CPTnet
28 April 2007
COLOMBIA: Miners' Federation president arrested

by Joel Klassen and Doug Pritchard

On 26 April 2007, eight members of the Nueva Granada Battalion of the
Colombian Army arrested and charged with rebellion Teofilo Acuna,
president of the Agricultural Miners' Federation of the south of Bolivar
at the Federation offices in Santa Rosa, Bolivar. Witnesses to the arrest
reported that the army personnel were overly aggressive and pushed aside a
government official from Human Rights' Ombudsman Office as she protested
the way in which they executed the arrest.

The soldiers took Acuna to the Santa Rosa military base and initially
denied him access to a lawyer. They held him at the base overnight and
then transferred him to Barrancabermeja while an investigation proceeds.

Acuna has been at the forefront of efforts by small miners in the San
Lucas Mountains to protect their livelihoods and their land.
Multinational mining companies, including Kinross Gold, from Canada, and
AngloGold Ashanti, from the UK,
US and South Africa, have recently laid claim to lands in the area,
thereby threatening the future of small-scale mining.

The Nueva Granada battalion arrested Acuna on the very day that he and the
miners' federation were to meet with representatives of the Colombian
government to discuss their concerns for the mining lands and human
rights.

Christian Peacemaker Teams has participated in meetings such as these
between the miners and government since 2005 and has worked closely with
Acuna for the past eight months in the mining zone. CPT has experienced
him as a strong community-minded leader in the face of increasing threats
and intimidation by the Colombian army, which supports the entry of
foreign mining companies. On 19 September 2006, members of the same
battalion that arrested Acuna, Nueva Granada, assassinated mining leader
Alejandro Uribe near his home in the mining zone. CPTers Joel Klassen and
Doug Pritchard accompanied Acuna at the military base until his transfer to
Barrancabermeja.