May 8, 2021
We, the popular organizations of farmers, pastoralists, fishers, and agroforesters of the world, are together in solidarity towards the peasants, indigenous and Afro-descendant people who, allied with the working class of the cities, are demonstrating in Colombia in defense of human rights as basic as the right to live. Since last 28th April, the Colombian people have been mobilizing against the increase in taxes on the country’s working class, the worsening of violence since the signing of the Peace Agreement, and an economic model that has condemned half of the population. to poverty. The response of the Government of Iván Duque to this mobilization has been violence and repression. We note with concern the serious situation of human rights violations that have led to the disproportionate use of force by State agents. According to the NGO Temblores, in 6 days of mobilization there have been 1,181 cases of police violence, among which there are 142 victims of physical violence, 761 arbitrary arrests, 216 violent interventions by the Public Force, 56 cases of shots fired. firearms, 9 victims of sexual violence, 17 victims of assault on their eyes, 56 complaints of disappearances in the context of mobilizations, and 26 homicides. The state that resorts to military forces to silence the demands of the population is not democratic. We reject the use of military forces against the mobilized people and the criminalization of protest. Fighting for rights is not a crime. We reject the historical and structural use of violence against our sister organizations in Colombia, which suffer massacres, disappearances and forced displacement, threats, and murders. We demand that the government of Iván Duque respects its international human rights obligations, immediately stops the murder of those who demonstrate, and provides guarantees for protest and social mobilization. We demand the end of the criminalization of the popular movement and that the agrarian reform is carried out as a structural measure towards peace. We support and salute the Colombian people in their just struggle for the demand for their rights; the peasants, indigenous and Afro-descendant organizations that from the areas most hit by violence mobilized to reject the aerial spraying with glyphosate, demand that the homicides stop against women and social leaders and the Peace Agreement is implemented. We echo the voice of the social organizations of Colombia that demand comprehensive agrarian reform to build food sovereignty, demilitarization of territories, dismantling of paramilitarism as a State policy, renegotiation of free trade agreements that affect the peasant, indigenous, and Afro people, Immediately stop forced eradication of illicit crops and aerial sprays with glyphosate. The Colombian people are not alone. Fighting is not a crime! ¡Luchar no es crimen!