[posted on The Democracy Center] PUBLIC STATEMENT – TO CEASE THE JUDICIAL PERSECUTION AGAINST MILLER DUSSÁN AND ELSA ARDILA AND IN SUPPORT OF THE ASSOCIATION OF THOSE AFFECTED BY THE QUIMBO DAM PROJECT (ASOQUIMBO), IN COLOMBIA.

Background:

Miller Dussán is a Colombian university professor and President of the Association of Those Affected by the Quimbo dam (ASOQUIMBO). El Quimbo is a mega-dam built by the Italian corporate energy giant ENEL-EMGESA, on the Magdalena river in the Department of Huila in southern Colombia.

ASOQUIMBO has been resisting this hydroelectric project for several years, highlighting its social and environmental impacts as well as a series of legal irregularities on the part of EMGESA (an Enel subsidiary in Colombia). They have also called into question current energy and mining policy in Colombia, demanding in its place the construction of a policy based on national sovereignty and local control of renewable energy sources to meet the needs of local communities.

Miller Dussan now faces up to twelve years in prison as a result of two legal charges being brought against him based on accusations made by Emgesa.

In the first case, Dussan and his co-accused Elsa Ardila, ex–president of ASOQUIMBO, face charges of ‘blocking public roads in ways that affect public order’, in relation to a series of social protests in 2012. These charges carry a sentence of up to 4 years in prison.

In the second case, Dussan is accused of instigating the occupation of land owned by the corporation, a charge that carries a sentence of up to 8 years. According to his defence, these charges relate to land occupations by small farmer communities in 2013 as part of a protest against forced displacement and in order to demand just compensation from the corporation.

FORMAL CHARGES AND THE REQUEST FOR THOSE CHARGES TO BE DROPPED.

During hearings on the 10th August 2016 in the municipal court in Gigante, Huila, the public prosecutor brought formal charges for the alleged offences of blocking public roads. Nevertheless the 27th October 2016, defence lawyers requested the charges to be dropped, arguing among other things the absence of any criminal conduct, given that any damage of transport routes occurred as a result of construction work by EMGESA as part of the QUIMBO dam project. The legitimate protests that followed were in response to these impacts on local infrastructure. (More details here)

Now the Municipal Court in Garzon, Huila has convened a public hearing to make a decision on the request by lawyers to drop the charges against Dussan and Ardila. The hearing, which was originally scheduled for the 9th of December 2016 is now due to be heard on the 6th of February 2017.

ASOQUIMBO has declared that the hearing is the result of both the serious concerns raised regarding the criminalization of social protest and the broad recognition by social and environmental organisations, national and international NGOs, state institutions and the International Commission of Jurists of the legitimacy of protests against the building of the Quimbo dam and in defence of territory and life itself.

More info: http://www.quimbo.com.co

We demand:

As a result of the above stated, the signatories below demand that:

Garzon Municipal Court in Huila to drop the charges brought as a result of accusations made by EMGESA against Miller Dussán and Elsa Ardila for the supposed crime of ‘blocking public roads in ways that affect public order’. We firmly believe that the legal cases being brought against these two environmental leaders are part of an overarching strategy of judicial intimidation, the final aim of which is to repress local resistance to mega-dams and other extractivist projects across the region.

The Corporation, ENEL-EMGESA, immediately desist from the judicial persecution of leaders of ASOQUIMBO; withdraw the two charges it has brought; and withdraw its plans for building of any further socially and environmentally destructive megadams in Latin America.

Multinational corporations and Latin America governments stop using court proceedings as a way of criminalising protest and respect the legitimate right of people to defend their resources, their lands and life itself against the voracious capitalist model of development currently upheld – one that promotes the destruction of the environment and the killing of environmental defenders across the entire region.

The signatories below also express our most fervent support for the fight of ASOQUIMBO, and their struggle to defend their territories and life itself.

TO SIGN-ON TO THE LETTER, PLEASE GO TO THE FOLLOWING LINK