During the BWFJ’s 31st Annual Martin Luther King Support for Labor Banquet attendees received a powerful message of solidarity from the PCN-Processo de Communidades Negras or Process of Black Communities of Colombia. It was delivered by Sister Margaret Machado. She thanked the organization for their support over the years and linked the struggle of African descendents in the US with those in Colombia. Following is an article that appears on the Uprising Radio site with audio of a interview with Charo Mina-Rojas another PCN leader.
A free trade pact signed by the US with Colombia is being criticized for not including human rights protections. Over the past 3 years more than 70 labor union activists have been killed in the country known as the US’s strongest ally in Latin America.
US ties with Colombia also extend to direct military assistance in the “War on Drugs” under the guise of which thousands were killed, farmlands fumigated, and paramilitary groups flourished. Today Colombia has one of the highest rates of violence in Latin America.
Within Colombia, class, race, and gender divisions exacerbate existing problems, just as in any country. Colombians of African descent, face the brunt of physical and economic violence.
Afro-Colombians are the third largest group of African-descended people outside the continent of Africa, behind Brazil and the US. One point five million Afro-Colombians have reportedly been internally displaced, and women in that community have faced the brunt of sexual and physical violence.
– See more at: http://uprisingradio.org/home/2014/04/14/how-afro-colombians-bear-the-brunt-of-us-backed-violence-in-colombia/#sthash.Xf8DCh9l.dpuf
A free trade pact signed by the US with Colombia is being criticized for not including human rights protections. Over the past 3 years more than 70 labor union activists have been killed in the country known as the US’s strongest ally in Latin America.
US ties with Colombia also extend to direct military assistance in the “War on Drugs” under the guise of which thousands were killed, farmlands fumigated, and paramilitary groups flourished. Today Colombia has one of the highest rates of violence in Latin America.
Within Colombia, class, race, and gender divisions exacerbate existing problems, just as in any country. Colombians of African descent, face the brunt of physical and economic violence.
Afro-Colombians are the third largest group of African-descended people outside the continent of Africa, behind Brazil and the US. One point five million Afro-Colombians have reportedly been internally displaced, and women in that community have faced the brunt of sexual and physical violence.
– See more at: http://uprisingradio.org/home/2014/04/14/how-afro-colombians-bear-the-brunt-of-us-backed-violence-in-colombia/#sthash.Xf8DCh9l.dpuf
