PBI-Colombia accompanies CREDHOS on a national strike march to Camilo Torres Park in Barrancabermeja

On May 12, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project posted: “PBI has been accompanying the human rights organization CREDHOS in Barrancabermeja in different mobilizations during the national strike in their work of monitoring and verifying the marches and in cases of arbitrary detentions in the city.”

“Today we were with them on a march to the Camilo Torres Park.”

On April 29, the day after the first national strike mobilization, CREDHOS participated in a PBI-Canada convened webinar on fracking, extractivism and the dangers faced by environmental defenders in the Magdalena Medio region.

Then on May 5, CREDHOS participated in a PBI convened Zoom call with officials from the Embassy of Canada in Colombia and Global Affairs Canada to describe to them the situation with the national strike.

On May 11, the Colombian monitoring group Temblores reported: 1,956 cases of police brutality since April 28, 313 victims of physical violence by the police, 40 victims of homicide allegedly committed by the police, and 418 violent interactions by members of the public force (police and military) among other acts of violence.

As violence by state security forces against the national strike continues, CREDHOS has called on the international community, including Canada, to end any support of the police and army. You can read more about that on rabble.ca at Human rights defenders call on Canada to end support to Colombian police and army.

PBI-Colombia notes: “Painted on the street are the words ‘We want Peace’ and an image that pays tribute to Lucas Villa, a student who was killed by armed civilians on May 5 while participating in a peaceful sit-in in the city of Pereira.”

PBI-Colombia continues to accompany human rights defenders during the national strike. For more on that, please see Photo journal: PBI-Colombia accompanies human rights defenders during the #ParoNacional national strike.