No Surrender Colombia: mobilization against military bases http://www.radiomundoreal.fm/No-Surrender?lang=es

Colombia: mobilization against military bases While the media is focusing on the release of Army officer Pablo Moncayo by the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), local organizations continue their struggle against militarization. On April 9th, the Coalition against Foreign Military Bases in Colombia will be officially presented. This Coalition is made up by progressive organizations denouncing the surrender of the government of Alvaro Uribe Velez by granting control of seven military bases to the US Army.

The founding statement points out that in the 200 years of Independence of Colombia there has never been a surrender of national sovereignty such as this. “Our Republic is being a victim of one of the worst forms of foreign violence”, reads the statement, which was already signed by over 150 left-wing social organizations.On October 30th, 2009, President Uribe Velez signed an agreement with the US to authorize the installation of at least seven military bases in Colombian territory, which was considered by many local organizations as a new era of colonialism.

With the aim to halt these plans, representatives of the coalition will speak at Universidad Autonoma de Colombia, in Bogota, capital city of the country, where local politicians and foreign personalities are expected.Meanwhile, also in Colombia, emberá katió indigenous communities, who have suffered the scourge of militarization, at least received good news. The Colombian Constitutional Court, according to the website of Rainforest Rescue, decided to suspend mining exploration and exploitation permits of the Mande Norte project, located in Antioquia and Choco departments.

Mande Norte is a subsidiary of US Muriel Mining Corporation, denounced by some groups, such as the Colombian National Indigenous Organization, for its complicity with the Colombian army in recent attacks against indigenous communities.