Leaders of the Patriotic March - Colombia's largest civil society peace movement - will meet with senior government officials and politicians in Dublin, Belfast and London as part of a high-profile visit to Ireland and the UK to build international support for the country's growing peace movement.
The delegation will meet with political leaders in Belfast - including Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Jeffrey Donaldson today (April 22) - before travelling to Dublin for a further series of engagements. In London, the delegation will meet with peers, MPs and senior officials.
The delegation will be in Dublin on Tuesday, April 23 where they will meet with officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs. They will also meet the Joint Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee and attend a reception in Dublin's Mansion House, hosted by Lord Mayor Naoise Ó Muirí and Mr. Joe McHugh TD, co-chair of the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly.
The three will also appear at a public meeting in Dublin's Liberty Hall on April 23 at 6.30pm.
The visit of the Patriotic March delegation is being hosted and organised by Justice for Colombia, trade unions, and politicians from DUP, Sinn Fein, the Ulster Unionists, the SDLP, Labour and Fine Gael.
The group (biographies below) includes a peasant leader whose husband and son were murdered by the Colombian armed forces and paramilitaries.
The Patriotic March recently organsised a series of peace marches which saw over a million Colombians take to the streets in support of peace talks between the government and FARC guerrillas. Government forces have been fighting the FARC insurgency since 1965.
The conflict spawned a dirty war in which tens of thousands of civilians, trade unionists and social activists were killed by right wing paramilitaries. Last year alone saw 20 trade union members and 69 human rights activists murdered.
Several leading Patriotic March organisers have been murdered in recent weeks.
During the 1980s, a similar social movement - the Patriotic Union - was systematically destroyed following a campaign of violence and assassination carried out by Colombian authorities and paramilitary forces, with over 5000 activists targeted and killed.
It became the first case of political genocide recognised by the Bogota High Court. Fears of a repetition of this type of violent campaign persist among Colombia's opposition.
For further information or media queries, contact Fiona Dunne on 087 6486105
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Note for editors
Justice for Colombia [Ireland] is a sub-committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and works closely on campaigns, petitions and events with JFC UK.
Biographies
Gloria Cuartas is a former Senator, leading member of Colombians for Peace and the Patriotic March, and is one of Colombia's most recognised women's rights activists. She was Mayor of the town of Apartado during the height of paramilitary violence in the region, when former President Uribe was governor, and was the only one of 13 municipal mayors who refused to flee the region. She witnessed many massacres and the murder of social leaders in the region and put her life at risk by staying to defend local residents. Gloria has worked tirelessly to denounce these abuses and to uncover Uribe's role in setting up paramilitary groups.
Nidia Quintero is a member of the FENSUAGRO Executive Committee, the Colombian Agricultural Workers' Union. Nidia also sits on the National Committee of the Patriotic March (PM). FENSUAGRO has seen some 1500 members assassinated in recent years. Nidia's husband was assassinated by the Colombian army on May 20th 2002. He was murdered by soldiers at a military checkpoint who then took his ID papers away, dumped his body in an unmarked grave, and reported him as a 'guerrilla' killed in combat. His body was found 8 days later. He was one of thousands of victims of the 'false positives' phenomenon, where soldiers receive bonuses and promotions for every dead 'guerrilla'. Nidia's
19 year old son was then kidnapped and murdered by paramilitaries on May 14th 2005. He suffered from mental health problems. As a result of threats, Nidia has been forced to flee her home several times along with her surviving 4 children.
David Florez is the former General Secretary of the Colombian Federation of University Students (FEU) and national spokesperson for the Patriotic March, responsible for the youth movement. David was General Secretary of the FEU during nationwide student protests in the autumn of 2011, against government plans to privatise university education. The mobilisations reached unprecedented levels and succeeded in forcing the government to postpone the reforms. However, demonstrators were attacked by riot police and one of David's colleagues was killed. Several student leaders, including a FEU executive member, were detained, and continue to be held in Florencia High Security Prison, Caqueta.
ENDS
Irish Congress of Trade Unions,
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Tel: (01) 8897799/ 087 9174171
