FOR- Programs - Colombia Update

Colombia Peace Presence Update, August/September 2004

In this Update:

Indigenous Colombians Call for Land, Life and Dignity
Indigenous "Great March for Life, Happiness, Justice, Equity and Freedom"
News Briefs from Colombia Week
Letter from the Field: University of Resistance


Indigenous Colombians Call for Land, Life and Dignity
Rebekah Waldron, FOR-TFLAC

On September 7, close to five hundred Nasa/Paéz indigenous people successfully negotiated the release of two leaders from the Cauca region who had been kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).  Arqímedes Vitonás, the mayor of Toribío, and former Mayor Gilberto Muñoz Coronado were abducted on August 22 while on their way to an indigenous conference in Altamira, a Nasa reservation in the Caquetá Province municipality of San Vicente del Caguán. It is believed that the FARC targeted these leaders because of the ongoing resistance of indigenous people to become involved in the 40-year-long civil war. The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia - ONIC also disclosed that because of this same action, three more indigenous leaders were able to leave the area. Although they had not been kidnapped, they had stayed out of fear for their lives and those of the kidnapped men. The Indigenous Guards involved in the rescue arrived to confront the FARC, bearing only staffs as a symbol of peace and nonviolence. Alfredo Acosta of the Regional Indigenous Council in Cauca told Reuters, "We carry our staffs of leadership, but our only weapon is organization." Similar strategies have been used in the past by Colombia's indigenous communities, who refuse to engage in armed conflict.

A Nasa communiqué stated that "the Nasa people demonstrated that it is possible to peacefully confront the challenges of the armed conflict from a radically different focus - with a project of life as opposed to death, [a project] for human beings as well as for the mother earth that nurtures us. We just showed this with the rescue of the five indigenous leaders who were held by the FARC, and by starting to resolve the structural causes [of the conflict], improving people's living conditions, their health and dignity."

This victory came just days before what may have been the largest mobilization for indigenous rights in Colombia's history. On September 14, 50,000 indigenous people, campesinos and Afro-Colombians marched 60 miles along the Pan American Highway to Cali to protest the civil war, as these groups have often been the victims of its violence. According to ONIC, the marchers held a "Great Popular Congress" in Cali to debate the serious dangers their communities face and to publicize the successes of the indigenous peoples in constructing communal and inclusive processes. ONIC reports that in this year alone, 57 indigenous people have been killed and 4,500 have been displaced. The protestors also aimed to bring attention to a free-trade agreement currently being negotiated between Colombia and the United States. The agreement is a potential threat to local economies and indigenous sovereignty.

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Indigenous "Great March for Life, Happiness, Justice, Equity and Freedom"
Natalia Cardona, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)

Lisandro, a Nasa/Paez indigenous man, brought four blocks of brown sugar and 10 pounds of rice from his indigenous reserve to the Great March for Life, Happiness, Justice, Equity and Freedom that began today. "With that, some people will be able to eat. Everyone must do what they can because it takes a lot of food to feed 50,000 people." Like Lisandro, thousands of indigenous peoples have arrived bringing food to share with others in the great "Minga," as the march is called, drawing on the indigenous tradition of collective work and community. This Minga is a peaceful march along the Pan American Highway beginning in Santander de Quilichao and ending in the city of Cali. It has been organized by the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) to protest the attacks on the indigenous communities of the Nasa people and others by armed groups.

Nearly 50,000 indigenous peoples have arrived at La María, the spot from which the march will start. Organizing this Great March to the city of Cali requires an enormous amount of work: just making arrangements for the provision of food required organizing two feeding posts along the path of the march and making sure that the food donations were transported there. Other organizations are chipping in as well: the "Great March" has drawn much support from civil society groups like Asamblea por la Paz (Assembly for Peace) and international organizations such as the United Nations Colombia office which has called on all of the armed actors to respect the rights of the Nasa/Paez Indigenous peoples, recent recipients of the Colombia Peace Prize.

The AFSC has chosen to support the march with dried goods and transportation for Indigenous leaders to the meeting point in La Maria, Piendamó. In the U.S. AFSC staff and partner organizations are organizing vigils outside consulates and meetings with Colombian consulate officials to show their support for the "Great March."

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has been working in close partnership with the Nasa indigenous peoples of Colombia since 1998. The Nasa/Paez peoples are trying to achieve conditions of dignity and justice in their communities despite the worsening conflict in Colombia. These men and women are struggling to enact their Plans for Life, a term they use to describe the economic, social and peace plans for their communities' development.

For AFSC's other Colombia work please go to:
www.afsc.org

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News Briefs
Colombia Week

GOVERNMENT REJECTS PROPOSED TROOP PULLOUT
Officials have rejected a proposal by the country's largest guerrilla army for the government to withdraw forces from two southern municipalities for negotiations on a captive exchange. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on September 14 proposed the withdrawal from the Caquetá Province municipalities of Cartagena del Chairá and San Vicente del Caguán for talks on an Uribe administration offer to release 50 imprisoned guerrillas in exchange for dozens of politicians and security force members held by the FARC. "To reach an agreement on an exchange, it's necessary to have a secure space," the FARC said in a Web statement. The FARC proposal evoked memories of a Switzerland-sized area in Caquetá that Uribe's predecessor, President Andrés Pastrana Arango, ceded to the guerrilla group from 1999 to 2002 as part of failed peace negotiations. "You don't need a withdrawal to negotiate an exchange," Vice President Francisco Santos Calderón told reporters September 15. "You need the will to carry it out, and we don't think the FARC has that." Pedro Rubiano Sáenz, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Bogotá, agreed a demilitarization wasn't essential for the negotiations but recounted a government withdrawal from Cartagena del Chairá for 32 days in 1997 as a condition for a FARC release of 70 government troops. "It's not necessary to call it a ceasefire," said Rubiano, quoted September 18 by the Spanish news service EFE. Angela María Giraldo, a sister of a southwestern lawmaker held for more than two years by the FARC, urged the sides to agree on the negotiation site "without looking for military advantages," the Cali daily El País reported September 16. (Marjorie Childress)

REELECTION FOES LAUNCH CAMPAIGN WITH MARCH
Tens of thousands of people marched September 16 through downtown Bogotá, launching a campaign against a proposed constitutional amendment allowing President Alvaro Uribe Vélez to run for reelection in 2006. Organized by the country's main union federations and the two major leftist parties--the Independent Democratic Pole (PDI) and the Democratic Alternative--the march also protested U.S.-Andean trade talks and Uribe proposals to increase sales taxes and cut pension benefits. The organizers said they're building a broad coalition against Uribe's reelection. "We'll continue the struggle against President Uribe's neoliberal model," said Liberal Party co-director Sen. Piedad Córdoba Ruiz, quoted by the Bogotá daily El Tiempo. The Senate on September 8 passed the amendment in the sixth of eight Congressional votes required to change the Constitution. Former President Ernesto Samper Pizano, a Liberal who opposes reelection, ruled out running against Uribe in an interview published September 19 by the Cali daily El País. President Andrés Pastrana Arango, a Conservative, on September 13 slammed members of his party for backing the amendment but declined a Samper invitation to work with Liberals against it. Former Bogotá Mayor Enrique Peñalosa, in an interview published September 17 by El Tiempo, said he'll mount an independent presidential campaign regardless of whether the amendment passes. Inspector General Edgardo Maya Villazón on September 13 eliminated a possible Conservative candidate by barring Fernando Londoño Hoyos, Uribe's first interior and justice minister, from holding public office for 12 years for accusing a judge of drug ties in 2002. (Riley Merline in Bogotá)

WARRANTS FOR SOLDIERS IN UNIONIST KILLINGS:
Prosecutors on September 6 ordered the arrest of three Army soldiers and a civilian in connection with the killing of three northeastern unionists last month. "The evidence shows homicides were committed," deputy attorney general Luis Alberto Santana Robayo said at a news conference that day. The victims--Leonel Goyeneche, Héctor Alirio Martínez and Jorge Eduardo Prieto Chamucero--had arrest warrants for allegedly belonging to the National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia's second largest guerrilla group. Army soldiers killed them August 5 near Saravena, a town in the oil-rich northeastern province of Arauca. Col. Jairo Román Mejía, acting commander of the Army's U.S.-trained 18th Brigade, said the victims were killed in combat, a story disputed by witnesses. Union leaders said the victims had no guerrilla links, countering a suggestion by Vice President Francisco Santos Calderón after the killings. Santos on September 7 acknowledged his error. "We were wrong," he told reporters. "When these incidents happen, you call the commanders to find out what happened, you listen to what the people on the ground are saying, and I, as vice president, have to pass this on to the public." The alleged perpetrators are 2nd Lt. Juan Pablo Ordóñez Cañón, soldiers Oscar Saúl Cuta Hernández and John Alejandro Hernández Suárez, and civilian Daniel Caballero Rozo. More unionists are killed in Colombia than in all other countries combined. At least 47 have been killed this year, according to the National Union School (ENS), a research and educational center in the northwestern city of Medellín. Paramilitary groups carry out most of the attacks. (Marjorie Childress)


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Letter from the Field: University of Resistance
Marcie Ley, CPP volunteer

As we approach the tiny village of Arenas Altas I see people scurrying everywhere. Like ants hunting for picnic crumbs, they bustle past the ten houses that cluster around the soccer field which serves as the de facto town square, each carrying a plastic bag into which they continuously stuff objects they come across on the ground.

"Buenas dias, mona!" calls Fernando, a lanky character from Medellín I met a few days before who probably doesn¹t remember my name and instead refers to me affectionately as "whitey".

"Hola, hermano! What are you guys doing?"
"Collecting trash, of course!"

I wonder aloud what trash has to do with organic farming--a logical question given that I have just arrived at the site where a month-long course on sustainable agriculture is being held.

"We were going to build a compost pile today but we realized that first we had to clean up everything that won¹t decompose. See how much better it looks?!" a resident of Arenas boasts. I eagerly nod in agreement, realizing that in a country where people are accustomed to throwing their candy wrappers and soda cans out of bus windows, this newly awakened consciousness of trash borders on revolutionary.

And so Proper Waste Disposal joined the list of other course topics that was to be covered over the next month at the inaugural session of la Universidad de la Resistencia. Focusing on sustainable agriculture and strategies for resistance, the next few weeks would be packed with instruction on organic gardening, composting, natural pesticides, vegetarian cooking, as well as the philosophy and legal basis of civil resistance.

But this "university" is not like most. It has no ivy-covered walls, no tenured professors, no corporate-sponsored research. It does not carefully select its attendees based on test scores and GPA¹s, nor does it bestow prestigious degrees to its graduates. Rather, the experts are the students themselves, who all come from campesino communities where very few people complete more than a third-grade level of education. These life-long agriculturalists know much more about working the land than about taking notes and debating theories, something that the organizers were very conscious of when designing the course. While some attendees will present information about alternatives to industrial farming, plan activities and help facilitate discussions, most of the learning will come both from hands-on doing and from the exchange of ideas among the students themselves.

The University of Resistance is the fruit of an idea planted at a conference of communities in resistance held in the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó last year. The attendees came from areas of Colombia where the decades-long civil war had caused death, displacement and immense suffering among the civilian population. But like San José, many of these communities had already begun down the path of peaceful organized resistance to the conflict and were looking to share their experiences with others. It was from this desire to teach and learn from one another that the University of Resistance was born.

"The war does have a name: Multinationals," affirms a community leader, a grandmother with long grey braids and a fierce defender of the rights of her community during a discussion on the evils of the Green Revolution. This is a statement that I could have overheard a the weekly farmer¹s market in my own community in upstate New York, where small organic farmers sell their socially and environmentally correct products and the bulletin board is decorated with flyers for upcoming anti-globalization protests. But just as my community is a rare island of enlightenment in a land of large-scale industrial farms, the consciously anti-corporate, eco-friendly campesino is virtually non-existent in Colombia.

Focusing on sustainability and environmentally friendly agriculture practices, however, is more than just conscious and responsible living for these folks. Because most of them come from areas where extreme poverty and economic blockades are frequent, relying on outside sources of food and supplies is risking their very survival. Seeds and chemical pesticides, which are usually prohibitively expensive for most subsistence farmers, are impossible to procure in the event of a blockade imposed by an armed group. Coming from regions where violence disrupts their lives daily, many of the University students have learned first-hand that independence and self-reliance is the key to their continued living.

As the attendees excitedly planned seed banks and future courses, I realized that sustainable agriculture was the essence of resistance for Colombian campesino communities. By focusing on farming methods that respect both the natural resources and local knowledge, these communities demonstrate their commitment to the survival of future generations. While this can be said for all agricultural societies in the world, it is even more true in a country held hostage by a fierce struggle over limited resources. Especially here, making the best use of the resources one has and paying careful attention not to cause harm or put the ecosystems out of balance takes the commitment to peace and non-violence to another level.

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If you have any further questions about the FOR Colombia program, please contact us. Thank you very much for your ongoing support.

In Peace

Jutta Meier-Wiedenbach
Colombia Program Coordinator

____________________________
Fellowship of Reconciliation
Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean
2017 Mission St. #305
San Francisco, CA 94110
phone: (415) 495-6334, fax: (415) 495-5628
www.forusa.org

©2004 Fellowship of Reconciliation