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
