SPOTLIGHT
Twitter: Coordinación Colombia Europa Estados Unidos CCEEU
Coordinación Colombia Europa Estados Unidos, 28 de marzo de 2023
“Mientras el fiscal Barbosa amenaza la paz total, deja de investigar los casos de graves violaciones a los derechos humanos y otros crímenes”.
US-COLOMBIA RELATIONS
Canciller Álvaro Leyva inicia el diálogo con la sociedad civil, que por primera vez se realiza en el marco del encuentro de alto nivel entre Colombia y Estados Unidos
Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, 28 de marzo de 2023
“Continúa el décimo Diálogo de Alto Nivel en la capital estadounidense, con el diálogo con la sociedad civil, que por el país anfitrión cuenta con la participación del subsecretario Adjunto para Asuntos del Hemisferio Occidental del Departamento de Estado, Michael Wells”.
Secretary Blinken With Colombian Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva at the U.S.-Colombia High-Level Dialogue
U.S. Department of State, March 27, 2023
“The High-Level Dialogues present remarkable opportunities to engage at a deeper level on our shared interests. The dialogue continues to speak to the strength of the bonds between our two countries. We are especially honored today by the presence of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who will formally open the dialogue.”
Diálogo de Alto Nivel con Estados Unidos será la oportunidad para que Colombia amplíe prioridades de la agenda bilateral | Cancillería
Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, 27 de marzo de 2023
“Inició el Diálogo de alto nivel entre Colombia y EE.UU. donde se analizan las oportunidades económicas, sociales y salud, diplomacia, medio ambiente y cambio climático, energía, minería e infraestructura, democracia, buen gobierno y DDHH, seguridad, antinarcóticos, desarrollo rural y migración, para el próximo año. Aunque esta es la décima versión del Diálogo de Alto Nivel, principal escenario de relacionamiento entre Colombia y Estados Unidos, es el primero que se realiza durante el gobierno del presidente Gustavo Petro. En este sentido, Colombia aborda una agenda de trabajo más amplia y que responde a la diversidad de temas que son prioridad para el nuevo gobierno”.
Secretary Blinken’s Participation in the Tenth U.S.-Colombia High-Level Dialogue
U.S. Department of State, March 24, 2023
“Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with Colombian Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva for the tenth U.S.-Colombia High-Level Dialogue (HLD) in Washington, D.C. March 27-28. At the HLD, the two countries will discuss issues of shared interest including migration, counternarcotics, security, human rights and equity, education, economic opportunities, energy transition, and climate action.”
PEACE PROCESS
How Colombia’s ELN guerrilla group is jeopardizing Gustavo Petro’s plan for ‘total peace’
Juan Diego Quesada, El País, March 30, 2023
“Colombian President Gustavo Petro has spent half his life promoting peace. He adopted this discourse after being a young and short-sighted guerrilla who considered the idea of armed struggle as a way to reach power more of a dream than an achievable goal. A few months ago, he believed he could trigger this same transformation among the leaders of the National Liberation Army (ELN), a guerrilla group whose members have survived by hiding in the depths of the jungle for decades. However, negotiations with the ELN have become so difficult that they are threatening to derail Petro’s plan for “total peace” — an end to all violence in Colombia. An agreement to end the killings is now hanging in the air.”
THE TALE OF THE 2023 WOMEN DEFENDERS GATHERING
Peace Brigades International- Colombia, March 28, 2023
“Between 15 and 18 February, 25 women came together in La Mesa, Cundinamarca. Women from different Colombian territories and PBI accompaniers from several countries: San José de Apartadó, Cali, Vistahermosa, and Puerto Rico in Meta, Bogotá, Catatumbo, Remedios, Sur de Bolívar, Barrancabermeja, Puerto Asís, Portugal, Spain, and the United States.”
En carta a Petro, 16 exjefes paras piden que los escuchen en la ‘Paz Total’
María Isabel Ortiz Fonnegra, El Tiempo, 29 de marzo de 2023
“En una carta de tres páginas, exjefes paramilitares le solititaron al Gobierno realizar un debate público sobre los resultados de la desmovilización de las autodefensas, de cara a la construcción de ‘paz total’”.
En jaque la premisa de la paz total: parar la guerra para negociar
Santiago Rodríguez Álvarez, La Silla Vacía, 21 de marzo de 2023
“Este domingo, el presidente Gustavo Petro puso fin al cese al fuego bilateral con el Clan del Golfo, la segunda organización armada más grande del país. Es una muestra de mano dura en medio de las críticas por la violencia alrededor del paro minero en el Bajo Cauca y una decisión que golpea el pilar fundamental de la política de paz total: parar la guerra para luego negociar”.
CONTINUED ARMED CONFLICT
Colombia Says ELN Rebels Killed Nine Soldiers
The Defense Post, March 29, 2023
“Colombia’s ELN guerrilla group, which is in peace talks with the government, has killed nine soldiers in an attack in the country’s northeast, the government said on Wednesday. ‘We have received preliminary information about the killings of nine of our soldiers’ in El Carmen in the North Santander department, the army said in a statement, attributing the attack to the National Liberation Army (ELN).”
Tweet: Amazon Watch
Amazon Watch, March 28, 2023
“On 28 March 2022, a U.S.-backed Colombian military unit killed 11 people during an ill-fated raid in the Amazon rainforest. Today, U.S. Congresspeople sent a letter to @SecBlinken, asking when will there be justice for civilians killed in Alto Remanso? #JusticiaPorRemanso”
HUMAN RIGHTS
El llamado a Petro para prevenir violencia contra líderes en elecciones regionales
Julián Ríos Monroy, El Espectador, 27 de marzo de 2023
“A menos de una semana de terminar el primer trimestre del año, los hechos de violencia de actores armados y los desencuentros políticos en medio de la paz total confirman el pronóstico de que el 2023 sería un año desafiante en seguridad en Colombia. Uno de los puntos que sigue generando alarmas es el asesinato de líderes sociales y defensores de derechos humanos: según la Base de Datos de Violencia Sociopolítica de la Comisión Colombiana de Juristas (CCJ), durante 2022 fueron asesinados al menos 212 aproximadamente uno cada dos días), y solo en los primeros dos meses del 2023 se registraron 20 homicidios contra esta población”.
Premio Nacional de Derechos Humanos Colombia
“Convocatoria desde el 15 de marzo de 2023″.
Colombia: Raising your voice is not a crime, it’s a right!
Amnesty International, March 23, 2023
“Call on the Colombian government to reform the National Police and protect the rights of protesters in Colombia. On 28 April 2021, thousands of people took to the streets in various Colombian cities to demand their rights. Women, young people, human rights defenders and LGBTIQ+ people led the protests with courage and determination, seeking a better future.”
Red Cross says violence displaced more Colombians in 2022 | AP News
Manuel Rueda, AP News, March 22, 2023
“The number of internally displaced people in Colombia increased significantly last year as several armed groups fought for control of rural pockets of the country, the Red Cross said Wednesday. In its annual assessment of humanitarian challenges in the South American country, the organization said that while confrontations between Colombia’s army and rebel groups decreased last year, fighting among rebel groups continues to take a heavy toll on civilians.”
Civil Society Strategy Letter to Secretary Blinken on the Ethnic Chapter – WOLA
Antony Blinken, WOLA, March 22, 2023
“We were very pleased that the Biden Administration publicly announced that the United States is an international accompanier to the Ethnic Chapter of Colombia’s 2016 peace agreement. The signing ceremony that took place with you and Vice President Francia Marquez in October 2022 was symbolically important because it raised the profile of Afro-Colombian and indigenous issues globally and ratified the vital support that the U.S. government had already been giving to ethnic groups in Colombia.”
THE ENVIRONMENT
Colombia – Floods Destroy Homes in Cauca, 1,500 Families Affected
Richard Davies, Flood List, March 30, 2023
“Several rivers including the Quilichao River broke their banks in Santander de Quilichao on 24 March 2023. The local government reported one fatality and more than 500 families affected. Cauca disaster authorities reported flooding in Caloto after the overflow of the El Palo River, also on 24 March.”
Removing 70 of Pablo Escobar’s hippos to cost Colombia $3.5m
The Guardian, March 30, 2023
“Colombia has said that the cost of transferring 70 hippos that belonged to deceased drug lord Pablo Escobar to overseas sanctuaries will be $3.5m. The cocaine baron brought a small number of the animals from Africa to Colombia in the late 1980s. But after his death in 1993 the animals were left to roam freely in a hot, marshy area of Antioquia department, where environmental authorities have been helpless to curb their numbers.”
Regular a las grandes corporaciones: organizaciones sociales y ambientales piden al gobierno Petro impulsar el Tratado Vinculante ante la ONU
Colectivo de Abogados, 27 de marzo de 2023
“Entre el 29 y 31 de marzo organizaciones colombianas defensoras de derechos humanos y del ambiente realizarán una gran jornada para explicar a la sociedad civil, a congresistas y a funcionarias y funcionarios del gobierno del Presidente Gustavo Petro, por qué es importante que nuestro país asuma el liderazgo de la discusión sobre el Tratado Vinculante promovido por la ONU que busca regular el comportamiento de las grandes corporaciones transnacionales y proteger a las naciones, pueblos y comunidades, de acciones que violen sus derechos. La jornada llevará el nombre: ‘¡Suficiente! Frenemos la impunidad corporativa’”.
DRUG POLICY
Colombia arrests 52 linked to international drug trade
TRT World, March 30, 2023
“Colombian authorities have arrested 52 people linked to international drug trafficking in a major operation supported by the United States, France and Spain, the defence ministry announced. Of those arrested, 34 were under “current extradition orders”, Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez said following the operation on Wednesday.”
Colombia’s cocaine market collapsed: farmers
Adriaan Alsema, Colombia Reports, March 24, 2023
“Farmers from multiple parts of Colombia say cocaine sales have collapsed after a surge in the production of the illicit drug. In an interview, coca farmers’ representative Leidy Diaz told radio station RCN that a lack of buyers for cocaine in Catatumbo is causing a food crisis in the region whose economy almost entirely depends on the drug trade.”
