The 4th Humanitarian Action for Northeastern Antioquia

4.05.09

By CAHUCOPANA

From its birth, the Humanitarian Action Co-operative for Co-Existence and Peace in Northeastern Antioquia (CAHUCOPANA) has been putting forward a constant struggle to defend and promote the rights of the peasants (campesinos) in the region through denouncements, development zones, and humanitarian refuges as a mechanism to prevent the displacement of communities. It has also brought about three humanitarian actions that have looked for a way to break the military and paramilitary blockade that has been imposed in the zone.

To continue these tasks, CAHUCOPANA convenes the 4th Humanitarian Action for Northeastern Antioquia, that will take place from the 15th to the 19th of May in the rural region (vereda) of Puerto Nuevo Ité, jurisdiction in the municipality of Remedios (Department of Antioquia), to reject extrajudicial executions and the stigmatization and persecution of peasant organizations (organizaciones campesinas) in the area. To this end, we hope to rely with the support and solidarity of regional, national and international organizations, and thus continue with the defense and struggle for the dignity of the campesinos of the region.

The 4th Humanitarian Action for Northeastern Antioquia is born from the necessity to make known the humanitarian crisis in which we, the peasant communities of Northeastern Antioquia, find ourselves in. And that has for several years endured the militarization, persecution, false accusations, and judicial farces against peasant organizations (organizaciones campesinas) and their leaders by the Colombian state, which not only generate fear and displacement among the communities, but also tear apart the existing social fabric of the region.

A sample of this are the multiple cases of extrajudicial killings in which the peasants (campesinos) of our rural areas (veredas) are assassinated and then identified as guerrillas fallen in combat, as happened with our brothers Heriberto Correa, Sigilfredo Castaño, Pablo Emilio Agudelo, León Benitez, William Hernán Sánchez, Carlos Mario García David, Miguel Ángel Gonzáles Gutiérrez and Luis Horacio Ladino Guarumo; these crimes were committed by troops of the Colombian army, attached to the Batalla de Calibío Battalion of the 14th Brigade, and remain unpunished.

This is in addition to state abandonment, low social investment, a lack of schools and health clinics and other rights that make possible conditions to enjoy a life with dignity. This entire attack has been the only response to the insatiable struggle of our peasant communities to demand respect for our rights, which have now just become promises that have never been honored by the national government.

from Prensarural.org

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