Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalColombia’s dams end up in the dock over human rights abuses?
Colombia’s dams end up in the dock over human rights abuses?
Dec 1, 2014 posted by Robin Llewellyn
Colombia produces most of its energy from hydro-power and more dams are being constructed. To many this is a significant achievement, but the building of large dams has been accompanied with high levels of violence and displacement.
Over 60% of Colombia’s energy is produced by hydro-power, and new dams are being built across the country to boost this proportion further. The Sogamoso dam in Santander state will produce 10% of the country’s energy needs, while the Ituango dam in Antioquia will produce 20% of Colombia’s requirements.
This wealth of renewable energy will be promoted by Colombian diplomats attending the UN Climate Change Conference in Lima this week as evidence of the country’s environmental responsibility. But opponents of Colombia’s dams will also be in Lima, arguing that hydro-dams in tropical countries actually contribute to climate change through producing large quantities of the greenhouse gas methane. Hydro-dams are already the largest single source of methane related to human activities.
Their impact on the atmosphere is only one problem; activist Jorge Mario David from Colombia’s Rios Vivos movement said.
“What’s the relationship between the armed conflict and the construction of dams?” David rhetorically asked Colombia Reports.
“We know that displacement and assassinations have hit communities affected by dams, and we need to know the relations between these events for the Truth Commission and to understand how the environment has been made a victim of the conflict and of megaprojects.”
More:
http://colombiareports.co/colombias-dams-end-dock-human-rights-abuses/
Complaint over sexual abuse during Pinochet dictatorship proceeding in Chile
Source: Agencia EFE (Spain national news agency)
Complaint over sexual abuse during Pinochet dictatorship proceeding in Chile
Published December 01, 2014/
EFE
Nieves Ayress Moreno, a woman who was imprisoned during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, on Monday confirmed her participation in the first complaint over sexual violence during the Chilean military regime, 40 years after the crimes were committed.
"We're on the right road," Alejandra Holzapfel, another of the victims who, along with Ayress Moreno and two other companions, presented the complaint over sexual harassment committed at the Pinochet regime's so-called Venda Sexy, Londres 38, Tejas Verdes and Villa Grimaldi detention centers between 1973 and 1990.
With this complaint, the four plaintiffs, Holzapfel, Ayress Moreno, Soledad Castillo and Nora Brito, are leaving to the Chilean justice system the decision to take up the case, which could set a precedent for punishing crimes involving sexual violence for political ends in the South American nation.
The crimes in question are still not enumerated in the Chilean Penal Code under the concept of torture but rather under "illegitimate pressure," and that is the way in which many of their perpetrators have managed to elude punishment.
Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2014/12/01/complaint-over-sexual-abuse-during-pinochet-dictatorship-proceeding-in-chile/
‘Colombian paramilitaries’ attack army post in Venezuela
‘Colombian paramilitaries’ attack army post in Venezuela
Dec 1, 2014 posted by Piotr Wojciak
Alleged Colombian paramilitaries attacked a military police post across the border in Venezuela, according to the local governor.
According to the governor of the southern Venezuelan state of Tachira, Jose Gregorio Vielma, the attack by “presumed paramilitaries” was carried out in the early morning hours on Sunday and aimed to recover 40,000 liters of confiscated contraband gasoline.
The new act of aggression from the group presumably composed of Colombian paramilitaries was recorded just days after at least 14 alleged drug traffickers from Colombia were killed in a confrontation between two rival drug trafficking organizations across the border.
MORE: 14 killed in combat between Colombia drug gangs on Venezuela border
“This new upsurge in Colombian armed groups on Venezuelan soil is proof of an increased mobilization of the paramilitaries in the border region,” said Vielma Mora.
More:
http://colombiareports.co/colombian-paramilitaries-attack-army-post-venezuela/
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