In Colombia, former guerilla Gustavo Petro leads in the presidential polls. Petro is the lead candidate for a coalition of left political parties called Pacto Historico (Historic Pact), reports Ben Gilvar-Parke.
“The Pacto Historico, as a political movement, hopes to tie messages of national unity to social spending and poverty reduction, in what Villanuevas describes as not just a rejection of militarism, “but a social pact with Colombia's citizens.””
“The Pacto Historico, as a political movement, hopes to tie messages of national unity to social spending and poverty reduction, in what Villanuevas describes as not just a rejection of militarism, “but a social pact with Colombia's citizens.””
Members of the Comunidad de Paz de San Jose de Apartado march in memory of victims of the continuing violence in Colombia. Photo by the Comunidad de Paz de San Jose de Apartado, which is about 50 kilometers from the Panamanian border.
Reporting human rights abuses is not a crime
by the Defend the Sacred Alliance, Kumi Naidoo, Nnimmo Bassey and Noam Chomsky
Twenty-four years ago, the search for a way out of the unending violent conflict in Colombia saw a significant moment of hope. On 23 March 1997, 1,350 displaced farmers gathered in the remote village of San Jose de Apartado in the north-western province of Antioquia to join together and form a peace community. After paramilitaries had roamed the region pillaging and massacring, the local community declared itself neutral in the war, rejecting weapons, drugs, alcohol and cooperation with any armed group. With their community, the people of San Jose have shown other communities in the country how to break the victim-perpetrator cy
Posted 3 Mar 2021, 3:13pm By
This year the group will continue to work for the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado in Colombia and the BK16 human rights activists in India, and on cases from South Asia and Central America. We re also continuing our work against the death penalty.
We ve also begun work on human rights and the UK, which will cover issues such as protecting the Human Rights Act and the rights of asylum-seekers, and will also have a series of short campaigns. These began with Belarus; the current campaign is for the closure of Guantanamo Bay.
We look forward to events to mark Amnesty s 60th birthday this year. Look out for details.