Project "Freedom for Mother Earth" was started this year on October 12th, when indigenous communities occupied idle farms in Cauca, southwest Colombia, accusing the far-right government of breaking promises to provide them with land. The State responded by refusing to negotiate until they leave and for over a week now have been attacking the occupied El Japio farm with hundreds of troops and at least ten tanks. 16 year-old Belisario Camallo Guetoto was killed on November 10th and many more have been wounded and arrested. Solidarity emails have been called for to help prevent further violent attacks.
12th October is traditionally celebrated in Colombia as "Columbus Day," but has been renamed "Day of Indigenous Resistance" by social movements across the continent. This year there were massive mobilisations across the country against President Uribe and his proposed "Free Trade" agreements, and solidarity actions also happened internationally, including a picket in London. Naomi Klein recently wrote about the Cauca indigenous communities (who reject both sides of Colombia's long-running civil war), describing the land occupations and how they are protected by the Indigenous Guard, who "patrol their territory armed only with sticks."
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15.11.2005 23:25
Josh
Colombia Solidarity Campaign
16.11.2005 15:59
oliver edwards
More info
16.11.2005 19:57
Luis
More info 2
16.11.2005 20:12
Print & post
Please try to come along to this protest at Scotland's Coca-Cola bottling plant.
This is the first event during Colombian Coca-Cola worker and trade unionist
Euripides Yance's second visit to Scotland this month.
(You can get to Hairmyres train station from Glasgow Central station.)
There will be a protest at the Coca-Cola bottling plant in East Kilbride on Sunday 20th November, assemble at Hairmyres train station at 12:30.
The aim of the protest is to highlight the unethical practices of the Coca-Cola corporation in various countries.
The Coca-Cola company stand accused of complicity in the murder of several Sinaltrainal trade union members in Colombia.
In addition, many poor farming communities have been left with no water and contaminated land and crops in numerous communities typicaly India, due to the company's lack of care in the disposal of chemical waste and excessive drawing of ground water.
Speakers at the event will include Euripides Yance, a Colombian Cola worker, Amit Srivastava, director of the India Resource Center, and Rose Gentle.
saorsa
saorsa
Police continue attack on Indigenous communities in Cauca, while land occupation
17.11.2005 22:51
16 November 2005
Twelve indigenous people from the Nasa community were released yesterday evening following the ninth attempt by the police to force halt the occupation of the “El Japio” farm in Cauca, Colombia.
The police have also prevented ambulances and medical attention from reaching people who had been injured during previous attacks by police. Following the sound of gunfire at about midday, the police announced that the guerrilla were active in the area and had ambushed a police patrol (this claim is still unconfirmed), and that the “counter-guerrilla” troops from the army would be called in to remove the indigenous communities from El Japio.
On 15 November, President Uribe and Governor Chaux elaborated their plan to “disactivate” the land occupations in Cauca, but the police continued with their arrests and beatings. On 14 November, tanks had been used by the riot police in the eighth attempt to displace the indigenous communities, resulting in the injury of a young man Jose Yonda, who lost an eye. This despite assurances from the Ministry of the Interior that Indigenous authorities would be invited to a meeting with the President on 17 November to try and find a solution to the land crisis.
During the sixth attempt to move the communities, riot police shot and killed Belisario Camayo Huetoto, 16 years old, and seriously injured 32 others, including Gerson Menza who was shot by the police who then tried to cover up what had happened. While the tanks and riot police, following the orders of landowners, tried to displace the communities from El Japio, another indigenous community, the Misak, occupied the “Corazon” farm in Piendamo. The governor of Cauca responded by organising a “protest” of 20 peasant farmers who blocked the main road in “defence of private property” and against indigenous occupations. At the same time, 100s of landless peasant farmers and indigenous people who had been displaced by the construction of the Salvajina dam, united to occupy the farms of “La Sierra, La Marqueza” and “La Bonanza”.
Colombia Solidarity Campaign adds:
Please send urgent messages to the Colombian authorities (sample message below), protesting the police violence against the peaceful land occupations, and expressing support for the indigenous and peasant farmer communities who are carrying out this urgently needed land reform.
President Uribe:
Vice President Santos:
Colombian Embassy in the UK:
Dear Sir I am writing to express my outrage at the violent tactics used by the Colombian police and army in their repeated attempts to displace the indigenous communities from El Japio and surrounding areas of Cauca. One person has already been killed by the police and many more injured, some seriously. I urge the Colombian authorities to fully investigate this violence and to bring to justice those officials and military personnel that are responsible for this death and injury. I further urge you to stop all detentions of the indigenous community in El Japio, bearing in mind their just struggle for a dignified existence, that the Colombian government has repeatedly refused to provide. Furthermore, it is absolutely unacceptable that the police have been preventing ambulances and medical attention from reaching those injured by the attacks from the police.
Of particular worry, is suggestions from the police in El Japio, that the indigenous communities are somehow linked to the guerrilla, and that the notorious counter- guerrilla units of the Colombian army will be sent to dislodge the communities from the land. I urge the Colombian government to cease immediately, all violent attempts to move the indigenous communities, and to negotiate with the people to ensure a peaceful solution, in line with the needs and demands of the indigenous communities.
Yours
Otra vez policías contra los Nasa Fuerza Pública impidió paso misión médica
16 Noviembre 2005
Doce Nasa retenidos fueron liberados en la tarde y los indígenas entregaran a un patrullero que quedó en su poder, lugo de que en horas de la mañana efectivos policiales intentaran desalojar por novena vez la hacienda “El Japio”.
La Fuerza Pública impidió la entrada de la ambulancia y la Misión Médica que iba a atender a los heridos en el enfrentamiento. A medio día, tras oirse una balacera, informaron que "la guerrilla emboscó una patrulla en Caloto", versión no confirmada, tendiente a justificar las declaraciones policiales hechas desde el día 14, en el sentido de que van a llevar a la "contraguerrilla" a El Japio.
El 15 de noviembre el Presidente Uribe y el Gobernador Chaux elaboraron una "hoja de ruta" para "desactivar" las ocupaciones de tierra en el Cauca, pero en el terreno la policía continuó las detenciones y golpizas. El lunes 14 de noviembre, con tanquetas, el ESMAD hizo el octavo intento violento de desalojo hiriendo al joven José Yonda, a quien causaron la pérdida de un ojo. Estos asaltos policiales se ejecutaron a pesar de que el ministro del Interior, Sabas Pretelt propuso una reunión el 17 de noviembre, precedida por un encuentro en Bogotá del CRIC con el presidente Uribe. Los indígenas resisten masivamente en el predio.
Durante el sexto intento de desalojo por el ESMAD, fue muerto a bala el jueves el guardia indígena BELISARIO CAMAYO HUETOTO, de 16 años y fueron heridos 32 indígenas, 5 de gravedad, uno de ellos, Gerson Menza, abaleado, todos por la acción de la fuerza pública, que disparó y luego mintió. Y mientras el Esmad y las tanquetas, a órdenes de los terratenientes Garcés & Cia, intentan desalojar a los Nasa de El Japio, los Misak ocuparon la Hacienda "Corazón" en Piendamó. La gobernación del Cauca respondió con un mitin de 20 "campesinos" que "bloquearon" la Panamericana "en defensa d ela propiedad privada" contra ocupaccón indígena, pero entre tanto, en Morales, unificadamente, cientos de sin tierra campesinos e indígenas Misak y Nasa, damnificados de la represa "La Salvajina", se posesionaron de las fincas "La Sierra", "La Marqueza" y "La Bonanza".
from Colombia SC
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http://www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk
BACKGROUND
25.11.2005 01:25
Since October 12th last, peasants and Indians have peacefully occupied more than 11 farm estates in the Department of Cauca (southern Colombia) in order to demand measures of agrarian reform. The State forces have attempted to evict the occupiers in various places, injuring more than 57 people, and the the Governor of Cauca has attempted to blacken the name of the mobilized peoples and communities accusing them of being associated with narcotraffickers, the guerrilla and terrorism.
From the beginning of October, there have been reports of the arrival in the region of uniformed strangers who could be paramilitary groups, and there is fear that a massacre might be perpetrated.
Faced with the threat of a worsening of the repression against the mobilized communities, it is of prime importance at this time to gather international solidarity to demand respect and protection of the lives of all the people involved, as well as effective measures of agrarian reform. Please write to the Colombian President, with a copy for the Governor of Cauca, and one to the Cauca Indigenous Regional Council (CRIC). (Addresses below)
Background to the Occupations:
Distribution of land is extremely unjust in Colombia: 0.4% of landowners, about 15,000 people, control 61% of the farmland. In the Department of Cauca, peasant and indigenous communities suffer from lack of land and are obliged to cultivate small parcels of bad quality terrain. According to a 1998 estimate, the 64 Indian communities in Cauca need 162,164 hectares of land.
The demand for land by the indigenous peoples of Cauca is not new: In 1995 the Indian reserves declared themselves to be in an economic, social and cultural emergency, and after a protest which blocked the main Pan-American highway for three days, the Colombian Government agreed to guarantee the provision of productive land. But so far, the Government has not fulfilled this promise made 10 years ago. In fact, the official budget for the acquisition of land has been drastically reduced in the last few years.
The difficult situation in the Colombian countryside has caused an increase in mobilizations by Indians, peasants and Afro-Colombians during the last months in various parts of the country. At the beginning of September this year, indigenous peoples of the Nasa community (Paez Indians) occupied the estate known as 'La Emperatriz' in Caloto, Cauca, in order to demand the fulfillment of promises made by the government before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights regarding extending the Indian reserve called 'Huellas Caloto', as reparation for the government's responsibility for the massacre of 20 indigenous people of this community in 1991.
The report then gives a detailed list of over a dozen estates in Cauca taken over on 12th and 15th October by peasant and indigenous communities, showing a massive coordinated mobilization.... The report continues:
In the case of the property 'La Emperatriz', the government signed an agreement on 13th September in which it promised to appoint a commission to investigate the issue within 15 days. Unfortunately, the government has not complied with this agreement. On 14th October, the regional government of Cauca agreed to negotiate with the peasant occupants of the farmlands known as 'Miraflores' and other properties and promised to resolve the problem of lack of land. The regional government also held dialogues with the indigenous people of Kisgo and promised to give them title to the land known as 'Los Remedios' which is in the process of being requisitioned by the government because of the illegal drug-trafficking of its owners. But in all other cases, the regional and national governments have refused to negotiate with the occupiers.
The lack of effective implementation of measures of agrarian reform is a violation of the economic, social, and cultural rights, and in particular, the right to food, of the indigenous peoples and peasant communties of Cauca. Colombia is a signatory to the International Agreement on Economic, Social and Cultural rights and is thus obliged to guarantee these rights for all its population. Attempts to resolve conflicts over land by repression and smear-campaigns against those who are demanding their rights is a violation of civil rights and inflames the climate of violence.
Below are the addresses of the President of Colombia:
Dr. Alvaro Uribe Vélez
Presidente de la República,
Carrera 8 # 7-26 Palacio de Nariño, Santafé de Bogotá D.C.
Fax: +57 1 286 7434 - 337 5890
web mail:
The Governor of Cauca:
Dr. Juan José Chaux Mosquera
Gobernador del Cauca
Calle 4 Carrera 6 Esquina, Popayán (Cauca) – Colombia
Fax: +57 2 – 824 3783
And the Indian organization CRIC, centred in Popayan, Cauca:
Consejo Regional Indígena del Cauca (CRIC)
Calle 1ª N° 4-50, Popayán, Cauca ? Colombia
translated by jenny james