CREDHOS Twitter photo: “Community, org. social, popular and Human Rights reject the impositions of the @ANLA and maintains its total rejection of the Kalé pilot in Puerto Wilches, carrying out actions in defense of Water, Life and Territory.”

On February 22, PBI-Colombia tweeted:

“Statement from @Credhos_Paz rejecting the fracking pilots in Puerto Wilches and the threats against leaders who reject fracking in the region. This while Colombia does not ratify the Escazú agreement and signs environmental protection agreements with the EU.”

The statement from CREDHOS can be read here.

Highlights from it include:

“The Regional Corporation for the Defense of Human Rights – CREDHOS rejects the implementation of fracking pilots in the municipality of Puerto Wilches and the Magdalena Medio region, characterized by the richness of its biodiversity, but fragile in the face of the expansion of the mining-energy locomotive and the effects of climate change. In a region where historically extractivism has violated the human rights of communities, the implementation of fracking does not represent an advance for the dignity of life and the environmental sustainability of the territory.

The situation of vulnerability of those who defend their territory against a government that has postponed the implementation of mechanisms for environmental conservation and the protection of environmental leaders is critical, for example, the disinterest in ratifying the Escazú Agreement, or tearing apart the Peace Agreement and its points for the protection of social leaders and communities.

We support the community of Puerto Wilches and the youth, environmental, social and human rights organizations that are convening today around the Cultural Carnival for Water and Life at the Center for Citizen Integration and at Kilometer 3, in opposition to the progress of the implementation of the fracking pilots and the development of the Environmental Public Hearing convened by the National Environmental Licensing Authority – ANLA, about Ecopetrol’s Kalé pilot project.”