Sir, Juan Manuel Santos – President of the Republic of Colombia
Sir, Luis Perez Gutierrez – Governor of Antioquia
In the name of the 200 international organisations members of the Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity, we would like to express our concern at the high risk faced by human and environmental rights defenders in Colombia who are taking part in the Minga Nacional Campesina, Agraria, Étnica y Popular.
In our different regions of the world we received information from the Cumbre Agraria, Étnica y Popular about this national mobilization and strike beginning on May 30th to oppose governmental policies linked, among others, to the Free Trade Agreements, that sale strategic natural resoures, public enterprises, strategic goods and water and intensify inequal distribution of wealth.
We have been following the Minga developments in the last few days. We would like to express our deep concern in relation to the following: the violent repression faced by Minga participants on the part of the national police that is preventing social and popular organizations from exercising their right to protest; the false statements and accusations made by local authorities; and the assassination of an indigenous man from the Embera Chamí ethnic group and today, the murder of the Nasa indigenous Gersaín Cerón Cuainás.
In particular, we are very concerned about the high risks faced by members of the Movimiento en Defenesa del Territorio y Afectados por las Represas Ríos Vivos members, who received death threats from paramilitary groups on May 30th and 31st, 2016.
As international organizations that defend life, we recognise that use of dialogue as the only way to solve differences within society. We therefore reject the use of police force and the criminalization of protest and expect the government to guarantee the right to protest on the part of social organizations.
From our countries, we support and positively evaluate the efforts to negotiate an end to the conflict with different armed groups. However, as we are again confronted by this kind of situation, we highlight and reiterate our deep concern in relation to the continuity of paramilitary groups and the subsequent lack of guarantees for a definite end to repression and violence.
We trust that efforts to solve this difficult situation will be founded on the pillars of Colombian democracy and the constitutional rule of law. We will continue to pay close attention to this situation in the coming days.
Yours sincerely,
Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity.
Campaign composed of 200 international and regional organizations in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe.
