The year 2023 was a year of hope for Colombia at the national level, but at the same time, a year in which violence and impunity persisted in the territories. At this key moment for peace in Colombia, PBI’s presence means that the organizations we accompany can participate in peace-building processes, promote transitional justice and fight against the impunity that persists in the country.
Read the full report here.
Digital security is an area of comprehensive protection that is ever more important. PBI has seen how digital security incidents increase every year and, in parallel, human rights defenders’ concerns about their digital self-protection is also on the rise.
Concern from Colombian human rights defenders is not baseless and cannot be disregarded. Scandals appear periodically about the abuse of the state surveillance apparatus. One example, is the case of Laura Sarabia and Armando Benedetti. Former Chief of Staff, Laura Sarabia, and former ambassador to Venezuela, Armando Benedetti, were the protagonists of a tangled case of wiretapping that ended with the dismissal of both individuals from their respective positions. In other cases, it is the State that suffers a cyber-attack, putting the data of millions of citizens at risk.
In a world where justice often struggles to prevail, Reinaldo Villalba Vargas, a dedicated Human Rights Defender (HRD) and lawyer, has stood firm against the tide of systematic human rights violations in Colombia. As a lawyer with the Corporación Colectivo de Abogados José Alvear Restrepo (CCAJAR), Reinaldo is at the forefront of the battle for justice in Colombia. He is currently behind an initiative to prosecute ex-Colombian president – Álvaro Uribe Vélez – for the extrajudicial killings of thousands of ordinary civilians in what has come to be known as the ‘False Positives’ scandal.
Continue reading An Interview with Reinaldo Villalba Vargas: Standing Firm for Justice
What is more desired that development?
It is odd for someone to say that they don’t want development. Yet, the Peace Community of San José de Apartado has been labeled as “anti-development.” Made up of peasants who were displaced and dispossessed in the 1990s by paramilitary actions, the community now represents territorial resistance and protection in a neutral zone amid the armed conflict, And, in fact, in a way it could be said that the community is anti-development, opposing the concept of “extractivist” development. A development that encourages a draining of the river and depleting natural resources at the expense of the environment. This article will lay out some of the socio-political, environmental, and systematic impacts and violence that the Peace Community’s life project has resisted, opposed, and denounced to build peaceful collective spaces amid the armed conflict.
“Recognizing our histories and the histories from our territories, we wish to walk together with the processes that try to elaborate new narratives in which the pain and the violence seek to become a route for justice and dignity of peoples.
As PBI’s field brigades, we want to learn and accompany people and organizations that seek to cultivate a collective and common peace to re-exist from the diversity”.
Welcome to PBI Colombia!
