Video still: Credhos president Ivan Madero Vergel speaks at press conference.
The Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (Credhos) held a press conference today.
Their social media post highlighted: “Barrancabermeja is mobilizing! The fight for our rights continues; workers and social and grassroots organizations are taking to the streets to defend our rights, a dignified life, jobs, education, and public health.”
At the press conference, Credhos president Ivan Madero Vergel stated:
“At a global level, social protest has been repressed. We see how fascism, imperialism, Zionism at a global level has been repressing the right to social protest in France, in Italy, in Spain. Not only in Europe, in Latin America we see the police repression and the authorities in Chile, in Bolivia.
And today, in Colombia, it wants to be repressed and judged at a governmental level, this constitutional right, which is the right to social protest. Today we are living in the Congress of the Republic the bills that have been ratified as a modification of the right to social protest. The 041, which is the anti-disturbance bill.
The 055, which has been ratified and modifies the right to social protest. But also the statutory law, which has 130 articles that establish the crime of terrorism in the actions for the defence of human rights. But today we have the decree 003 of 2021 which enshrines the right and the use of social protest and the limitation of the public force in the right to social protest in the streets.
This allowed us in 2021, in the national mobilization to speak with the authorities and defend not only the social protest but the integrity of civil and political rights as such.
We are going to make use of this day of October 14 of national mobilization, the right to the decree 003 of 2021. That is why we request from the human rights movement of Barrancabermeja to the governments, to the mayors, especially the mayor of Barrancabermeja and to the mayors of the region of the Magdalena Medio respect the right to social protest enshrined in the decree 003 of 2021 where it establishes in its article 12 the coordination of the districts, of the municipalities, of the mayors establish a coordination to regulate the use of the public force the presence of the police authorities and the army in the social protest but also the interlocution from the social movement and the movement of the social protest.
It also establishes the right for human rights organisations to become a commission of observation and guarantees for the right to social protest and the use of the force of the police and the army and the performance of themselves in the social protest.
This country today mobilizes on October 14 not only for the integral rights enshrined in the reforms that they claim from the Petro government in the labour reform, in the pension reform in the zero enrolment, in the right to health all the advances that we live today and that we are being beneficiaries by this government by the Petro government this government wants to eliminate and repress it as such that’s why we are not only going to go out to the streets to defend the right to social protest the integral right of human rights but we are also going to defend the reforms that were enshrined in the government of Gustavo Petro that today claims the integrity of human rights in Colombia.
From the human rights movement of Barrancabermeja we are inviting this October 14 at 8 in the morning to mobilize all the people of Barrancabermeja but we also invite all the people of the Magdalena Medio to go out to the streets, to defend life to defend human rights to defend social protest today is the call of this historical social movement of Barrancabermeja.”
To watch the full press conference, click here.
Peace Brigades International has accompanied the Regional Corporation to Defend Human Rights (Credhos) since 1994.
Poster from the Central Union of Workers (CUT) in Colombia.
