What's Gone Wrong With Past Colombian Peace Processes?
News from Colombia | on: Thursday, 30 August 2012
Article translated from the Spanish, with some edits to aid comprehension. Alberto Pinzon was a peace negotiator between the government of Andres Pastrana and the FARC. By Alberto Pinzon Sanchez - Why after so many years of trying, have the various peace processes between the Colombian state and the main read moreUS Must support Peace in Colombia
News from Colombia | on: Wednesday, 29 August 2012
Below is an article by US based labour lawyer Daniel Kovalik posted on counterpunch yesterday. For the original article please click here Time for Obama To Earn His Nobel Prize Peace Talks Begin in Colombia by DANIEL KOVALIK According to Colombia’s El Tiempo, 75% of Colombians want a dialogue read morePeace Talks Announced
News from Colombia | on: Tuesday, 28 August 2012
According to media reports, which were last night confirmed by President Santos, the Colombian Government and the FARC, have been engaged in preliminary peace talks in Havana, Cuba. It is said they have now signed an agreement to begin negotiations with six key agenda points. It has been reported that read moreAfrocolombian Leader Shot
News from Colombia | on: Thursday, 23 August 2012
By Katy Proctor Claudio Esterilla, the afrocaribbean leader of the Committee for the Development of the Black Community of the western Nariño mountain range (COPDICONC) was the target of attempted assassination earlier this month, in spite of being a recipient of precautionary measures from the Interamerican Human Rights read more 
Defence Minister Slanders Patriotic March
News from Colombia | on: Thursday, 16 August 2012
Juan Carlos Pinzon, the Colombian Defence Minister has accused the Patriotic March of being funded by the FARC guerrillas. The last organisation to receive such an accusation - the Patriotic Union – was decimated by military repression and the assassination and disappearance of thousands by paramilitary death squads. The Patriotic read moreGovernment Cuts Fuel to Protection Units - Lives at Risk
News from Colombia | on: Thursday, 16 August 2012
The CUT has reported that the National Protection Unit, the state office charged with protecting the lives of trade unionists and other human rights defenders deemed at risk of assassination, has cut their fuel allocation by 50%, putting their lives in danger since they must continue their work regardless. The read more 
Update on FENOCO Workers’ Strike
News from Colombia | on: Thursday, 16 August 2012
Workers on the FENOCO railway that carries coal from mines in La Guajira department to the ports on the Caribbean coast have been on strike since July 23rd protesting at the employer’s lack of response to a list of demands presented on May 30th. Unions accuse the government and read moreWorkers Uniting Highlights Ongoing Concern at Situation of Colombian Labour
Justice For Colombia News | on: Monday, 13 August 2012
In a statement released on August 9th Workers Uniting, which has a partnership agreement with FENSUAGRO, the Colombian agricultural workers' union, has rejected what Leo W. Gerard, the International President of the USW categorised as the "self congratulations" of the ILO and the US Department of Labor [sic], in their read moreAssassination Attempt Narrowly Fails
News from Colombia | on: Sunday, 12 August 2012
The leadership of the regional CUT in Caldas has reported an assassination attempt committed against two of their members. Oscar Arturo Oruzco and Wilson Jaramillo, the President and the General Secretary of the CUT in Caldas respectively had previously received several death threats. One death threat came in letters cut read morePeasant Leader Arrested for ‘Rebellion’
News from Colombia | on: Saturday, 11 August 2012
The Association of Agricultural Workers of Huila, ACTH, an affiliate of FENSUAGRO has reported the arrest of Armando Castano Pascuas on 5th August. Mr Castano is a well known union leader and former president of the local council. On the day of his arrest Mr Castano was travelling by truck read more 
Railwaymen on Strike in Northern Colombia
News from Colombia | on: Thursday, 9 August 2012
Workers that drive the trains and maintain the track on the La Loma-Cesar to Santa Marta and Cienaga line have now been on strike since 23rd of July. The workers, affiliated to the SINTRAIME industrial, metalworkers and train workers’ union, had issued the company that runs the railway, FENOCO (Railways read moreASOTRECOL Kicked to the Curb
News from Colombia | on: Thursday, 9 August 2012
Workers from the General Motors assembly plant in Bogota, Colombia have been leaving the company with occupational diseases for years. A courageous group of workers have asserted that this should not be happening. After fighting their individual cases for 3-4 years they decided that they would be stronger united, and read moreLips Sewed Shut, Colombia GM Workers Will Not Be Silent
News from Colombia | on: Thursday, 9 August 2012
by John Walsh UPDATE August 8 : Today three more workers, Rafael Ángel Jiménez, Wilson Fabio Blandón, and Ferney Rodríguez, will sew their lips closed, as the original four GM workers reach the seventh day of their hunger strike. On August 6 the Colombian Ministry of Labor convened a read moreParamilitaries Kill Peasant Farmer in Army Zone
News from Colombia | on: Wednesday, 8 August 2012
Human rights organisations in Caloto, Cauca department have reported the shooting of Aldemar Pinto Barrios, a peasant trade unionist and member of the Patriotic March on Sunday 5th August. Mr Pinto was with two friends in the market square of the town of El Palo when 2 men arrived riding read more 
Indigenous Youth Killed by Airforce
News from Colombia | on: Tuesday, 7 August 2012
Members of the Nurtia Tascon community of the Embera people of Antioquia have reported the killing of 17 year-old Carlos Mario Domico Domico by a bomb dropped by the Colombian air force. On August 1st 2012 members of the community carried his body to the town of Dabeiba. Colombian military read moreColombia’s Disappeared
News from Colombia | on: Thursday, 2 August 2012
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 read morePeace Community Reports Military Collusion with Paramilitaries
News from Colombia | on: Thursday, 2 August 2012
By Katy Proctor Although it is rural Colombia that is most affected by the ongoing conflict in the country, this is given little attention in the media. Constrained by fear, the rural poor are rarely given a voice and mainstream journalists are restricted in what they can report, so where read more
