The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has posted on social media:
“In July 2026, PBI accompanied the @comunidad_de_paz_unica_oficial [the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó] during the three-day Universidad Campesina [Peasant University], an initiative designed to share knowledge, experiences and practices relating to the defence of their territories and nature. The exchange of ancestral and community knowledge also helped to strengthen bonds of solidarity between the various movements and reaffirm the importance of collective organisation.
Among the topics addressed were food sovereignty and autonomy, such as sugarcane production, indigenous legal systems, strategies for community resistance, environmental protection, and legal issues relating to land and access to justice. These forums provide tools and insights to strengthen organisational processes, autonomy and community life within Colombia’s current socio-political context.
#pesantuniversity”
Rios Vivos
One of the images shared by PBI-Colombia includes a report by the Movimiento Rios Vivos (Living Rivers Movement).
Rios Vivos opposes the Ituango hydroelectric dam Project.
A report by the Canadian non-governmental organization Above Ground documented that the Ottawa-based public bank Export Development Canada provided a $466-million loan in 2016 to Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM), the company developing the dam despite longstanding warnings of corruption in the tendering process and impending harm to communities downstream.
In October 2020, Front Line Defenders noted: “During the last 11 years of active resistance against the Ituango hydroelectric dam project, six community leaders members of Movimiento Ríos Vivos and more than 30 other leaders and their family members have been killed within the affected area.”
In December 2025, ColombiaOne reported: “After years of uncertainty, technical challenges, and immense engineering efforts, the finish line is officially in sight for the Hidroituango hydroelectric power plant. The massive dam, located deep in the Cauca River canyon, has been a topic of national conversation for over a decade. Now, the project is entering its final sprint toward full operation.”
That article adds: “By early 2028, all eight turbines will be spinning.”
The Peace Community is located more than 700 kilometres northwest of Bogota in the mountainous northern region in the department of Antioquia.
On March 23, 1997, the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado was formed. The farming community declared itself neutral in the armed conflict and rejected the presence of all the armed groups in its territory.
On the twentieth anniversary of its formation in 2017, the Peace Community stated that 326 of its members had been murdered and that more than 4,000 human rights violations had been committed against the community.
Peace Brigades International began accompanying the Peace Community in 1999.
Further reading: Controversial EDC-financed Ituango dam in Colombia scheduled to be operational on November 30 (PBI-Canada, October 21, 2022).
Isabel Zuleta from Rios Vivos speaking in Ottawa in November 2019.
