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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">Dear all,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">Oxfam, Lawg, the AFLCIO and WOLA have drafted the following statement in support of the November 21 strike in Colombia.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">Please let Jeronimo
<a href="mailto:jsudarsky@wola.org">jsudarsky@wola.org</a> or 202-797-2171 </span>
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">by 7pm TODAY
<span style="color:black">if you wish to sign on to this statement that will be sent to the U.S. Congress early on Wednesday November 21. It will also be translated into Spanish and sent to Colombian civil society.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">Thanks,<br>
Gimena<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">We Stand with Colombian Civil Society Protesting the Duque Administration’s Rollbacks on Labor, Human Rights, Peace,
and the Bombing of Children</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><br>
</span><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">Across the country, shared and independent agendas will converge in the November 21 strike. Overall, the mobilization speaks to wide dissatisfaction with the government’s response to massacres
against social leaders, indigenous peoples, rural women and their communities, labor and pension reforms, student protests, corruption, and the recalcitrant implementation of the 2016 peace accords. </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">Over 40 Colombian unions totaling over one million members set the date for a nationwide strike on November 21. Joining them will be Defendamos la Paz, the
student and women’s movements, Afro-Colombian and indigenous leadership and environmental organizations. The labor and pension reforms protested are part of a
</span><a href="https://lasillavacia.com/rayos-x-al-paro-del-21n-74527"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1155CC">larger reform package</span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">, which include the privatization of
Colombia’s pension fund, hourly contracts, and a </span><a href="https://www.portafolio.co/economia/polemica-propuesta-para-que-los-jovenes-ganen-menos-del-minimo-534461"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1155CC">wage lower than the set minimum</span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">
for students 25 and under. These changes are a blatant slap in the face to the last 10 years efforts on the part of labor unions, human rights organizations and others to improve the conditions of and respect the rights of working people in Colombia. By making
such changes the Duque administration is hammering the final nail on the coffin of the U.S.-Colombia Labor Action Plan, which was agreed to after the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement was put on hold by the U.S. Congress due to extremely concerning labor
rights violations, many of which persist to this day. </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC by its Spanish acronym)
</span><a href="https://www.colombia.com/actualidad/nacionales/21-de-noviembre-movilizacion-indigena-246318"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1155CC">joined the strike</span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"> after
suffering multiple </span><a href="https://www.wola.org/2019/10/colombia-indigenous-massacre/"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1155CC">massacres</span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"> and over
</span><a href="https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/nacional/dos-indigenas-asesinados-y-cuatro-heridos-en-toribio-cauca-articulo-888603"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1155CC">115</span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">
indigenous people murdered in 2019. </span><a href="http://www.acreescol.org/"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1155CC">Students</span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"> have been
</span><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/colombia-protests-students-funding-universities-191011071649011.html"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1155CC">protesting</span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">
for over three months, accusing the government of reneging on the deal they had made just a year ago as a result of prior protests, as well as corruption and lack of public education funding. Their Afro-Colombian counterparts are protesting due to the government’s
antiquated approach to security that is only leading to increased displacement and harm to these communities. The Duque government’s efforts to undermine the transitional justice process agreed to in the peace accord are an impediment to peace, reconciliation
and the rights of victims. </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">Those who marched in the last protests in favor of the peace accord and the protection of social leaders on July 26 will do so again. The resignation of Duque’s
Defense Minister following the killing of </span><a href="https://www.wradio.com.co/noticias/actualidad/cifra-de-menores-que-murieron-tras-bombardeo-en-caqueta-ascenderia-a-18-segun-testigos/20191112/nota/3977643.aspx"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1155CC">18
children</span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"> in a bombing by the Colombian army failed to
</span><a href="https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-50409244"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1155CC">quell</span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"> the widespread indignation caused by the event.
</span><a href="https://noticias.caracoltv.com/colombia/agitadores-internacionales-quieren-alterar-paro-del-21-de-noviembre-advierte-gobierno"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1155CC">Government representatives</span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">
have claimed Nicolas Maduro and other leftist leaders are behind the protest with the end of violently destabilizing the country. By stigmatizing a majority of peaceful protestors and
</span><a href="https://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/ordenan-acuartelamiento-de-las-fuerzas-militares-antes-del-paro-nacional-del-21-de-noviembre/640708"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1155CC">militarizing</span></a><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">
the sites of the protest, the government creates an environment ripe for state repression and disproportionate use of force by security forces.</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">The signatory organizations and activists stand with the civil society organizations, trade unionists, women’s movements, Afro-Colombian, indigenous and rural
women leaders protesting today. We adamantly reject violent state repression against peaceful protesters exercising their constitutional right. If passed, the labor and pension reforms would drive minimum wage workers further into poverty, invite informal
unemployment, and weaken unions. We call on the Duque Administration to implement the fully and faithfully the 2016 peace accords in order to halt the killing of social leaders and ethnic populations by addressing its root causes. Further, we ask U.S. authorities
to encourage implementation of the Ethnic Chapter of the peace accord, ensure effective implementation of all gender provisions and urge independent and effective investigations into the recent abuses committed by the Colombian armed forces, who are recipients
of U.S. military assistance and whose behavior is subject to human rights conditions.
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">In the current context of mass mobilizations in several countries in Latin America and elsewhere [Hong Kong, Lebanon], we reaffirm that protest and strike rights have
been and remain core human rights and foundational to building and maintaining democracy in most of the world. In Colombia especially, those people and organizations who have exercised these rights have all too often suffered violent repression. In advance
of the November 21 strike in Colombia, we urge Members of Congress to make clear that the United States remains committed to the exercise of these rights and unflinchingly critical of those who would repress such expressions of a vibrant democracy wherever
they occur.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO" style="font-size:14.0pt">#21N #ParoNacional21Nov
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO" style="font-size:14.0pt">#RazonesParaMarchar<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO" style="font-size:14.0pt">#PaquetazoDeDuque<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO" style="font-size:14.0pt">#DuqueContraElParo
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">Gimena Sanchez-Garzoli (She/Her)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Director for the Andes<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">WOLA: Advocacy for Human Rights in the Americas<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Tel: 202-797-2171<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Cell: 202-487-7567<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:kmucino@wola.org">gsanchez@wola.org</a> <o:p>
</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.wola.org/">www.wola.org</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Twitter: @gimena_wola <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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