505 Phone: (608) 257-8753 Fax: (608) 255-6621
|
|
