IRI-Colombia and Amazon Watch facilitated a series of meetings between Senator Sandra Chindoy Jamioy and Representative Miguel Ángel Rubio and officials from the U.S. Congress, the New York State Assembly, and the New York City Council.
The purpose of these meetings, held as part of New York Climate Week 2026, was to discuss the actions needed to ensure the preservation of the Amazon biome, the recently established Ad Hoc Commission for the Protection of the Amazon in the Congress of the Republic of Colombia, and the strengthening of international parliamentary cooperation.
Miguel Ángel Rubio, a representative to the House from the department of Putumayo, called on U.S. officials to support the Commission and strengthen efforts to preserve the Amazon biome. “Defending it is a global necessity, because what happens in this region will have a direct impact on climate change worldwide. We need the world’s solidarity,” he emphasized.
U.S. Congressman Mark Pocan, Senator Sandra Chindoy Jamioy, and State Representative Miguel Ángel Rubio. Photos: Andrew Miller / Amazon Watch.
The meetings were attended by Colombian congressmen; the director of IRI-Colombia, Blanca Lucía Echeverry; Congressman Mark Pocan and Pennsylvania Congressman-elect Chris Rabb; the Democratic candidate for Congress in New York’s 13th District, Darializa Ávila Chevalier; the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey’s 12th District, Adam Hamawy; New York State Assemblyman Brian Moreno; New York City Councilmember Jennifer Gutiérrez; and the governor of Caquetá, Luis Francisco Ruiz, among others.
As a result of these meetings, 19 U.S. congresspeople sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, asking him to halt financial and logistical support for the aerial spraying pilot project in Putumayo, warning of the serious impacts on the health of peasant, Indigenous, and Afro-descendant communities, and even on ecosystems, caused by ammonium glufosinate, which the World Health Organization classifies as a pesticide even more dangerous than glyphosate.
