TAKE ACTION: Water defenders face deadly threats for challenging a Canadian-funded dam in Colombia. | View in browser.

Photo: Rios Vivos

Dear John,

Rios Vivos, a grassroots movement of families and communities dependent on the Cauca River in Colombia for their food and livelihoods, is under attack for denouncing devastating social and environmental impacts of a Canadian-funded dam called Hidroituango.

In 2016, Export Development Canada (EDC) approved millions of dollars in loans to the company building the dam, despite abundant warnings about harmful environmental and social impacts for thousands of people.

Together we must call on Export Development Canada to provide remedy for those affected by this disastrous dam investment, and ensure it never happens again. Will you send a message now?

The Hidroituango dam cuts across the Cauca River in a region hard hit by decades of armed conflict and grave human rights violations.

Violence continues against Rios Vivos. They’ve reported forced evictions and scores of attacks, including the killing of six of their leaders.

Despite ever-present danger, the river defenders refuse to be silenced.

We must do the same. Amid a worsening climate emergency and an escalating wave of assassinations in Colombia, it has never been more necessary to raise our voices with Rios Vivos.

"I’m absolutely sure I would not be alive today were it not for solidarity," Rivos Vivos spokesperson Isabel Zuleta told Amnesty. “Every message of concern sent, every urgent action appeal, you can’t imagine how important that is for those of us who face violence in our territories."

Please call on Export Development Canada to repair the harm, speak up to protect those at risk and make changes so nobody else suffers in future as the families of Rios Vivos have.

Thank you for raising your voice with Isabel to deliver a strong, collective message to Export Development Canada. Together we can protect lives, rights and the environment on which everything depends.

In hope and solidarity,

Kathy Price
Latin America Campaigner
Amnesty International

P.S. Today is International Day of Action for Rivers, a day to celebrate the world’s rivers and those who struggle to protect them. Will you send a message to Export Development Canada in solidarity with Rios Vivos today?