Defenders of Territories and Collective Rights of the People


REITOCA COMMUNITY FACES REPRESSION OVER RESISTANCE AGAINST HYDROELECTRIC DAM

Since January 2018, the population of Reitoca, a municipality of Francisco Morazan department, Honduras, is controlling the territories of the high areas of the town, where they set up a campsite to prevent a hydroelectric dam from being built on Petacón River. In the afternoon of Wednesday 24, police officers and members of the Tigre security forces came to forcibly…

“The Declaration on Peasants’ Rights should become a political tool for Agrarian Reform and Social Justice”

(Harare, April 17th, 2019) Today, April 17th, 2019, the International Day of Peasants’ Struggle, the member organisations of La Via Campesina are reaffirming the Declaration on Peasants’ Rights as a political tool to strengthen the global struggle for decent living and working conditions in rural areas. The Declaration should also be a tool for the worldwide promotion of urgently-needed agrarian…

“Peasants are the ones who are standing up to a rise of fascism”

April 17 marks the International Day of Peasant Struggle to remember the 19 peasants  of the Landless Rural Workers Movement of Brazil who were murdered in 1996 in the “Massacre of Eldorado dos Carajas”. That day, tens of police officers attacked 1500 landless peasants in Eldorado dos Carajás. Since then, every April 17, there are thousands of demonstrations around the…

CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR PEACE IN COLOMBIA

The leader of the Association of Rural Workers of Nicaragua (ATC) Fausto Torres, called for an “International Day for Peace in Colombia” and urged governments to demand Colombian president Iván Duque to advance in the fulfillment of the Peace Accords signed in 2016 by the State with the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). “Solidarity is crucial. It depends on peasant…

PHOTO GALLERY OF 3RD SOLIDARITY MISSION OF VÍA CAMPESINA TO COLOMBIA

We can still hear the echoes of the 3rd Solidarity Mission of Vía Campesina to Colombia that aimed to verify the fulfillment of the Peace Accords signed between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2016. The Mission came to an end on Tuesday with a press conference in the capital city, Bogota. Peasants from 17…

Canada refuses to hear appeal regarding environmental crimes committed by Chevron

The Global Campaign to Reclaim Peoples´ Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and End Impunity , a global network of over 200 organizations, movements, trade unions and communities affected by transnational corporations worldwide, regrets the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada of April 4th and demanded, once again, the establishment of a UN Binding Treaty on transnational corporations and human rights.…

“We do not trust the Colombian government wants to comply with the Peace Accords”

After travelling through the territories of Cauca, Tolima and Sumapaz in Colombia, La Vía Campesina delegates verified that there is “lack of compliance with the implementation of the points included in the Peace Accords (signed between FARC and the government) and a general questioning about the accords and the peace process” by representatives of Iván Duque´s administration. “We´ve experienced, lived…

Vía Campesina´s 3rd Solidarity Mission launched in Colombia

With an opening press conference, a meeting with members of Congress at the National Parliament Building and a meeting with social organizations, Vía Campesina´s 3rd International Mission to Colombia was launched. The goal? To verify compliance with the Peace Accords signed in 2016 by the government (then led by Juan Manuel Santos) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC,…

Unified call for solidarity with peoples affected by the systematic violence of the neoliberal model in Latin America and the Caribbean

Last week’s terrible and violent events in Latin America and the Caribbean - the assasination of Sergio Rojas in Costa Rica, the tragic death of 8 indigenous people in Colombia and the murder of Dilma Ferreira Silva in Brazil, among others - fill us with grief and above all with deep concern and outrage for the injustice and impunity against…

“Duque´s administration has no political will to comply with the Peace Accords”

Vía Campesina´s 3rd Solidarity Mission will take place from March 29 to April 2 in three Colombian regions: Cauca, Tolima and Sumapaz. Nury Martínez, member of the Agricultural National Union Federation (FENSUAGRO) and the Political Coordination of La Vía Campesina South America, shared details about the Mission with Real World Radio. In order to verify if -and how- the Peace…