Colombia: peasants’ rights are being threatened

In the region of Magdalena Medio, a comprehensive aggression campaign against the peasant association ACVC is being carried out by the State and the paramilitary sector. ACVC leaders are being criminalized; arrest warrants have been issued for some of these leaders; Álvaro Manzano, Reinaldo Restrepo and Hernando Agudelo Rodríguez have been arrested. There is a blockade on food and health upon the region. The objective of the aggressions is to prevent the ACVC from struggling for the lifting of the withdrawal of the Peasant Reserve Area (ZRC), located in the Cimitarra valley, created in December 2002 and withdrawn through a resolution issued without the approval of INCORA’s Board of Directors, as declared in writing by the delegates and the two other peasant delegates in April 2003. The ZRC includes more than 25 thousand peasants in a process of comprehensive development and human rights defence. Several sectors of the Colombian State are involved in the actions against the association. These actions fulfil the interests of paramilitary groups, cattle farmers and landlords in Magdalena Medio, who consider the ZRC to be an obstacle to the violent seizure of land.

In the light of this situation of human rights violations, is very important to put pressure on the Colombian authorities, so that they take urgent measures to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of the peasant families residing in the Peasant Reserve Area of Cimitarra valley. Please, send a letter to the President of the Republic, with copy to the Colombian Institute of Rural Development (INCODER). Please, keep informed the peasant association of the Cimitarra valley, ACVC.