The Colombian leaders of a long time solidarity partner of CUPE have received death threats this past weekend. On Sunday, September 15 a piece of paper was slipped under the door of the NOMADESC office in the middle of a human rights workshop with the Women’s Committee of the Sugar Cane Cutters of Pradera in the south of Colombia.
The note said that the following people will be punished with death: Berenice Celeyta and Olga Araujo of NOMADESC; Alfamir Castillo of the Women’s Committee of the Cane Cutters; and Marta Giraldo of MOVICE – Valle de Cauca.
Please take a moment to send a letter to Colombian President Juan Manual Santos to let him know that Canadians are concerned about the recent threats to the activist members of NOMADESC.
NOMADESC is the Social Research and Action Association based in Cali, Colombia. They work with the most repressed and marginalized indigenous, peasant and Afro-Colombian communities, who have experienced land loss, displacement and violence at the hands of paramilitary, state and multi-national corporations. They work to defend and promote human rights and as a result, are frequently the target of death threats and attempts on their lives.