Call for international action to protect the lives of indigenous people in the south of Colombia
With feelings of pain, indignation and sadness, the organisations and individuals who make part of the International People's Health Movement in Latin America and the World are making an urgent call for the mobilization of support for the lives and integrity of the original ommunities and people from the south of Colombia in the Cauca Valley by denouncing, before the international community, the criminal acts committed by the Government of President Álvaro Uribe.
Since the beginning of October, the Colombian Government has deployed military and police forces into the ancestral indigenous territories of the CaucaValley to confront representatives of the 'Minga de Resisencia Indigena y Popular' (The Movement for Indigenous and Popular Resistance). More than 22 deaths and several dozen wounded have been registered over the course of this year as a result of state-sponsored violence.
The Movement for Indigenous and Popular Resistance was assembled by the National Indigenous Organisation of Colombia (ONIC) to resist government objectives of expropriating traditional ancestral lands in order to allow the growth of productions by multinational companies seeking further natural resources. Thisregion has been thrown into a climate of persecution and criminalization of social protest with actions that have included violent incursions, abductions, forced migration, torture and murders, all carried out by the Uribe Government and paramilitary groups.
We call social organizations from around the world to:
1. To use the communication networks available to use to promote awareness of this situation and activate public opinion about these crimes which have so far been guarded.
2. Denounce and condemn these criminal actions in our social spaces within all continents.
3. Denounce and condemn these actions in front of representatives from the Colombian Government.
4. Make a call for statements on this matter by Latin American Governments.
5. Call for the United Nations, The Organisation of the American States, The National Union of South America, the Andean Community, the European Union and other international organizations to investigate these events and thus comply with their obligations of protecting the lives, security and rights of the people of Colombia.
6. Demand the investigation of these events by a dependable international commission and the establishment of responsibilities by the international community.
Sincerely,
People's Health Movement
Tizitl/IEICAC - Puebla - México
Mujeres al Rescate de los Valores - Tehuitzingo - México
Frente Nacional por la Salud de los Pueblos del Ecuador
ALAMES - Uruguay
Síntesis - Agrupación Estudiantil de Ciencias Médicas de la Universidad de Buenos Aires - Argentina
Salud Socioambiental de la Facultad de Cs. Médicas - U. Nacional de Rosario - Argentina
Álvaro Restrepo Gaviria - Medellín - Colombia
Edwin Rolando González - Medellín - Colombia
Catalina Eibenschutz H. - Coordinadora General de ALAMES - México
Frances Knight - Port Adelaide Primary Health Services - Australia
Eloir Antonio Vial - Porto Alegre - Rio Grande do Sul - Brasil
Dr. Francoise Barten, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center,
International Public Health - Holanda
Damián Verzeñassi, Facultad de Cs. Médicas - U. Nacional de Rosario - Argentina
Sandra Marín - Red Jarilla de Plantas Saludables de la Patagonia - Argentina
Iliana Amoroz - México
Eduardo Espinoza - Facultad de Medicina - Universidad de El Salvador
Asociación Salvadoreña de Ayuda Humanitaria - PROVIDA - El Salvador
Asociación de Promotores Comunitarios de El Salvador
Fundación Maquilishuat (FUMA) - El Salvador
Centro para la Defensa del Consumidor (CDC) - El Salvador
Acción para la Salud y el Servicio Intercomunal en El Salvador (APSIES)
Redacción para la Salud en El Salvador (APSAL)
Mesa Permanente de Gestión de Riesgos (MPGR) - El Salvador
Ideas, Acción y Cambio (Id.A.C.) - Uruguay
María Silvina Aguirre Luro - Buenos Aires - Argentina
Silvia Garboso - Buenos Aires - Argentina
Comité Regional de Promoción de Salud Comunitaria - Nicaragua
Red Nicaragüense de Salud Comunitaria - Nicaragua
Centro de Información y Servicios de Asesoría en Salud (CISAS) - Nicaragua
