Colombian Military Massacres Peasants in Oil-and-Coal Related Protests

Police vio­lent­ly dis­perse unarmed peas­ant pro­test­ers in Cata­tum­bo, Colom­bia, Jun 2013 (pho­to by Telesur)

27 June The Colom­bian mil­i­tary has killed at least four peas­ant pro­test­ers in the region of Cata­tum­bo, wound­ed dozens more (includ­ing 21 gun­shot wounds) and arrest­ed hun­dreds.

From Alliance for Glob­al Jus­tice:

In Cata­tum­ba, peas­ants have been hold­ing protests, block­ing roads and occu­py­ing facil­i­ties to protest to the government’s chem­i­cal spray­ing of Monsanto’s RoundUp Ultra her­bi­cide as part of coca erad­i­ca­tion efforts; and the refusal of the gov­ern­ment to estab­lish a Peas­ant Reserve Zone, as autho­rized by leg­is­la­tion in 1994 and 1996. That leg­is­la­tion would pro­vide pro­tect­ed land for col­lec­tive farm­ing. Pro­test­ers say that they are being denied this in favor of con­ces­sions made to for­eign coal [and oil] com­pa­nies.

Learn more about the back­ground of the protests here, then send a let­ter to Colom­bian offi­cials demand­ing an end to the  vio­lence.