Archive for the ‘Media’
A night of Solidarity and Music at Terraza 7 Cafe
afrocolombia NY and the colombian studies group (CUNY grad center) presents
A night of solidarity and music
Featuring
a documentary and conversation with
two afrocolombiana leaders
francia marquez and clemencia carabali
& performances by
gregorio uribe + diego obregon (grupo chonta)
monday, january 16
6:30 p.m.
terraza 7 cafe
4019 Gleane Street, Queens (Elmhurst), NY
take the 7 train to 82nd and roosevelt
for more information, contact yesenia@afrocolombiany.org
On January 16 and 17, WOLA will be taking two prominent Afro-Colombian women activists, Clemencia Carabali and Francia Marquez, from northern Cauca to NYC. Francia and Clemencia have defended the territorial rights of La Toma, an Afro-Colombian gold-mining community in southwestern Colombia. Home to 1,052 families, La Toma was founded by runaway slaves in 1636. Over the centuries, they have developed a culture and history that is tied to this land, carving out environmentally sustainable livelihoods through artisanal gold mining and basic agricultural projects, and grounding their traditions in this ancestral place. Despite a legal framework that protects the community’s rights to the land, private investors and right-wing paramilitaries have threatened, intimidated, and killed members of the community. In recent years, several massacres of miners by paramilitaries have taken place and leaders have received repeated death threats. Thanks to the strong organizational capacity of the community the people of La Toma and US solidarity, they have avoided several evictions and continue to live in their territory. The case of La Toma formed part of a hearing in the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, as an exemplary case on abuse of Afro-Colombian and indigenous peoples’ right to previous consultation in 2009. The case also forms part of the discussion on human rights certification of US military assistance to Colombia. In November PBS released an episode of its Women, War and Peace featuring Francia and Clemencia. You can view the episode online at the following link:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/women-war-and-peace/full-episodes/the-war-we-are-living/
Hollman Morris
(Picture by: elespectador.com)
Hollman Morris, a reporter known for his critical coverage of the country’s civil conflict, came under fire from the government after he traveled to southwestern Colombia to interview guerrilla fighters for a documentary on kidnappings. On February 1, Morris said, members of the leftist guerrilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) urged him to interview three police officers and a soldier who were being held hostage. The journalist told CPJ that once he realized the hostages’ answers had been coerced, he simply asked for their names and their time in captivity. The same day, FARC released the four hostages to a humanitarian mission led by the International Red Cross.
As news of Morris’ meeting with the hostages was reported, the government reacted in forceful, rapid-fire fashion. Vice President Francisco Santos Calderón said Morris had acted without “objectivity and impartiality.” Then-Minister of Defense Juan Manuel Santos called him “close to the guerrillas.” And Uribe accused the journalist of being an “accomplice to terror.”
Morris told CPJ that the accusations triggered a string of e-mail threats. On February 5, CPJ and Human Rights Watch sent Uribe a letter objecting to the loaded assertions and urging the president to put an end to comments tying journalists to any side in Colombia’s armed conflict. CPJ research has shown that such public assertions have endangered journalists. The government has often resorted to such politicized accusations, the New York-based group Human Rights First said at a March hearing of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Colombian prosecutors, the group said, have brought dozens of unfounded and “specious” criminal investigations against Colombians, including journalists and human rights activists.
(Extracted from: http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/07/an-update-on-colombian-journalist-hollman-morris/)
