From: Red Palante! <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2001 11:01:20 -0500
Subject: Weekly News Update on Colombia #616, 11/18/01
WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #616, NOVEMBER 18, 2001
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012
(212) 674-9499 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*5. COLOMBIA: INDIGENOUS FACE DOWN REBELS
On Nov. 12, some 4,500 Paez indigenous people from six
reservations intervened to halt an attack by the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on the police station in the town
of Caldono in Cauca department. Armed only with traditional
"staffs of command"--wooden sticks which symbolize authority--the
Paez arrived about an hour after some 150 fighters from the
FARC's Sixth Front and its Jacobo Arenas column began shooting at
15 police agents holed up in the station. The indigenous came in
response to a plea for help from reservation governor Luis Omar
Rivera, made through the church speakers. The Paez men, women and
children placed themselves between the rebels and police and
demanded that both sides stop shooting.
The Paez say they are prepared to "expel" any armed groups
operating in their ancestral territory, whether they be rebels,
police, army or paramilitaries. "We won't endure any more attacks
against indigenous people and civilians," said Margarita Pena, an
indigenous council member from Caldono. "We want them to leave us
in peace and we will pay whatever price is necessary to clear the
violent ones from our reservations." [El Tiempo (Bogota) 8/14/01;
El Comercio (Quito) 11/14/01 from ANSA, both via Amazon Alliance]
*6. COLOMBIA: PARAS DESTROY WOMEN'S CENTER
On Nov. 10, rightwing paramilitaries from the United Self-Defense
Forces of Colombia (AUC) destroyed the house which the Grassroots
Women's Organization (OFP) had established as a center offering
services to low-income women in the La Paz neighborhood in
northern Barrancabermeja, Santander department. The center opened
on Jan. 30, 1998; it included a communal kitchen, and provided
neighborhood residents with counseling, technical training, and
activities with displaced children, among other services.
In March of this year, paramilitaries threatened the OFP in an
effort to force the center's closure. Given the security
situation, the OFP temporarily vacated the La Paz center and
suspended activities there. OFP director Yolanda Becerra said
that "in effect the house was empty and the paramilitaries had
squatted it"; she said the OFP had asked the paramilitaries to
leave as the building was supposed to be for the community.
On Nov. 10, the paramilitaries came and completely dismantled the
center, burning the building and hauling away all the equipment
and facilities--even the rubble--in a truck, leaving the site
empty.
Construction work to rebuild the center was set to begin on Nov.
14; the center is scheduled to be reinaugurated on Dec. 10,
International Human Rights Day. Colombia Support Network (CSN) is
raising money to support the purchase of construction materials
as well as office and kitchen items for the new center.
Contributions can be sent to Colombia Support Network/OFP
Project, PO Box 1505, Madison WI 53701. Messages of support for
the OFP can be sent via email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Colombia Support Network is also asking for messages to Colombian
officials demanding that they thoroughly investigate the attack
on the OFP, and take judicial action against those found
responsible, as well as provide effective protection to the OFP
and its facilities in the future. Messages can be faxed to
President Andres Pastrana Arango at 011-57-1-286-7434, 286-6842
or 284-2186. Copies should be sent to the OFP and to CSN at
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [CSN Urgent Action 11/12/01; Equipo Nizkor/Derechos
Human Rights/Serpaj Europa Solidaridad Urgente 11/12/01 from OFP
11/11/01, Vanguardia Liberal (Bucaramanga) 11/12/01]
*7. COLOMBIA: 3 STUDENTS MURDERED IN 2 DAYS
On Nov. 7, agents of the Bogota police used firearms and tear gas
against student protesters at the National University in Bogota,
Colombia. Medical student Carlos Giovanny Blanco Leguizamo was
shot to death; at least 20 other students were injured by tear
gas canisters and 10 were arrested. Students had organized the
protest against the privatization of the public health system,
labor reform, the national security law and the war in
Afghanistan. [Messages from Comuna Universitaria
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 11/7/01 & Fundacion Comite de Solidaridad con
los Presos Politicos [EMAIL PROTECTED] 11/8/01, both posted
on Colombia Indymedia website at colombia.indymedia.org]
The next day, Nov. 8, as students across Colombia were staging
actions to demand respect for the right to protest, two armed
assailants entered the University of Antioquia in Medellin and
shot to death David Santiago Jaramillo Urrego and Juan Manuel
Jimenez Escobar, students of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, as they
were playing chess. [Message posted on Colombia Indymedia 11/8/01
with info from radionet & El Colombiano]
=======================================================================
Weekly News Update on the Americas * Nicaragua Solidarity Network of NY
339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 * 212-674-9499 fax: 212-674-9139
http://home.earthlink.net/~nicadlw/wnuhome.html * [EMAIL PROTECTED]
=======================================================================
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Red Palante!
Comunicacion Antagonista y
Resistencia Cultural
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://inquilino.net/palante
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