Frontline voices from Colombia this Thursday

When we wrote you a week ago, we announced that we would be holding a webinar on Thursday June 3 at 3:30 pm EDT about the situation in Colombia.

We knew the organizations that would participate, now we can update you on the speakers:

Berenice Celeita from the Association for Research and Social Action (Nomadesc) has been monitoring the situation in Cali. That city has been disproportionately hit by state violence during the strike. As of May 29, 38 of the 63 people killed during the national strike have been in Cali. On Friday the Colombian government deployed more than 1,100 soldiers to the city.

Oscar Ramirez from the Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners has been tracking the situation of those arrested. Between April 28 (the first day of the national strike) and May 27, there have been 1,445 arbitrary detentions of people participating in the protests.

Danilo Rueda from the Justice and Peace Commission has been following the situation in the Portal de las Americas humanitarian space in Bogota. His organization says that space has seen “the indiscriminate use of conventional and unconventional weapons” by the police including rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas.

To register for the Zoom webinar that will provide simultaneous translation in English and Spanish, please click here.