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about la chiva

La chiva is an APIRG working group dedicated to promoting knowledge about the situation in Colombia. Read more...

 

Interview with Jorge Robledo on the "Para-scandal"

Submitted by Justin Podur on Sat, 2007-03-10. By Justin Podur and Manuel Rozental

Jorge Robledo has been a Colombian senator with the Polo Democratico Alternativo (PDA), a democratic left party, since 2002. In recent years he has given a national voice to the opposition to the “free trade agreement” between the US and Colombia, which has delivered the country’s public sector industries, resources and territories to multinationals. In recent months, the Polo Democratico has also opened a national debate to expose the connections between the political system and the paramilitaries, death squads linked to the government who are implicated in massive human rights violations, assassinations, massacres, the liquidation of social opposition, and narcotrafficking. Another senator with the PDA, Gustavo Petro, has been instrumental in investigating these connections, and was interviewed during a recent trip to the US on Democracy Now! and WBAI . With Bush’s visit to the region, US Senators McGovern and Leahy, as well as others in the Democratic party, have challenged Bush’s sponsorship of President Alvaro Uribe Velez. Popular protests against Bush’s visit have taken place all over Latin America. Senator Robledo will be raising questions about the beneficiaries of paramilitarism in Colombia, and its backers, in the US. Manuel Rozental and Justin Podur interviewed him over the phone on March 9. Read more...

 

cineclub

La chiva runs a film series. Our next film, Inocent Voices, is playing Thursday March at 7 pm. Read more...

 

Latest events

1. Coke Kills

Presentation by Ray Rogers founder of the Killer Coke Campaing

2. 'Terror and the Criminalization of Dissent in Colombia'

Thursday, February 1, 2007;
University of Alberta

3. 'Popular and Indigenous Struggles in Canada and Colombia'

Friday, February 2, 2007;
University of Alberta

Speakers included:

Manuel Rozental: a Colombian surgeon; political, social justice and human rights activist. He is the Coordinator of Communications and Foreign Affairs of the Nasa Indigenous Community in the Northern Cauca region of Colombia. See this Naomi Klein article.

Justin Podur: a member of the Pueblos en Camino collective. He is also a writer and editor for ZNet and has reported from Colombia, Israel/Palestine, Venezuela, Haiti, and other places.

 

Coke Issues

On Tuesday, January 8th, members of La Chiva presented at Students' Council at the University of Alberta regarding the university's exclusivity contract with Coca-Cola.

We were responding to claims made by Coke during its presentation to Council on December 6, 2006, where the company flew in lawyers and a PR guy from Colombia to defend itself against accusations made against it regarding its contributions to anti-union violence in Colombia, environmental problems in India, and irresponsible conduct around the world.

Our presentation was a great success, and we've received encouraging comments from several councillors as well as members of the SU executive. The following link is to an article from the SU publication, The Gateway, regarding the Coke issue:

Coke contract raises ethical concerns for SU

Also, here is a link to the audio recordings of the presentation (it's the second one below). The first link is Chris Cunningham's (VP Operations and Finance) feeble attempt at not letting us speak!

Recording 1 | Recording 2