( Translated by Amy Rose Pekol, a volunteer CSN translator)
May 5, 2007
NEWS REPORT
TEOFILO ACUÑA WAS FREED
NUEVA GRANADA BATALLION, ANGLO GOLD ASHANTI AND KEDAHDA INC.
FABRICATED FALSE EVIDENCE
Due to a lack of evidence to keep him detained, the Public Prosecutor’s Office 28, of the municipality of Simití, abstained from applying security measures against the president of the Agro-Mining Federation of Southern Bolivar, TEOFILO ACUÑA, who was illegally deprived of his liberty for 10 days for defending the natural resources of his region and for demanding clarity from the government regarding projects given to large multinational corporations that control the riches of the area.
Many different social and human rights organizations are insistent that the agro-mining leader’s detention occurred within the framework of a strategy of persecution unleashed upon the communities of Southern Bolivar that oppose the multinational company, Anglo Gold Ashanti’s entrance into the region. Anglo Gold Ashanti is affiliated with the company, Kedahda Inc., which intends to exploit the large mining areas in Southern Bolivar.
The president of the Agro-mining Federation of Southern Bolivar, Teofilo Manuel Acuña Ribon, was detained on April 26, 2007 in the urban center of the Santa Rosa municipality of Southern Bolivar. He was detained by members of the Nueva Granada Batallion of the Colombian Army, who violently burst into the Agro-mining Federation’s headquarters and beat the secretary and a visiting lawyer from the Ombudsman’s Office of the Magdalena Medio region.
Teofilo Manuel Acuña is an agro-mining leader recognized in Colombia and around the world for the strong defense that he has exercised from his communities and for his constant denunciations of serious human rights violations committed in the southern Bolivar region.
This illegal detention adds to the chain of incidents against Agro-Mining Federation leaders. Several fatalities have been committed, such as the murder of agro-mining leader, ALEJANDRO URIBE CHACON, on behalf of the Nueva Granada Batallion on September 19, 2006 in the rural area of Montecristo Municipality–Southern Bolivar.
Teofilo Acuña was freed today, May 5th by 5:30pm. The order for his freedom was expedited at 10:41am by the Public Prosecutor’s Office 28, of the municipality of Simití It was made effective and TEOFILO ACUÑA arrived at the Bogotá airport at 8:45pm.
FEDERACION AGROMINERA DEL SUR DE BOLIVAR, CORPORACION SEMBRAR, COORDINADOR NACIONAL AGRARIO, RED EUROPERA DE HERMANDAD Y SOLIDARIDAD, FUNDACION COMITÉ DE SOLIDARIDAD CON LOS PRESOS POLITICOS, ASOCIACION MINGA, SINTRAMINERCOL, CAMPAÑA PROHIBIDO OLVIDAR, ASOCIACIÓN NOMADESC, DH COLOMBIA, ASAMBLEA PERMANENTE DE LA SOCIEDAD CIVIL POR LA PAZ.
Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI 53701-1505
phone: (608) 257-8753
fax: (608) 255-6621
e-mail: csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net