Congress writes a letter

I have not written about this but just after I got here PBI Colombia as well as many other organizations received threats from a group called Aguilas Negras (Black Eagles). The threats were emailed to us and said that we were a military target of the Aguilas Negras which is a paramilitary group. These threats came after a march on the 6th of March which many human rights organizations participated in. Although we took the threats pretty seriously nothing has happened since then. Two weeks ago 63 members of congress sent a letter to President Uribe asking him to support human rights defenders in Colombia it was a pretty big deal here. Below is the letter that they sent.
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Ciclovía

Ciclovía is my new favorite thing in Bogotá. It is basically a shutdown of certain streets on Sundays to allow for recreation mostly biking. I did it this morning for the first time since I have been here and it was really fun. I went by myself this time but hope to get other folks energized to go next week or the week after. In addition to shutting down many streets there are also certain spots along the route were people are leading aerobic sessions with more than 100 people participating. It seemed like there were mostly people just out for a slow ride today. I might try and go earlier next time to see if there are more serious riders out. There is a website all in Spanish with some pictures.

Free What!

Although the reason for the the democrats putting off the vote on the Free Trade Agreement with Colombia probably has more to do with election year politics than what was in the agreement most of the folks here were cheering. Read more from the NYTimes here.