Colombia Peace Deal Inches Forward: Indigenous, Afro-Colombian Leaders Fear the State Has Not Shed its Violent Past

By Asad Ismi The peace accords signed in November 2016 by the government of Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, Colombia’s largest guerrilla army) ended a half-century-long conflict that killed 260,000 people and displaced another six million. Under the terms of the deal, the FARC was supposed to hand over […]

Women: The Oppressed Majority

A three-part radio documentary Written by Asad Ismi Produced by Kristin Schwartz Narrated by both The series can be heard and downloaded from the Community Radio Exchange of the National Campus/Community Radio Association. Click here for the program, and thank you for listening. All interviews conducted by Asad Ismi or Kristin Schwartz except with Matilde […]

Canadian Neocolonialism in Colombia

By Asad Ismi In May, the board of Pacific Rubiales, a Canadian firm and the biggest private oil producer in Colombia, announced its support for a takeover bid by the Mexican conglomerate Alfa and U.S.-based Harbour Energy. Pacific Rubiales operates Colombia’s biggest oil field, in the province of Meta, and during the past seven years […]

Union in Colombia Battles Anti-Union Canadian Oil Company: Pacific Rubiales is Linked to Attacks on Union Activists

By Asad Ismi In May 2012, the third edition of my report Profiting from Repression: Canadian Investment in and Trade with Colombia was published and released by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) in Ottawa. The report links ten Canadian companies in Colombia to the genocide of indigenous Colombians, to complicity in eight murders […]