In a letter sent to the Minister of Government, Mónica Palencia, the entity – which groups 14 organizations – demanded that the disproportionate and illegitimate use of force against residents of that locality be clarified and sanctioned.

In the letter, the collective points out that the inhabitants of Palo Quemado were victims of abuses of public force while they were exercising their rights and resisting against the imposition of unconstitutional administrative processes to favor corporate interests.

They even affirm that Judge Mesias Robayo, who suspended on March 25 the environmental consultation that the Government was seeking to impose in order to move forward with the mining project, was seriously injured after that order.

The Alliance questioned how the Executive considers peasants and indigenous people who defend the land as “terrorists”, a qualification with implications regarding the inadequate use of resources and public servants who should fulfill other priority obligations instead of being at the “service of private corporate interests”.

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