Claudia Julieta Duque’s relentless search for justice

Claudia Julieta Duque is a journalist and human rights defender, accompanied by PBI since 2003. Over the years, we have accompanied Claudia Julieta as she has brought her search for justice before different entities and we have monitored her security situation, which is more alarming each day. Due to her investigations and publications on very delicate issues, in particular those related to the participation of the now-dismantled Department of Administrative Security (DAS) in the 1999 murder of political humorist Jaime Garzón. Since 2001, Claudia Julieta has been victim to a plan developed by the DAS, comprised of threats, harassment, persecution, and illegal interception.1 That is when Claudia began her long journey to find justice, which continues today. Continue reading Claudia Julieta Duque’s relentless search for justice

Community organizing to face the pandemic: in the Peace Community solidarity prevails

While the world faces the COVID-19 pandemic and many are experiencing for the first time the unsettling reality of having to consider whether a visit to see family or friends could put oneself in danger, the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, already accustomed to these risks, has been organising. Crisis management and limits on their movements are nothing new in a community that, in their 23 years of non-violent resistance to the armed groups that have controlled this area of Urabá, has seen over 300 of its members killed1. Continue reading Community organizing to face the pandemic: in the Peace Community solidarity prevails