March 2013
5 posts
British Trade Unionists Call for Justice for Henry...
On Wednesday 27th February, British trade unionists and lawyers, assembled at the TUC, UK Trades Union Congress, called for justice in the case of Henry Diaz, disappeared Colombian trade unionist. The protesters included Steve Gillan, General Secretary of the Prison Officers’ Association, Billy Hayes, CWU General Secretary, Nick Sigler, head of international at UNISON, the UK’s largest public...
November 2012
16 posts
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JFC Cross-party Northern Ireland Peace Delegation...
In November JFC organised a cross-party peace delegation of politicians and trade unionists from Northern Ireland to Colombia in order to see the conflict and human rights situation firsthand and share their own experiences of the Northern Ireland peace process. The group met with President Santos, addressed the plenary of the Colombian Congress, met retired generals of the Colombian army, as well...
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October 2012
9 posts
JFC and Simpson Millar LLP launch campaign for...
JFC and Simpson Millar LLP launched their campaign for Henry Diaz, disappeared Colombian trade unionist, at Labour Party Conference this year. Messages to Colombian President Santos calling for justice were signed by high profile politicians and union leaders, among them Chris Bryant, former Foreign Office Minister, Rob Flello, shadow Justice Minister and Iain McNicol, Labour Party General...
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August 2012
3 posts
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Colombia’s Disappeared
A Case Study in Orwellian Lies and Imperial Delusions
By Dan Kovalik
The cover of Colombia’s Semana magazine depicts a photo which should warm the cockles of any decent heart: the indigenous people of Cauca carrying an armed soldier, one of many who had invaded their land, away from their town. The story of the resistance in Cauca was simply amazing, as indigenous, armed with nothing more than...
July 2012
6 posts
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Exaggeration of violations by insurgents,...
Extract from a complete article that can be found here.
The media bias is quantifiable. I don’t know if there has been any quantitative study on media and conflict in the Colombian press, but a quantitative analysis done by the Canadian journalist Garry Leech on coverage of violations by the various Colombian “armed actors” in the New York Times, is illustrative. According to figures...
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Victims' Voices From Colombia: A Review of...
See article on the Huffington Post website here
By Dan Kovalik
The soon-to-be-released book, Throwing Stones At The Moon (“Moon”)(Voice of Witness, 2012) reads like a collection of literary short stories, but, in this case, the stories are both real and horrifying. The stories of those gathered in Moon are told by the Colombian victims of human rights abuses themselves. As the...
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Paraguay meeting today in London
PARAGUAY: EMERGENCY PUBLIC MEETING! Behind the “Express Coup D’Etat” -What Does it Mean for Paraguay & the Region? TODAY: Thursday July 12, 6.30-8.30pm The ‘Discus’ Room, Unite House, 128 Theobalds Road, London, WC1X 8TN Please circulate widely – come & show your support for democracy & social progresswith voices from across Latin America! * HE Alicia Castro, Argentinian...
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June 2012
1 post
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Langlois: Footage of the operation when he was... →
Incredible report from the frontlines of the Colombian conflict. Footage of the firefight where Langlois was captured, and of the Colombian army out on operations. Interview with Langlois himself at the end.
May 2012
2 posts
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Interview with Peace Community Farmers
“When I die, it will be here for someone else”
By
John Lindsay-Poland
on
Monday, April 30, 2012, 6:06pm
Interview with Peace Community Farmers
By Dominque Aulisio
The end of April marks my first month here in the Peace Community of San José of Apartadó, where I will be living for the next year as a peace accompanier with FOR. My first weeks here have been full...
April 2012
9 posts
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Jorge Eliecer Gaitan's Prayer for Peace
The Colombian government has made 9th April National Victims Day, yet victims continue to be created by the violence and the political repression. The chosen day is the anniversary of the assassination of Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, a progressive presidential candidate assassinated on the 9th April 1948, in an event that is widely held to have sparked the violence that persists today. Gaitan, in...
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Colombian Troops in La Macarena
Colombian troops patrolling La Macarena in Meta department of Colombia. The Colombian armed forces are the largest in Latin America, outside of Brazil - they number some 400,000. They have been recipients of the largest military aid programme in the Western hemisphere, with Plan Colombia dedicating nearly $10 billion since 2001 to their modernisation. The Colombian armed forces are backed by US...
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July 2010 Human Rights Hearing in La Macarena
In July 2010 Colombian human rights organisations organised a hearing for the inhabitants of Meta to denounce the abuses they had been subjected to. Over a thousand people turned up and the hearing was widely covered in national and international media. Dozens of testimonies of abuses were aired by local peasants, many of whom had travelled for days on foot and by canoe. Three months later one...
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La Macarena
The Colombian army base at La Macarena, with the mass grave of extrajudicial executions below the watchtower. The base itself was built on stolen land when the army took the region after 2001.
A Colombian army huey overflies the cemetery at La Macarena in Meta department.
The 2010 JFC delegation stands in front of the army base and the mass grave in la Macarena Meta.
To read more about...
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La Macarena Graves
Whoever lies in here was buried on the 2nd of May 2010. The cemetery lies in the shadow of an army base. Locals told us that the base was built by US engineers on land that was stolen from peasants. One man told us how half of his farmland had been fenced off by troops during the night, and that the base had been built on it. He had received no compensation, and had been threatened to keep his...
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Entrance to La Macarena cemetery
In December 2009 a JFC delegation to La Macarena in Meta department of Colombia was told about the existence of a mass grave in the town. Locals said they thought the graves contained the remains of local people killed when the army took the area in 2001, and from numerous extrajudicial executions of civilians carried out by the army afterwards.
One man (Jhonny Hurtado - see below)
who first...
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FARC Free Remaining Military Hostages
FARC Free Remaining Military Hostages
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
Piedad Cordoba of Colombians for Peace
The FARC has unilaterally freed the last 10 military prisoners it holds following negotiations facilitated by Colombians for Peace (CfP). The release of the ten men, 6 police and 4 soldiers, has opened up expectations that a dialogue aiming at peace could now begin between government and...
