Photo by Peace Brigades International.

The Association for Social Research and Action (Nomadesc) is a human rights organization in Colombia that works “in the promotion and defence of the rights of peoples.”

They function in a context in which seventeen social leaders and human rights defenders have already been killed in the first month of this year.

In 2004, Berenice Celeita, the president of Nomadesc, was targeted for assassination in a plot now known as Operation Dragon.

Celeita and four members of Sindicato de Trabajadores de las Empresas Municipales de Cali (SintraEmcali), including union president Alexander Lopez Maya, were targeted for their opposition to the privatization of Emcali, a state-owned company providing water, telecommunications, and electricity services in the city of Cali.

The research and advocacy group Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) has reported, “This plan formed part of a broader plan to assassinate over 150 activists including trade unionists from SintraEmcali.”

In August 2004, a series of official documents were uncovered that detailed the various elements of Operation Dragon.

More than seven years later, in October 2011, three members of the military were apprehended for their participation in Operation Dragon.

WOLA adds, “Although the conspiracy implicated more than 8 agencies of then-President Álvaro Uribe, the District Attorney delayed the charging [of the army officers] until 2013 for the conspiracy to commit murder.”

In January of this year, the three now retired officers were sentenced, as PBI Colombia notes, for the crime of simple aggravated conspiracy.

The newspaper El Espectador reports (in Spanish) they were sentenced to four years in prison but were released on probation because they did not have a prior criminal record.

On January 28, just days after that ruling, an assassination attempt was made against the current president of SintraEmcali.

While he survived, one of his bodyguards was wounded.

Nomadesc is calling for a full investigation of Operation Dragon and the role of the government of then-President Álvaro Uribe.

In July 2007, then-Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with Uribe in Bogota to launch ‘free trade’ talks. In November 2008, the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement was signed. In June 2009, Uribe visited Ottawa and Montreal to press for the ratification of the deal (which received Royal Assent in Canada in June 2010).

In April 2018, Celeita visited Vancouver and did this interview with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

In it she highlighted, “Canadian capital has been expanding in Colombia since the trade agreement, obviously the largest area is in mining, but they’ve also been investing a lot in privatizing public services. For example, water services holding companies are buying up things like dams or mining concessions.”

Celeita says the economic model being pursued by the Colombian government, including the Canada-Colombia agreement, “is incompatible with the development models of the campesino, Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities.”

Peace Brigades International – Colombia Project has provided protective accompaniment to Celeita since 1999 and to Nomadesc since 2011.

Given the recent assassination attempt against the president of SintraEmcali, protection is still needed for all those targeted by Operation Dragon.

Image: Peace Brigades International

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Brent Patterson

Brent Patterson is a political activist, writer and the executive director of Peace Brigades International-Canada. He lives in Ottawa on the traditional, unceded and unsurrendered territories of the Algonquin...