ISDS Case Map
Colombia
On 19 August, Colombian farmers' organisations initiated a massive nationwide strike against the government's policies. Seeds emerged as one highly visible issue.
The source of this uprising lies in policies not up for discussion in the country’s current peace talks: the impact of the US-Colombia FTA – implemented in May 2012 – and policies that have similarly afflicted Colombian campesinos (small-scale farmers).
A strike declared nearly two weeks ago in Colombia by farmers and joined later by truck drivers, health workers, miners and students spread to include protests in the cities before mushrooming into a general strike Thursday, demanding changes in the government’s economic policies.
In the midst of a nationwide agrarian strike, a documentary about a new law criminalizing farmers for the centuries old practice of saving the best seeds and using them for the next crop is igniting debate about the treatment of the country’s farmers.
Colombia’s defense minister announced he’ll be sending the military to cities where police failed to maintain the peace at anti-government protests Thursday during which at least a hundred protesters were injured and dozens were arrested.
About 30,000 people marched peacefully in Colombia's capital Thursday in support of a 10-day protest by small farmers against free trade agreements until pandemonium broke out.
Tension in Colombia will increase with another great mobilization scheduled for [today] which is expected to be massive due to the guilds that will join, including the Sudent Wide National Bureau and Workers' Trade Union of Petroleum Industry (USO).
Nationwide agricultural strikes are continuing in Colombia after more than a week of ongoing roadblocks, marches and clashes with the police.
Representatives of Colombian farmers' groups and government ministers say they have not yet been able to reach a deal to end a 10-day strike.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos says his government will enter into negotiations with agricultural workers as their strike enters its ninth day.
