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28 October 2014 | Testimonies | Human rights
Displaced by megaprojects: Interview with Isabel Zureta (Rios Vivos Movement, Colombia) after the hearing at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
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Mining-energy megaprojects are plundering and displacing Colombian communities, denounced Isabel Cristina Zureta before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States. Isabel was part of the delegation of people affected who travelled to Washington, US, for the hearing that took place on Monday.
The IACHR accepted the request of the Colombian Movement in Defense of Territories and People Affected by Dams Ríos Vivos to speak about the displacements caused by the presence of dams in Colombia. The hearing called "Reports of Forced
Displacement and Development Projects" was held on Monday, October 27. After the hearing, the member of the Rios Vivos Movement, who was displaced from her home by the Hidroituango dam, in the Cauca River basin, was interviewed by the Colombian web radio Contagio Radio where she said that the displacements caused by "development", i.e. by megaprojects, have been kept hidden because of the armed conflict which the country is experiencing..
"Public forces are evicting us, plundering our resources, to benefit mining-energy multinational companies" and not only because of the armed conflicts", said Zureta.
Especially, she denounced how coastal, peasant, artisanal fisherfolk and Afro communities are being affected.
"The State is displacing communities in Colombia with its projects and imposing its own view of development", she highlighted and added that the hearing before the IACHR was useful "to expose the State; there isn´t one community displaced by megaprojects which is better now".
Isabel hopes that the multilateral space at the IACHR serves to start a debate that should have started a long time ago in Colombia in favor of the recognition of the rights of the people displaced.
