Canada: Stop EDC investing in environmental and human rights harm

(Amnesty International, Ottawa, 14 March 2020) In 2016, Export Development Canada – a crown corporation that claims its transactions are “environmentally and socially responsible” – approved millions of dollars in loans to Empresas Públicas de Medellin, the company building the HidroItuango dam. The Hidroituango dam cuts across the Cauca River in a region of Colombia hard hit by decades of armed conflict and grave human rights violations. The financing was approved despite warnings by experts, human rights organizations and local communities. Ríos Vivos, a grassroots movement of families dependent on the Cauca River for their food and livelihoods, has courageously denounced social and environmental impacts of the dam. They’ve also reported forced evictions, increased militarization and worsening violence, including the killing of six of their leaders.