Fighting the FARC ------ Current TV -----

Adam Yamaguchi travels to one of the most dangerous areas in Colombia to see how the U.S. and Colombian governments are waging the war on drugs and the guerrilla groups that control the drug trade.

Curren TV

Learn how Colombia's rural farmers make and sell cocaine.

Colombia drug lord 'funded Uribe'

By Jeremy McDermott
BBC News, Colombia

''Don Mario,'' was taken in shackles to the capital to await possible extradition to the United States.

Read the complete New York Times Electronic Edition on computer, just as it appears in print.

Colombia: FARC Kills 17 from Indigenous Group

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/02/10/colombia-farc-kills-17-indigenous-group

Sigifredo Lopez is only survivor of 12 lawmakers who were abducted in April 2002

2007." Watch Lopez's reunion with his family after nearly seven years in captivity

CNN.com /world

Verdad abierta

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
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor
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