Action Alerts

2012 gave us the great news that the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas had begun to negotiate an end to the longest-running conflict in the Americas. 2013 gives YOU the chance to make an impact on U.S. policy regarding the peace process by taking an urgent action today!

Your mission? Get your representative in the House to sign this congressional Dear Colleague letter in support of the peace process in Colombia!

Click here to find out how!

It's go time! As we kick off 2013 and begin to work on our new year’s resolutions, we need YOUR help in pressuring the U.S. Embassy in Colombia to speak up for human rights defenders in Colombia. Afro-Colombian and indigenous leaders, labor activists and human rights defenders’ calls for protection have fallen on deaf ears and this needs to change!

You might remember this year’s theme for National Days of Action for Colombia was everyone deserves a place to call home. With over 5 million people forcefully displaced as a result of Colombia’s internal conflict, victims of violence are now hoping that the Colombian government will make good on its promise to help them return home, restoring their lands through the Victims’ and Land Restitution Law.

Working for human rights in Colombia is no easy task. But, recent news from that war-torn country gives us hope. Last month, the Colombian government announced peace talks with the FARC, Colombia’s largest guerilla group, to negotiate an end to the five-decades-old conflict.   As the peace process begins next week on October 17th, we want to know: what does peace in Colombia mean to you?

About two weeks ago my co-worker Lisa sent you a message about how you can help protect workers' rights in Colombia. Today, Asotrecol (the Association of Injured Workers and Ex-Workers of General Motors Colombia) has declared an international day of action.

 
We just celebrated Labor Day here in the United States, but Colombian workers have no room for celebration.

In our last alert we told you we would keep you updated on the injured workers from ASOTRECOL. Well, it turns out they need our help again. GM failed to propose realistic solutions to their demands during their mediation. Now, our friends from ASOTRECOL are restarting their hunger strike. As they continue to pressure GM for due compensation, we need to tell Congress to stand up for labor rights in Colombia and enforce the Labor Action Plan.  As you recall, both governments signed the Labor Action Plan before the Free Trade Agreement was passed by Congress.

After a year of protesting in front of the U.S. Embassy with no response, injured General Motors workers in Colombia go on a hunger strike. Help them fight for their rights!

Jorge Alberto Parra was 30 years old when he began working for General Motors, Colmotores in Colombia, in 2004. Now eight years later, he and four colleagues from the Association of Injured and Ex-Workers of GM Colmotores de Colombia (ASOTRECOL) are taking drastic measures.  They have launched a hunger strike to protest their firing and lack of compensation.

Wow.  What an incredible display of solidarity we saw this year!

Thanks to your help, this year’s 7th Annual Days of Prayer and Action for Colombia was a huge success!  Here at LAWG we are super impressed with how many of you got involved.  Whether by creating paper homes, sending postcards to President Obama, or signing our Petition to Congress—you helped make sure our message was heard loud and clear: everybody deserves a place to call home.  Together, we raised our voices to call for an end to the world’s largest displacement crisis that’s left millions of Colombians homeless. 

Write a Letter to the Editor: Call for U.S. policies to support a place to call home for everyone in Colombia!
Did you hear what President Obama did while in Colombia last weekend? Despite ongoing murders of union leaders and land rights activists, he glossed over all the human rights violations, ignored the continuing displacement crisis, and announced that Colombia had fulfilled its requirements on labor rights that would allow the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement to go into effect on May 15.

Click here to set the record straight on what’s really happening in Colombia!