CED-INS (Corporación para el Desarrollo y la Investigación Popular – Instituto Nacional Sindical) have launched a newsletter Lands and Conflict: Extractive Industries in Colombia. This is in a context in which, over recent years, huge swathes of land have been handed over by the government to multinationals in the extractive industries sector.  Given that such industries pose a risk to the livelihoods of many communities throughout the country, it has been considered necessary to systematically analyze the strategies and impacts associated with them.

The attack on Villa Rica police station on 2 Feb 2012 left eight dead, 32 wounded and 48 people whose homes were damaged by the explosion. Two members of the community – Deinar Mancilla and Jota Ramos – decided to make house-by-house visits in the area of the bomb, known as “ La 20” Neighbourhood, calling people to a meeting to discuss matters related to the help that we might offer as a group to families affected by the explosion.

A working Party

Carta al Embajador
Londres 20 de julio, 2012

Señor Embajador:

Villa Rica, in tears after the violent attack, is raising its voice calling for peace and asking for the police station to be rebuilt outside the area where people live.

In the first half of February, two attacks on the police caused the death of Colombian civilians in two different Afro-Colombian localities, with some of the most vulnerable sectors of Colombian people, Tumaco in Nariño, and Villa Rica in the Cauca region.