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Posted on June 29, 2017

Colombia is one of the front lines of the global anti-asbestos fight, burdened with several Eternit plants that create massive asbestos exposure issues. Fortunately, the country boasts some of the fiercest, most effective activists and advocates around, and they’ve just partnered with Greenpeace Colombia to spread their message even wider. 

Felipe Rico Atara is a documentarian producing a film about the anti-asbestos work led by Daniel Pineda, whose wife Ana Cecilia Niño died from asbestos-caused mesothelioma in January 2017. Daniel and Ana are behind the movement #ColombiaSinAsbesto, which has developed several asbestos awareness campaigns and sponsored a petition to the Colombian government that gathered more than 14,000 signatures. Felipe and his team helped organize a dramatic demonstration with Greenpeace outside of Eternit offices exposing the company’s deadly use of asbestos. 

“The objective of the activity was to launch the campaign initiated by Greenpeace in Colombia to demand from Eternit a public commitment to abandon the production and sale of asbestos products. And at the same time, illustrate the danger that asbestos represents for all Colombians. Colombia must join the list of countries that have banned asbestos,” Felipe explained. 

Daniel shared the pride his late wife, Ana, would have felt about the new progress with their campaign. “She would cry, she would hug me and finally she would smile, because she would be seeing her idea to see a cleaner air taking shape, since Greenpeace’s support is a great step in the struggle to see a Colombia Without Asbestos.” 

Greenpeace produced a short, sharable video of the protest which is spreading on social media, which you can watch at the bottom of this blog. Footage from this demonstration will be used in a documentary film Felipe is producing with help and support from Greenpeace, which is slated for an October 2017 release. 

“The personification or materialization of the effects produced by asbestos make people react and also wonder how can they protect their families,” Daniel said.  “Also, you get to add new activists that will reinforce all this pressure against the government.”

“14,600 people have signed the online petition against Eternit. 20 activists performed the

[stretcher demonstration],” said Silvia Gomez, the local coordinator of Greenpeace in Colombia. “Thousands of Colombians are contributing and spreading the campaign’s message.”

Please join me in applauding the incredible work going on in Colombia. Daniel, Felipe, Silvia, and their team are proving that together, we can make change happen! 

Linda Reinsten
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