03/28/2019 12:00pm

This week I went to "The Base", a place with the aim of bringing together mobilization movements for climate and social justice.

A conference was held about the risk of defending the environment and human rights. I could listen to the testimony of Pablo Fajardo, the lawyer who is fighting against the Chevron oil company for polluting an entire region of the Amazon, Carlos Santiago, who fights for the banning of the extraction shale gas in Colombia, and Katia Roux, advocacy officer at Amnesty International. Each described all the intimidation processes, from defamation to murder, that environmental activists face when the cause they defend hinders the profits of big companies. Katia Roux ended her speech by explaining that today, "we must not only defend freedom, we must defend those who defend it".

At the back of the room, Damien Roudeau and Sophie Tardy-Joubert signed the dedication of their comic strip Texaco, which tells the story of Pablo Fajardo's fight.