Radio Mundo Real

On Friday afternoon, in Trinidad municipality, renowned social leader Daniel Abril was shot three times. He was renowned for his struggle in defense of the environment and had been exposing oil companies for the drought hitting the region.

Abril was one of the leaders who, together with the social movement of the Center West region, promoted two hearings in Trinidad municipality where the community exposed the environmental damage caused by oil companies operating in that region.

One of his latest contributions to the social work was the gathering of signatures for the resignation of Coorporinoquia´s Director Martha Plazas. 1400 signatures were gathered in an activity where people expressed their rejection to the bad administration by the Director in environmental terms.

A year of attacks and persecution against the Peoples Congress

In January this year, the Social and Political Movement of the Colombian Center West Region and the Peoples´ Congress denounced the murder of another community leader, Carlos Pedraza. Forensic investigations concluded that the social leader had been shot to death on his back from a short distance.

More recently, 11 social leaders of Bogota, also members of the People Congress were arrested in July in the framework of a questioned case where they were accused of participating in violent acts, although they were finally released amid several irregularities. In this case, Colombian president Santos himself and the National Police Chief Palomino had started a defamation campaign against the young people, accusing them of guerrilla activities without any evidence.

“These persecutions serve to promote the actions of paramilitary groups that attempt against the lives of our colleagues based on false accusations against social leaders”, according to spokespeople of the social movement.

Source: http://www.colombiainforma.info