Colombian rebels say to free six more hostages

Price of Silence http://pth.amnestyusa.org/

A music video that brings together 16 of the worlds top musicians—some of whom have fled oppressive regimes—in a rousing musical plea to guarantee human rights for all. ...

U.S. Office on Colombia

Mission

The U.S. Office on Colombia is an independent non-profit organization, not affiliated with any political party, that seeks to educate U.S. policymakers, the media and the U.S. public about the impact of U.S. policy on Colombia. The U.S. Office on Colombia strives to shape more informed and humane U.S. policy in Colombia by connecting members of Colombian civil society with U.S. policy makers, and by involving U.S. citizens in the policy-making process.

U.S Office on Colombia » USOC :: Mission and Strategic Vision

Protect the human

THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

http://protectthehuman.org/

There are hundreds of political prisoners currently languishing in Colombia’s jails.

There are hundreds of political prisoners currently languishing in Colombia’s jails.

They include numerous trade unionists, student activists, community and indigenous leaders and human rights defenders – all imprisoned for their opposition to Colombian government policies. Many Colombian political prisoners have not been charged with any crime and some suffered appalling abuses, including torture, when they were originally detained. They are kept in appalling conditions in overcrowded jails. Justice for Colombia is campaigning for the release of Colombia's political prisoners. We also have a projects providing humanitarian assistance and legal advice to many of them.

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Take Action Against Privatisation of Public Services in Colombia
Date: 5 November 2008

The global federation of public sector trade unions – Public Services International (PSI) – has created a page on their website where people can protest direct to the Colombian regime about the privatisation of refuse collection services in the Colombian city of Cali, the flouting of collective bargaining agreements and mass redundancies of public sector workers. PSI is asking people around the world to support the SINTRAEMSIRVA trade union who face having 230 of their activists fired. full story>>>

Breaking the Grip? Obstacles to Justice for Paramilitary Mafias in Colombia

This 140-page report assesses Colombia’s progress toward investigating and breaking the influence of paramilitaries’ mafia-like networks. It also describes government actions that pose serious obstacles to continued progress. The report is based on interviews with prosecutors and investigators, case files, witness testimony, and other material collected over the course of more than one year of research in Colombia.

HRW Index No.: 1-56432-385-4
October 16, 2008 Report
Also available in
Download PDF, 707 KB, 140 pgs
Purchase online
Read Press Release
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

U.N. says Colombian military executing civilians

- U.N.: Executions of innocent civilians "systematic and widespread"
- U.S.-backed Colombian forces killing civilians in counterinsurgency campaign
- Top U.N. human rights officer: Killings could constitute a "crime against humanity"
- President fired 25 army members after executions of at least 11 young men

CNN Videos
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/11/01/colombia.UN/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

Colombia: Government Hampers Justice Efforts Investigations of Paramilitary Mafias Need International Support

Colombia's paramilitaries have committed crimes against humanity and other atrocities, including thousands of killings, massacres, threats, enforced disappearances, and forced displacement of civilians. They have amassed enormous wealth and influence, in part through mafia-style alliances with members of the military, politicians, and businesspeople.

Human Rights Watch
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New York, NY 10118-3299
USA

Colombian security forces are murdering civilians and making it look as if they were killed in combat

More than 100 claims of civilian deaths at the hands of the security forces have emerged in recent weeks alone, from nine different parts of Colombia.

Intimidation and murder in Coca-Cola’s Colombian factories

The graffiti that used to read “Death to trade unionists!” has been painted over. Now there is nothing to announce that this ordinary house is home to Sinaltrainal (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Industria de Alimentos — the National Union of Food Industry Workers). This is the biggest trade union in the “Coca-Cola system” in Colombia, representing more than half the organised Coke workers — although after more than a decade of attacks and intimidations, the membership is nothing like as big as it once was.

Read more

Written by Trinitny News

Secrets from a macabre chapter of the history of Colombia’s banana growing region.

If in the mid-1990s the Convivir had the go-ahead of the national government, the problem is that Hasbún was not only a banana plantation owner and rancher, but also that he had been for quite a while a commander, alias “Pedro Ponte,” of the paramilitary organization the Autodefensas Campesinas of Córdoba and Urabá (Peasant self defense forces on Córdoba and Urabá).

SEMANA/Nation

Inside Colombia’s Hostage War

by Maureen Orth November 2008

Treasury Designates FARC International Commission Members

Washington, DC-- The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today designated eight international representatives of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a narco-terrorist organization. Today's action was taken pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act), which applies economic sanctions against significant foreign narcotics traffickers and organizations, like the FARC.

"Today's designation exposes eight `International Commission members' of the FARC," said Adam J. Szubin, Director of OFAC. "Through their service to the FARC as international representatives and negotiators, these persons provide material support to a narco-terrorist organization. OFAC is relentless in its pursuit of exposing those who fuel and support the terrorist activities of the FARC."

The following eight individuals designated today have been identified as the key members of the FARC's International Commission: Jairo Alfonso Lesmes Bulla ("Javier Calderon"), Efrain Pablo Trejo Freire, Orlay Jurado Palomino ( "Commander Hermes"), Ovidio Salinas Perez ("El Embajador"), Jorge Davalos Torres, Francisco Antonio Cadena Collazos ("El Cura Camilo"), Nubia Calderon de Trujillo ("Esperanza"), and Liliana Lopez Palacios ("Olga Lucia Marin"). These International Commission members represent the FARC in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, and Canada.

U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets

The commander’s sons

Semana.com

Mexico

BBC Mundo Especial

Hay muchos Méxicos, pero quizás el que más sobresale por estos días es aquel cuya realidad los propios mexicanos han aprendido a definir mediante el uso del prefijo "narco".

Y sobresale porque la violencia desatada por los carteles de la droga mexicanos se convierte a diario en noticia mundial. Según las autoridades, casi 3.000 personas han perdido la vida entre enero y agosto de este año en crímenes relacionados con el narcotráfico.

Sólo en el mes de julio, murieron 443 personas. Esta cifra es mayor a los 360 civiles que la organización no gubernamental Iraq Body Count reportó en el mismo mes en Irak y, en proporción, superior a las 540 personas que murieron en Afganistán en los primeros siete meses de 2008, según Human Rights Watch

BBC Mundo decidió indagar el tema

Semana

www.semana.com/

Crimes of War

Colombia, a nation on the verge of implosion after decades of convulsive violence. "This is a war of the mad, the demented, and the psychopaths," a Colombian policeman told one of our authors. Our expert contributors cut through the madness to analyze the root causes, unlikely alliances, and institutional failures that caused, and continue to foment, the conflict.

www.crimesofwar.org

T for Tibet

Learn more about Tibet

For 20 years, Free Tibet Campaign has been working for the right of Tibetans to determine their own future. We campaign for an end to the Chinese occupation of Tibet and for the fundamental human rights of Tibetans to be respected.

To find out more about our work and the impacts of the Chinese occupation on the people of Tibet, visit our website: www.freetibet.org.

"Today more than 4200 people are kidnapped in Colombia

name: Pablo EmilioMoncayo Cabrera
Age: 25 years
Occupation: Cape Second Army
Date of kidnapping: 12/21/1997 12/21/1997
Time captivity: 11 years


Las voces del secuestro

July 20

El tiempo.com

Walkout

Pais libre

Fundacion pais libre

The Others

Semana .com

All the hijackers, but particularly the FARC, they should heed the call of the entire society, dumped in the streets, make them once again. This Sunday, July 20 again throughout Colombia repudiation kidnapping on the streets and crying out for the return, alive, of all abductees. And should leave as often as necessary. Because Colombian society begins to understand that the brutal power of barbarism he can raise the power of the civilized and magnificent mass mobilization. A popular voice that the barbarians can not ignore.

Public statement by Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell

Photo by Norma Guerra
http://www.army.mil/-images/2008/07/05/18624/

First, we want to assure everyone that we're all doing fine. Words alone can never possibly express the thrill and excitement we feel to be back home in the United States of America with our families at our side.

There are obviously many people we want to thank. Most of all, we want to thank our families: for their patience, for their love and for their support. For five and a half long years, we all hoped and prayed this day would come. Now that it has, we're just overwhelmed with emotion. The love and the joy we're all experiencing is beyond description.

Next, we want to offer our heartfelt thanks to the Government and the Armed Forces of Colombia. The operation they conducted to rescue us was one for the history books-something we will never forget for the rest of our lives. Colombia is a great nation with a great people, and the struggle they have endured with the FARC for more than 40 years is a shining testament to their great spirit: like the loved ones here with us now, they never gave up in the belief that human kindness and decency would ultimately prevail. To all those still held in captivity, our prayers and our thoughts are with you and your loved ones. We haven't forgotten you, and we never will.

To our employer, Northrop Grumman, our sincere appreciation for your dedication and consistent support to our precious families throughout this ordeal.

Finally, we want to recognize our own United States Government who never forgot us, as evidenced by the tireless efforts of the superb team of men and women in the United States Embassy, Bogotá, Colombia. Specifically, here at Fort Sam Houston, we want to thank General Huber of United States Army South, General Gilman of the Brooke Army Medical Center, Colonel Martinson of Garrison, Fort Sam Houston, and their staffs, for the warm hospitality they've provided us and our families. The personal and professional concern they have taken in our well-being is deeply touching, and the reintegration process they are conducting on our behalf is worthwhile and important. We are all obviously eager to return home, but first we want to complete this entire process so we can return to our lives in the best physical and emotional shape possible.

We understand that a lot of people are eager to see and hear from us, and they will. But right now, more than anything, we just want to be with our loved ones. We ask that the media respect our privacy as we reunite with our families. Rest assured, we will respond to your questions in the near future.


Photo by Norma Guerra
http://www.army.mil/-images/2008/07/05/18624/

Tim Houck photographs U.S. hostages arriving in Bogota

CNN

Cheers ring out after Colombian hostages freed

Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes

In this U.S. Air Foce photo, Keith Stansell stands at the top of the cargo ramp of a C-17 Globemaster III shortly before stepping onto U.S. soil at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, USA at 02 July 2008. Three American captives, Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes, were US defence department contract workers who fell into Colombian rebel hands in 2003 after their light aircraft crashed in the jungle. They along with French-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt and 11 other hostages were rescued by the Colombian army 01 July. EPA/LANCE CHEUN / US AIR FORCE / HANDOUT

By www.monstersandcritics.com

Ingrid Speaks to the world about seven years of captivity

El Espectador.com

One day in freedom against more than 2,000 days of captivity. But for Ingrid these are past, these hours are worth more that returned to life and led to paradise. Her happiest moment in life was this morning when they hugged their children and this is not to feel bitterness and let the past just like a bad dream. The only thing that is clear is the future of their work already started to secure the release of all those who remain hostages.

CNN

Ingrid Betancourt, three american citizens and 11 soldiers and policemen, are set FREE!

This might surely be the best news of the year, so far. Juan Manuel Santos, the colombian Defense Minister just announced at 2:30 p.m. (local time) that the operation called Jaque, held close to the Apaporis river, between the provinces of Guaviare and Vaupes, in the colombian forest, was sucessful. Fifteen hostages were rescued, released and set free. Among them is Ingrid Betancourt and the three americans who were kidnapped by the Farc guerrilla. Other eleven members of the public forces were also released.

semana

Alvaro Ybarra Zavala The Colombian conflict - 2008

The Colombian conflict
Near the border between Panama and Colombia, violent fightings occur in the region of Choco. The Colombian army, the FARC, the ELN, and two other paramilitary groups fight over the natural resources (palm oil and coca fields) of the jungle. This situation forced the Afro-Colombian and Indian population to flee, loosing their land, their identity.

The complexity of Colombia's armed conflict

By Juan Orrantia

Death and Taxes

By Jason P. Howe

Adopt a kidnapped

What do you agree when adopt a kidnapped?
www.adoptaunsecuestrado.org.

When you decide to adopt a kidnapped resignations to inaction against the kidnapping and become aware of why the commitment to do so.

Finding identity with the history of that person and his family will help you achieve the goal of this initiative: one to be seated at all.Time and again we hear that people who have endured the kidnapping in their families feel the pain of other victims like himself and experiencing a genuine solidarity, active and committed. That is the solidarity that promotes

www.adoptaunsecuestrado.org

So when you adopt a kidnapped undertakes:

*Recognize the life story of the person kidnapped
*Send messages to the person in captivity
*To express publicly their rejection of the kidnapping and demand their freedom
*Actively participate in the civic protest against the kidnapping
*Propose ways to reject crime and demand the freedom of his adopted
--Copyright 2008 / Facultad de Comunicación, Universidad de La Sabana

www.adoptaunsecuestrado.org.

War on Want

www.waronwant.org

Colombia is one of the most unequal societies on earth with 3% of the population owning 70% of the land. War on Want believes that poverty will only be alleviated when trade unions are respected.

Cali

War on Kidnapping

Inside Colombia's War on Kidnapping

Unionists in colombia

Gun Violence

waterboarding

Control arms

Censorship

ICRC From the Field Colombia

Colombia ICRC

Colombia

Betarncourt France24

EXCLUSIVE REPORT: 10 days with the FARC
Uploaded by FRANCE_24

Mines

HRW Colombia

No arms

www.oxfam.org.uk

Walkout March 6

Fotobacana

LIbertad

Reasons

557 Reasons

Message

Trade & war in Colombia

Trade and war

Arms

www.controlarms.org

Cartoon

Dessin Arawak , scenario Arthur Wneir

No more

Created by COLOMBIA SUPPORT NETWORK

Freedom

Design

Time for Reyes

Raul Reyes dead in Putumayo
predators of Freedom

Ingrid 2008

Fear

1928

Cartagena