to our group website. Hopefully you will find any information you want about our group, but more importantly it will inspire you to take action. The best way to keep in touch with us is via our email newsletter. This generally goes out once a month. This is changing in format as we develop the blog and the newsletter will link to relevant actions or events, rather than being too detailed itself. The group meets every month except August at Moordown Community Centre. This is on the second Thursday, 7.30 to 9.00. This is a sort of business/planning meeting with some letter writing. If there is a speaker or any particular change to the format it will be flagged up in the newsletter. We have a Facebook page – please go and like us! Its another excellent way of keeping in touch and joining in with actions and campaigns.
SUMMARY
Lots to report this month, but first we give a warm welcome to a new member of our team: Joe Smith, our new Brazil Coordinator, who has produced the Brazil section of this newsletter. You will be hearing from Joe himself shortly. In this newsletter, we report among other things on the continuing deterioration in Venezuela, the disturbing rise in murders of human rights defenders in Colombia and proposals that would seriously reduce human rights protections in Brazil. There is good news from Chile and Paraguay, advance notice of a new campaign on Peru and a disappearance in Argentina. You are invited to join the Lambeth Group’s annual Embassy crawl which will include a stop at the Chilean Embassy
COLOMBIA
15 of the 51 HR Defenders killed in Colombia between Jan and June 2017
Many thanks to everyone who wrote to the Colombian authorities about Amnesty’s concerns in Chocó department. We have already received two responses from the Office of the President in reply to your letters. Violence, forced displacements, sowing of anti-personnel mines and recruitment of child soldiers is a continuing concern. Amnesty has a mission there now. The UK embassy in Bogotá sent one of its staff to the Chocó and he has reported back his concerns to the FCO. We have also requested a response from the authorities in Bogotá via their London embassy. For a recent Public Statement by Amnesty on the situation, please download it here.
Huber Ballesteros, the leader of Colombia’s Field-Workers Union, will be visiting us at Amnesty UK’s London office on 6 September. We sent out invitations to you all last week. Huber’s trial was considered to be unfair by Amnesty and he was held in preventative detention for three years, before being finally released. Three months after his release, he received a death threat. Thanks to all of you who wrote on his behalf.
The Colombian NGO Somos Defensores (We are Defenders) report that the number of HR defenders who have been killed in the January-June period of 2017 (51 people) was a sharp increase on the same period in 2016 (35). This increase is entirely due to the activity of paramilitary groups and ‘unknowns’. The full report is in Spanish and may be downloaded here.
Front Line Defenders report that a large paramilitary group threatened five human rights defenders in the region of Barrancabermeja, known as the Oil Capital of Colombia. All five are well-known for their work on the peace process. On 17 August, the daughter of Maria Leonilda Ravelo Grimaldo, one of these HR defenders, was threatened by gunmen while walking her dog. For the full report please click here.
The Colombian NGO Fundación Paz y Reconciliación (Peace and Reconciliation Foundation) has published an extensive report on the ongoing fighting in Tumaco, Nariño Department between 11 different armed groups. This is a struggle for control of the port and the surrounding coca growing region. The number of murders has increased by two-thirds in the first 6 months of 2017. Former FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) rebels have joined new armed groups, while members of the ELN (National Liberation Army) belong to others and paramilitaries and gangs from outside the region have now entered it. The local authorities are overwhelmed and the central authorities have not been able to stem the violence. For the full report in Spanish, with map, please click here The violence here, as in Chocó, and the increased killings of HR defenders illustrate the fragility of the peace agreement. [click to continue…]