PBI-Colombia accompanies the Justice and Peace Commission at Amazon Pearl Campesino Reserve Zone youth meeting
PBI-Colombia has posted:
“We accompanied @justiciapazcolombia [Justice and Peace Commission] to the first Youth Meeting of the year organized by @perlaamazonica_zrcpa [Amazon Pearl Campesino Reserve Zone] in #Putumayo.
In the event children and young people from the different communities that make up the Amazon Pearl participate to reflect on the peasant identity and the possibilities and challenges of the Peasant Reserve Zones as an organizational strengthening strategy. They also develop activities on the promotion of youth leadership and territory protection.”
The ZRC (campesino/peasant reserve zone) is located near Puerto Asis in the department of Putumayo in south-west Colombia near the border with Ecuador.
Illegal armed actors threaten human rights defenders
On March 19, Publimetro reported: “The Ombudsman’s Office identified risks in 50 municipalities and 18 non-municipalized areas of the Amazon, Caquetá, Cauca, Guainía, Guaviare, Meta, Putumayo, Vaupés and Vichada. Early Warning 007 of 2024 warns of the risks faced by human rights defenders in these territories.”
That article continues: “The Office of the Ombudsman identified eight risk scenarios faced by environmental defenders in the south of the country [including] territorial dispute over hydrocarbon exploitation, illicit crops [and] threats due to the exercise of authority and territorial governance [in Putumayo].”
It further specifies: “Human rights defenders in the Peasant Reserve Zones, such as Perla Amazónica and Río Pato – Balsilla Valley, have faced stigmatization and violence for defending their territories. There is a strong presence of the Central General Staff [Estado Mayor Central- EMC, about 3,500 fighters with a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia/FARC dissident group] and the Second Marquetalia [Segunda Marquetalia, one of the largest factions of FARC dissidents], which dispute territory mainly between Putumayo and Caquetá.”
Canadian oil companies in the Amazon
PBI-Colombia accompanies the Justice and Peace Commission that in turn accompanies the Amazon Pearl Campesino Reserve Zone and Jani Silva, the president of the Association for the Integral Sustainable Development of the Perla Amazónica (ADISPA).
Amnesty International has highlighted: “Jani Silva has dedicated her life to protecting the Amazon and the life that exists in it from efforts by armed groups and multinational companies to take control of her territory.”
The Guardian has also reported: “Silva says she has seen firsthand the effects of big business in Putumayo, where, she believes, oil companies ‘exploit irresponsibly’ and contaminate the environment.”
The Stand.Earth report CAPITALIZING ON COLLAPSE: How top fossil fuel banks financing Amazon oil and gas profit at the cost of forest and community health, Indigenous rights, and climate change (July 2023), has highlighted: “Canadian Banks Loaned a Billion dollars to Canadian Oil Drillers in the Amazon”.
It then explains: “Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), the world’s top fossil fuel financier in 2022, leads a list of Canadian banks including Scotiabank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), as well as private investors like GMP Securities (Stiftel) that have lent an estimated 1 billion dollars to Frontera Energy and Gran Tierra between 2011 and 2019. That financing includes an estimated $300 million USD in financing that is considered direct financing for these companies’ Amazon oil drilling operations. Frontera and Gran Tierra are both Canadian firms operating in the Amazon rainforests of Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru.”
The report also provides this chart.
We continue to follow this.
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