Stories from Colombia: El Rio de La Vida ( The River of Life)

Colombia: When Humanitarian Law Is Just Rhetoric

2011-10-24T05:36:00.000-07:00

This article is taken from www.upsidedownworld.org.

The Indigenous Guard of the Nasa use non-violence tactics to demilitarize their own territory. They are thinking about confiscating and incinerating any guns they find in their territory, no matter whose hands they are in. Obviously, dangerous stuff. The community response by saying, "There are 600 of us. If we once again find 30 soldiers in our community, if they kill 100, there will still be 500 left to do the job that has to be done." Powerful message and action. How can we be in Solidarity with them?

More info below:

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Written by Constanza Vieira

Tuesday, 18 October 2011 10:01

(IPS) - The constant violations of international humanitarian law in Colombia claimed the life of an 11-year-old indigenous girl a month ago in the mountains of the southwest province of Cauca.

The army arrived at 4:40 AM on Thursday Sep. 15 and set up camp outside the school in El Credo, a village of 768 people and 136 houses on a hill between the city of Santander de Quilichao and Toribío, the main city of the Nasa indigenous people.

"We were waiting for them to leave," Floresmiro Palomo, coordinator of the site that serves as the community shelter when fighting breaks out, told IPS.

Palomo is a member of the Indigenous Guard – a traditional civil resistance defence force made up of unarmed volunteers, both men and women, aimed at protecting the native culture in this indigenous territory.

By 6:30 AM the soldiers had not left, so an Indigenous Guard committee asked the commanding officers to pull the troops out of the area around the school, because it was the officially designated shelter and humanitarian zone.

The school, whose official title is the El Credo Agricultural Ethnoeducational Institution, is fenced off and clearly marked with white flags. A sign put up by the German humanitarian group Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe announces at the gate: "School zone – humanitarian protection area – no guns".

During the frequent fighting in the area, which is of strategic importance in the 47-year war between the government forces and the communist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Indigenous Guard takes charge of trying to keep both sides away from the shelter.

In June 2010, in a military offensive carried out two months before President Juan Manuel Santos took office, the Indigenous Guard fenced off the hill where the school is located, "and when the army came, we didn't let them in," Palomo recalls.

"But this time they asked us for a legal document, to keep them out," he explains. "They said this is not an official 'permanent assembly site' (the name given to the Nasa shelters), that it's just a school. But we have a 300-metre area marked off here," he said.

That Thursday, the women led a "human wall" of 300 indigenous people to keep the troops from entering the humanitarian zone.

Whenever army troops camp out in El Credo, the guerrillas show up a few hours later, to engage them in combat.

The FARC arrived at 8:30 AM and the fighting began. Some 600 army troops spread out uphill from El Credo, and farther down, in the hamlet of Pajarito, they clashed with the insurgents, who were firing from all sides.

By then, the school was full of people. The gunfire continued all day long. "The children were crying, and everyone was screaming in the middle of the firefight, but they just ignored us," says Palomo.

The soldiers climbed up from Pajarito at 7:00 PM, and camped out around the school.

On Friday Sep. 16, the fighting started again at 5:45 AM. And once again, a committee of indigenous people went to talk to the commanders, to no avail. The military took up positions in the houses lining the entrance to the school: 28 houses with pots of colourful flowers along the road climbing up to El Credo.

"They started to shoot downhill from here, and the others (uphill) were shooting over our heads. And the people were all here," Palomo describes.

Representatives of the regional authority, the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca (ACIN), went up to try to talk to the military commanders. But they were also ignored.

The fighting went on. "The guerrillas started to throw cylinder-bombs (homemade bombs made with cooking gas canisters). From up there in the mountains, the army was also shooting missiles," Palomo adds.

Until an improvised explosive device landed in the yard of local indigenous journalist Abel Coicué at 3:50 PM, killing his daughter Vanesa and injuring eight others, mainly children.

The ombudsman's office says the explosive device, full of shrapnel, was launched by the insurgents.

"The guerrillas shot it from below. From the hamlet of Pajarito. But we don't know if it was really shot by the guerrillas, or by the army," says Wilson García, vice president of the local community action council, created by the state as an interlocutor with government bodies.

The local indigenous people will wait for the forensic authorities to determine who threw the bomb. "The only thing we know is that they were launching bombs from here and there – from up above and from down below as well," García adds.

"When that happened, then the army did pull out; they went up into the mountains," says Palomo. By 5:00 PM there were no longer any army troops in El Credo. A few days later they came back, but they kept a careful distance.

Since Vanesa was killed, people have been going to the school in the evenings to sleep. "The permanent assembly has been declared indefinitely, as long as the armed groups are here," says Palomo.

In the daytime, people continue going out to work, mainly in their vegetable gardens.

In the meantime, the Indigenous Guard goes up and down the mountains, patrolling day and night, "controlling the territory, to show them that we are organised," he warns.

"After what happened, the community decided to do something drastic. That can bring us consequences, but the people say it doesn't matter, and that if they see guerrillas, we will disarm them," says Palomo.

The locals "say they are not going to let themselves be killed, like what is happening now," he adds. They are thinking about confiscating and incinerating any guns they find in their territory, no matter whose hands they are in.

On the day the wake was held for Vanesa, Saturday Sep. 17, Colonel Hugo Meza, the local army commander, was notified of that decision.

So was the municipal ombudsman, the city government, the local government council, and the ombudsman in Popayán, the capital of the province of Cauca.

Palomo says "I sent it by fax, so they would know about the decision reached by the community."

Colonel Meza's answer was that his soldiers would not allow themselves to be disarmed.

The local indigenous people responded: "There are 600 of us. If we once again find 30 soldiers in our community, if they kill 100, there will still be 500 left to do the job that has to be done."

Meza said "they are protecting us," says Palomo. But "I told him they were causing us problems," because if the troops had not been in the community, among the houses, "what happened would not have happened."

The demilitarisation of Nasa territory is set to start this week.

COMICS

2011-10-14T08:02:00.000-07:00

Here is a series of comics that my co-worker, Stewart Vriesinga, made about Colombia. you can check out his blog: http://stewart-in-colombia.blogspot.com/

Mining, Murder, and "coincidences"

2011-09-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

On this blog, there are many posts about the relationship to multinational mining companies and gross human rights violations. Here I would like to give two more examples of "coincidences" that relate Canadian gold mining companies to murder and human rights violations. I use the word "coincidences" here because the investigation have yet to show a "direct" relation to the Canadian Companies. However, what is true today that in Colombia, to be in opposition to the multinational mining projects and the Colombian Governments national policy to make it the number one export is very dangerous, as these examples will show.

Example 1: On this blog, I wrote about a massacre that happened on August 17th. It says, "around 7pm, in the community of Casa Zinc, which is part of township EL Dorado in the municipality of Monte Cristo, Sure de Bolivar, twenty armed men entered the community and identified themselves as the Black Eagles, which is a known paramilitary group. They gathered the community together and assassinated Pedro Sierra, a small farmer. They then tortured and cut out the tongues of Ivan Serrano, a local shop owner, and Luis Albeiro Ropero, a young miner, before they killing them. This all happened while the Colombian Army was just twenty minutes away."

"Coincidence": On August 29th, a Canadian mining company entitled, "MIDASCO CAPITAL CORP. - TSX-V Symbol MGC" recieved 10,000 hectares in mining licenses in Sur de Bolivar exactly where the massacre took place. You can read the news release here: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/403812#ixzz1XsYYb3hl.

Example 2: On this blog I posted a video entitled, "Colombia Gold Rush" produced by Al Jazeer on Fault Lines about the Canadian Gold mining Company working in Marmato, Antioquia. if you have not watched it you should, just click on the link.

"Coincidence" On September 1, Father José Reinel Restrepo Idárraga was murdered in Marmato, Antioquia. Father Restrepo was an outspoken critic of a Canadian mining operation in Marmato. The details surrounding Father Restrepo’s murder are unclear but people are saying it was related to his activism and organizing against the Canadian gold mining Company.

In honor of 911...

2011-09-12T07:23:00.001-07:00

In honor of September 11th. I post this poem entitled, "Before I Start this Poem," written by Emmanuel Ortiz on September 11th, 2002.

Before I Start This Poem

Before I start this poem,
I'd like to ask you to join me

in a moment of silence
in honour of those who died
in the World Trade Centre
and the Pentagon
last September 11th.

I would also like to ask you
a moment of silence
for all of those who have been
harassed, imprisoned, disappeared,
tortured, raped, or killed
in retaliation for those strikes,
for the victims in both
Afghanistan and the U.S.

And if I could just add one more thing...
A full day of silence
for the tens of thousands of Palestinians
who have died at the hands of
U.S.-backed Israeli forces
over decades of occupation.

Six months of silence
for the million and-a-half Iraqi people,
mostly children, who have died of
malnourishment or starvation
as a result of an 11-year U.S. embargo
against the country.

Before I begin this poem:
two months of silence
for the Blacks under Apartheid
in South Africa,
where homeland security
made them aliens
in their own country.

Nine months of silence
for the dead in Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, where death rained
down and peeled back
every layer of concrete, steel, earth and skin
and the survivors went on as if alive.

A year of silence
for the millions of dead
in Vietnam--a people, not a war-
for those who know a thing or two
about the scent of burning fuel,
their relatives' bones buried in it,
their babies born of it.

A year of silence
for the dead in Cambodia and Laos,
victims of a secret war ... ssssshhhhh ....
Say nothing ... we don't want them to learn
that they are dead.

Two months of silence
for the decades of dead
in Colombia, whose names,
like the corpses they once represented,
have piled up and slipped off
our tongues.

Before I begin this poem,
An hour of silence for El Salvador ...
An afternoon of silence
for Nicaragua ...
Two days of silence
for the Guetmaltecos ...

None of whom ever knew
a moment of peace
45 seconds of silence
for the 45 dead
at Acteal, Chiapas
25 years of silence
for the hundred million Africans
who found their graves
far deeper in the ocean
than any building could
poke into the sky.
There will be no DNA testing
or dental records
to identify their remains.
And for those who were
strung and swung
from the heights of
sycamore trees
in the south, the north,
the east, and the west...

100 years of silence...
For the hundreds of millions of
indigenous peoples
from this half of right here,
Whose land and lives were stolen,
In postcard-perfect plots
like Pine Ridge,
Wounded Knee,
Sand Creek, Fallen Timbers,
or the Trail of Tears.
Names now reduced
to innocuous magnetic poetry
on the refrigerator
of our consciousness ...
So you want a moment of silence?

And we are all left speechless
Our tongues snatched from our mouths
Our eyes stapled shut
A moment of silence
And the poets have all been laid to rest
The drums disintegrating into dust
Before I begin this poem,
You want a moment of silence
You mourn now as if the world will never be the
same
And the rest of us hope to hell it won't be.
Not like it always has been

Because this is not a 9-1-1 poem
This is a 9/10 poem,
It is a 9/9 poem,
A 9/8 poem,
A 9/7 poem
This is a 1492 poem.
This is a poem about
what causes poems like this
to be written

And if this is a 9/11 poem, then
This is a September 11th poem
for Chile, 1971
This is a September 12th poem
for Steven Biko in South Africa, 1977
This is a September 13th poem
for the brothers at Attica Prison,
New Yor k, 1971.
This is a September 14th poem
for Somalia, 1992.

This is a poem
for every date that falls
to the ground in ashes
This is a poem for the 110 stories
that were never told
The 110 stories that history
chose not to write in textbooks
The 110 stories that CNN, BBC,
The New York Times,
and Newsweek ignored
This is a poem
for interrupting this program.
And still you want
a moment of silence
for your dead?
We could give you
lifetimes of empty:

The unmarked graves
The lost languages
The uprooted trees and histories
The dead stares on the faces
of nameless children
Before I start this poem
We could be silent forever
Or just long enough to hunger,
For the dust to bury us
And you would still ask us
For more of our silence.

If you want a moment of silence
Then stop the oil pumps
Turn off the engines and the televisions
Sink the cruise ships
Crash the stock markets
Unplug the marquee lights,
Delete the instant messages,
Derail the trains, the light rail transit

If you want a moment of silence,
put a brick through
the window of Taco Bell,
And pay the workers for wages lost
Tear down the liquor stores,
The townhouses, the White Houses,
the jailhouses, the Penthouses and
the Playboys.

If you want a moment of silence,
Then take it
On Super Bowl Sunday,
The Fourth of July
During Dayton's 13 hour sale
Or the next time your white guilt
fills the room where my beautiful
people have gathered

You want a moment of silence
Then take it
& nbsp; Now,
Before this poem begins.

Here, in the echo of my voice,
In the pause between goosesteps of the second
hand
In the space
between bodies in embrace,

Here is your silence.
Take it.
But take it all
Don't cut in line.
Let your silence begin
at the beginning of crime But we,
Tonight we will keep right on singing
For our dead

Who is Emmanuel Ortiz? Here is a bio from Wiki:

Emmanuel Ortiz (born 1974) is a Chicano/Puerto Rican/Irish-American activist and spoken-word poet. He has worked with the Minnesota Alliance for the Indigenous Zapatistas (MAIZ) and Estación Libre and as a staff member of the Resource Centre of the Americas.^[1] Ortiz has performed his poetry at numerous readings, political rallies, activist conferences, and benefits. His works appeared in The Roots of Terror a reader published by Project South, as well as others. His readings of his poems have appeared on Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now!. ^[2] His controversial poem, Moment of Silence, circulated the internet a year after September 11th, 2001.

The Pending US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement: False Claims Versus Hard Realities

2011-09-12T04:54:00.000-07:00

In his recent address on the economy of the United States, President Obama said he will push forward the Free Trade Agreement with Colombia as a way to boost the U.S. Economy and raise employment in the US.Here is an article by James Jordan, National Co-Coordinator for the Alliance for Global Justice and was originally published by Upside Down World, discussing these issues related to the pending FTA with Colombia.

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The Pending US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement: False Claims Versus Hard Realities

With a little more than a year till the 2012 elections the White House and Congressional leadership are anxious to pass pending Free Trade Agreements (FTA) as soon as possible.

Most worrisome of all is the pending FTA between the US and Colombia. Corporate leaders and US and Colombian government officials with their public relations operatives are peddling lie after lie to justify passage.

The following guide put together by The Alliance for Global Justice will help people to better understand and counter the falsehoods they will be hearing and countering in the coming weeks.

Distinguishing between fact and fiction with claims regarding the pending US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement

CLAIM: Passing the FTA will put the US in a better position to pressure Colombia to improve its labor and human rights record.

REALITY: US intervention in Colombia has caused more problems than it has helped and the FTA would only make things worse. Recent investigations by the Colombian Attorney General have uncovered extensive US involvement regarding domestic spying by former President Álvaro Uribe's administration. Information was shared with and analyzed by embassy staff and domestic spying programs were funded by the CIA. Activities included gaining access to the bank accounts, following the families and bugging the offices of Colombian magistrates.

Targets also included labor leaders. According to an August 20, 2011 Washington Post article, "Another unit that operated for eight months in 2005, the Group to Analyze Terrorist Organization Media, assembled dossiers on labor leaders, broke into their offices and videotaped union activists. The United States provided equipment and tens of thousands of dollars, according to an internal DAS report, and the unit’s members regularly met with an embassy official they remembered as 'Chris Sullivan.'"

Furthermore, through Plan Colombia, the US and Colombia adopted policies that reject dialogue and negotiations for peace in favor of a military solution for the country's ongoing civil war, on which the US has spent over $7 billion since 2000. The result has been massive displacement of rural populations, military scandals and murder and disappearances, yet no path opened toward resolution. Meanwhile, non-military aid has more often than not been used to fund programs that augment war and repression.

There is no reason whatsoever to believe that the quest for peace and human rights in Colombia would be bettered by increasing US influence through passage of the pending FTA.

CLAIM: Colombia has already made significant progress in its labor rights record and it deserves for the US to pass the FTA as a reward for Colombia's "good behavior".

REALITY: Colombia continues to lead the world in the number of unionists murdered, year after year registering more assassinations than the rest of the world combined. In 2008 there were 48 unionists murdered, in 2009 there were 29 and in 2010, there were 51, 19 of whom were members of teachers unions. In 2009 the rate of impunity for labor and other political assassinations was 95.6%. In 2010 that rate had gone up to 98.5%, and in 2011 a court study showed the rate to have risen to over 99%.

US corporations are guilty of increasing the violence against unionists. Drummond Coal Company, based in Birmingham, Alabama, was caught making payments to death squads that assassinated union leaders. Chiquita Banana was found guilty in US court and fined for paying death squads, and Coca-Cola has long been implicated in assassinations of unionists at its bottling company.

CLAIM: The Labor Action Plan agreed on by the Obama and Santos administrations has granted important concessions and protections to Colombian unions, and passage of the FTA will help assure that this plan is truly implemented.

REALITY: There is no enforcement mechanism for the concessions in the plan. Furthermore, an AFL-CIO statement says, "...the Labor Action Plan fails to include commitments with regard to collective bargaining in the public sector, collective bargaining above the enterprise level, or collective bargaining over pensions." Most worrisome is that workers are supposed to accept, on good faith, that anti-labor violence and better worker conditions will be assured in the future. But with 3,000 unionists killed in the past 25 years, there’s no good faith left.

CLAIM: Colombia has already made significant progress in its human rights record and it deserves for the US to pass the FTA as a reward for Colombia's "good behavior".

REALITY: Since Santos has taken office, members of the political opposition have been assassinated on an average of one every three days. The estimated number of disappearances has risen from around 50,000 to more than 61,000.

While roughly half of Colombia's people live in poverty and half of its children are not in school (estimates vary from as low as 43% to 65% for both), Colombia has the second highest defense budget in Latin America, following the much bigger Brazil. Instead of building schools, the government has been engaged in a 11 year project, with US funding, to build a series of new prisons to accommodate an explosion in incarceration, including a 300% increase in political arrests.

The Colombian government holds well over 7,500 political prisoners. Only 500 to 1,000 of these are Prisoners of War. The vast majority are in jail for legal and nonviolent resistance. Some 5,000 of these captives are from rural populations. The most common charge against political prisoners is that of "Rebellion". Comparatively, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are holding somewhere between 10 and 20 captives.

CLAIM: Passage of the US-Colombia FTA will help bring peace and stability to Colombia and will renew the confidence of would-be investors.

REALITY: If recent behavior is any indication, the administration of President Santos and the Colombian military have no interest in peace. Nor does the US government, as long as it insists on the military solution to Colombia's conflict.

From August 12-15, 2011, more than 20,000 peasant, indigenous and Afro-Colombian community members, along with representatives from the Catholic Church, national and international human rights defenders and leaders of social and labor movements, gathered for a National Encounter for the Land and Peace. While the conference was commencing, the Colombian military began a commencement of its own, undertaking an indiscriminate and unprovoked bombardment of the municipality of Chaparral, Tolima.

While the Encounter was still underway, Pres. Santos declared the door to negotiations was "closed" and that he had "the key and the key is in my pocket". That same weekend, Santos went on to say that "Advocacy for peace is harmful."

In the weeks preceding and including the Encounter, seven peasant labor leaders and one human rights defender were arbitrarily arrested in Putumayo with no reasons given nor charges made. And in the two weeks following the Encounter, there have already been a number of assassinations, assassination attempts and disappearances of members of the political opposition and unionists.

The best way to increase investor confidence in Colombia is not through war and repression nor via neoliberal trade agreements. What is needed is dialogue that brings together all major sectors of Colombian society to work out a political solution to the conflict. That is the only way to foster an atmosphere of real stability.

CLAIM: The US-Colombia FTA, along with Santos administration's agrarian reform plan, will help develop the rural infrastructure, create new jobs for farm workers, and help reestablish displaced farming families.

REALITY: After some 13 years of Plan Colombia, an estimated 4 to 5 million persons have been forcibly displaced, 60% of these being from farming families and 60 to 70% being women and girls. During the first ten years of Plan Colombia (1998 to 2008), 760,000 peasant families were forcibly removed from over 13.5 million acres. Conversely, paramilitary death squads now control some 10 million acres of the country's most fertile land. In almost all cases where there has been massive displacement, the vacuum has been filled by big landowners, narco-traffickers, agribusinesses and transnational mining and energy corporations.

The Santos agrarian reform plan does more to consolidate displacement and land loss than to make up for it. Farmers who come from families that have cultivated plots for generations are being asked to show titles in areas where titles have never been used or kept. Much of the dispossessed farm land has been replaced by African Palm plantations. Farming families from these areas who are participating in the agrarian reform are being told that they will have to wait until the plantations reap a full crop before they can return. That is a process that takes up to 10 years. Since African Palm plantations are notorious for leaving the soil depleted, when these farmers come back to their plots, they will be trying to raise crops on wasted terrain. Ultimately, only a minority of displaced farmers will be able to return to their land, while ownership will be consolidated for a majority of the interests that have benefited most from the forced removal of rural people.

CLAIM: The US-Colombia FTA, as well as pending FTAs with Panama and South Korea, will bring jobs to workers in all the involved countries.

REALITY: Neoliberal free trade policies have been a big part of the reason that economic crises are taking place all over the world and have led to ever widening gaps between the rich and the poor. Colombia has the second largest gap between the rich and the poor in South America and the eighth largest worldwide, according to the World Bank's World Development Institute. The FTA will make matters worse.

For US workers, FTAs have not lead to more and better jobs, but to blighted, failing cities where industries once thrived and to rural areas where it has become almost impossible for family farms to survive. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) maintains that KORUS will make the US trade deficit with Korea twice as bad, up to $26.9 billion annually within seven years. This will result in 888,000 jobs lost as a result of Korean imports. If one figures in employment created by increased US exports and jobs lost because of the already existing deficit with South Korea, there are some 200,000 jobs that will be lost. The EPI predicts a US-Colombia FTA will result in a loss of 55,000 jobs.

CLAIM: The US Congress and President Obama were elected to listen to, represent and serve the people of the US and to act in their best interests.

REALITY: According to a poll conducted by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal in 2010, the number of US residents surveyed who believe FTAs hurt the country went up to 53% from 32% in 1999. And this unhappiness with FTAs reaches across political perspectives. The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, as well as a separate poll that same year by the Pew Research Center, show that over 60% of both Tea Party sympathizers and union families oppose FTAs. And both Tea Partiers and union members vote at higher rates than the general public. So who is the White House and Congressional Leadership listening to if it is not We, The People?

Will Congress and the White House listen to the US people and stop trying to pass these harmful FTAs? One thing is for sure...they are sure to pass them if we don't stand up and tell them not to.

Follow up on Colombia's Gold Rush

2011-09-07T16:57:00.000-07:00

The following article continues to discuss the "Colombian Gold Rush." and was published by the Council of Hemispheric Affairs, a organization that I know nothing about. But I am impressed with the article!! This article talks about the same issue that the Fault Lines movie shows but in the region where CPT works. We have been accompanying the FEDEAGROMISBOL since the assassination of Alejandro Uribe in 2006.

Colombia’s Gold Rush: The Silver Lining for Paramilitaries and Guerrillas

This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associate Paula Lopez-Gamundi

Colombian government neglect allows for guerrilla and paramilitary groups to extort and tax local miners.
With no distinction between illegal and informal miners, the Colombian government continues to marginalize innocent miners to promote its interest and to facilitate the operations of multinational mining companies.
Multinational mining companies may be funding paramilitary groups in an effort to relocate local populations.

With gold prices soaring to around USD 1,600 per ounce, Colombia has made a concerted effort to stimulate foreign investment in its mining sector.[1] As a result, the Colombian government has favored multinational mining companies over small to medium scale local miners. While this new gold rush represents a significant source of investment and finance for the federal government, it also helps fund Colombia’s four-decade long civil war. After years of government-sponsored eradication, paramilitary and guerrilla armies have begun to abandon coca production and are turning to gold mining, as well as the extortion of mining communities, to generate significant sources of revenue. Moreover, as a result of governmental favoritism, multinational mining corporations utilize national military forces and paramilitaries to harass native populations, local miners, and unionized workers in an effort to force them from their gold-laden lands.

Illegal Taxes on Informal Mining

National army protection of work sites is a standard stipulation in mining contracts between the Colombian government and multinational mining companies. However, informal mining operations, many of which have been passed down by families for generations, are left with no protection to defend themselves against the often- extortive practices of paramilitary and guerrilla forces. Moreover, with no clear distinction between informal and illegal mining at the federal level, local miners face the same punitive measures as paramilitary miners.

Paramilitary and guerilla groups, such as the Rastrojos, the Urabeños, the Paisas, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Oficina de Envigado, force local informal miners in the gold-rich Antioquia, Córdoba and Valle de Cauca departments (or provinces) to pay security fees and taxes on mining equipment. These payments quickly become a great source of revenue for renegade military groups. For example, FARC charges 3,800 Colombian pesos per backhoe and a monthly rent and mining site protection fee of up to 141,000 Colombian pesos.[2] In the northern department of Antioquia, the FARC’s 36^th Front charges between three to eight million pesos (about USD 1,650 and USD 4,500) for each bulldozer entering territory under its control. Verdad Abierta, an independent think tank specifically focused on the Colombian civil war, estimated there are 2,000 bulldozers operating in an area of 8,500 square kilometers alongside rivers in the Bajo Cauca region alone, which is mainly controlled by the Urabeños and the Paisas paramilitaries.[3],[4] With this booming mining sector, it seems that paramilitary and guerrilla groups have identified new-found fuel for their fire.

Bogotá has taken a hard-line stance against illegal mining—an umbrella term that includes paramilitary, guerrilla and informal mining. Jim Wyss from the Miami Herald reported that informal miners repeatedly have been charged for financing paramilitaries and guerrilla groups.[5] Favoring large mining companies, Bogotá’s indiscriminate mine hunt has left poor Colombian miners between a rock and hard place.

The current Minister of Mining and Energy, Carlos Rodado, and president of mining company Mineros S.A., Beatriz Uribe, both agree that at least half of the coal and gold mines in Colombia are illegal.[6],[7] In the Antioquia department alone, 84 percent of mining is non-government sanctioned.[8] Colombian Chamber of Mining (Cámara Colombiana de Minería) has estimated that the mining industry will lose one billion Colombian pesos, or USD 563,233.69, due to illegal mining.[9] The local poor population is attracted to illegal mining because of its profitability. Local miners are then caught in a catch-22. With no protection from the government, local miners are obliged to pay protection fees to paramilitary and guerrilla groups, and are then marginalized by the government for aiding these rebel groups.

When Multinationals Attack

In their quest to belligerently relocate indigenous afro-Colombian communities and local miners, multinational mining companies have become infamous for their under-the-table deals with the Colombian government, military, and paramilitaries. Specifically, Canadian mining companies Greystar Resources, B2Gold and South-African mining company AngloGold Ashanti are just a few of the multinationals that are not averse to using their extreme wealth to threaten, extort, displace, kidnap and assassinate common Colombians in their hunt for gold.

Both AngloGold Ashanti and Toronto-based B2Gold Company have industrial mining sites throughout the southern part of the Bolívar department, which makes up part of the Magdalena Medio region. This volatile area has been plagued with violence and displacement since the peak of coca production in the 1980s. According to Magdalena Medio’s Development and Peace Project, 116,453 people in the region were forcibly displaced between 1994 and 2007, with 53,202 of the displaced individuals from southern Bolívar.[10] Moreover, 2,355 Magdalena Medio civilians died from political violence between 1997 and 2007; 380 of these victims were from southern Bolívar. Between these years, paramilitaries were responsible for 75% of human rights violations, with another 5% of crimes attributed to the FARC, 4% to the Colombian Army and 2% to another Marxist guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN).[11] The disproportionate amount of political violence and displacement in southern Bolívar is indicative of the pressure put on Colombian communities by multinational mining companies.

While there are no official links between these international mining corporations, paramilitaries, and the national army, on the ground, trade union figures and local community members tell a different story. Human rights groups MiningWatch Canada, Inter Pares and CENSAT-Agua Viva have reported that paramilitaries and Colombian soldiers told local residents that their “operations are designed to protect the interests of international mining companies in the area.’”[12] Paramilitaries and soldiers are simply carrying out the policy of the Colombian government—a policy that greatly enhances the interests of multinational mining companies at the expense of local communities.

Mining and labor unions have been particularly targeted. After the assassination of union leader Alejandro Uribe by the Colombian National Army’s Nueva Granada Anti-Aircraft Battalion in 2006, Teófilo Acuña, president of the Agriculture and Mining Federation of Southern Bolívar (FEDEAGROMISBOL), was falsely arrested for organizing meetings where anti-multinational sentiments were expressed.[13] Moreover, the Águilas Negras, a right-wing paramilitary group, have sent death threats to nine people and organizations, including FEDEAGROMISBOL, because these targets are “’against the presences of multinationals, against the presence of the Army.’”[14] The common Colombian is not receiving adequate protection due to Bogotá’s bias in favoring multinational corporations. Ignoring or financially backing threats, forced evictions, and the killing of local union leaders, as well as community members, signals that the Colombian government and multinational companies are hardly sensitive to civic guarantee, and may even be directly responsible for human rights abuses against Colombian dissidents.

Another Canadian mining company, Greystar Resources, has carried out extensive gold exploration through its Angostura project, operating 55 kilometers away from Bucaramanga the capital city of Santander department. This year, Greystar has been fighting off pressure from environmental activists, small-scale miners, and peasant farmers as a result of its decision to expand the open-pit Angostura mine; this deposit is said to contain more that 11 million ounces of gold.[15]

The Land and Conflict Report by MiningWatch Canada, Inter-Pares and CENSAT-Agua Viva details Greystars’ occupation strategy: the multinational first enters into an agreement with the Army to secure the area, “define the area to be mine[d], put up a military base financed by the company, and buy up the corresponding land.”[16] The National Centre for Indigenous Cooperation asserts that this method is commonly used by all multinationals working in the area. Paramilitaries generate revenue from gaining control of the land and colluding with multinational corporations and sometimes the Colombian government itself (see 2006 “parapolítica” scandal).[17]

By the same token, investigative reporting done by Al Jazeera’s Faultlines has revealed a surge in death threats from the right-wing paramilitary group—the New Generation of Black Eagles—to residents of a small afro-American gold mining community in Cauca.[18] This surge coincides with AngloGold Ashanti’s newfound interest in gold exploration in that region, thereby raising the question of whether or not the multinational is orchestrating these attacks from behind the scenes.

Fool’s Gold

While there should be a vehement campaign against illegal mining, the Colombian government and armed forces must make a clear distinction between paramilitary and guerrilla-run illegal mining, and informal mining. Until Bogotá begins to put the interests of the people before those of multinational mining companies, the Colombian population at large will continue to be victims in this often sanguine, futile quest for El Dorado.

References for this article can be found here.

"Colombia Gold Rush"

2011-08-29T08:09:00.000-07:00

Video produced by AlJazeera on Fault Lines

Here is a good video about the "price" of gold in colombia. It would be a good follow up on my blog post talking about the deteriorating of human rights in the Magdelena Media. A human rights defender in Colombia and one of CPTs partners recently commented to me that, "Gold has become the new coca in the region" In that, illegal armed groups that have military and political power are attempting to control gold mining in the region to receive the economic profits that come with it. Therefore it is no wonder that much of the violence in the region is directed at small mining communities that are committed to stay on their lands. .

Look at This Paradise That has been Given to Us

2011-08-29T07:37:00.000-07:00

Originally posted by Tim Nafziger at his blog "As of Ye Untitled"

Photo by Tim Nafziger

Earlier this month I was speaking with my friend Chris about a talk he heard by Ched Myers on bioregionalism. One of the key concepts from the presentation was, "You can't save what you don't love, and you can't love what you don't know." In other words, instead of thinking of abstract ideas like "environmentalism," we need to get to know our own place or "bio-region".

Ched touches on similar themes in his recent blog post titled with a similar quote, "We Won’t Save Places We Don’t Love." He compares the way suburbanites relate to their place to the way farmers and indigenous communities relate to the land they live and on which they work.

Chris has been working with Christian Peacemaker Team's local partners in Colombia since August 2008 when he graduated from the first training that I helped with after joining CPT. He pointed out that our local partners are not struggling for abstract concepts like justice or environmentalism. They are fighting for places that they know intimately.

Chris says:

    For example, CPT Colombia is accompanying The Southern Bolivar Agricultural-Mining Federation (AGROMISBOL), which is a network of primarily subsistence small-scale miners throughout the entire Sierra de San Lucas mountain range, a mountain range rich in natural resources such as gold and water. The livelihoods and life-styles of these miners and farmers is in jeopardy because of military and paramilitary efforts to clear the land in order to provide international corporate mining unfettered access to resources.

    Of course these communities are concerned about issue-based politics, such as environmentalism, classism and the right to an education. But the fundamental core to their resistance is about remaining on the land they know and love. Recently, one member of these communities, spoke to exactly this by telling me, "Look at this paradise that has been given to us. We won't give up easily and leave this land. Look at the resistance here – they threaten us, cut us, assassinate us, but we continue to stay because the riches of this country are for the Colombian people. God has given us this.”

This holds true beyond the Colombia team. In Iraq, much of the team's work has been with families displaced from their homes in the mountainous border region between Iraq and Turkey and Iraq and Iran. The impact of the bombings is tied directly to its impact on their land. One recent release from the team begins with this quote from a village leader,"The tomatoes will be ready in a few days, Yesterday there was bombing on this mountain."

I've already written on this blog about the First Nations community in Ontario that stood up to logging companies who tried to strip their land bare. In Palestine, the community of At-Tuwani has for years nonviolently resisted violent attempts by Israeli settlers to displace them.

Often I find that when I write or talk about peace and justice work, people begin to throw around terms like "leftist ideology." My conversation with Chris helped me realize that the central desire for CPT partners flows not out of these abstractions but out of a knowledge of and love for a place. It's also the reason for the endurance and strength of these communities in the face of such immense odds.

We can see the images of bio-regionalism running through the Bible, especially in prophetic visions of peace and justice, such as in Micah 4:3-4:

    3 God will judge between many peoples
    and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.
    They will beat their swords into plowshares
    and their spears into pruning hooks.
    Nation will not take up sword against nation,
    nor will they train for war anymore.
    4 Every one will sit under their own vine
    and under their own fig tree,
    and no one will make them afraid,
    for God Almighty has spoken.

This image in verse four is not an abstract idea; it is concretely realized in the plants and fruits of Isaiah's bio-region: the fig tree and the grape vine. God's vision of shalom is for the whole world, but it is realized in the particulars of our place and our home.

For those of us who have grown up in the suburbs or cities of North America, there is a clear challenge to participate in what Ched calls "re-place-ment". In our work as Christian Peacemaker Teams, our partners invite us into this practice through the witness of their lives and their love for the land God has given them.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Tim Nafziger is a activist, writer, organizer and web developer. He lives in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago with his wife Charletta where he attends Living Water Community Church. He is the administrator for the Young Anabaptist Radicals blog and serves as Outreach Coordinator for Christian Peacemaker Teams. For more about his life, read his first blog post.

U.S. wants Free Trade Agreement with Colombia while Human Rights Deteriorate Culminating in a Massacre

2011-08-26T07:22:00.000-07:00

     While the United States considers a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Colombia, the human rights situation in the Magdalena Medio region of Colombia has deteriorated dramatically, culminating on the 17th of August with a massacre in the township of El Dorado.

      The United States House of Representatives and Senate will probably vote on the long standing FTA when they return from their congressional break. By saying that the human rights situation in Colombia is improving and praising the passing of the labor plan, which does not address the wide spread violence against small farmers and miners, Washington believes that the time is now to move forward on the agreement.

      However, facts on the ground in the Magdalena Medio region tell another story. A wave of human rights violations, assassinations, and massacres has shaken the region. For example, in the city of Barrancamerbeja, from August 13th to 18th, the organization Human Rights Workers’ Forum of Barrancabermeja (Espacio de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras de Derechos Humanos) documented two assassinations, two forced disappearances, five attempted assassinations, and the kidnapping of three contract workers.

     Furthermore, in the Sierra de San Lucas mountain range the agricultural and mining communities are also being targeted. This region is rich in natural resources such as gold. With the price of gold rising, multi-national companies who stand to benefit from a FTA with Colombia are seeking even more concessions in the region. One human rights worker said that, “We are facing wave of violence that has not been seen since the paramilitary group Auto-Defense Forces entered the region the late-90's.”

     From November to August of this year, Fedeagromisbol, a federation of primarily subsistence small-scale miners and peasant farmers throughout the entire Sierra de San Lucas mountain range in South Bolívar, documents that there were sixteen assassinations in the region and twenty cases of abuses and harassment.

       August 17th marks the culmination of these abuses against agricultural and mining communities. Around 7pm, in the community of Casa Zinc, which is part of township EL Dorado in the municipality of Monte Cristo, Bolivar, twenty armed men entered the community and identified themselves as the Black Eagles, which is a known paramilitary group. They gathered the community together and assassinated Pedro Sierra, a small farmer. They then tortured and cut out the tongues of Ivan Serrano, a local shop owner, and Luis Albeiro Ropero, a young miner, before they killing them.   This all happened while the Colombian Army was just twenty minutes away.

      On the 21st of August, local human rights organizations, Fedeagromisbol and the Christian Peacemaker Teams among others traveled to the region to investigate the massacre. On their way, they received a call that the paramilitary group still was present in the community four days after the massacre. The investigation commission was unable to arrive to the community and accompany them because the Colombian government could not guarantee the safety of anyone entering the region.

      As with most of the human rights violations in Colombia, they are committed with the complacence of the Colombian government and armed forces, a government that is now pushing for a Free Trade Agreement with the United States. Sadly, the massacre in Casa Zinc is not an oddity. Most of the horrific violence happens either at the hands of the Colombia Armed Forces or with them idly standing by twenty minutes away.   The U.S. government cannot move forward on a FTA by claiming that the human rights situation has improved when the reality on the ground tells otherwise.

The War on Drugs has it's 40th Birthday.

2011-06-24T07:37:00.000-07:00

The War on Drugs just turned 40 and number of people have been writing about the failure of this policy in the United States. A policy that has cost about 1 trillion dollar. For a good look at the effects of the drug war on the Domestic Side, You should check out this article by Colorlines: "Evaluating the Drug War on Its 40th Birthday, by the Numbers"

I have written on this blog a couple times about how the United States has used the"War on Drugs" in Colombia as a pretext for land take over. Here is a great piece looking at the broader Central American and Caribbean reason behind the "War on Drugs." by John Lindsay-Poland from the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Pentagon Using Drug Wars as Excuse to Build Bases in Latin America

Under the auspices of the drug war, the United States is returning to its historical pattern of using Central America and the Caribbean for its own military and strategic purposes.

Even as a growing chorus of voices throughout Latin America argue that military responses to drug trafficking are ineffective against the narcotics trade and exacerbate existing human rights abuses and official corruption, the U.S. military presence in the region is growing.

U.S. military construction in Central and South America has more than doubled in the last two years, while a U.S. buildup on military bases in Colombia continues, despite a Colombian court ruling last summer that struck down an agreement for U.S. use of the bases.

Construction of military facilities is slated for this summer in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Belize, funded from an account for “counter-narco-terrorism” operated by the U.S. Southern Command (SouthCom), the Pentagon’s operations arm for Latin America, according to the Army Corps on Engineers plans. But the biggest Pentagon investments are in Panama and at the U.S. air base in Soto Cano, Honduras. [see interactive map for details]

The surge in U.S. military investment in the region parallels statements by SouthCom commanderDouglas Fraser that the triangle formed by Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala “is possibly the most violent place on Earth today.”

Congress approved a $25 million expansion of barracks for enlisted troops at the U.S. base in Soto Cano, Honduras, located 50 miles north of the capital in Tegucigalpa. The base houses about 500 U.S. troops, as well as support personnel, and served as a way-station for the aircraft that whisked President Manuel Zelaya out of Honduras during the June 2009 military coup,according to Zelaya and a leaked State Department cable. Zelaya had proposed making the base intro a commercial airport in 2008. Now, a new operating center for U.S. Special Forces troops is being built on the base.

The U.S. has also funded military base construction at Caratasca on the Atlantic Coast, which is described in Pentagon contracts as a “forward operating location,” and in April disclosed another base that is being built on Guanaja Island, on Honduras’ Caribbean coast, which will be a counter-narco-terrorism operations center and barracks. The amount of Pentagon contracts for activities in Honduras signed in the six months after the coup ($19.2 million) was more than double the amount from the same period two years earlier.

The Pentagon is also constructing bases, especially naval bases, elsewhere along the Central American coast, and conducting extensive joint military exercises and training in the region. Even in El Salvador, where center-left Mauricio Funes is president, the United States will lead a massive Special Forces exercise in June, with the participation of troops from 25 nations. The Pentagon is also designing and building a $665,000 “shoot house” for U.S. Special Forces troops in El Salvador, to be completed in August.

In Guatemala, the United States last year conducted training and renovated barracks for the infamous Kaibiles special forces units, which have a base in the remote Petén department. The participation of Kaibiles in Guatemala’s attempted genocide was well documented, and more recently former Kaibilies were reported to have worked with the Zetas in Mexico, former soldiers who serve drug cartels as hired killers.

U.S. construction of a base does not necessarily mean that the United States will have title to the base or keep personnel there. But it is an intelligence asset to know in detail another nation’s military base, and it contributes to “interoperability” —that is, integration—of armed forces.

Remilitarizing Panama

Although the Panama Canal Treaties required closure of U.S. bases in that nation in 1999, the Pentagon has had an increasing presence in Panama in the last decade, as indicated by more than 700 contracts signed by Defense Department agencies for projects there since 1999. These include the construction of five different military bases on Panama’s coasts. [see map]

In April, Panama announced the establishment on a former U.S. military base of the Regional Security Operations Center, which will host military troops from the rest of Central America and the Dominican Republic and be linked to a Southern Command surveillance base in Florida. The center echoes an unsuccessful 1990s proposal to establish a “Multinational Counternarcotics Center” on U.S. bases on the canal, as a way to maintain a U.S. military presence there. Panama hasn’t yet disclosed if the new center will include a U.S. presence.

In June, Central American leaders will gather in Guatemala, where the United States, the Inter-American Development Bank, and other nations will be urged to pitch in nearly a billion dollars to support a largely military regional security plan. The United States has committed $200 million as part of its own Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARSI), not including Pentagon funds. Yet “officials from nearly every Central American nation maintain that the region was not sufficiently involved in the formulation of …CARSI,” the Congressional Research Service reported in March.

Cycles of U.S. Military Presence, Retreat and Advance

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, when the United States frequently intervened militarily in Central America and the Caribbean, it did so primarily from the sea, using gunboats to impose its will during a period when it lacked fixed military bases in the region. The installations it established were often coaling stations to supply its naval power. That changed with the establishment of bases in Panama, Cuba, and Puerto Rico in the early twentieth century and World War II. Panama became the regional hub.

In the 1950s, the United States built up the Panama National Guard, which morphed into a more nationalistic and militarized force in the 1960s and 70s. In the wake of the 1989 U.S. invasion that dismantled Panama’s armed forces, the country constitutionally abolished the military.

The implementation of the Panama Canal Treaties in 1999, the expulsion of the U.S. military from Vieques, Puerto Rico, in 2003 and from Ecuador in 2009, the anti-imperialist influences on many regional governments, and the rise of Brazil and China as superpower players in the hemisphere, have placed U.S. military activities in Latin America on a more defensive footing.

Most of the military bases being constructed in Central America are naval bases, while the 2008 activation of the Fourth Fleet to deploy in Latin America has increased the tempo of naval exercises. The United States military, again, is coming mostly from the sea.

The projects bankrolled by the Pentagon for Panama include the use of drones in Panama by Stark Aerospace, a division of Israel Defense Industries, as well as an upgrade to firing ranges. Stark is a small firm based in Mississippi whose primary business is producing drones, including both unarmed surveillance vehicles and an armed “Hunter” drone that has been used for bombing missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The firing ranges being upgraded became a thorn in canal treaty implementation in the late 1990s because of the tens of thousands of explosives left behind on live fire areas on the banks of the canal.

Plan Colombia, Continued

The U.S. military buildup in Central America runs parallel to similar developments in Colombia. There, the United States and Colombia signed an agreement in October 2009 that would have given the United States military use of seven bases in Colombia for ten years.

Last August, Colombia’s Constitutional Court struck down the agreement, because it was never submitted for Congressional approval or judicial review. Yet, even after the agreement was declared “non-existent” by Colombia’s highest court, the Pentagon initiated unprecedented amounts of new construction on bases in Colombia, including for an “Advanced Operations Base” for U.S. special forces.

U.S. military agencies in September 2010 signed contracts for construction worth nearly $5 million at three bases, according to official U.S. documents. U.S. military contracts for Tolemaida in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, were larger than the four previous years combined.

The contracts included two for an “Advanced Operations Base” for the U.S. Southern Command special operations unit in Tolemaida, a training base located south of Bogota. The special operations unit, known as SOCSOUTH, has as its mission “the use of small units in direct or indirect military actions that are focused on strategic or operational objectives,” including “provid[ing] an immediately deployable theater crisis response force.”

“It is a flagrant violation of sovereignty,” according to former Constitutional Court magistrate Alfredo Beltrán Sierra. “Remember that the government already tried to justify the establishment of U.S. troops with a disguised agreement that the Court finally overturned,” he said.

The base agreement also provoked strong regional opposition in 2009 after Pentagon planning and budget documents referred to “anti-U.S. governments” and the use of “full spectrum operations” in the region, indicating that the Pentagon seeks to project military power in South America. The construction now of a U.S. “advanced operations base” in Colombia raises similar concerns.

Besides the new contracts naming military bases, there were also military contracts for $2.5 million in construction at unnamed locations in Colombia signed in September. Another military construction contract described as being for “Talemaida Avaition” [sic] for $5.5 million was signed in October 2009, just days before the United States and Colombia signed the base agreement.Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) obtained the contract information from a public website that posts federal contract information, including where the contracts will be carried out.

There is a growing chorus of voices, including former Latin American presidents, as well as Mexicans fed up with the war paradigm, who assert that military responses to drug traffickers are only making the problem worse. The question is, how will civil society in Latin America and the United States respond to the growing U.S. military buildup?

John Lindsay-Poland is research and advocacy director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and author of Emperors in the Jungle: The Hidden History of the U.S. in Panama (Duke).

Book Review: Captivity, 118 days in Iraq and the Struggle for a World without War

2011-06-18T16:58:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading the book, Captivity, 118 days in Iraq and the Struggle for a World without War, by James Loney, fellow Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) member and Catholic Worker

I would suggest to anyone that is seeking to create a better world to pick up this book.

The book is the story of when James Loney and three other Christian Peacemaker Teams members, Tom Fox, Harmeet Singh Soode, and Norman Kember, were kidnapped in Iraq while participating in delegation and held for 118 days. It is a book about humanity in all its paradoxes - a humanity that searches for freedom and forgiveness.

James Loney tells his story through the human experience -the real human experience of being a peacemaker in a place at war. In the book, the peacemakers don’t make peace. The war continues to rage. People continue in captivity all over the world. There is no hero in the story. However, he does show us that peacemaking can be done daily in the worst of circumstances. It is done in his resistance to the dehumanization of captivity – the cleaning of the room and the washing of the clothes. It is done in the daily struggle to see his kidnappers as human beings – the praying for the captor’s sick sister and the massaging of the back of his captors.

Through the telling of his experience, Loney tells the story of the world that searches for liberation from the captivity of violence and war. He writes as a reminder of the true human cost of war: the hundreds of thousands Iraqis that have been killed, the young soldiers occupying the country that have lost their lives, and of course Tom Fox, who was taken away and killed on the 79th day of captivity. He writes on day 111, “Killing- any kind, no matter for what – all killing disgusts me. I’m sick to death of it. Seeing it on the news, hearing about it, watching movies about it. The glorification and idolization of it. The money that’s spent on it. The orders and justifications for it. There must come a day when killing will finally be seen for what it is: a collective insanity, a moral scourge, a blasphemy against God and against the human.”

Furthermore, Loney’s experience shows the terrible cycle of violence that we have created, while also demonstrating a way out of it – forgiveness. As Loney states at the end of the introduction, “It is the story my captivity and what I saw there – of the human spirit and freedom, of violence and the war and the way to find our liberation from it. As with any paradox, there is no answer to it; it can only be lived. I tell this story in hope that we might yet find another way.”

Thank you for sharing your story James Loney.

Timeline of Plan Colombia

2011-06-17T13:57:00.001-07:00

This timeline is from the website, "Insight Crime." , Which is worth a look !!!

Plan Colombia on Dipity.

Five Things White Activist Should Never Say.

2011-06-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

By freelark

If I’m to be a white ally, I figure I should take some of the burden off people of color to explain what’s wrong with some of the things white people say. With that in mind I’ve decided to compile a list of things that white people — specifically, white activists — should never say.

While reading this list, keep in mind that I’m drawing heavily from my own experience. There are plenty of fucked up things white people can say. However, with one exception I’ve decided to focus on blatantly racist comments that I’ve heard first hand. Also, I tend to mention anarchists a lot, because I used to be an anarchist, so I organized with other anarchists. This does not mean that white anarchists have a monopoly on racism. In many cases one could substitute the term social liberal or socialist for anarchist, and the point would still be applicable.

1. “They belong to that religion.”

I have yet to visit an activist group with religious homogeneity. That said, in my experience certain religious views are more acceptable among activists than others. If a disproportionate number of the people who hold a religious stance are European or of European descent, the stance is acceptable. So it’s okay to be an atheist, a pagan, or a Quaker. If a religious stance doesn’t meet this criterion, it tends to be viewed with suspicion.

In the U.S. white activists reserve scorn for the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) that they have for few other religious institutions. It would be outside the scope of this piece to argue that the RCC is good or bad. But I will point out that it’s folly to treat Catholics as a monolithic, univocal group that stands opposite of everything activists believe in. Individual Catholics have differences of opinion on pretty much everything, and often membership to the church (as is the case with so many other religious institutions) has more to do with wanting to preserve family or community ties than with adhering to a certain set of doctrines. If white people don’t want to alienate people of color from their organizing, they’re going to have to learn to show more tolerance for the religions they adhere to.

2. “All nationalism is bad.”

The idea that all nationalism, including ethnic nationalism, is bad is often rooted in anarchism, an ideology that was first propounded by European men in the nineteenth century and which since then has drawn more than its fair share of white thinkers. Even if we set this aside, white people who raise the “all nationalism is bad” objection often miss the point that the essence of ethnic nationalism has nothing to do with what anarchists mean by state and everything to do with racial or ethnic identity.

It’s important to keep in mind that some people link themselves to a nation in order to express racial or ethnic identity rather than allegiance to a state. If white people can avoid doing this, this doesn’t mean that they’re all awesome anti-statists; rather it means that they have the privilege of being part of the group that is seen as the default racial or ethnic group. When white activists forget this, it’s a disaster in the making. For example, I once saw an activist remove a poster from a wall, simply because it said (when translated), “I am as Puerto Rican as the coquí.” The message, which should be obvious to anyone who claims to be anti-racist, has nothing to do with a particular state; it is that one’s ethnic identity is something to be proud of.

3. “I know what it’s like to face racist oppression; I face oppression too.”

No, unless you’ve experienced racism you do not know what it’s like to experience racism.
I used to find this response somewhat confusing. Surely, racist oppression isn’t completely disanalogous to other kinds of oppression, right? After all, don’t we use much the same vocabulary — words like privilege, oppression, and intersectionality — while discussing all kinds of oppression? And can’t someone who faces one sort of opression gain insight into another by making a comparison? I think the answer to all these questions is a very cautious yes — cautious because there’s a danger lurking just around the corner. If comparing racist oppression to your oppression helps you realize that something you said or did was racist, then it’s probably a good thing that you made the comparison. Even so, before you share your insight with the world you should run it by someone who faces both kinds of oppression, because no matter how oppressed or well-intentioned you may be, you’re still coming from a perspective of white privilege and you may be wrong about something crucial. Better yet, start reading the works of people who face multiple kinds of oppression and let them guide you into appropriate analogies.

The danger of white people’s comparisons is that often the only “insight” gained from analogy is that because the white people making it are oppressed, they can never be racist. This denies one of the central components of anti-oppression work which is that the oppressed have unique insight into their oppression by virtue of having experienced the oppression, including the ways in which it is disanalogous to other kinds of oppression. This is important, because it may be that it was just these disanalogous elements were at play when you said what you did five minutes ago and that what you said is therefore racist for reasons you don’t understand. Not incidentally, the unique knowledge that an oppressed group has is known as the epistemic privilege of the oppressed. If your goal is to eliminate inequality, you don’t want to appropriate one of the few kinds of privilege that oppressed people have, do you?

Though many examples of analogies gone wrong could be listed, I’ll give only one here — one that’s limited to activist circles. Some activists are inclined to make statements like, “I know what it’s like to be black; I’m an anarchist.” I think what often happens is that white activists identify one sort of oppression, such as state oppression, as the Big Evil. They don’t see that other oppressive forces besides the Big Evil are at work and therefore they fail to see that some people face oppression that they don’t comprehend. If you’re white and have gone to jail for political reasons, that is unfortunate, but this does not mean you know what it’s like to be a person of color. As a white person, you have the privilege of choosing whether or not to engage in political activities that may land you in jail; people of color can abstain from such activities and still end up in jail simply for being people of color. As a white person, you will probably be treated better in jail than a person of color who is your counterpart. As a white person, you don’t know what it’s like to experience the racist oppression people of color experience outside of jail. As a white person, you don’t know what it’s like to be a person of color in white activists’ space, hearing white people say that they know exactly what it’s like to experience racist oppression. In short it is incredibly myopic to think that one point of (apparent) commonality gives white people insight into what it’s like to be people of color.

4. “If we focus on this other kind of oppression, racism will disappear.”

In the previous section I noted a tendency of white people to fail to see any oppression outside of the oppression they consider the Big Evil. In a related phenomenon white people will, while perhaps acknowledging that orther kinds oppression exist, argue that without the Big Evil other forms of oppression would not exist. Therefore anyone who confronts other kinds of oppression is only treating symptoms; the only cure for society’s ills is to fight the Big Evil. The Big Evil could be statism, sexism, or any number of other things, but I’d like to focus on classism, because in my experience it’s named as the Big Evil in activist circles more than anything else.

If this piece were about the oppressions I face, you’d see I have a lot to say against classism. However, it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to focus on it here. All too often white activists derail conversations about racism by bringing up classism. The problem with white activists’ saying that racism reduces to classism is that it is an attempt to keep people of color from directly confronting their oppression so that they will instead confront an oppression that directly affects white people.

To support the claim that racism reduces to classism some white activists point out that in the US at least racist institutions were established as a part of divide-and-conquer scheme to keep the working class from rising up against the upper class. Setting aside the fact that this gives an account of only some racist institutions (the expansion that drove Native Americans west, for example, was already well underway), the argument presupposes that if working class white people had not bought into the view that they were superior to their black counterparts, they may have succeeded in revolting against the upper class. In other words white people’s racism prevented the demise of classism. I do not mean to say that we should make a reversal and say that generally speaking classism is reducible to racism. However, I do mean to say that racism is a problem in its own right.

5. “There are no people of color in our activist group; let’s go to a meeting of people of color and invite them to join our group.”

Many white activists have the impression that they have arrived. They think they no longer have any racist bullshit they need to work on. Therefore if people of a particular racial or ethnic group don’t want to work with them, it must be because they have yet to be informed the awesomeness that is their group of white activists.

There’s a reason I’m putting this remark last. I hope that after even a small sampling of racist comments white activists make — there are many others that aren’t included here — it’s apparent just how ridiculous it is to think that the only matter keeping people of various ethnic and racial minorities out of a given activist group is a lack of information. If an organization has disproportionately few people of color as members, it’s often because people of color don’t see how it benefits them, and that is often because the organization has racist tendencies that it has yet to address.

Perhaps the bigger problem with this remark is that it’s blatantly tokenizing. The people who make it aren’t primarily interested in forming a diverse coalition to confront the problems that people of color face; if they were, they’d visit the meeting of the people of color regularly and ask them how they could help without expecting glory for themselves or their organization. Instead they want to use people of color to make their activist group more diverse. They are making one more thing — segregation itself! — the responsibility of people of color.

Via Beyond White Guilt

Seeking Peace in Colombia???

2011-06-11T05:57:00.000-07:00

You know what still amazes me? Many people still believe that the war in Colombia is about drugs and the US intervention is to stop the drug trade to the Global North. In this blog, i have written many times that drugs is a small part of what pushes the war in Colombia, but an important part to understand. But if, US intervention was only about stopping the drug trade they would not say that Plan Colombia is one of the greatest success stories in US Foreign Policy History and a policy that they are implementing in Mexico, Central America, Afganistan.

We must ask ourselves why is that? How can the US Say that their great success story is Foreign Policy history consist of 5,000,000 displaced people, 60,000 disappeared, and a countless number murdered? while, at the same time, the flow of drugs to the Global North has not decreased?

Well, the answer is land. which is also the root of the conflict in Colombia, going as far back as the beginning for the war. we cannot talk about the the conflict in Colombia without talking about LAND. Who has it? who wants it?

US policy has helped remove 5,000,000 people from their lands, and those that didn't leave and stayed and struggled where killed. A policy that is continued today. Where does this land go after people are displaced and killed? well to the multinational corporations and the mega-projects - of course. the palm oil companies, the mining companies, the oil companies, the banana companies. ect ect.

well now, that these companies have access to these lands and are now exploiting them and for that the united states is happy and they consider Plan Colombia the greatest success story in US History.

However the story does not end yet. we still see thousands of Colombians risking their lives non-violently struggling for Human rights, Justice, and a right to remain on and/or return to their land.

I would like to offer this video that a friend of mine produced. May the title speak for itself: "Land and Territory: The Key to Peace in Colombia. "

Beyond a Brave New World: Anarchism and Christianity for the Coming Age

2011-06-09T16:16:00.000-07:00

I will be presenting at the Jesus Radicals Conference this year, entitled " Beyond a Brave New World:
Anarchism and Christianity for the Coming Age." If anyone is interested in attending it is well worth it. The Jesus Radicals are really doing some amazing work weaving Christianity and Anarchism into theory and practice. There website is here: http://www.jesusradicals.com/.

I would recommend :

1) Any of the iconocasts: http://www.jesusradicals.com/category/iconocast/
2) The two articles on Holy Queering. Part 1: http://www.jesusradicals.com/a-holy-queering-rewilding-civilized-sexualities/ and part 2: http://www.jesusradicals.com/a-holy-queering-part-two/

Here is a description of the presentation i will be giving:

Over the years, Christian Anarchists from the United States have developed and sharpened their analysis—redefining what it means to be a Christian living in empire and in the civilization project. However, we cannot stay in the theoretical. Jesus was a practitioner. How do we put this analysis into practice in a globalized context? Communities all over the world have been resisting empire for generations. How do enter into partnerships with them, learn from them, and become allies in a global struggle for liberation? When does our analysis reinforce practices based on privilege and power and when does it help us enter into ally-ship for mutual liberation? This session is rooted in two years experience on the ground in Colombia with Christian Peacemaker Teams and their journey of decolonized praxis in nonviolent resistance.

More information about the Conference:

Beyond a Brave New World:
Anarchism and Christianity for the Coming Age
July 29 & 30, 2011

Location
Faith Mennonite Church
Minneapolis, Minn.

The ninth annual Jesus Radicals conference is scheduled for July 29-30 at Faith Mennonite Church in Minneapolis, Minn. The event will be co-hosted by the Missio Dei community.

This year’s theme is loosely inspired by themes, from Aldous Huxley’s work, Brave New World and will be organized into three core areas, including:

1. Understanding the emerging technologies and forms of social control that will affect our futures
2. Identifying the practices and social structures that condition us so that we are either unwilling or unable to resist these forces of oppression. (Or, to reference Huxley, naming our “somas”)
3. Exploring concrete ways we can live as anarchists and radical followers of Jesus in this unfolding reality.

A Voice is Heard in Resistence

2011-06-09T15:49:00.000-07:00

“A voice was heard in Ramah,

wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children

she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”

-Matthew 2:18

Throughout history, there are examples of governments resorting to the most barbaric acts of violence to remain in power. In the Christian tradition the Gospel of Matthew reminds us of this reality through the story of the massacre of the holy innocents and the history of the Patriotic Union in Colombia is reminder that we still live it today.

The Gospel narrative of Matthew clearly places the massacre of the innocents in political context. Herod the Great, a king of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee for Imperial Rome, feared that the birth of Jesus would be a threat to his power. Fearing that his throne would be in jeopardy, he did what governments do best. He called on his army and “he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under.” (Matthew 2:16)

During the time of Herod, this type of state repression was not uncommon. The historian Josephus, wrote that Herod “never stopped avenging and punishing every day those who had chosen to be of the party of his enemies.”

Today in Colombia the massacre continues.

The Patriotic Union (UP) was a legitimate political party that formed in 1985 when Colombia’s revolution army, The FARC, reached an agreement with Colombia’s President, Belisario Betancur. The Patriotic Union was presented as an exit for FARC members who believed the electoral process offered a solution to Colombians long lived civil war.

The UP quickly gained popularity throughout Colombia and in their first elections they elected 5 senators, 9 congress members, 14 state representatives, 23 mayors, and 351 city council members. But as the Gospel of Mathew reminds us, those that felt their power was in jeopardy responded. Since 1985 the UP have been victims of 30 massacres and 6,000 assassinations.

One of the massacres took place in Segovia, Antioquia. From 1985 to 1988, the city of Segovia was seeking political change and after the UP won the elections in March 1998. However, the “Herods” of the time did not like the change and on the night of November 11th, paramilitary forces with the help of the Colombian Army entered the city and killed 43 people and wounding forty. This barbaric act was specific in its mission, which was to rid the city of all UP supporters.

Today, the history of the UP is justly referred to as“Genocide,” given the U.N. General Assemblies’ definition as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” Presently, almost all of their members have been murdered with the help of the United States through the School of Americas/WHINSC by Colombian state security forces and paramilitary forces. The few survivors that remain and the Human Rights Groups that seek to remember the victims, like Rachel in the Matthew story, “refuse to be consoled” until justice and reparations are a reality.

Since that day, Segovia has never been the same. For 22 years, Segovia has wept for her children in silence. However, on November 11th 2010, after 22 years, I watched as survivors of the massacre publicly commemorated it for the first time. Twenty two years of fear finally overcome.

Silence the weapons so that women and the people may speak.

2010-07-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

For the last year, I have been working with CPT Colombia as part of the Women’s Social Movement against War and for Peace in Colombia. This movement will host the first annual Women’s and People’s International Summit of the Americas against the militarization from August 16th to the 23rd. Thousands of individuals, along with women’s social organizations and gendered mixed social organizations that opposed the growing militarization of the Americas will meet to work together during this summit.

People from Honduras, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, France, Spain, the United States, Canada, Colombia, among others, will share their concerns about how the United States military is expanding in the region. This military buildup has been approved by many governments in the region to further strengthen and expand their own armies while denying the social rights of the people with serious effects on women caused by the historic social and economic discrimination. The Summit will be discussion the recent military treaty signed between the governments of Álvaro Uribe from Colombia and Barack Obama from United States and how this military expansion impacts the continent

The Women of the Americas will raise their voice to say "My body is my house, my house is my territory. I won’t give away the keys "and" “Silence the weapons so that women and the people may speak." They will discuss and define joint actions to mobilize and impact issues such as sexual violence, social control, and other forms of gender violence used against women in contexts of armed conflict and militarized environments. Moreover, they will discuss the consequences of a development model that is imposed by weapon and is responsible for the poverty and inequality all over the world.

FOR release detailed report about US funding gross human rights violations in Colombia!

2010-07-29T12:27:00.000-07:00

This week, the Wikileaks "Collateral Murder" scandal has rocked the world. Its explosive findings have described a U.S. military unaccountable to its own nation's laws and human rights policy, including the deaths of hundreds of innocent Afghans. Now today, a detailed report by the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) and U.S. Office on Colombia describes how several years of U.S. funding to the Colombian military has supported army units directly responsible for at least a thousand murders of unarmed civilians.
Read the report: Military Assistance and Human Rights: Colombia, U.S. Accountability, and Global Implications.

Drawing on extensive data from the U.S. State Department, Colombian government and military, and human rights organizations, the report shows that massive military training, equipment, and intelligence provided under the rubric of "Plan Colombia" have violated U.S. human rights law and contributed to illegal killings. Next month, Colombia's human rights status will be reviewed by the State Department: Tell Secretary Clinton today to withhold Colombia's certification.

"The U.S. has provided more than $6 billion in military aid to Colombia since 2000," said John Lindsay-Poland, FOR's research and advocacy director. "This money is used to support military units that have been proven to murder innocent civilians. That is outrageous and needs to stop." U.S. law prohibits support to any foreign military unit for which there is credible evidence of having committed gross human rights violations, such as extrajudicial killings.
This forceful study also has serious implications for Pakistan, where the United States has spent more than $12 billion in military assistance and where human rights groups have reported hundreds of extrajudicial killings. The U.S. Congress, State Department, and National Security Council must take action to ensure U.S. tax dollars no longer bankroll militaries that carry out illegal executions in Colombia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mexico, or any other country! Act today: Call on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to decertify Colombia's human rights status.

Read the full report, executive summary, and see special maps of U.S. aid and rights violations: Military Assistance and Human Rights: Colombia, U.S. Accountability, and Global Implications

The Encuentro of Peoples: Resisting Militarism and Promoting a Culture of Peace.

2010-07-04T07:58:00.000-07:00

The following posts are interviews from the SOAW gathering that took place in Venezuela from June 10th to 28th. Each individual is talking about the Militarization in their country.

For me the gathering was an amazing time and opportunity. We talked about many different topics but mostly connected US Militarization in Latin America. For those of you that speak spanish, I invite you watch how US militarization is repressing the people of Haiti, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Dominican Republic.

We left the gathering with a great sense of connectedness and a desire to work together from the South to the North on Ending US Militarization in Latin America. We also recognized the current situation in Colombia, Honduras, and Haiti should be priorities in the movement. along with the need to act collectively in our movement with simultaneous actions.

Colombia because they are currently the center of U.S. militarization with Plan Colombia and 7 new U.S. military bases.

Honduras with the U.S. backed Coup, which represents a "Yellow Card" for other countries that are attempting to seek a new way living outside U.S. imperialism.

Haiti for the long history of U.S. imperialism and the most recent militarization of humanitarian aid and current occupation by the U.S. Military.

As we said in the gathering, As activist today, "we need our south to become our north"

For more info and great information check out: http://encuentronortesur.wordpress.com/

Militarización en Colombia:

2010-07-04T07:34:00.000-07:00

Un integrante del movimiento colombiano Comisión Intereclesial Justicia y Paz describe las mayores preocupaciones y urgencias de la situación de militarización en Colombia.

A member of the movement Interchurch Comission Peace and Justice describes the most worrying and urgent issues related to militarization in Colombia

Resistencia, Golpe y Militarización en Honduras

2010-07-04T07:33:00.001-07:00

Con el propósito de conectar el Encuentro entre los Pueblos en Sanare, Venezuela, con el Foro Social de los Estados Unidos en Detroit, Michigan, una de las integrantes del Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular describe la situación de militarización en Honduras a partir del golpe.

With the objective of connecting the Encuentro entre los Pueblos in Sanare, Venezuela, and the US Social Forum in Detroit, MI, a member of the Honduran National Popular Resistance Front describes the situation of militarization in her country.

Militarización y Resistencia en Honduras - Ninoska Benítez (COFADEH)

2010-07-04T07:33:00.000-07:00

Ninoska Benítez, administradora del Comité de Familiares de Detenidxs Desaparecidxs en Honduras (COFADEH), habla de la creciente militarización en su país, a partir del golpe de Estado del 28 de junio de 2009, y de las acciones que la Resistencia está llevando a cabo.

Ninoska Benítez, administrator of the Committee of Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) talks about increasing militarization in Honduras since the coup d'État that took place on June 28, 2009, and about the actions that the Resistance movement is carrying out

La incidencia estadounidense en la democracia nicaragüense

2010-07-04T07:32:00.002-07:00

William Rodríguez, representante nicaragüense de la organización "Otro Mundo... Es Posible", comenta la necesidad de un espacio libre de opresión y militarización para generar una democracia latinoamericana.

William Rodríguez, representative of the Nicaraguan movement "Another World... Is Possible", comments on the necessity of a space free of oppression and militarization for the creation of a Latin American democracy

Máscaras civiles, racismo y ejército - Wendy Méndez (Guatemala)

2010-07-04T07:32:00.001-07:00

Wendy Méndez, representante de la agrupación H.I.J.@.S Guatemala, habla de las "máscaras" civiles y sociales que le son asignadas actualmente a ejércitos como el de Guatemala y Haití, y también comenta acerca del problema del racismo en el ejército.

Wendy Méndez, member of H.I.J.@.S Guatemala (movement of sons and daughters of detained and disappeared people) talks about the social and civil "masks" currently given to the army in countries like Guatemala and Haiti. She also comments on the problem of racism in the army

Encuentro entre los Pueblos, de Sur a Norte - (Rep. Dominicana)

2010-07-04T07:32:00.000-07:00

El Padre Acosta, representante dominicano en el Encuentro entre los Pueblos de América, proveniente de la organización "Casa del Caribe", habla de la ruptura de barreras continentales que significó el Encuentro.

Father Acosta, representative from the Dominican Republic at the Encuentro of the Americas, from the organization "Casa del Caribe", talks about how this Encuentro helped erase the continental barriers that separate North and South

Militarización en Haití - (Jerome Lacoste)

2010-07-04T07:30:00.002-07:00

Jerome Lacoste, profesor en la Universidad de Ciencias Humanas de Haití y representante por ese país en el Encuentro entre los Pueblos de América, comenta sobre la situación militar después de los catastróficos terremotos.

Jerome Lacoste, professor at the University of Human Sciences in Haiti and representative of that country at the Encuentro of the Americas, comments on the situation of militarism after the earthquakes.

Declaration from the Encuentro of Peoples: Resisting Militarism and Promoting a Culture of Peace

2010-07-04T07:22:00.000-07:00

We, the delegates from the undersigned organizations of the First Encuentro of the Peoples: Resisting Militarism and Promoting a Culture of Peace, hailing from nineteen countries of the Hemisphere - Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, México, Haiti, Dominican Republic, the United States and Canada - declare the following:

During the five days of the Encuentro, we reflected on the militarization of the Americas and particularly on the coup in Honduras, both of which represent a backwards movement and a danger for the democracies of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Because of the coup in Honduras on the 28th of June, 2009, Honduran citizens are surviving in the midst of continuing human rights violations, persecution, threats, detentions, repression, and assassinations of selected social leaders. Because of this, we condemn state-sponsored terrorism against the people and the social movements of Honduras and demand that the persecutions stop.

In the same way, we support the process that the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular (Popular National Resistance Front) in Honduras is developing for the establishment of a National Constitutional Assembly to re-establish the Rule of Law and democracy in the country.

We condemn the history of United States interventions in Honduran affairs and the current pressure from President Barack Obama's Administration and other governments for the Organization of American States (OAS) to recognize the de facto government of Mr. Porfirio Lobo.

We demand respect for the sovereignty of Honduras and so demand the immediate withdrawal of United States Troops from the Cano Soto Military Base, better known as Palmerola, and from the recently inaugurated Naval Base in the Moskitia territory. These military bases both provoke and destabilize the countries of Central America.

In addition, we call on all of the governments in Latin America and the Caribbean not to recognize the de facto government of Mr. Lobo, because it represents a continuation of the immoral coup.

Finally, we support the formation and the inauguration of the Truth Commission presented by La Plataforma de Derechos Humanos (Human Rights Platform) with the support of the victims and the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular of Honduras, because of their committment to truth, justice, and historical memory.

Signed by the organizations listed below.

- H.I.J.O.S Guatemala
- No Bases Ecuador
- Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz, Colombia
- Movimiento Nacional de Victima del Crímenes de Estado en Colombia
- Colectivos de Abogados José Alvear Restrepo, Colombia
- Alianza Social Continental, Colombia
- Students United in Representation of Latin America, London, Ontario, Canada
- School of the Americas Watch, United States
- Movimiento por la Paz, la Soberanía y la Solidaridad entro los Pueblos (Mopassol), Argentina
- Instituto de Terapia e Investigación sobre las secuelas de la Tortura y Violencia Estatal, Bolivia
- Centro de Amigos por la Paz, Costa Rica
- Agrupación de Familiares de Ejecutados Políticos - AFEP, Chile
- Observadores por el Cierre de las Escuela de las Américas, Chile
- INREDH Fundación Regional de Asesoria en Derechos Humanos, Ecuador
- Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad - CIS, El Salvador
- Universidad de Ciencias Humanas, Departamento Social, Haití
- Casa de Caribe, Dominican Republic
- Comité de Familiares Detenidos y Desaparecidos en Honduras COFADEH, Honduras
- Observatorio Latinoamericano de Geopolítica de la UNAM, México
- Movimiento Social Nicaragüense "Otro Mundo … es Posible"
- Servicio Paz y Justicia - Paraguay
- Mesa por la Paz, la Desmilitarización y Solidaridad con los Pueblos, Perú
- Servicio Paz y Justicia - Uruguay
- Fundación Latinoamericana por los Derechos Humanos y el Desarrollo Social (FUNDALATIN), Venezuela
- FNSR - Frente Nacional Juvenil de Resistencia, Honduras
- 8th Day Center for Justice, United States
- Marin Interfaith Task Force on Latin America, United States

2010-07-04T07:09:00.001-07:00

Colombian Gold miners under threat!

2010-06-16T05:58:00.000-07:00

A great article from the Guardian about a friend of mine! CPT Colombia has been accompanying these miners in their just struggle to remain on the land for the last 5 years!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/25/colombia-human-rights

Colombian gold miners under threat

Colombia is a dangerous place to be a trade unionist. Teofilo Acuña is president of the mining federation of Sur de Bolivar, an area in which violence and disappearances have escalated since the arrival of multinational mining companies three years ago. AngloGold Ashanti and its subsidiary Kedahda SA have legally frozen 3.7m hectares of Colombian land and applied for mineral exploration. But the communities of Sur de Bolivar live on a portion of this land and survive on small-scale gold mining and subsistence farming. They are engaged in a fierce struggle to defend their territory

_________________________________________________________________________________

I couldn't have known as a child that by the age of 13 I would join the ranks of the displaced, and that as an adult I would be the victim of judicial persecution and be hiding from death threats as a result of my trade union work.

I was born near the Venezuelan border in 1962, son of a campesino [subsistence farmer], and when I was six months old my father received a government grant for virgin land in the inhospitable jungle – surrounded by mountains – of Sur de Bolivar, the southernmost region of the Colombian state of Bolivar. We were colonisers.

When I was 13 years old some local latifundistas [owners of vast tracts of land] stole our land. They had already killed our neighbours and threatened us and other campesino families. So we were forced to flee.

The area of Sur de Bolivar is full of displaced people, many escaping violence and/or moving because of economic necessity. It is a fertile region with great biodiversity, where gold mining was introduced in 1981. At the age of 19 I became a miner.

Until 1985 Sur de Bolivar had little in terms of social investments – no schools, health services or water – nothing. In that year we had the first march of the campesinos from Sur de Bolivar to the state capital Cartegena to draw attention to our lack of infrastructure. There were 8,000 of us and we travelled six days by boat and bus to reach the city.

Success! Shortly after our march we signed agreements with the government. But to our fury these were not honoured, and we had no choice but to create our own solutions. We formed a local council for community action and drew up a development plan, as well as initiating a number of associations that included mining.

By 1994 the Colombian mining and agriculture sectors were in crisis. At this time, and because small-scale gold mining was expanding in the region, we formally established the Association of Mining of Sur de Bolivar, the Asoagromisbol. It is now 15,000 strong and known as the Agro-Mining Federation of Sur de Bolivar, the Fedeagromisbol.

That same year the government declared our mining titles illegal. We appealed to the government and, relenting, they granted 100 hectares for each of our 25 associations as a sort of amnesty for small-scale mining. We supplied the requisite paperwork – but again the government retracted, stating said that 70% of the areas we applied for were already claimed by one owner, the Palacio family. We swiftly learned that the multinationals – Conquistador Mines (Canada) and Corona Goldfields – were interested in our area.

We lost our land. We began to fight both the multinationals that were trying to lay claim to our mines and government reforms that included the introduction of a new mining code.

We discovered that the new mining code had been written by Dr Luisa Fernanda Aramburo, the lawyer for the Palacio family who had falsely claimed our land. This is one of those corrupt practices in Colombia where land is allocated as a kind of arbitrary gift for vested interests. We started reporting this malpractice to the appropriate officials, and throughout 1994-95 we mobilised against it.

In 1996 we staged a big demonstration to reclaim our land. The response was more paramilitary soldiers and their massacres and assassinations. This savagery culminated in the beheading of one of our leaders by the paramilitary who then used his head as a football.

At the time I was working as a miner and organiser for the now officially registered Federation, which included proposing ideas to local and national governments. In 1997 the paramilitaries, condoned by the Armed Forces, killed our vice president.

A year later there was a big mobilisation of campesinos and miners. As a result we managed to block the government's mining reform, freeze the purchase of land in certain areas and secure government investment in small-scale local mining.

The government said that to obtain this investment we must temporarily put our land on the market and they would return it to us. Although worried, we agreed to do a pilot project in one area. "No," said the government, "we'll lift the ban on 10 areas." But then we discovered that the officials working on our project also worked for the multinationals.

Since March 2006, when the community said no to the multinational interests of AngloGold Ashanti and its subsidiary Kedahada SA, there has been strong military presence in the Sur de Bolivar. Miners and their communities have been threatened, houses burned down and even food for school lunches stolen in an attempt to "persuade" us to welcome the multinationals.

In September 2006 the Colombian Army murdered Alejandro Chacon, my friend and a local mining leader. The army claim he was an ELN guerrilla who was killed in "combat". A legal enquiry is ongoing.

Six months later we were in the Federation office, about to attend a meeting with the national government to sign agreements, when the Army stormed in. They arrested and beat me along with the secretary and the defensor del pueblo [the local ombudsman]. I was imprisoned. Thanks to local objection and international pressure I was released after 10 days, but the case is still open.

My arrest was a result of army "intelligence" that claimed I was organising anti-multinational meetings and demonstrations after the death of Chacon. Further, I participated in the International Caravan [a protest march throughout Colombia with international participants]. All this was perfectly true, but perfectly within the law.

Five days after my release I received an email threat calling me a terrorist and a guerrilla, and stating that I would pay for what I had done along with the others involved. The threat was anonymous, but I believe it came from the army because while in prison I heard a soldier say: "He is never going to be released. This will be his end."

I fled and now live far away in Bogotá. To get to my community in Sur de Bolivar takes 19 hours by bus, boat, car, jeep and mule. The community supports me so I can continue my work.

Despite my absence the army keeps on harassing Federation meetings. At one time the SIJIN [a special investigation group within the police] were following my older children. Two months ago I went back for the first time to attend a Federation meeting, but was once again threatened and had to leave. The Federation also received threats against local priests, development and peace workers.

Despite these death threats, we will not give way to the multinationals and the expropriation of our land. We will continue to campaign for peace in our territory – gold is our life and should not cause our death.

• Teofilo Acuña was talking to Saundra Satterlee.

Priest faces criticism for shining light on human rights abuses in Colombia

2010-06-13T17:30:00.000-07:00

An Article from the Washington Post:

By Juan Forero
Saturday, June 12, 2010; A06

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- The ruling issued this week was one of the most severe ever handed down in Colombia against a member of the security forces: 30 years in prison for a retired army colonel found responsible for the disappearance of 11 people in 1985.

And it happened in part because of the tireless work of a mild-mannered Catholic priest, the Rev. Javier Giraldo, who sought out evidence from witnesses and made sure that the relatives of the victims were heard by prosecutors and journalists.

For 30 years, Giraldo has been investigating some of the most heinous human rights abuses committed during Colombia's shadowy war and blaming those he says are responsible -- often U.S.-backed security forces. In recent weeks, that work has garnered attention like never before, with his adversaries issuing public threats against the man they call "the Marxist priest," and even President Álvaro Uribe leveling criticism against him.

Giraldo's most recent campaign, which resulted in former police major Juan Carlos Meneses,to President Alvaro, to commit murders in a small northern town in 1994. Giraldo accompanied Meneses to Buenos Aires, where he recounted his story in a videotaped meeting with prominent Argentines.

"A person who incriminates himself is likely a person who is telling the truth," said Giraldo, 65.

Giraldo's role in the Meneses case prompted President Uribe to call him "a useful idiot" of criminal bands out to discredit the administration. A more customary accusation came from Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, a pro-government essayist who labeled Giraldo a "nefarious priest" who does the bidding of the country's largest guerrilla army.

But others see Giraldo as an almost mythical figure who tirelessly collects evidence about crimes that have gone unpunished. That means urging witnesses to come forward, even soldiers and police overcome by their conscience after participating in atrocities.

"He's incredibly important -- a moral figure who is not linked to any armed groups," said Gimena Sanchez, a Colombia specialist at the Washington Office on Latin America, a policy group. "I think he completely and utterly pushes the envelope."

Sitting in his small office, Giraldo said he expects to be attacked for his work as an investigator for the Bogota-based Center for Research and Popular Education (CINEP). On the walls around his table are photographs of priests and other activists killed in Colombia.

"The establishment tries to delegitimize those who denounce and whoever helps the victims," said Giraldo, who has declined the government's offer of bodyguards. "The intent is to damage one's image, to portray me as a guerrilla supporter."

Those who know Giraldo say he is no stooge of the irregular armies battling for control of land and drugs. He does, however, turn convention on its head by reminding Colombians that their country is still a land of unspeakable crimes.

Colombians have been astonished by his revelations, many of which center on massacres committed by right-wing death squads linked to the military. For a quarter century, Giraldo also worked to shed light on the storming of the Palace of Justice in 1985, when troops wrested control from a guerrilla commando team in a firefight that left more than 100 dead, including 11 Supreme Court justices.

Years later, witnesses and videotaped evidence showed that guerrillas as well as innocent cafeteria workers were taken alive from the palace by soldiers, tortured and killed. A civilian judge found the retired colonel who led the operation, Luis Alfonso Plazas, responsible.

On Thursday, Uribe, flanked by the country's top military commanders, criticized the ruling.

For those who have worked to clarify atrocities, the sentence against Plazas vindicated work by Giraldo and other rights advocates. "He openly denounced this crime, and worked to find witness testimonies," said Jorge Molano, who has worked on the case.

The government initially denied Giraldo's accusations in the Palace of Justice and other cases. But Giraldo's supporters say his allegations, many years later, are proven to be true.

"People say he is paranoid, and then the truth comes out," said César Rodríguez, a legal scholar at University of the Andes and a member of DeJusticia, a legal policy group. "And he is vindicated."

What does concern some rights activists and constitutional experts is the priest's rejection of the justice system.

"The problem is there is hardly any justice," said Giraldo, explaining that the ring leaders of atrocities rarely end up behind bars.

But Alfonso Gómez Méndez, a former attorney general, said Giraldo's failure to support investigations weakens the very justice system that the priest accuses of not doing enough.

"This attitude does not help us to end the impunity," he said. "Justice has advanced in many areas, but the problem is not just the justice system but the attitude of the people."

When pressed, Giraldo acknowledged recent progress, including the arrests of dozens of military officers. He also said that despite his break with the justice system, his work will continue.

"I break with a justice system that is absolutely rotten," Giraldo said. "But I am not saying that I will stop denouncing crimes."

Peace and Solidarity from Colombia: Help support the womyn of Colombia

2010-06-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

Peace and solidarity from Colombia! Since I arrived in Colombia, I have continued to be moved by the ongoing perseverance and work of the Colombian social movements. The human rights defenders of Colombia continue to dream of a world without weapons and violence – a world that is just and where everyone can live with dignity. I have witnessed the power of this dream and for some it is a dangerous dream. The powers that be – illegal armed groups, the Colombia state, the United States of America – have unsuccessfully attempted to destroy this dream. They have assassinated, disappeared, arrested, and displaced millions of people that continue to hope for justice in Colombia and in the world.

Today, I write to you with a special petition – a way to support this dream. For the last six months, I have been working with an amazing group of women that have formed under the name, “The Women’s Social Movement against War and for Peace.” This is a group that is formed by all sectors of society, Afro-Colombians, indigenous, peasant farmers, and social organizations. They are a group of women dreamers. They are dreaming of a world where “women no longer need to bear nor raise children for war.” From August 16^thto August 23^rd, they are hosting “The Women and People’s Summit of the Americas against Militarization.” This group and gathering is in need of your support.

In the announcement of the Summit, they boldly state, “Silence the weapon so that women and the people may speak in defense of life and sovereignty.” They go on to remind us that, “It is us, women, who continue to suffer the ravages of war. We suffer socially, politically, psychologically, physically, economically, and culturally. Our bodies are considered the spoils of war. We are lowered to the level of objects and perceived as being the property of the system. Similarly, the war has exacerbated the violence, discrimination, exploitation, poverty and inequality, leaving perverse effects on women and the people such as forced displacement, confinement, migration, disappearances, forced recruitment, rape, and femicide. Moreover, the responsibility for supporting the family falls on women, as the state fails to guarantee the fundamental rights of individuals. On the contrary, the state delivers big-budget military projects that favor transnational corporations.”

I would like to invite you to support this gathering.

The InterReligious Task Force on Central America (IRTF) is hoping to raise $500 to donate to “The Women’s Social Movement against War and for Peace” to support their dreams, please considering donating $10, $20, or more to IRTF in the name of the Women’s Social Movement.

Please send checks to, InterReligious Taskforce on Central America 3606 bridge Ave. Cleveland, Oh, 44113 or donate online www.irtfcleveland.org

Thank you for your consideration.

In solidarity,

Chris Knestrick

For more information:

http://www.mujerescontralaguerra.com/

http://knestrick.blogspot.com/2010/05/interview-with-ana-teresa-lozada.html

http://knestrick.blogspot.com/2010/06/women-and-peoples-summit-of-americas.htm

Women and People’s Summit of the Americas against Militarization

2010-06-09T08:30:00.001-07:00

Women and People’s

Summit of the Americas against Militarization

Colombia: August 16th to 23, 2010

“Silence the weapon so that women and the people
may speak in defense of life and sovereignty.”

The militarization of the territories has led to the loss of the people’s sovereignty, autonomy and self-determination, and has become a threat to the continent.   Militarization expands its’ project of death to take over territory by means of US military bases in Colombia and the continent. It seeks to use military intervention as an instrument to control the region politically, economically, and socially. Historically, military bases have been used to invade strategic geopolitical locations that are rich in natural resources. Many times, these locations are found in indigenous, afro-descendant and peasant territories. Furthermore, these bases promote prostitution with houses that are officially designated as “entertainment” for the soldiers. However, they represent women as sexual slaves and promotes other forms of violence, including femicide.

It is us, women, who continue to suffer the ravages of war. We suffer socially, politically, psychologically, physically, economically and culturally. Our bodies are considered the spoils of war. We are lowered to the level of objects and perceived as being the property of the system. Similarly, the war has exacerbated the violence, discrimination, exploitation, poverty and inequality, leaving perverse effects on women and the people such as, forced displacement, confinement, migration, disappearances, forced recruitment, rape and femicide. Moreover, the responsibility for supporting the family falls on women as the State fails to guarantee the fundamental rights of individuals. To the contrary, the state delivers big-budget military projects that favor transnational corporations.

Organizing, resisting, struggling and mobilizing are the underlining spirits of our organizational process. We raise our voices to make know the critical situation of the armed and social conflict that confronts the peoples of the Americas and in particular, Colombia - a conflict that is affecting our bodies, our territory, our sovereignty and the autonomy of women and all peoples. In order make visible the multiple effects of war on the lives of women and our people, we decided to join together in our resistance against the war and the militarization, while we continue building collective and united proposals of peace for our continent.

We call all people to the Women and People’s Summit of the Americas against militarization, from August 16th to August 23, 2010, in Colombia.
We call on women - peasant, Indigenous, African, academic, working class, students, church, social, political, and women's organizations, along with all social organizations of our country, and our sisters and brothers of the world, to participate together in this grand gathering for life, autonomy, and sovereignty of bodies and territories.

We call on continental and global networks that are struggling for the dignity and life that we may continue weaving together the alternatives that were advanced in previous hemispheric gatherings against the militarization of the continent and the military bases. That we move forward together to strengthen this initiative of existing proposals that are directed at the construction of a more balanced and just world.

We call on our colleagues, women and men, to join in solidarity with our common struggle for a negotiated political solution to the social and armed conflict that lives in our country. Together, we raise our voices against The United States’ military bases in Colombia and in our America.

The Summit is designed to have three moments:

First moment:   Solidarity and Resistance Action to the regions of Colombia
(August 16 to 20th).

Second Moment:   Round Table Discussions (August 21 and 22).

Third Moment:    Vigil for life. (August 23rd).

“As Women, we construct loving relations with Mother Earth
and affirm the sovereignty of our people.

To participate and/or more information:

http://www.mujerescontralaguerra.com/

Bananas

2010-05-22T05:19:00.000-07:00

Witness for Peace put out the following call to action to hold Chiquita accountable:

The decision was easy for Chiquita executives. A couple of billion dollars in profits was worth more to them than the lives of at least 14,000 Colombians.

For 15 years, Chiquita paid millions in protection money to the two most brutal armed groups in the hemisphere, Colombia's guerrillas and paramilitaries. Company executives knew that growing bananas in a war zone was dangerous. Rather than pulling out and risking their profits, they paid vicious killers to protect the business, despite the knowledge that the armed groups they were bankrolling were murdering thousands of innocent civilians.

One week from today, Chiquita holds its annual shareholder meeting in Cincinnati.

Please help us send a strong message to Chiquita by signing the petition calling on them to:

Publicly apologize for Chiquita's inexcusable behavior that put profit before the lives of innocent Colombians.
Create an independent fund for the victims of Colombia's war equal to or greater than the profits earned by Chiquita through its Colombian operations during the period the company paid guerrillas and paramilitaries.
Immediately fire all Chiquita employees who authorized and carried out illegal, immoral and deadly payments to Colombian guerrillas and paramilitaries.

Click here to add your own comment for Chiquita's CEO.

Chiquita's actions are indefensible. Company executives continued bankrolling Colombian armed groups even after the U.S. government declared Colombian guerrillas and paramilitaries foreign terrorist organizations. Payments continued even after their lawyers told them to stop. Even after the Justice Department told them to stop. Even after 14,000 people had been killed by the groups they were bankrolling.

Chiquita finally stopped paying them in 2004, pulled out of Colombia and reached a sweetheart deal with the Justice Department to pay a small fine.

Not a single Chiquita official behind these deadly payments has gone to jail. No one has been fired for their actions. Chiquita has not compensated a single Colombian victim.
WFP will deliver the petition to the Chiquita annual meeting on May 27, one week from today.

Add your name today.

Don't let Chiquita get away with bankrolling the killing of 14,000 innocent civilians. Sign the petition today. Then forward this email to your friends and ask them to do the same.

Interview with Ana Teresa Lozada: Colombia, Women, War, and the Social Movement

2010-05-07T15:30:00.001-07:00

Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) had the opportunity to sit down with Ana Teresa Rueda Lozada to do an interview about the reality of womyn in Colombia, particularly the region of Magdalena Medio to understand how the conflict is affecting womyn. Also, CPT wanted to share the work of Colombian womyn and what they are doing to achieve justice and peace in Colombia. Ana has been part of the Popular Womyn’s Organization (OFP) for 12 years and part of the Womyn’s Social Movement against War and For Peace (MSM) since 1998. The OFP began in 1972 to defend life and human rights, encouraging womyn to transform social reality and reconstruct their own social fabric and civil society, while committing to resisting all forms of violence. Right now, Mrs. Lozada is leading MSM’s proposal in the Magdalena Medio and northeast Colombia regions.

CPT: What is the political context that you are working in? And what does this mean for Womyn?

Mrs. Lozada: The political, social and economic development of the region is very difficult and complex. First, I am going give us some historical context to ground the conversation that will enable us, woman and communities, to say how we are currently living.

Barrancabermeja and Magdalena Medio region is a region that has lived for many years in different forms of violence. The armed conflict has its roots in deep social inequalities, such as the dispute over the territory. This dispute has caused the dispossession and displacement from lands for the minerals and natural wealth that we have. This has led to the presences of illegal armed groups and the increased militarization by the state armed forces in the area. This is generating a dispute over the territory where the civilian population has been the most affected. At one point there were the guerrillas in the urban areas of the municipalities but now the paramilitaries are patrolling, in spite of the demobilization process. The demobilization is a proposal that the Colombian state called the "law of justice and peace," but it is not a law of justice, or peace. It has been a process of impunity and legalizes the process of forgiving the armed actors; in this case operating paramilitaries that have killed and destroyed the social fabric and the family with the complicity of the military.

The demobilization process that started in 2005 was a process that was done behind the backs of communities in the region. It has not been an open process for the communities and it is not known how many paramilitaries there are and where they are. Furthermore, the victims began to be charged with crimes and going from being the victims to being the perpetrators. The organizations identified paramilitaries and in some cases have generated judicial processes. Now the people who have benefited from this law are starting judicial processes against recognized social leaders in the region. Furthermore, the paramilitaries continue to operate with other names and everyday ordinary people know this. For example, in Barrancabermeja there were over 145 people selectively assassinated last year. There are no massacres but control continues to exist at the economic, political and social levels. There is extortion, threats, and pamphlets given out with names of those to be killed. There is no policy of dismantling the paramilitaries. These armed actors have helped to facilitate the entry of multinationals by removing the farmers from their land and doing the dirty work that the government would not be able do.

The People here in Barrancabermeja live in impoverishment despite all the economic activity we have here. There was the oil boom but the people who benefit were not from the city. The beneficiaries from the resources in the regions are large multinational corporations and mega projects. There are no jobs. There is rummaging for work like the selling of cell phone minutes and the making and selling of tamales.
From the national and local government there are no real solutions to the poverty experienced in the region. It is clear that when we talk about the assistance programs that have emerged from the national government, that their solutions are superficial

In the region we, the womyn, continue actively resisting, denouncing human rights abuses, and working strongly for the reconstruction of the social fabric.

CPT: The social movement talks about "the militarization of womyn's bodies." Could you explain what this means in the context of the war here in Colombia?

Mrs. Lozada: For many years womyns body have been used by armies as shields, insults, and for humiliation of their enemies, such as placing them in places to be publicly mocked and degrading her body and generating fear. Where there have been military bases it has generating problems. We notice the increase in prostitution of very young girls and forced abortions. In the situation of the additional deployment of the U.S. military bases in Colombia, it is going to be a disaster for the womyn and the people because the American soldiers will have immunity and cannot be punished for the crimes they commit in Colombia.

CPT: Why are you working in the Peace Movement?

Mrs. Lozada: It has to do basically with that I want to contribute in the transformation of this reality that we live, especially womyn, which is so difficult. Colombia is a country that has faced an armed conflict for many years - an armed conflict where many womyn and men have died, been displaced and have been disappeared. I want to build a better country, for my nephews, my children, and my friends. I dream that one day this country will be fair for everyone, where everyone has place and where all can be.
I am here, even though participating in this organizational process runs risks - it generates fear and stigmatizes and marks all those who defend human rights. This organization has helped me to recognize myself as a woman, as a political subject capable of saying what is going on and making proposals for the city, country, and communities. It helped me to understand the phrase “You are not born a woman, you learn to be one”

CPT: Could you share a story or an experience about your work?

Mrs. Lozada: More than sharing a story, I want to remember all the moments we have lived within the Organization. We have experienced all sorts of human rights violation, death threat, assassinations, displacement, the disappearance of one of our offices. Through all these moments, we shared together the fears and we knew that being organized and united we could resist.
And it is now important to continue recognizing that social organizations exist in this region of resistance. We denounce. We walked and dreamed of a different country despite the onslaught that has taken the city. The work of communities continues. They are womyn with a voice of hope and they are leading processes. Womyn have the ability to continue dreaming - striving for our sons and daughters. The people still mobilize. There are men, womyn, and organizations thinking about the city, region and country.

CPT: What is the history and mission of the Womyn’s Social Movement Against War and for Peace in the Magdalena Medio and the national?

Mrs. Lozada: The movement was born as an initiative of the OFP beginning with a very simple exercise. A letter to womyn about what they thought of the war at that time. What was found was that they were tired of war and hence there arose the proposal. Before, the womyn were called “Chained Womyn against the War.” It grew and there are currently more than 40 organizations (indigenous, rural, academic, displaced, community mothers, church, ect) with a concrete peace proposal and a common and clear agenda from the womyn in the popular sectors. Initially, the name ended "against the war" and after discussions we needed to add "for peace."

The Movement has achieved a lot through the building of this agenda. This agenda is for four years on specific issues: 1) Womyn, Land and Development, 2) Womyn, War, Peace and 3) Democracy and Womyn and Social Movements.

CPT: Is the movement only for womyn?

Mrs. Lozada: The movement is a proposal by womyn and built by the communities. There is accompaniment and work with men on some activities but it is from the womyn that proposals are brought and we build them for everyone.

CPT: What is the reason for the Womyn and People Summit of the Americas against Militarization in August?
Mrs. Lozada: We are moving towards the international summit in Colombia from August 16 to 24. It is going to be done in three stages. The first moment is solidarity actions of resistance. International representatives will visit the regions where the MSM has its processes. They will listen to the community’s resistance and dreams of hope. The second moment will be in a municipality Puerto Salgar in the region of Magdalena Medio , where there will be meetings and discussions about womyn realities and how they live taking into account the theme and emphasis of militarization. The third moment is the public political action. It's going to be a strong vigil against US Military bases which we don’t want in Colombia and will be full of symbolism. Plan Colombia has not been the best and the womyn have suffered greatly - sexually abused, sexually assaulted, battered by U.S. soldiers and everything has gone unpunished.

CPT: What could the international community do to support the movement and the Summit?

Mrs. Lozada: There are several things: The important thing is to generate a political accompaniment for the proposal. We believe that if we strengthen ourselves against the reality of U.S. military bases and what we live in the Americas, we can generate a strong response from womyn and people from other countries. Any Financial support for this type of proposal that might be available. Publicize and Share the information about the gathering through the various communication networks. Finally, International organizations, individuals, and/or social movements who want to be supportive are invited to participate.

CPT : You have something else to say before we end this interview?

Mrs. Lozada: In this country men and womyn are dreamers and we will continue to march and to build proposals towards peace, which above all includes social Justice, although it seems far away. We believe that the country's conflict must be resolved through negotiations and not with weapons. The civilian population is the most affected and has much to say about peace.

The movement is encouraging; we recognize it and many people can participate in its construction. We continue to dream of a different Colombia where we may be able live and live with dignity.

Diversity dead-end: Inclusiveness without accountability

2010-04-24T08:13:00.000-07:00

By Robert Jensen / The Rag Blog / April 20, 2010

After a recent talk on racism and other illegitimate hierarchies at a diversity conference in Dallas, I received a letter from one of the people who had attended that asked “why you feel it necessary to perpetuate and even exacerbate the divisiveness of language when addressing a group of people assembled to learn how to live better together and be more accepting of differences?” He suggested that by being so sharply critical, I was part of the problem not the solution.

Calls for diversity and inclusiveness from people with privilege (such as a white man with a professional job living in the United States) are meaningful only when we are willing to address the systems and structures of power in which inequality and discrimination are rooted. But because such a critique strikes many people as too radical, crafting a response to those who want to avoid that analysis is crucial to the struggle for progressive social change. Below is my letter to him.

Dear ____: Thanks for the note and the challenge to my presentation. It’s clear we disagree, and getting clearer about where we differ is important.

First, I disagree with your suggestion that we should not assess blame for existing patterns of racial inequality and injustice, though I would substitute the word “accountability” for “blame.” I can’t imagine how we could move forward on any question of injustice without holding those responsible for the injustice accountable, which means holding ourselves accountable. This reflects a basic moral principle -- those who inflict injuries, or turn away when they see others inflicting injuries, must be accountable for their behavior.

To recognize the injustice, as you do, but then demand that we ignore the patterns at the root of the injustice in order to reach a state of inclusiveness is counterproductive. That simply allows people in positions of power and privilege to escape accountability, which inevitably places the political and psychological burdens on those with less power and privilege. That’s simply not fair.

So, if your suggestion lets white people off the hook and puts the burden on non-white people to cope with the ongoing manifestations of white supremacy, would it not be better for those of us who are white to be accountable? Is that not the base from which real social change becomes possible? I recognize that most white people don’t like that call for accountability, just as most men don’t like the call for accountability when it comes to sexism, for example. But the core values we claim to hold -- dignity, solidarity, and equality -- require that we not avoid that kind of honesty.

If we do this, as several people suggested in the conference session, many poor and working-class white people will point out that they don’t feel particularly privileged. That’s why we have to connect the struggle against white supremacy to the struggle against economic inequality in capitalism. To raise questions about injustice in our economy isn’t to foment class warfare, as some argue, but is rather to recognize that people with a disproportionate share of the world’s wealth tend to pursue policies to protect that state of affairs. The wealthy engage in class warfare on a daily basis, and hope that those on the bottom will acquiesce.

You suggest that that I “perpetuate and even exacerbate the divisiveness” but I think that misunderstands the nature of the problem. The divisiveness comes from the injustice, not from naming the injustice. People in the United States are divided by the inequality inherent in patriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalism. Naming those systems and the inequality they produce isn’t divisive but rather an attempt to understand the systems so that we can change them. Just as we need accountability we also need analysis to make it possible to move toward justice. How can problems be solved if causes are not identified and critiqued?

None of this has anything to do with stereotyping individuals. There is a difference between identifying patterns in how wealth and power are distributed in a society and making unsupported claims about individuals. In analyzing how unconscious and institutionalized racism operate, and then asking white people to be accountable, we are talking about how systems operate. I didn’t claim that all white people are overt racists, for example, but instead talked about how our society is white supremacist in material and ideological terms. That’s an analysis of systems, not stereotyping of individuals.

Finally, I think your hope for “a softening” of my heart misses the point. I don’t have a hard heart, if by that you mean I am bitter or hateful. The work I do is grounded in love, which leads to a rejection of injustice. My heart softened long ago when I began to look honestly at the extent of that injustice and my own complicity in it. To be “part of the solution,” as you urge, demands that we be honest about that injustice. I would challenge you to think about whether by ignoring these patterns of injustice you might be part of the problem.

I do take a bit of offense at one thing you wrote, the claim that I “find great satisfaction in stirring things up,” as if this is all some kind of game that I play for my personal pleasure. I have been actively involved for the past two decades in movements for justice involving sexism, racism, economic inequality, and the barbarism of war. There isn’t a day that I don’t feel a sense of profound grief about the pain that these systems cause.

The luck of the draw left me in a position of relative privilege, which means I escape virtually all of the suffering imposed by those systems. What satisfaction I find in this world comes from trying to be part of movements that struggle for something better. In those efforts, things inevitably get stirred up. I take no particular pleasure in that and wish it could be otherwise. But none of us get to choose the world into which we are born. All we get to choose is how we respond to it.

In my experience, the position you advocate is the one that is neither constructive nor practical. We cannot ignore the systems from which injustice emerges and expect injustice magically to disappear. I agree that our goal is inclusiveness -- the recognition that we are one human family in which all have exactly the same standing -- but I disagree that we can move toward that by turning away from the painful truths about the broken world in which we live.

[Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin and board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center in Austin. He is the author of All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice, (Soft Skull Press, 2009); Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity (South End Press, 2007); and The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege (City Lights, 2005); Jensen is also co-producer of the documentary film Abe Osheroff: One Foot in the Grave, the Other Still Dancing. Jensen can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu and his articles can also be found online here.]

Imagine: Protest, Insurgency and the Workings of White Privilege

2010-04-24T08:09:00.000-07:00

And this, my friends, is what white privilege is all about. The ability to threaten others, to engage in violent and incendiary rhetoric without consequence, to be viewed as patriotic and normal no matter what you do, and never to be feared and despised as people of color would be, if they tried to get away with half the shit we do, on a daily basis.

By Tim Wise http://www.timwise.org
April 20, 2010

Let’s play a game, shall we? The name of the game is called “Imagine.” The way it’s played is simple: we’ll envision recent happenings in the news, but then change them up a bit. Instead of envisioning white people as the main actors in the scenes we’ll conjure—the ones who are driving the action—we’ll envision black folks or other people of color instead. The object of the game is to imagine the public reaction to the events or incidents, if the main actors were of color, rather than white. Whoever gains the most insight into the workings of race in America, at the end of the game, wins.

So let’s begin.

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters--the black protesters--spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government. Would these protesters--these black protesters with guns--be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that's what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation's capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country's political leaders if the need arose.

Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington.

Imagine that a black rap artist were to say, in reference to a white president: "He's a piece of shit and I told him to suck on my machine gun." Because that’s what rocker Ted Nugent said recently about President Obama.

Imagine that a prominent mainstream black political commentator had long employed an overt bigot as Executive Director of his organization, and that this bigot regularly participated in black separatist conferences, and once assaulted a white person while calling them by a racial slur. When that prominent black commentator and his sister--who also works for the organization--defended the bigot as a good guy who was misunderstood and “going through a tough time in his life” would anyone accept their excuse-making? Would that commentator still have a place on a mainstream network? Because that’s what happened in the real world, when Pat Buchanan employed as Executive Director of his group, America's Cause, a blatant racist who did all these things, or at least their white equivalents: attending white separatist conferences and attacking a black woman while calling her the n-word.

Imagine that a black radio host were to suggest that the only way to get promoted in the administration of a white president is by “hating black people,” or that a prominent white person had only endorsed a white presidential candidate as an act of racial bonding, or blamed a white president for a fight on a school bus in which a black kid was jumped by two white kids, or said that he wouldn’t want to kill all conservatives, but rather, would like to leave just enough--“living fossils” as he called them--“so we will never forget what these people stood for.” After all, these are things that Rush Limbaugh has said, about Barack Obama’s administration, Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama, a fight on a school bus in Belleville, Illinois in which two black kids beat up a white kid, and about liberals, generally.*

Imagine that a black pastor, formerly a member of the U.S. military, were to declare, as part of his opposition to a white president’s policies, that he was ready to “suit up, get my gun, go to Washington, and do what they trained me to do.” This is, after all, what Pastor Stan Craig said recently at a Tea Party rally in Greenville, South Carolina.

Imagine a black radio talk show host gleefully predicting a revolution by people of color if the government continues to be dominated by the rich white men who have been “destroying” the country, or if said radio personality were to call Christians or Jews non-humans, or say that when it came to conservatives, the best solution would be to “hang ‘em high.” And what would happen to any congressional representative who praised that commentator for “speaking common sense” and likened his hate talk to “American values?” After all, those are among the things said by radio host and best-selling author Michael Savage, predicting white revolution in the face of multiculturalism, or said by Savage about Muslims and liberals, respectively. And it was Congressman Culbertson, from Texas, who praised Savage in that way, despite his hateful rhetoric.

Imagine a black political commentator suggesting that the only thing the guy who flew his plane into the Austin, Texas IRS building did wrong was not blowing up Fox News instead. This is, after all, what Anne Coulter said about Tim McVeigh, when she noted that his only mistake was not blowing up the New York Times.

Imagine that a popular black liberal website posted comments about the daughter of a white president, calling her “typical redneck trash,” or a “whore” whose mother entertains her by “making monkey sounds.” After all that’s comparable to what conservatives posted about Malia Obama on freerepublic.com last year, when they referred to her as “ghetto trash.”

Imagine that black protesters at a large political rally were walking around with signs calling for the lynching of their congressional enemies. Because that’s what white conservatives did last year, in reference to Democratic party leaders in Congress.

In other words, imagine that even one-third of the anger and vitriol currently being hurled at President Obama, by folks who are almost exclusively white, were being aimed, instead, at a white president, by people of color. How many whites viewing the anger, the hatred, the contempt for that white president would then wax eloquent about free speech, and the glories of democracy? And how many would be calling for further crackdowns on thuggish behavior, and investigations into the radical agendas of those same people of color?

To ask any of these questions is to answer them. Protest is only seen as fundamentally American when those who have long had the luxury of seeing themselves as prototypically American engage in it. When the dangerous and dark “other” does so, however, it isn’t viewed as normal or natural, let alone patriotic. Which is why Rush Limbaugh could say, this past week, that the Tea Parties are the first time since the Civil War that ordinary, common Americans stood up for their rights: a statement that erases the normalcy and “American-ness” of blacks in the civil rights struggle, not to mention women in the fight for suffrage and equality, working people in the fight for better working conditions, and LGBT folks as they struggle to be treated as full and equal human beings.

And this, my friends, is what white privilege is all about. The ability to threaten others, to engage in violent and incendiary rhetoric without consequence, to be viewed as patriotic and normal no matter what you do, and never to be feared and despised as people of color would be, if they tried to get away with half the shit we do, on a daily basis.

Game Over.

Remember and Truth-telling

2010-03-09T08:30:00.000-08:00

Things in Colombia are as always. By that I mean, the courageous people of Colombia continue to struggle and demand their rights to the land and dignity, while at the same time the war wages. Since my time started here, day by day, it has becomes clearer that this war in Colombia is about multinational takeover of land. Often times, it is difficult to understand the war because like all wars it is senseless. One must, step back and take the long view to see the complete picture. Yes, there are drugs in Colombia, Yes, there are leftist and rightist armed groups, Yes the United States is giving millions of dollars in military aid to Colombia. Yes, all the armed groups are killing civilians. All that is true but we need to ask ourselves the question "for what reason?"

When we ask ourselves this question and take the long view of the situation, we will notice that Colombia has the largest coal reserves and the largest gold reserves in the western hemisphere. It is rich in emeralds and in oil – all of which are now being explored by multinational corporations. Furthermore, the soil is so rich in some parts that the farmers can plant corn three times a year - land that is now being used for palm oil mono-cropping. When we remember these things, we begin to understand why 2 mining leaders where assassinated on February 10th. (Read blog entry) We can look with new eyes at why the Colombian Government is places false charges on the leaders of small mining organizations, small farming organizations, and human rights leaders that are organizing and struggling for their rights to the land. (Read the story here). We will realize that the 4,915,579 people that have been systematically displaced in the last 25 years is not because of random violence. Rather, it is about having 5.5 million hectares of abandoned land and reducing the campesino population by 1 million in order for multinationals to gain access and use the land for mono cropping and mineral exploration. (read the report here). From this perspective, this confusing war begins to make some sense.

Last night, I spent time with the families and the only survivor of the February 28th massacre in Barrancabermeja, Colombia. A horrific event as all massacre are. During the ceremony, the question arose about "how do we honor the victims." At first, I was overwhelmed by the question. I thought " there are so many victims in this war, what could I do to possible honor all of them?" A women in the ceremony then said, "The only way to honor the victims is to remember the dead and continue to tell the truth." I believe these are wise words. I plan to take these thoughts and questions in my Lenten journey this week. Lent is a time to remember and reflect. This season, we are remembering Jesus' walk into Jerusalem - to the cross, execution by the state. But as the woman in the ceremony reminds us, we cannot stop there. If we want to honor them we must do some truth-telling. It is in both actions, remembering and truth-telling, that we honor the victims.

Indigenous Peoples struggle to survive

2010-02-23T10:55:00.000-08:00

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

PRESS RELEASE

See full report here.

Indigenous Peoples struggle to survive in Colombia

Amnesty international today denounced an increase in attacks against Indigenous Peoples across Colombia during 2009, which is leaving many communities struggling for survival.

The organization blamed guerrilla groups, the security forces and paramilitaries for the abuses – which include killings, enforced disappearances and kidnappings, threats, sexual abuse of women, recruitment of child soldiers, forced displacement and persecution of Indigenous leaders.

“Indigenous Peoples are increasingly under attack in Colombia,” said Marcelo Pollack, Colombia Researcher at Amnesty International. “They are being killed and threatened, forced to participate in the armed conflict, and being kicked out of their lands.”

“It is time for the Colombian government to take its obligations seriously and take immediate action to protect Indigenous Peoples.”

According to figures from the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia, at least 114 Indigenous women, men and children were killed and thousands forcibly displaced in 2009 alone.

Amnesty International also said crimes committed against Indigenous Peoples are rarely investigated by the authorities.

Thousands of Indigenous Peoples have been forced off their land because they often live in areas of intense military conflict and rich in biodiversity, minerals and oil. Many other Indigenous communities have been unable to leave their territories because armed groups have laid landmines in surrounding areas.

Access to food and essential medicines has also been blocked by the warring parties, who often argue such goods are destined for the enemy. All parties to the conflict have occupied schools and used them as military bases, while teachers continue to be vulnerable to physical attack, denying Indigenous communities access to education.

“Unless the authorities take speedy action to protect Indigenous Peoples in Colombia there is a real risk that many will disappear,” said Marcelo Pollack.

The Awá Indigenous People accounted for more than half of all killings of Indigenous Peoples during 2009.

They collectively own the land and rivers of the resguardo (Indigenous reservation) of El Gran Rosario in Tumaco Municipality, in the south-western region of Nariño.

The area is of strategic importance for the parties to the conflict. FARC and ELN guerrillas, paramilitary groups, the security forces and drug-trafficking gangs are all active in the area.

On 26 August 2009, 12 Awá, including six children and an eight-month old baby, were killed and several more injured by gunmen wearing military uniforms and hoods who attacked the community at 5am. Among those killed were Tulia García and her sons. Tulia García had been a witness to the killing of her husband, Gonzalo Rodríguez, by army soldiers on 23 May 2009 and had subsequently received threats.

Following the August massacre, 300 Awá, including 100 children, fled to the town of Tumaco, leaving their homes, belongings and livelihoods behind. Weeks after arriving in the town, people were still living in shelters they had built themselves or sleeping out in the open. Food and water were scarce and there were no sanitation facilities.

On 4 February 2009, 15 Awá, including two pregnant women, were killed by FARC guerrillas in Barbacoas Municipality in the department of Nariño.

Amnesty International called on those participating in the conflict, including guerrilla groups and the Colombian security forces, to respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples not to be dragged into hostilities and to respect the territories in which they live and depend upon for their livelihoods.

Colombia’s 40 year long armed conflict has affected millions across the country and left tens of thousands dead, tortured and forcibly disappeared. The vast majority of victims are civilians.

A copy of “The struggle for survival and dignity: Human rights abuses against indigenous peoples in Colombia” will be available from Tuesday 23 February 2009 at 00:01Hs GMT on www.amnesty.org

Chiquita and Dole provided 90% of the paramilitaries income!

2010-02-17T08:40:00.000-08:00

Hiring Death Squads Is Coming Back to Haunt U.S. Companies

By Charlie Cray, AlterNet
Posted on February 16, 2010, Printed on February 17, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/145696/

A federal judge recently refused to dismiss a civil suit filed against Chiquita which charges that the company paid leftist (FARC) guerrillas operating near its plantations in Columbia -- during a period when the FARC killed four American missionaries, according to CNN.

The company's position -- which it has held consistently since it voluntarily disclosed the payments to the Department of Justice -- has been that both left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries forced the company in an extortionate manner to make the payments "to protect the lives of its employees."

But that's become an increasingly untenable position -- especially since some of the same paramilitaries who took the payments have come in from the cold, disarming and submitting to Columbia's "Justice and Peace" process -- which allows them to receive reduced jail time for confessing to all of their terrorist crimes. The problem for Chiquita -- and now for Dole (and potentially for Del Monte) -- is that the confessions reveal a much different story.

One of the ex-paramilitaries -- Jose Gregorio Mangones Lugo (aka "Carlos Tijeras") -- was the former commander of the William Rivas Front of the United Defense Forces ("AUC") -- the group that operated in northern Columbia, in the zone where the companies and their suppliers grew bananas. In a sworn statement Tijeras described the AUC's relationship with the multinational banana companies as "an open public relationship" involving everything from "security services" to the kidnapping and extrajudicial assassination of labor leaders fingered by the companies as "security problems."

Tijeras' statement -- which reads like the confessions of a corporate death squad leader and directly refutes his paymasters' version of events -- has now been entered into the record in a case filed against Dole last April in California by attorneys with Conrad and Scherer:

"I've been told that Chiquita has asserted that they paid the AUC funds, but that this was coerced and was a form of extortion. I have also heard that Dole claims to have never paid us any funds. Both of these assertions are absolutely false. In fact, my agreement with Chiquita and Dole was to provide them with total security and other services."

Tijeras is not a lone whistleblower by any means. Salvatore Mancuso, the overall commander of the AUC, also testified in early 2008 that Dole and Del Monte, like Chiquita, had been providing major support to the AUC since its inception. He repeated the accusation to "60 Minutes," which originally aired the segment in September, 2008.

According to these and other witnesses as well as investigators familiar with the bloody history of Columbia, the AUC was originally hired by the companies to drive the leftist FARC guerillas out of the banana-growing region and protect their plantations from "the gangs of common delinquents that robbed their supplies and equipment." (Tijeras) Once the FARC was vanquished and order restored, the banana companies continued to pay the AUC to "pacify" their work force, suppress the labor unions and terrorize peasant squatters seeking their own competing land claims.

Tijeras: "After we restored order and became the local agents of law enforcement, managers for Chiquita and Dole plantations relied upon us to respond to their complaints...We would also get calls from the Chiquita and Dole plantations identifying specific people as "security problems" or just "problems." Everyone knew that this meant we were to execute the identified person. In most cases those executed were union leaders or members or individuals seeking to hold or reclaim land that Dole or Chiquita wanted for banana cultivation, and the Dole or Chiquita administrators would report to the AUC that these individuals were suspected guerillas or criminals."

According to Tijeras, for years the companies provided up to 90% of the AUC's income.

When a case was filed by the families and heirs of dozens of victims against Dole this past April (2009), the company immediately rejected the charges as "baseless allegations" that "are the product of the most untrustworthy sources imaginable" and "nothing more than the false confessions of convicted terrorists from Columbia, who had every motive to lie about their activities in order to minimize their jail time."

(The plaintiffs' complaint is a horrific litany of summary executions, off-the-bus abductions, forced-entry murders and kidnappings, ghoulish disappearances and other crimes committed against trade unionists and land reform activists.)

Of course Dole is correct to refer to the AUC as "terrorists" -- a designation that the U.S. State Department assigned to the group (coincidentally) on September 10, 2001. But if the payments are proven, then, as Chiquita learned, the consequences will be harsh: Payments to designated terrorists are illegal -- whether coerced or not -- and whether or not the company is cognizant or indifferent to the consequences.

As mentioned, Chiquita pleaded guilty in March 2007 after voluntarily disclosing the payments, and ended up agreeing to pay a $25 million criminal fine for violating U.S. antiterrorism laws. The Chiquita criminal case was remarkable for numerous reasons, not least because the company continued to make the payments against the advice of its own outside counsel, and even AFTER notifying the Justice Department.

As part of that settlement, Chiquita acknowledged that it had also made payments to the FARC from 1989 to at least 1997 -- the period when the missionaries were abducted and killed. Now the families are suing Chiquita under the civil provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1991, which allows American citizens and their heirs to be compensated for injuries resulting from international terrorism.

Meanwhile, an "independent" review commissioned by the company's board reinforced Chiquita's claim that its sole motivation was to protect the lives of its employees -- from both the FARC and the AUC.

That report may help deflect derivative lawsuits filed by the company's own shareholders, but the conclusion won't pass the laugh test in Columbia, where attorney general Mario Iguaran has roundly rejected Chiquita's explanation and reportedly threatened to extradite as many as eight Chiquita executives (including John Paul Olivo, Charles Dennis Keiser and Dorn Robert Wenninger) who he says were responsible for approving the payments and maintaining a "criminal relationship" with the paramilitaries.

Another remarkable thing about the Chiquita case is the fact that its attorney at the time is now the U.S. Attorney General.

When he was Chiquita's attorney, Eric Holder told the Washington Post that it would be unfair to treat any company "harshly" that voluntarily discloses payments to designated terrorists, and that if the company is penalized, the individuals within the firm should not be. Yet just a few years before he first passed through the revolving door, when he was Deputy Attorney General, Holder himself had authored a famous corporate crime policy memo (known as the "Holder Memo") which suggested that the "prosecution of a corporation is not a substitute for the prosecution of criminally culpable individuals within or without the corporation."

At this point you'd think Holder would automatically and very publicly recuse himself from any decision concerning the requested extradition of Chiquita execs (would the U.S. tolerate it if a government official tied to the cartels blocked an extradition request?) or any other matter related to the investigation of multinational complicity in violence in Columbia.

Maybe it's time for Congress to peel away any doubts. Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA), chair of the House Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight, launched an investigation into U.S. multinationals' complicity with human rights violations in Columbia back in 2007 with a hearing in which witnesses testified about a pattern of multinational complicity with Columbian terrorists -- including the Alabama-based Drummond Co., Inc., which allegedly paid members of a Colombian terrorist group to kill three union organizers. (Drummond denies all of the allegations that have been made against the company and its employees by attorneys working for relatives of murdered Drummond employees, even while the Miami Herald reported just days before the hearing that paramilitaries had also come forward to talk in detail about payments Drummond made to the paramilitaries).

Other companies with operations in Columbia that were mentioned at Delahunt's hearing include Occidental, CocaCola and ExxonMobil

Attorney General Eric Holder is the nation's top cop, overseeing a department that we are regularly reminded has fighting terrorism (and presumably punishing those Americans who aid and abet it here or abroad) as its top priority - so it's worth asking where the Department's investigation is regarding companies like Dole, which unlike Chiquita won't volunteer any facts, and patently deny any allegations - when there is so much obvious evidence pointing their way.

Charlie Cray is director of the Center for Corporate Policy in Washington, DC.

© 2010 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/145696/

Two miners Assassinated in Southern Bolivar

2010-02-16T12:30:00.001-08:00

Public Announcement to National and International Communities
Continued extermination against FEDEAGROMISBOL
Two miners of FEDEAGROMISBOL assassinated in Southern Bolivar Province

Click here for Spanish Version

The organizations, signed below, publicly denounce the following event:

1. On February 10, 2010 around 7 am, OMAR ALONSO OSPINA RESTREPO and JOSE DE JESUS RESTREPO left the Municipality of Montecristo for Caucasia, Antioquia in order to buy some parts for their car. The brothers, Omar Alonso and Jose de Jesus, ages 26 and 40 respectively, were artisan miners and members of FEDEAGROMISBOL. OMAR ALONSO was the President of El Dorado’s Community action board and the fiscal watchdog for El Dorado’s agricultural-mining association. They arrived in Nechi at about 10 am on the same day and continued their trip to Caucasia.

2. According to reports from the local population, the brothers were approached by an armed group about 20 minutes from the township of Nechi and taken to an unknown destination. Some versions identified members of paramilitary forces that are operating in the region as responsible.

3. Dorado’s residents went to the town of Nechi in order to investigate the whereabouts and fate of the Restrepo brothers. The police informed the residents that they knew of the presence of two bodies at a place called Parcela de Londres, but that the area was too extensive to locate them.

4. Yesterday night, Feb. 12, the dead body of Omar Alonsa Restrepo Ospina was found in the Cauca River close to the town of Achi and today in the morning, the dead body of JOSE DE JESUS RESTREPO RESTREPO in the Cauca River by the municipality of Guaranda. Both bodies were found with visible signs of torture.

5. These killings are part of a long chain of aggression against the people of southern Bolivar, much like the murder of Alejandro Uribe Chacón on 19 September 2006 and many others. In the present context, these acts present what we consider a comprehensive strategy to plunder the territory by a macabre alliance between the national government and multinationals, such as gold company Anglo Gold Ashanti and oil palm company Daabon whom are attempting to seize the natural resources in Southern Bolivar province.

6. We hold the Colombian State responsible for these events in that they have refused to continue dialogue with communities in the south of Bolivar in the La Mesa de Interlocucion and/or Southern Bolivar Roundtable for Dialogue and to the contrary they have continued militarizing the region and openly allowing paramilitary groups to function.

We firmly reject these murders and all actions aimed at depriving the people of Southern Bolivar of its territory.

We call on our sister organizations to speak out to the authorities and demand strong action to investigate the murders and the immediate end of attacks against the population of the region.

We call on The State agencies to exercise the necessary mechanisms for these crimes to be investigated and those responsible punished.

FEDERACION AGROMINERA DEL SUR DE BOLIVAR

CORPORACION SEMBRAR
REDHER – COLOMBIA
COORDINADOR NACIONAL AGRARIO-CNA
ORGANIZACIÓN INDIGENA DE COLOMBIA - ONIC
CORPORACION AURY SARA MARRUGO
INSTITUTO NACIONAL SINDICAL – INS
NOMADESC
CAMPAÑA PROHIBIDO OLVIDAR
RECALCA
COMISION INTERCLESIAL DE JUSTICIA Y PAZ
AIDA
RED ANTORCHA
CENSAT- AGUA VIVA
ASOCIACION MINGA
CORPORACION COLECTIVO DE ABOGADOS LUIS CARLOS PEREZ
OBSERVATORIO DE TRANSNACIONALES
ECOTIERRA
CONCIENCIA CAMPESINA
OBSERVATORIO SOCIAL Y AMBIENTAL

Colombian's judicial system as a tool of repression.

2010-02-16T05:06:00.000-08:00

One of the ways the Colombian government has been repressing human rights activist is by falsely charging them with "rebellion." Furthermore, The charge "rebellion" is overly general and with my understanding a simple public denouncement of the Colombian government, a person could find the police knocking on their door.

Just to give you an idea about how wide spread this type of repression is, here are some people that have been charged with "rebellion" that we know from our small region. It is important to note that these individuals continue to work for human rights in Colombia even though their lives are threaten by the state.

1) The Farmers Association of the Cimitarra River Valley (ACVC): six leaders spent more then 17 months in prison before being released without charges. You can check out this interview with Miguel Angel Gonzalez Huepal by the Internation peace observatory.

2) The Fedeagromisobol: Leaders have been charged and imprisoned.

3) CREHDOS: Currently there are charges against a leader in this organization.

4) Also a good friend of ours Principe Gabriel Gonzalez:

here is some information about Gabriel's case:

La Times article about Gabriel

Human Rights First Information : Click here to take action!

Displacement report.

2010-02-15T09:03:00.000-08:00

The Colombian group, Codhes, recently released a report on the displacement situation in Colombia and it is staggering. The website for the organization is here: www.codhes.org. You can check out the report on displacement by Clicking Here!

Here are some of the staggering information:

* In 2009, there were around 286, 389 people displaced in Colombia because of the conflict and/or other types of violence. The departments where CPT work, Bolivar had 9, 529 , Santander had 11, 442

* there are around a total of 4,915, 579 displaced people in Colombia in the last 25 years. 49% of those displacements happened under president Uribe.

* In 2009 there were 77 massive displacements. 83% of these massive displacements were of Afro-Colombians and indigenous

* Since 2002, Through systematic displacement, 5.5 million hectares of land have been opened for mono cropping and multinational use and reducing the campesino population by 1 million people.

When we talked about displacement, we have to begin to talk about who is benefiting from the violence and displacement in Colombia and/or the reason behind the displacements. Clearly, the reasons are economical and have served the purpose of allowing Multinational corporations access to the land to mono-crop palm oil, sugar cane to produce bio diesel. Or in the case of the communities in Sur de Bolivar, multinational mining corporation's search for Gold.

Military aid to colombia.

2010-02-14T15:33:00.000-08:00

Well President Obama has issued his foreign aid request to congress and again Colombia is on the top of the list. Colombia is set to receive 118,103, 708 US dollars this year for military operations. On top of that, colombia will receive money from the Defense Department. According to Plan Colombia and Beyond, "do keep in mind that we’re looking only at assistance in the foreign aid budget here. The U.S. defense budget also provides military aid to the region, much of it for counter-narcotics programs, which normally increases the military-aid total by about one-quarter to one-third."

It looks like they are going to cut aid to colombia by 11% this year. But lets not get to excited because The US and Colombia did sign a Military base agreement that give access to US military forces and equipment. Over all, this base agreement is a increase in US intervention in Colombia.

*Photo taken from just the facts.

Paramilitaries' Heirs: The New Face of Violence in Colombia,

2010-02-11T11:51:00.000-08:00

Human Rights Watch recently released a new report about the current rise of paramilitary successor groups. This report has made news here in Colombia. Here in The Magdalena Region we have been documenting this rise. regularly, we hear reports of these groups working in barrancabermeja and in the country side. According to Observatorio de Paz Integal, Last year, there was 35 death threats in the city of Barrancabermeja. There are typically three types of threats, 1)Announcing of presence, 2) Declaration of Social Cleansing campaign, and 3) and a death threat against political activist. The photo here is of a death threat placed in January of this year. All this to say, that these Paramilitary are present here in the region threatening people and killing people.

Here is the full pdf report: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/colombia0210webwcover_0.pdf

The report documents multiple examples of successor group abuses, including the following:

* While a human rights defender was providing assistance to a victim of the paramilitaries at the victim's home in Antioquia, members of a successor group calling themselves the Black Eagles broke into the house, raped both women, and warned the rights defender to stop doing human rights work. She eventually had to flee town due to continued threats from the group.

* More than 40 people from the Pablo Escobar neighborhood of Medellín were forced to flee their homes between late 2008 and early 2009 as a result of killings and threats by the local armed group, which is partly made up of demobilized paramilitaries.

* In the southern border state of Nariño, most residents in three communities in the coastal municipality of Satinga were displaced after one of the successor groups (then using the name Autodefensas Campesinas de Nariño, or Peasant Self Defense Forces of Nariño) went into one of the towns, killed two young men, and reportedly caused the forced disappearance of a third.

2010-02-11T11:04:00.000-08:00

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Marching with Hope

2010-02-11T09:53:00.000-08:00

In 2008, the world witnessed the mobilization of tens of thousands indigenous demanding a new Colombia based on human rights and dignity. The Minga or “a gathering of people”, lead by the indigenous communities of Colombia, mobilized 30,000 people for six weeks to march from the city of Cali to Bogota, the Colombian capital. They marched, unabated, through police and military repression to present their five point agenda to the Colombia Government and the world. Today, they continue to gain support, mobilize, and resist.

The five point agenda of the Minga states:

1. No to the Free Trade Agreements and the so-called ‘free trade’ economic model.

2. No to terror, an instrument of the global system to dispossess peoples of their territories, rights and freedoms and deliver these to corporate interests through all the armed actors, each of whose presence reinforces that of the others and threatens the permanence of people in their communities, as well as the survival of democratic opposition and unions.

3. No to laws and constitutional reforms, which are the backbone of a political agenda designed to evict people from their lands, deny basic and essential rights and freedoms and deliver the country to the interests of transnational capital and accumulation.

4. Yes to the Colombian state honouring its previous agreements and obligations, regardless of who heads the government, with all Colombians, including indigenous, Afro-Colombian and other communities and sectors.

5. Yes to the weaving of a common agenda of the peoples. All causes are our own

Since the initial mobilization, the Minga has gathered support from all sectors of society. It seems that Colombia is rising up with one voice. In October of 2009, again, they presented their proposal for a new Colombia. Thousands of people mobilized in 3 cities Cali, Bogota, and Cartagena. This time with the support of other organizations that are involved in the same struggle for land, dignity, and justice.

One of the groups that joined the Minga is Fedeagromisbol, a coalition of the peasant farming and mining communities in Southern Bolivar. For the last five years, they have met with the government to demand their rights to dignity and land. The agreements with Fedeagromisbol concern large-scale mining operations and mono cropping that threaten the lives and local economy of the communities along with state provided services, such as education and healthcare. The government has repeatedly failed to meet these agreements. Instead, the government has attempted to repress and silence the coalition through assassinations and illegal arrests of leaders.

On August 18th, 2009, yet again, the Colombia governments refused to talk to Fedeagromisbol. After waiting for 2 days for the government to show up, Fedeagromisbol declared a permanent assembly and decided to mobilize with the Minga. As a result, last October, the people of Southern Bolivar left their communities and traveled to Cartagena with thousands of others to demand that the Colombian Government listen to the 5 point agenda of the Minga and the voice of the people.

Today, the Minga including Fedeagromisbol continue to bring their concerns to the Colombian government and the world. The Minga’s 5 point agenda covers the demands of many social organizations. This month, the organizations in the region of the Magdalena Medio, under the leadership of the indigenous communities, will meet to continue the struggle to build a new Colombia. Thus far, The Colombian governments and the world have not listened to the voice of the tens of thousands that seek a just and peaceful Colombia. However, the people of Colombia will continue to struggle and march for life. In that, there is hope.

Feast of the Holy Innocents

2009-12-29T12:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, December 28th was the feast of the holy innocents. A day that is set apart to remember the slaughter of the innocents in the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew 2:16-18:

When the Magi had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Get up, he said, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: Out of Egypt I called my son.^[4] When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."
The slaughter of the innocents continues today all of over the world. In the time of Jesus, The Empire of Rome sent out paramilitary death squads to kill all the children in search of the baby Jesus, the nonviolent Christ. Today in Colombia, The empire of the United States sends, trains, and pays for paramilitary death squads\to kill the Colombian leaders of Human Rights organizations, nonviolently resisting multinational takeover. A voice is heard in colombia, weeping and great mourning, Women weeping for their children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.

Frontline video.

2009-12-15T11:46:00.001-08:00

Here are some new videos from FrontLine about the military base agreement between Colombia and the United States. They do a good job of generally covering the issues involved in the agreement. However, they could have covered in more detailed the continued violations of Human Rights and displacement that take place in Colombia. But with all that said, I think it is worth a viewing. Furthermore, the beginning of the second part takes place in Barrancabermeja.

New Paramilitares in southern Bolivar

2009-11-18T05:31:00.000-08:00

Has terror returned to southern Bolivar. or democratic security?

2009-11-18T05:10:00.000-08:00

The Colombia magazine, El Cambio, release an article called, " Águilas negras reclutan a menores para construir pistas de aterrizaje clandestinas" or in english, "The paramilitary group Black eagles recruit minors to construct a clandestine air strip."

The article is focused around a community we are accompanying called Tiquiso. The Paramilitaries have been operating this landing strip near the community for a while now. The landing strip is for the transporting of drugs out of the region.
To see the drug trade routes in the region check out this map.

The article quotes the Observatorio de Paz Integral del Magdalena Medio, a group we work with, saying, "there are at least 26 paramilitary gangs and drug traffickers operating in 30 municipalities that are engaged in theft, extortion, kidnapping, extortion, drug smuggling. They "Remove and put roadblocks, commit murders, patrol the villages, steal possessions of the population, threatening the communtiy, and generating terror"

Then the article goes on to ask the question, Has terror returned to southern Bolivar. or democratic security?

For those of you that don't know what is meant by democratic security. In short, democratic security is President Uribe's Plan for the colombia.

Can I Speak?

2009-11-16T07:04:00.001-08:00

Here is a powerful video that I found on a friend's blog. Her blog is really great. Check it out: Decolonizing Solidarity.

A another video about the Las Pavas Case ( in spanish)

2009-11-16T06:29:00.000-08:00

The displacement of the community of Las Pavas continues. Now, The Body Shop and Daabon are sending a "independent" commission to investigate the situation. But get this. This "independent" is being payed for by Daabon, the company that displaced the community. Obviously, this is not a independent commission though the Body Shop and Daabon say it is. The group in charge of the delegation is Proforest, which according to their website have no training in Human Rights. Rather, they focus on the sustainable agriculture. which is to say, is the deforestation and palm planted on the communities land is environmentally friendly, not if daabon is violating human rights.

You are able to help! Write an Urgent Action letter to the Daabon Company!
the information is here on the CPT website!

The School of Americas and Human Rights

2009-11-16T04:47:00.000-08:00

The U.S army general Martin E. Dempsey recognized a Colombian officer at The Western Hemisphere Institute of Security Cooperation in Fort Benning as a leader in Human Rights training.

On November 6th, The Colombia military went on to release the following press release:

Colombian army is recognized by the United States as a leader in Human Rights training.

Which says, "The military institution was recognized for the commitment and advance work on Human Rights. The Colombian Army stood out as unique in the world with leadership in human rights and with human rights offices in the divisions, brigades and battalions."

Here is a short story to demonstrate their commitment to human rights. (details omitted for security reasons).

In this particular region of Colombia, the army has a history of killing community leaders and posing them as killed revolutionary army members. One organization has 4 leaders killed in the last 4 years by the army. Just recently, the army entered a community and stayed for about half a day. ( Illegal under international law) While the army was present, four people entered the community with black T-shirts and hand guns looking for a particular person. It is unknown wheather the four individuals where Army, paramilitary and/or both. What is obvious is that they were working together. The particular person ran for his life into the jungle and survived. Later that week, The army was asking where a particular community member lived and public announced they they wanted to kill him. That community leader now needed to displace to so that the army cannot find him.

While in the countryside that week, I had a chance to talk to the Commander of the Battalion that was present in the area. This time, just like every other time they repeatthe words of the press release that they have received human rights training. They say, " we are here to protect and service the communities. we have our training in human right you don't have to worry."

While the US army is offering human rights awards to Colombia Army. There is a large base of people that will come the School with another message. Thousands of people will rally at the gates of WHINSEC remembering the history of the school and their role in the some of the worst atrocities in Latin America. Currently, Colombia is the country receiving the most training at this school and the country with the worst human rights record in the western hemisphere.

This weekend, November 20-22, there will be a mass mobilization to call for the closer of this school. If you don't don't know much about this school, check out The School of Americas Watch. . If you are considering going and live around the Cleveland, Ohio area, you can contact The InterReligious Task Force on Central America and Colombia for more information.

Moving Beyond Traditional Masculinity.

2009-11-15T10:14:00.000-08:00

I recently found this article on Alternet and thought it was very interesting. Recently in Colombia, we hosted a workshop in Barrancabermeja entitled, "New Masculinity." We discussed this very topic. During the workshop, we attempted to breakdown the normative male behavior that continues to perpetrate male dominance and sexism. We looked at the this behavior from a systemic and personal view point. The point of the workshop was that traditional masculinity is a sickness that has stripped men of their humanity and we must move towards creating a more human masculinity.

I have noticed a couple dangers in this.

I have began to wonder if men are focusing on the damaging effects as a way to turn a blind eye to the daily benefits we are receiving?

I agree with the need for a new masculinity. It is something that is very needed in our society and in our work for Peace and Justice. I have found that many men agree with the fact that traditional masculinity is damaging to their humanity However, I think we need to be careful. Not only do men risk paralysis and burn out in this work but they risk being unable to recognize the ways they continue to benefit in a society built by the system of traditional masculinity. I think that if we truly are seeking a"New Masculinity" then we must dig deeper to understand Male Privilege. Sure, we have been given a illness that is damaging to our humanity, but we have also received so many privileges that cannot go unnoticed. It is much easier to victimize our selves, then actually do the work of understanding and undoing the oppression of women that continues to benefit men on a daily basis.

What Should a Feminist Man Look Like?

By Courtney E. Martin, The American Prospect. Posted November 14, 2009.

"Machismo!" shouted a young college student in the third row.

"Tough!" "Violent!" "Homophobic!" shouted three other young men, sprinkled throughout the packed lecture hall. Ethan Wong, a student at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, who was dressed in a slim business suit, nodded as he wrote each word on the chalk board.

The roomful of young men was brainstorming all the qualities associated with masculinity. Wong was one of the organizers of the National Conference for Campus-Based Men's Gender Equality and Anti-Violence Groups, a long and clunky name for an unprecedented event that took place last weekend at his school. It was the first time that young guys from around the country -- guys like Wong, who recognize that the kind of masculinity they are describing is toxic for men, too -- gathered to share strategies for getting college men involved in gender-based activism and discuss the work ahead.

In attendance were about 200 individuals, representing 40 colleges and two dozen organizations, many of them sporting titles like Center Against Sexual and Domestic Abuse, Men Can Stop Rape, and Men Stopping Violence. Notice a trend here? This contemporary movement of gender-conscious young men is largely identifying themselves in terms of what they are against. They're not rapists. They're not misogynists.

They're also not particularly effective in imagining what they do want to be. Case in point: back to Wong at the chalkboard. The negative associations with masculinity poured off the tongues of these feminist-friendly college kids. They've taken Women's Studies 101. When their buddy says, "That's so gay," they spit back, "That's a sexual identity, not a dis." They let a few tears fall during the Take Back the Night March. They devour Michael Kimmel's Guyland and proselytize about Byron Hurt's documentary, Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes. This generation is saying no to toxic masculinity.

But what are these young men saying yes too? We've all failed to envision an alternative.

This became painfully clear over the course of the weekend as speakers and students grappled to find what one presenter referred to as a "feminist masculinity." Is there such a thing? Does it look like President Barack Obama -- or does his insistence on talking about sports and drinking beers reveal that he's just one of the guys? Does it look like KRS-1, the veteran rapper who recently said that hip-hop needs more women -- or is his statement too little, too late? Stephen Colbert, in some ways, is the closest thing we've got. He consistently lampoons misogynist punditry and policy, yet his "feminist masculinity" is only visible vis-à-vis its blowhard foil.

We've certainly got plenty of pictures of men who are stubbornly clinging to the old paradigm of maleness, and sadly, they're not acting -- think Tucker Max and Bill O'Reilly. The men's rights movement is making reclaiming traditional manhood a compelling project for young, lost men. These activists know how to paint a vivid, if delusional, picture of the kind of man who will overcome victimization at the hands of all of us hateful feminists: He's righteous, he's fighting back, and most important, there's nothing feminine about him. He is the opposite of female in every way.

While it's thrilling that there is also a movement of young men all who want to tear down the patriarchy right alongside women, it's dangerous that they don't have a clear picture of what they want to build in its place. At the conference, one young man spoke up against the notion of a new "feminist masculinity," explaining that he feared it would be one more box that young men felt they had to fit into. There's a lot of validity to his argument, but I fear that the old adage is true: We can't be what we can't see. Models help us try on various identities and find one that is truly authentic. The more publicly feminist-aligned men we have, the more opportunities the next generation has to find a positive, masculine gender identity that actually fits.

Many young men, it seems, are stuck in stage one of gender consciousness. They want to prove that they are one of the "good ones" and separate themselves from all the gendered behaviors and beliefs that they now see as oppressive. That, or they wallow in guilt. (This is not unlike the stage many white kids get stuck in upon fully realizing their role in perpetuating racism.) At worst, this point of view is paralyzing. At best, it leads to burnout. It's not until privileged folks, men in this case, can own the ways in which they have a self-interest in resisting systems of oppression that their work becomes sustainable.

This is about so much more than the 200 men who attended this conference. They are on the front lines, but there are legions of progressive men of all ages, all over the country who are struggling to redefine masculinity and live that redefinition every day. They fumble without models but continue on because they know that there is so much to be gained. Guys who reject traditional masculinity, for starters, have a greater chance of finding fulfilling work that isn't just a symbol of their provider status. They might explore the joy of relationships -- being nurturing with their kids, real with their friends, open with their partners. They have the opportunity to shed their socialized skin and all the anxiety that comes with trying to be a "tough guy" and make a happy life defined, not by their paycheck or their size, but by their humanity.

Fighting against the world that we don't want is a critical first step, but fighting for the world that we do want is where liberation truly begins.

A song of hope by the community of Las Pavas

2009-10-23T15:38:00.001-07:00

2009-10-20T11:06:00.000-07:00

At the forefront of our work these months have been the problems of the United States’ neo-colonialist project mixed with the palm oil agribusiness. We continue to support the nonviolent resistance of organizations and communities who are working to defend their land and livelihood from the threats of neo-colonialism. Here is an article i wrote explaining the connection with Neo-colonialism and Palm oil.
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The desire to lower our ecological footprint has increased the demand for eco-products and bio-fuel cars. In the United States and Canada, the desire to go green has increased the demand for palm oil, driving Colombia to become the world’s largest producer of palm oil. But the neo-colonialist project of the United States has devastating effects, and the green revolution in the global north turns the color of blood in Colombia.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe plans to have Colombia become the main producer of palm oil in the world. By the year 2020 Uribe hopes to have 6 million hectares of palm growing in Colombia to feed the green consumerism in the global north. Much like the Spanish colonialist search for gold with military might during the 16th century, the United States is searching for green fuel. Since 1990, under Plan Colombia, the US has invested 6 billion dollars in military aid to Colombia, and according to The Nation, “Since 2003 USAID's alternative development contracts have provided nearly $20 million to oil palm agribusiness projects across the country.”

There has been much violence associated with the production of palm oil. The Afro-Colombians along the pacific coast are some the communities most affected. To make room for more land for plantations, many communities were forcefully displaced and leaders were killed with the help of paramilitaries. Moreover, after the so-called demobilization of paramilitary groups in 2005, demobilized paramilitaries received many of these palm plantations as a way to reincorporate the armed actors back into society. This violence has spread to other parts of the country.

For example, the Magdalena Medio region is one of the principle regions for palm plantations. Right now, there are 100,000 hectares of palm in the Magdalena Medio region: with Uribe’s plan this will increase to 250,000 hectares. At what price?

One campesino community in this region, Las Pavas, has recently experienced the devastating effects of this growing business. On July 14, the Colombian national police entered the community and evicted the 123 families, destroying their houses and burning their farms—thus adding to the already 4 million displaced people in Colombia.

This community of campesinos have occupied and worked the land in Las Pavas since 1993. Under Colombian law, after occupying and working land for a period of five years or more, communities have the right to receive titles to their holdings. In this case, the original title-holder, an uncle of Pablo Escobar, “sold” the land to a huge palm oil plantation, as if the campesinos of Las Pavas had no legitimate claim to it. The organic palm oil company, Daabon, got an eviction order against the campesinos. Although the National Institute for Rural Development has not yet granted the campesinos titles, they have a right to stay on their land because the land cannot be legally transferred to a third party until this issue is resolved. Yet the Daabon Company successfully urged the judge and the police to perform the illegal eviction and has since started to cut down the forest, build a road, and plant palm on the farms of the community. During July and August CPT-Colombia made two visits to the displaced Las Pavas community, listened to their stories and witnessed the damage to their farms. We mobilized our base with urgent action alerts, and we continue to accompany the community in their efforts to recover their land.

The Southern Bolivar Agricultural-Mining Federation, a coalition of campesinos and small miners who have organized in defense of the land and livelihood of the communities of southern Bolivar province, is non-violently resisting the consumption of their land by palm oil agribusiness. Not without a cost. Their leaders have been jailed and assassinated. Most recently, on April 22, Federation leader Edgar Martinez was assassinated in the city of San Pablo in the Magdalena Medio. However, the Federation continues to struggle for human rights. On August 20 and 21, after the government failed to show up for a scheduled meeting while the Federation waited 3 days, they declared a permanent assembly and a mass mobilization in conjunction with the indigenous mobilization called the Minga.

Because palm oil seeds are renewable, consume carbon, and give more oil per seed then other products, some people believe palm oil can allow the global north to continue their over-consumption and avoid the ecological crisis. But international groups have documented the deforestation and the destruction of peatland associated with palm oil plantations, thus putting in question palm oil’s environmentally friendly aspects. In the United States palm oil has increased in popularity with the rise of the green revolution. There are palm oil fed bio-fuel cars to reduce emission; palm oil organic beauty products, sold by Daabon to the Body Shop; and now Kraft and Nestle are using palm oil as a natural “healthier” substitute for partially-hydrogenated oils. Yet for Colombia, the United States’ neo-colonialism green project is filled with displacement, blood, and fire.

Male privilege and undoing sexism.

2009-10-02T11:48:00.000-07:00

Here is a copy of a zine on Male privilege and undoing sexism. I thought it would be great for folks to be able to print this off and share it. It is in a formate to print it off and make a booklet out of it because i want people to share it with others. IT is a bit difficult to read online because the pages are not in order of reading. Anyways , i hope this is useful for folks.

Open publication - Free publishing - More undoing sexism

Minería : A Gran Escala - Una reconquista?

2009-09-27T15:42:00.000-07:00

The following zine related to mining in colombia has recently been released. Furthermore, It is in Spanish too!! Please read and distribute to educated folks on Multi-national Gold mining companies.

Open publication - Free publishing

Palm oil and displacement.

2009-09-27T15:16:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, September 13th, The Guardian published this story about the Bodyshop. The Body Shop buys palm oil from the Daabon, the company that was able to get an illegal eviction order for the 123 families of Las Pavas. Many previous post on this blog documented the history and struggle of the community. The Christian Peacemaker Teams are accompanying the community in their struggle to reclaim their land. Right now in the Magdalena Medio region there is about 100,000 hectares of palm oil. In the coming years, President Uribe and government powers want to have 600,000 hectares of palm oil planted in the region. Where will they find this land? They will continue to displace the farmers from there land. Why do they want so much palm oil? Because of companies like the Body Shop.

Body Shop ethics under fire after Colombian peasant evictions

by Rajeev Syal, and Sybilla Brodzinsky in El Buenos Aires, Colombia

Critics hit out at the eco-friendly cosmetics firm after a supplier cleared Colombian ranch land to grow palm oil– and riot police were brought in to enforce the removal of farmers

The Body Shop. Photograph: Linda Nylind

The Body Shop, the cosmetics giant that claims to source ingredients from companies that protect local farmers' rights, buys palm oil from an organisation that pushed for the eviction of peasant families to develop a new plantation.

Daabon Organics, a Colombian firm that provides the British chain with 90% of all its palm oil, was part of a consortium that asked the courts to remove farmers from a sprawling ranch 320km north of the capital Bogotá with a plan to grow African palm. Police in riot gear evicted the farmers in July.

Now solicitors for 123 peasant farmers and their families are appealing against the decision with the backing of a British charity. They say that some locals had lived and worked on the land for more than 10 years and had already applied for the right to own it under Colombian law before the consortium bought it.

The disclosure will embarrass the Body Shop, which has claimed that it respects the rights of local farmers in developing countries and uses Daabon's oil to make the equivalent of 7.5 million bars of soap every year. It will also highlight the many battles between farmers and palm oil companies across the globe as the product becomes increasingly lucrative.

"The Body Shop should reconsider its decision to buy palm oil from Daabon in the light of this conflict," said Catherine Bouley of Christian Aid, which is backing the farmers' legal action. "The Colombian government would like to triple the area under palm cultivation, which will only exacerbate the problem of displacement." The dispute began in December 2006 when Daabon's subsidiary CI Tequendama and a partner company bought Las Pavas, a 1,100-hectare (2,700-acre) ranch in Southern Bolivar province. The consortium applied for an eviction order in January this year which was enforced in July.

Solicitors acting for the peasant farmers claim that the consortium should have been aware that the land had been home to families who had been cultivating crops including plantain, maize and squash for more than 10 years.

The peasants say they had previously been forced off the land in mid-2006 by paramilitary groups, but had moved back some six months later and made a legal submission to own it for good. Under Colombian law, ownership can be granted to farmers who have occupied abandoned land for more than three years.

Banessa Estrada, a solicitor for the peasants, said that the families had formed a co-operative and submitted an official claim on the land in mid-2006, several months before the consortium's purchase. "It was an illegal eviction because they did not take into account the claim of the land made by the peasants," she said.

Another palm oil company had taken an interest in buying the land in 2006, but had backed down after discussions with the peasants, campaigners claim.

A small group of farmers returned to the ranch last week for the first time since their eviction – with a reporter.

Misael Payares, leader of the peasants' association, pointed to a row of recently felled trees by the side of a new road. "This is what a supposedly ecologically friendly company is doing," he said.

Ader Rojas, who grew plantain on the ranch, said much of the plot had been churned up. The wooden shelter he built near the plot had been destroyed and a bog near his land had been drained. "This was all I had," he said.

The evicted peasants have set up a camp in the schoolyard of the nearby village. Over open fires, they prepare meals of corn fritters and cheese for the 500 men, women and children with food donated by aid agencies.

The Body Shop, which is the world's second largest cosmetics franchise and has 2,400 stores in 61 countries, was founded by the late Dame Anita Roddick and is now part of L'Oréal group.

Its distinctive eco-friendly image – it was the first British cosmetics chain to introduce refillable bottles – has been preserved by L'Oréal and it continues to campaign for the rights of local producers. In June 2007, while announcing its deal with Daabon, The Body Shop called on manufacturers and retailers to follow its lead to help slow the drastic environmental and social effects of unsustainable production.

"We have changed our entire soap range to be manufactured using palm oil from one of the leading sustainable plantations – Daabon in Colombia," it said in a press release. "We have commissioned our own audit and visited the plantation to ensure the protection and welfare of communities, workers and the surrounding jungle is preserved.

"Production impacts on the rights of indigenous populations, often creates poor labour conditions and has severe health implications for women working on the plantations," it read.

The Body Shop has a current commitment to community trade by seeking out small-scale farmers, traditional craftspeople, rural co-operatives and even tribal villages, according to the company's website.

Daabon, a certified organic producer, is a family-run company that was set up in 1914 but has grown substantially over the past five years. It now has 714 office in Colombia and 28 offices in other countries including the US, Germany, Japan, and Australia. Alberto Davila, Daabon's president, has been photographed embracing Colombia's president Dr Alvaro Uribe Vélez.

The demand for palm oil has soared over the past 15 years and it is found in foods such as margarine, crisps and chocolate, as well as in soap, cosmetics and biofuel.

The oil is used as a hardener in a wide range of personal care products. It was present in 497 products launched globally in 2007 compared with 246 in 2006, according to market researchers.

But the growth has led to a backlash from environmental groups concerned that forests across the tropics are being cut down to make way for plantations, destroying habitat for endangered species and resulting in the displacement of local people.

Greenpeace says the palm oil industry contributes to carbon emissions when producers establish new plantations on peat bogs, which store carbon. Draining and burning peat bogs to establish plantations releases greenhouse gases.

The protests have taken some producers by surprise because five years ago they developed a certification system for producing environmentally sustainable palm oil.

A spokeswoman for Daabon said the company had never been involved in any other land disputes and was seeking to resolve the case through the courts and "community outreach". She said it had no knowledge of any claim by the farmers before it acquired the land and had taken all steps to come to an agreement with them.

She added that any preparation of the farmland since July would have ensured that any protected areas would not be affected.

"The Daabon group and its subsidiaries have never had any previous land conflicts and would under no circumstances knowingly violate the rights of legitimate land holders," she said.

"[A] consultation will focus on explaining the company's plans for an inclusive model which could offer better living standards and opportunities for communities in the areas, similar to that developed in the Magdalena region."

A spokesman for The Body Shop said that the disputed land has not produced oil for its products.

"The Body Shop is committed to the defence of human rights and trading ethically, and works closely with suppliers to uphold our values. We are aware of the allegations regarding land rights in Colombia and we are liaising with our suppliers in that region and monitoring the situation closely."

Troubled oil

• Palm oil, a reddish substance derived from the pulp of the fruit of African oil palm, is widely used as a cooking oil, for producing detergents and biofuel.

• It is the target of campaigners because demand has led to the deforestation of millions of acres of forest in Indonesia, Malaysia and Colombia.

• In Borneo, tropical hardwood forests are being cleared for palm oil plantations, leading to fires covering parts of south-east Asia in haze.

• The UN has said that if deforestation in Sumatra and Borneo continues, the orang-utan could be extinct in 15 years.

2009-09-04T10:29:00.000-07:00

The UNIPA denounces the systematic massacre of the Awá indigenous nation

Today we mourn the death of four (4) defenceless children who, jointly with their brothers, parents and family were massacred at five in the morning on the 26th of August, at their modest residence.

Another massacre, of 12 brothers and sisters from the Awá indigenous people

Public communiqué to inform the national and international community

The UNIPA denounces the systematic extermination against our Awá indigenous people

With indignation and sadness, the Unified Organisation of the Awá Indigenous Nation (UNIPA), wishes to inform the national and international community of the massacre that took place on the 26^th of August, 2009, in which twelve (12) indigenous people lost their lives, in the Rosario community, part of the Awá indigenous Gran Rosario territory, municipality of Tumaco, department of Nariño.

Today we mourn the death of four (4) defenceless children, who, jointly with their brothers, parents and family were massacred at five in the morning on the 26th of August, at their modest residence. Among the individuals assassinated was TULIA GARCIA, the only living witness of the events that occurred on the 23^rd of May in 2009, when her husband GONZALO RODRIGUEZ was assassinated, a crime that she had reported as the responsibility of the National Colombian Army.

Despite having alerted the authorities to the series of death threats that she had received, she continued denouncing the death of her husband, until this morning when the bullets took her life, as well as her testimony.

But as if it were not enough that TULIA GARCIA was assassinated, the cruelness was further aggravated by the murder of four (4) children, six (6) men and another women, assassinated whilst they were asleep.

It would seem that this event is related to the death of GONZALO RODRÍGUEZ and is part of a systematic and political massacre of the indigenous peoples of Colombia. Despite our denouncements, and the investigations supposedly being carried out by the State, the persecution has not ceased against our indigenous Awá people, and the impunity continues. Of the seventy seven (77) indigenous individuals assassinated in Colombia in 2009, thirty eight (38) are part of the Awá family, which is to say, we have been victims of fifty percent of the massacres, and as far as the Colombian Government is concerned, there is nothing irregular happening. Even worse, the Minister of the Interior and Justice, on the 9^th of August, on the International Day of Indigenous Peoples manifested that they had made significant advances with the indigenous nations, thanks to the aims included in the Auto 004, a sentence emitted by the Constitutional Court in January of this year [which orders the Colombian government to create safeguard plans in coordination with indigenous peoples who run the risk of becoming extinct].

Despite the recent presence of personalities such as the James Anaya, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on the human rights and the fundamental liberties of the indigenous peoples, in response to the alert emitted by our organisation about the risk of extinction to which our nation has been condemned, the conditions to protect our human rights remain absent and, on the contrary, our demands generate more smears and stigmatization from the government.

It is incomprehensible that in spite of the presence and intervention of national and international organisations and institutions, armed actors continue to violate our fundamental rights, International Humanitarian Law and the minimum conditions for the life of our communities; in this highly adverse context, to which we can add eight (8) threats from paramilitary groups against indigenous authorities and leaders from our organisation, the humanitarian crisis suffered by the displaced population after the massacre in the indigenous territory of Tortugaña Telembí which has not been resolved, and the terrible consequences of aerial fumigations with glyphosate chemicals in our lands which have lead to illness and death. It is ironic that while we are developing our Ethnic Safeguard Plan for the survival of the Awa People, we continue to suffer extermination.

The aforementioned humanitarian crisis also affects our small farmer and afro-colombian brothers and sisters in the region of Nariño, as for example in the case last week of the mass displacement of more than 1000 people from the municipalities of Maguí Payán and el Charco.

The Colombian government is obliged to generate the conditions for the physical and cultural survival of indigenous peoples, yet the only systematic conditions we see being generated are the conditions of war.

There have not been sufficient answers to these serious events, despite the fact that we have carried out constant legal actions, which have resulted in:

-. Resolution 053 issued by the Human Rights Ombudsman on 5 June, 2008.

-. Sentence 004 issued by the Constitutional Court on 26 January, 2009.

-. The humanitarian MINGA (collective indigenous gathering) for the life and dignity of the Awa People, held between 22 March and 2 April 2009, after the massacre in the territory of Tortugaña Telembí on 4 February 2009.

-. The request for precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, which was denied in the month of June 2009.

-. Different public communiqués and reports which we have constantly issued, expressing our position of autonomy and impartiality in relation to all the armed actors.

As a result, we believe that special measures must be adopted without delay, in light of the emergency situation we are facing, in order to protect our indigenous Awa People. We also demand that the legal and illegal armed actors immediately stop carrying out actions against our people.

We call for the following actions:

- That measures are adopted to guarantee the life, physical integrity and culture of our indigenous Awa families.

- That the events which occurred today are urgently, seriously and impartially investigated, in coordination with the indigenous authorities from the Awa People.

- We demand that the national Government maintains a civilian presence in our lands in order to assume their constitutional responsibility for our personal integrity, above all given the fact that we are protected people.

- We call upon social and grassroots organisations, and human rights organisations at the national and international level, to declare themselves in solidarity with our people, and to promote actions aimed at raising awareness and publicly reporting these serious events.

FOR OUR LIVES, DIGNITY AND THE DEFENSE OF OUR TERRITORY

UNIFIED ORGANISATION OF THE AWÁ INDIGENOUS NATION, UNIPA.

San Juan de Pasto, 26 August 2009

Southern Bolivar Province United in Defense of Their Land

2009-08-24T04:48:00.000-07:00

I have recently return from a accompaniment with the Southern Bolivar Agricultural- Mining Communities. I was with the communities for 3 days while the waited for a meeting with the government to dialogue about many of the social, land, and human rights issues in the region. The government never showed up though the government suggested the dates of the meeting. Therefore the communities released this press release, from the VI Assembly of Southern Bolivar Agricultural- Mining Communities and dated August 18th, 2009, announces that the Assembly has declared itself to be permanently convened until the National government agrees to send a commission to solve the problems that the region faces.

Southern Bolivar Province United in Defense of Their Land

Beginning August 16, members of various communities of southern Bolivar province gathered in the town of Arenal for the Sixth Assembly of Southern Bolivar Agricultural- Mining Communities.

This assembly opened doors for the reunion of different communities of Southern Bolivar province who in the course of their history have been victims of various and ongoing human rights violations, but in spite of all this maintain their unity as one region looking to defend their territory and their dignity. In attendance were more than 400 representatives of different social organizations from 12 municipalities throughout the region.

During three days of dialogue, the communities reflected on the problems of their region, emphasizing topics such as the human rights situation, displacement from land, and the investment of the State through local and national public administration. Their work, fellowship and joy, an expression of their culture, characterized the Assembly. The result was a diagnosis of the situation in the region and a shared plan of action for the communities, with the goal of holding fast to their territory and to a dignified life.

Delegates confirmed that state persecution of local social organizations persists, along with forced displacement, assassinations and other acts of terror, as a way to guarantee that communities are stripped of their land. These tactics advance the interests of large multinational corporations, who are determined to establish monocultures such as oil palm and large-scale mining operations. The Assembly rejected the political and legal decision to end artisanal mining, and reaffirmed that food sovereignty and the region’s environment are threatened by the large-scale invasion and exploitation of natural resources on the part of those multinationals.

Besides the above, communities denounced the behavior of the State in reference to eradication of illegal crops such as coca (used in the production of cocaine) without caring what harm they may cause the communities by not offering them a viable and long-term program of crop substitution. The current eradication uproots not only the coca plants but also food crops, causing the people hunger and risk of displacement.

An important point in the agenda of the Assembly of the Agricultural- Mining Communities was the evaluation of the process of dialogue with the State. This evaluation concluded that the communities reject the government’s lack of commitment to this process and its systematic failure to fulfill agreements made.

The decision to hold the VI Assembly in Arenal was made because a new meeting of the Southern Bolivar Round table for Dialogue with the Government was scheduled for August 20 and 21 in this municipality. While the Assembly met, they received news that the Government had unilaterally postponed the stated meeting until August 29 and moved it to another municipality, under the pretext that Arenal does not have a runway for the light aircraft of the State functionaries.

In light of the behavior of the Public Administration in their lack of will to respect the true space of dialogue, the Assembly made the decision to declare itself in permanent Assembly, remaining in the municipality until the government sends a commission with decision-making power to provide a solution to the various problems.

VI Assembly of Southern Bolivar Agricultural- Mining Communities
Southern Bolivar Province, Arenal Municipality
18th of August 2009

2009-08-17T08:26:00.001-07:00

Invincible, a Detroit-based MC and activist, has created a new music video that KABOBfest calls "The Greatest Hip-Hop Song for Palestine Ever." Exploring the oppression of Palestinians as an attempt to erase their very identity, "People Not Places" is produced by the Palestine Education Project and Emergence Travel Agency, which creates "media that resists displacement, gentrification, colonization, occupation, obstruction of movement, denial of the right to leave, and denial of the right to return." See other version here

Las Pavas

2009-07-29T15:49:00.000-07:00

Here are two videos about "Las Pavas." They are both in Spanish. If you are able to understand spanish, I still suggest that you look at the video to view the images that are present. The first video was taken after our international delegation had a chance to meet with the community leaders of 'Las Pavas" Some members from the delegation are interviewed. The second video is taken on the day the police entered the village and removed the people, destroyed the houses, and burned the farms of the community. You are able to take action to be in solidarity with this situation. Please read the post below to learn how.

Your Letters “fortify us more than eating a lunch”

2009-07-29T15:45:00.000-07:00

Last week those of us working on the Colombia team sent an urgent action request regarding the families of Las Pavas who were displaced from their land. I did not have an opportunity to post this to the blog because I have been working with the international delegation that was with the team. However, within four days, we received fifty letters, which we shared with the community of Las Pavas. The community leaders, grateful for this expression of international solidarity, said that these letters “fortify us more than eating a lunch” (and lunch is the principal meal of the day here). We have also shared your letters with the Human Rights representatives of the U.S. and Canadian embassies, who expressed their concern and a commitment to follow up on the situation. Please continue to send letters of concern about this displacement; updated details about how to do so are below.

Information about Las Pavas

These campesinos, most of whom live in the nearby town of Buena Vista, have occupied and worked the land in Las Pavas since 1993. The original landowner, an uncle of the infamous cocaine cartel leader Pablo Escobar, had abandoned the farm in 1993. Under Colombian law, after occupying and working land for a period of five years or more, squatters have the right to receive titles to their holdings—a requirement that the campesinos of Las Pavas clearly meet. In this case the original title-holder “sold” the land to a huge palm oil plantation, as if the campesinos of Las Pavas had no legitimate claim to it. The palm oil company got an eviction order against the campesinos. The original land seller had failed to disclose that his ownership of the land was in fact in dispute. Although INCODER has never granted the campesinos titles, it has not officially denied the legitimacy of the campesinos’ claim to the land either. Since title of the land cannot be legally transferred to a third party until this issue is resolved, the campesinos of Las Pavas have a right to stay on their land. But sadly, like how most things work in this world, money walks, and the company was able to get the judge and the police to preform the illegal eviction two weeks ago, displacing 123 families, destroying houses, and burning farmes. But the community is resisting and hopes to return to the land.

CURRENT SITUATION IN LAS PAVAS

23-25 July 2009, CPT traveled to the region, accompanying two leaders of the Las Pavas community and representatives of the Development and Peace Program of the Magdalena Medio (Programa), to see how the situation is developing. The 123 families displaced from Las Pavas are now living under plastic tarps near the Buenos Aires township school, which many of the children attend. The people of Buenos Aires (the township to which Las Pavas belongs) have been supportive to the families.

Because of legal proceedings underway, three women have been permitted to stay on their land in Las Pavas. On Friday, 24 July, a commission from the regional Human Rights Ombudsperson’s office (Defensoría) and other accompanying organizations visited these three women. The commission reported that the police are present, surrounding the women’s houses and prohibiting the women from accessing their land to harvest corn, squash, and yucca crops. Meanwhile, the judge who ordered the displacement at the request of two palm oil companies, Aportes San Isidro S.A. and C.I. Tequendama, has given these companies permission to enter the area and work the land. Company workers have damaged fences, allowing cattle to roam freely and eat the women’s crops. When the women asked why they are doing this, the workers replied that the land is theirs and they can do whatever they want.

On Saturday, 25 July, CPT accompanied a commission of community leaders and a Programa representative to meet with the mayor of El Peñon, the municipality that includes Las Pavas. The mayor said the situation was unfortunate, but he felt powerless to do anything. He encouraged us as organizations accompanying the process to apply pressure on regional and national levels, urging that the community’s rights be respected. Because the mayor has not taken a clear public position in this situation, the palm oil companies feel free to continue violating the community’s rights.

The judge will soon give a ruling as to whether the three women have the right to the land they are living on now. Please show your ongoing support for these women, and other members of the Las Pavas community, who hope to return to the land they legally own and have worked during the past decade.

HOW TO RESPOND

We believe that the email addresses given in our previous action alert for President Uribe and the national office of the Defensoría may be getting blocked, since our original messages went through and only later did the email messages begin to bounce. We have found alternative ways you can send your letter to the offices of the President and the Defensoría.

To contact President Uribe, click this link to go to his online email form.

http://syscopre.presidencia.gov.co/publico/frmCiudadano.aspx

All information fields are mandatory, so here are our suggestions for filling them in:

Nombres: *your first name

Apellidos: * your surname

Correo electrónico: *your email address

Confirmación de correo: *the same email address again

Departamento: BOLIVAR

Municipio: EL PEÑON

Teléfono de contacto: *your telephone number

Asunto: “violaciones derechos humanos contra Las Pavas”

Tema: DENUNCIAS

Sub Tema: DERECHOS HUMANOS

Mensaje: insert the sample letter below or a personalized one

Click on “Enviar mensaje.” After a few minutes, the site should send you a confirmation email saying they have received your message. After a couple of days the secretary should send you a message confirming that your letter has been delivered to the appropriate office.

Please continue to send letters to the following officials (note the new Defensor address):

Vice Presidente de Colombia, Francisco Santos

<fsantos@presidencia.gov.co>

Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural, Andrés Fernandez Acosta <contactenos@minagricultura.gov.co>

Defensor del pueblo regional, Marco Antonio Garcia Hernandez

<magdalenamedio@defensoria.org.co>

Alcaldía del Peñón Bolívar, Catalino Meza Ruidiaz
<alcaldia@elpenon-bolivar.gov.co>

For your convenience, here are the addresses to cut and paste into the “To” line; it is best to send one letter to all the officials at once:

fsantos@presidencia.gov.co, contactenos@minagricultura.gov.co,
magdalenamedio@defensoria.org.co, alcaldia@elpenon-bolivar.gov.co

Please continue to copy your messages to the Colombia team at cptco@cpt.org.

Here is a sample letter you may use in your communications:

Saludos.

Soy ciudadana [“ciudadano” if you are male] de [ENTER YOUR COUNTRY] y he escuchado las noticias del desalojo de 123 familias campesinas de la comunidad de Las Pavas, en el Sur de Bolívar. Sé que en este momento estas familias se encuentran desplazadas en el municipio del Peñón. También entiendo que el Inspector de Policía, Omaldo García Capataz, ordenó de forma arbitraria este desalojo, a pesar de que representantes de la Defensoría del Pueblo y la Personería Municipal se opusieron a la diligencia y solicitaron la suspensión de la misma.

En frente de esa vulneración de los derechos fundamentales de las familias de Las Pavas, le exijo al gobierno de Colombia:

* que garantice su retorno inmediato de la población desplazada a su predio

* que se repare económicamente a la comunidad de Las Pavas por los daños causados por la fuerza pública en aras del cumplimiento de la orden de desalojo.

* que se brinde la asistencia humanitaria a la población desplazada y se atienda de forma especial a la población infantil, mujeres embarazadas y adultos mayores

* que se inste al INCODER para que agilice los trámites correspondientes a la solicitud de la comunidad sobre la extinción de dominio que se encuentra en curso

Gracias por su atención; espero los resultados de su acción.

NAME

ADDRESS

COUNTRY

Translation:

Greetings.

I am a citizen of [ENTER YOUR COUNTRY] and I have heard the news of the displacement of 123 campesino families of the community of Las Pavas, in South Bolivar province. I know these families currently find themselves displaced in the municipality of Peñón. I also understand that the Police Inspector, Omaldo García Capataz, ordered this displacement in an irregular fashion, despite the fact that representatives of the National Human Rights Ombudsperson’s Office and the Municipal Human Rights Defender’s Office opposed the order and requested its suspension.

In the face of this violation of the fundamental rights of the families of Las Pavas, I demand that the government of Colombia:

* guarantee the immediate return of the displaced families to their lands

* ensure financial reparations to the families of Las Pavas for the damage caused by members of the police while carrying out the displacement order

* offer humanitarian aid to the displaced families, with special attention to infants, pregnant women, and the elderly

* press INCODER [ Colombian Institute for Rural Development] to expedite their process of claiming the land by eminent domain, a process solicited by the community and already underway [so that the people may secure titles to their farms]

Thank you for your attention; I await the results of your action.