Delegation is in progress!
As we prepare to leave for our delegation to Colombia and the Cerrejon
mining region early tomorrow, I received the below from Rights Action. It's
a great exercise in critical reading of the media.
As most of you know, our delegation is organized by Witness for Peace.
We'll be spending some time in Bogota, and some time in the Guajira, where
we'll visit the Cerrejon mine, meet with activists from Afro-Colombian and
indigenous communities in the region, including Armando, Remedios,
Francisco, and Jose Julio, who many of you have met or heard speak during
the tours we've sponsored for them here.
Over the 4 years since we first discovered that the Salem power plant was
importing coal from Colombia, and had Armando and Remedios here to talk with
us about the impact of the Cerrejon mine, we've built quite a network in the
US and Canada. The delegation will include people from Nova Scotia, Los
Angeles, and Washington DC, as well as Boston's North Shore. It's an
amazing opportunity for us to see first-hand where our coal comes from.
Alan has updated our website with information about the delegation--see
especially the link to the letter from Cerrejon inviting us to discuss human
rights issues with them. (http://home.comcast.net/~nscolombia/).
I'm not sure what kind of email access we'll have during the trip, but we'll
send updates as we can, and definitely report back when we get back to the
US.
Avi
Posted by nscolombia
at 6:44 PM EDT
