Month of September, 2006
Colombia Journey: Report from Scott Nicolsen
I visited Samuel Morales in the maximum security wing of the Modelo prison in Bogotá on September 23. Samuel committed the crime of being a teacher and the president of the Unified Workers Federation in the state of Arauca.
Campesinos in Southwest Colombia Fight for Justice
Between May 12th and May 20th, over 150,000 Colombian campesinos (peasant farmers) of African, indigenous, and mestizo descent shut down the Pan-American Highway across southwestern Colombia. This mass mobilization (which was also a general strike, and which was accompanied by demonstrations of solidarity within cities in the region) was organized by the Popular Unity Process of Southwest Colombia, a regional coalition of campesino associations, labor unions, and other progressive groups.
Colombian Peasants Fight Back
U.S. anti-war activists traveled to Colombia in July on a human rights delegation organized by the Colombia Action Network. The delegation met with trade unions, peasant farmer associations and student organizations. FENSUAGRO (Federación Nacional Sindical Unitaria Agropecuaria, or the National Federation of Agricultural Farming Unions), Colombia’s national federation of peasants, hosted the U.S. activists. The delegation visited rural regions and documented the living conditions of Colombian peasants.
Protest Marks Five-Year Anniversary of 9/11: No to U.S. War without End!
"Five years after Sept. 11, 2001, at least 114,000 people have been killed, and 9.6 million people have been made refugees in the name of fighting terror. The ‘war on terror’ has U.S. troops occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, Israel on the offensive in Lebanon and Palestine, war with Iran is looming, and the Colombian civil war continues to be fueled by U.S. dollars. We need to say no to this state of unending war."
Colombian rebels urge Non-aligned Movement to help end civil war
Colombia's leftist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), on Monday urged the Non-aligned Movement to help end the country's decades-old civil war.
Revolution in Colombia: An Interview
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP) is the largest rebel group in Colombia. Freedom Road Socialist Organization members Kosta Harlan and Erika Zurawski recently traveled to the rebel held territory and met with commanders of the FARC-EP. Fight Back! interviewed these American revolutionaries to discuss the struggle in Colombia.
Colombia Journey: Report from Scott Nicolson
Dear friends,
Occidental Petroleum and Al Gore would like us to believe that they’re environmentalists. “Caño Limón – Ecological Protection Zone” reads the billboard at the military checkpoint where the highway enters Oxy’s Caño Limón oilfield in the state of Arauca. “An Inconvenient Truth” is the title of Al Gore’s movie about global warming. The inconvenient truth here in Arauca is that Oxy and Al Gore are responsible for environmental devastation, not protection.
Oxy’s “Ecological Protection Zone” is the site of 316 oil wells that produce 95,000 barrels of oil a day. The extensive estuary that used to exist there was drained to create dry ground for those wells, the pipeline that transports the oil to the Caribbean coast, and the highway built to bring in the construction and drilling equipment.
Colombia: UNHCHR Letter a Success
In this Colombia policy alert from the Latin America Working Group (LAWG): 78 Representatives Support Colombia UNHCHR Office; Senate Foreign Operations Bill; LAWG Website.
