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<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><b>Colombia
Vive 2013 Fall Speaking Tour</b><br>
</font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><b><br>
</b></font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><b><font size="4"><font
face="arial, sans-serif">El Quimbo Hydroelectric Dam </font><span
style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">and Its Human
Rights Impacts</span></font></b></div>
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</font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">Featured
Guest Speaker:</font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif"
size="4"><b>Miller Dussán Calderón</b></font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">University
of Southern Colombia, </font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">Professor
and Human </font><span
style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Rights Defender (PhD,
Sociology & Education)</span></div>
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style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br>
</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><span
style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Room 1-246</span><span
style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br>
</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><span
style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">7PM-9PM </span><span
style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Tuesday, September
24, 2013</span></div>
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<font face="arial, sans-serif">Massachusetts Institute of
Technology</font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">Main
Building, 77 Mass Ave, </font></div>
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</div>
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<br>
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</div>
<div class="gmail_default"><span
style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br>
</span></div>
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<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">In
2008 the Colombian government, through the National
Economic and Social </font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">Policy
Council (CONPES), authorized the construction of several
hydroelectric </font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">dams
in various regions of the country and simultaneously
arranged financing </font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">for
the system. One such dam is planned for the Quimbo
region, a territory </font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">that
is home to more than 300,000 inhabitants who for many
years have organized themselves in community
cooperatives that produce an estimated $18.5 </font><span
style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">million USD
annually. Furthermore, the region boasts 842 hectares of
riparian </span><span
style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">forest, many fish
species essential to the inhabitants’ food sovereignty,
over </span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">100
species of birds, and numerous species of reptiles and
mammals in danger </span><span
style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">of extinction.</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><span
style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br>
</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">The
construction of the Quimbo dam would cover over 8,500
hectares, more </font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">than
half of which are productive farmland, and would flood
six municipalities, mostly located in a protected Forest
Reserve in the Amazon and the </font></div>
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<font face="arial, sans-serif">Colombian Massif. At the
same time, it would displace more than half of the </font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">population
of the Quimbo region. Thus, the construction of the
Quimbo </font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">hydroelectric
dam poses a grave humanitarian crisis for the region and
a major </font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">environmental
disaster. </font></div>
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</font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">Confronted
by what seems an overwhelming catastrophe for their
communities, El Quimbo inhabitants established the
Association of People Affected by </font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">the
Quimbo Hydroelectric Project (ASOQUIMBO), an NGO that
defends the </font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">civil,
political, economic, social, cultural and environmental
interests of the </font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">territory.</font></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span
style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.727272033691406px"><br>
</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default">
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">During
his tour in the United States, Prof. Dussán Calderón will
describe the </font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">actions
that the local community and ASOQUIMBO have taken to
prevent the </font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">major
disaster that the construction of the hydroelectric dam
poses to the </font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">region. </font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br>
</font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">Come
join us to learn more about the struggle of this community
to prevent </font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">their
displacement, and about what you can do to help prevent
this grave </font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">humanitarian
crisis in Colombia.</font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br>
</font></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif">For
more information </font><span
style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">contact Ana Zambrano,
director, Colombia Vive at </span></div>
<div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><a
href="mailto:contact@colombiavive.com">contact@colombiavive.com</a>,
or visit <a href="http://colombiavive.org">colombiavive.org</a>
</font></div>
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