THE OTHER COLOMBIA

Black in Colombia

Organizing to Promote Afrocolombian Territorial Rights

By Piedad Córdoba Ruiz

One out of four Colombians is black. Yet Colombia’s black community historically has faced discrimination on a racial, social, political, economic and cultural basis. And the community now faces a new risk. On the Pacific Coast, in particular, it is caught in the crossfire between guerrillas and paramilitary. Forced displacement has resulted in a serious humanitarian crisis.

The Afrocolombians in these areas suffer directly from violence, forced migrations, internal and external displacement. In Atrato Chocoano, for example, 40,000 families have been displaced, virtually threatening the Afrocolombians’ existence as an ethnic group.

In addition, a law from 1959, designating the Pacific Basin as a reservation zone, set up regulations to conserve and protect natural resources, limiting the black communities’ access to individual and collective rule of their traditional lands. As a result they lost 40 percent of their traditional territory, which was divided among diverse institutions, mostly private businesses. Since then, legal efforts to grant Afrocolombians’ autonomy in their territories have been realized on paper only.

As for policy making, the primarily Afrocolombian territories lag behind. Due to poor technical capacity and a lack of professional, stable and qualified employees, the management and administration of local governments is inadequate.

To resolve this inequality, the Constitution of 1991 mandated that the state recognize and protect the cultural and ethnic diversity of the nation, enacting a special law securing the definitive recognition of black communities’ ethnic, territorial, cultural, economic and political rights. These constitutional mandates have spurred many important legislative sanctions for indigenous peoples to assume control of their own institutions and ways of life and maintain and strengthen their cultural identities.

Arguably the most significant piece of legislation was “Law 70” of 1993, which granted black communities the right to own collective property within their ancestral territories. The law takes into consideration traditional practices of production—rooted in the relationship between Afrocolombian peoples and nature—and promotes their sustainable development. Especially in the Pacific region, Afrocolombians now collectively own their land and thus enjoy more freedom to practice traditional means of earning a living, such as farming. As a result, they help conserve Colombia’s most abundant and rich variety of natural resources and bio-diversity.

So far, the Colombian government has awarded black communities 113 titles equaling more than 9.88 million acres. Almost 50,000 families and 256,848 people have benefited, but nevertheless people are still without land. The government still must distribute an additional 3.21 million acres to reach their projected goal. And, as collective titles are not possible in urban areas, Law 70 guarantees individual rights to buy land.

Law 70 also recognized Afrocolombians as a diverse ethnic group with their own cultural identity. It signaled the state’s obligation to design special and suitable means of promoting the Afrocolombians’ economic and social development, guarantee their autonomy in administering and benefiting from their existing natural resources, strengthening their organization processes and stimulating their participation in decisions of concern to the country.

Despite Law 70’s mandate for the creation of a sustainable development strategy for black communities, ten years later not one concrete action has been taken. But hope remains: the Senate just recently adopted a “national plan for development for black communities,” a simple but strategic plan to guarantee that resources—both current and potential—of import to the Afrocolombian community will be utilized to their advantage.

The national government also vowed to recognize Colombia’s black community as an ethnic group. In looking towards the country’s future, policy makers must recognize that ethnic and cultural diversity are an advantage. Indeed, it must be understood that Afrocolombians have contributed to the creation of the multiethnic, cultural and biologically diverse nation that is Colombia.
To finally grant the Afrocolombian community their merited value, every form of discrimination, racism and social exclusion must be eliminated.

Afrocolombians now face the highest poverty, illiteracy, and mortality rates compared with the rest of the country. 74% of the black community lacks health care, compared to the national average of 24%. And this is only one example.

Since 1993 there have been a handful of black delegates in national advisories: two in the national advisory for agrarian reform and rural development, one delegate in the national advisory on the environment, one in the national advisory for peace, and another in culture. An Institute for Environmental Investigations of the Pacific, the Pedagogical Commission for Black Communities in the Ministry of Education and the University of the Pacific were also created. This looks like progress on paper, but in reality there has been meager concrete progress because these new entities lack the financial resources or necessary infrastructure to intervene in a significant manner in the life of black communities.

Most of the norms created under Law 70 remain ideas only. Colombia continues to be a racist, exclusionary and discriminatory society. To influence policy makers to make good on promises made a decade ago, Afrocolombian communities and organizations are uniting with national and international NGOs. The teaming of grassroots efforts with groups of national and international clout will help ensure that the government immediately transforms the ethnic and territorial rights Afrocolombians have won into realizable projects.

Towards this end, the associations have demanded the continued distribution of collective land titles to black communities until the goal of 13.84 million acres is reached, hopefully in 2004. They also promote continued support for the formation and strengthening of community councils, the internal administration of newly titled territory. It is important to strengthen the community advisories’ judicial and management capacities, thus providing them with the legal, institutional, financial and logistic tools they need to effectively administer political, social and economic proceedings in Afrocolombian community territories.

The coalitions are also demanding that the Colombian government support financial projects that favor traditional production practices of these communities—money-making projects in agricultural, fishing, foresting, agro-industry, artisanship and ecotourism oriented towards commercialization and production of a surplus. In addition, they are calling for the commercialization of environmental services based on the abundant offering of oxygen, water, biodiversity and other natural resources in their territories and the strengthening of micro-businesses and farm industries. Indeed, financial rights need to be of greater consideration, especially in blacks’ collective territories. The coalitions are thus lobbying the government to let communities create associations and unions to safeguard the sustainable benefits of their resources.

Equally, this course of action will support the strengthening of Colombia’s black community at the local, regional, and national levels. Cooperation—from the grassroots Afrocolombian associations all the way to international organizations—will catch and retain the ear of the Colombian government. As such, organizing and lobbying efforts will secure and defend the collective territories against the effects of racism and violence wrought by civil war, eventually replacing it with the socioeconomic revival and consolidation of Afrocolombian communities.

Piedad Córdoba Ruiz is a Colombian Senator.

http://drclas.fas.harvard.edu/publications/revista/colombia/ruiz.html

[This message was edited by ricardomath on March 19, 2004 at 01:38 PM.]

Here's a profile of the Black Colombian Senator, Piedad Córdoba Ruiz, who is the author of the above article
INTERNATIONAL/HUMAN RIGHTS

A Colombian Senator’s Crusade

Same-sex union drive led by feminist long targeted by the para-military right

By MICK MEENAN

Piedad Córdoba, a member of the Colombian Senate who recently survived an assassination attempt in Medellin, visited New York City last week to drum up support for a bill she has introduced in her nation’s Congress to legalize same-sex unions.

The left-leaning legislator spoke to officials at the United Nations and met with representatives of Amnesty International in her lobbying efforts to gain passage of this landmark legislation. Entitled "Legal Initiative to Recognize the Unions of Same-sex Couples," the measure has already met virulent opposition from various groups within Colombia, including the Roman Catholic Church and right-wing paramilitary organizations.

Shortly after the bill’s introduction in 2001, Córdoba was quoted in the Colombian press as stating, "We are looking for a way to recognize a different sexual orientation among Colombians without threatening the family unit. The goal is to guarantee the basic and civil rights of those who are not heterosexual, such as inheritance and social security benefits."

A recent editorial in the conservative newspaper El Nuevo Siglo described Córdoba as the "Defender of the Trash" for her advocacy of disenfranchised segments of Colombian society.

Córdoba spoke February 28 at a roundtable sponsored by COLEGA, a Colombian American gay and lesbian civil rights group based in New York. The Spanish acronym, translated as "colleague" in English, stands for Colombian Lesbian and Gay Association. Gay City News interviewed Córdoba at the Latino AIDS Commission’s office on 25th Street in Manhattan.

The senator spoke in Spanish and indicated that the civil union bill has already survived a vote by the First Commission of the Senate and now must pass a majority vote of all 102 senators.

Córdoba recognizes that her bill has an uphill fight ahead of it.

"It is a difficult topic for many senators to handle. It is difficult to debate," she said. "It creates concern, particularly among religious groups. The Catholic archbishop of Bogota is exerting his influence."

Much like the legislative process in the United States, the bill faces an arduous path, next undergoing scrutiny by in the Colombian House of Representatives. Should the legislation pass both houses of the Congress, it will land on the desk of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe for final consideration.

The Colombian Constitution was revamped in 1990 following a national plebiscite. Córdoba argues that the wording of Article 13 in that rewritten constitution providing for "equal protection of all persons born free and equal before the law," should include specific mention of sexual orientation as a protected category of individuals. She believes that her bill has a "70 percent chance of passage."

If Córdoba’s recent struggles are any indication, that prognosis is rosy indeed. Long an advocate for human rights, particularly for women and people of color, the senator was kidnapped in 2000 and held hostage for 15 days by members of a right wing paramilitary group, The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known in Spanish by its acronym, AUC. She holds Carlos Castaño, the leader of AUC, responsible for her abduction and says he ordered the kidnapping as political retribution for her efforts to advance human rights causes. Following her release, Córdoba fled into emergency exile in Canada, where her children still reside.

The senator exhibits a steely determination to travel freely throughout Colombia and usher the bill to its final passage.

"I have a very forthright posture on human rights. I have held strong positions throughout my life, as a person of color, of African descent, and as a feminist. I am against any form of oppression."

A member of the Liberal Party, Córdoba has long advocated for peace talks to settle the long raging civil strife that has racked her South American nation of 44 million inhabitants. Tens of thousands of Colombians have fallen victim to the fighting in the past several decades. Under Plan Colombia, an initiative authored by the United States, Colombia is now the world’s third highest recipient of military aid from the United States.

While United States foreign policy aims to curb the production of narcotics grown in the Andean highlands and valleys of this republic, critics of Plan Colombia indicate that much of the American financial assistance winds up in the coffers of the right wing paramilitary organizations. Currently, the Colombian armed forces, in conjunction with United States military advisors, are concentrating on the eradication of insurgent left-wing guerrillas, primarily the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

When asked how much of the United States aid to Colombia is ill-spent, Córdoba emphasizes that "Clearly, the money should be spent otherwise than on military purposes alone," She mentioned the necessity of providing low-cost medications to AIDS patients in Colombia who now have limited or non-existent access to treatment.

Córdoba’s gay rights legislation would legalize same sex unions, ensuring inheritance and social security benefits to partners in same sex couples.

"It is very hard for gay people in Colombia," Córdoba noted. "Few people come out of the closet because it has such a high cost on one’s educational and work opportunities. Lesbians who come out risk being raped by their bosses."

Her outspoken position on liberal causes and her opposition to Uribe’s administration may well have been the reason for the recent attempt on her life in Medellin this past January.

"Four men on two motorcycles shot at me and my party as we stepped out of my car," she said. "Fortunately, we were able to survive after my driver was able to run over one of the assassins."

Uribe released a statement following the assassination attempt in which he stated, "Public Security Forces must give Senator Piedad Córdoba full protection. An executive order to this effect will be signed."

Diana De La Pava, a lesbian and board member of Mano a Mano, an umbrella organization serving LGBT Latino groups in New York, voiced enthusiasm for the bill and Córdoba’s efforts.

"I think all the work the senator is doing is very important because it will enable Colombian homosexuals to have the rights they should have had ages ago," she said.

Andres Duque, a Colombian native and director of Mano a Mano, is spearheading efforts to consolidate support for the civil union bill among the Colombian ex-patriate community in New York. He praised the senator’s efforts to end discrimination against gays and lesbians in his native land.

"For working class people, being out of the closet can be fatal in terms of finding a job and supporting yourself," he said.

Raul Gonzalez, the president of COLEGA, underscored the tenuous employment opportunities in Colombia available to LGBT persons.

"There is a lot of homophobia and discrimination in hiring, especially with poor people," he said. "It is normal at an interview for them to ask you if you are married or single. If you say you are gay, you are not going to get the job. With rich people, it is not the same. Usually, they own the companies and don’t face that discrimination."

Gonzalez, a law student in Colombia, has studied the civil union bill’s proposed language. He wagered on the bill’s chances and predicted that upon passage it will have a dramatic impact on Colombian society.

"We have two Colombias in terms of gay life," he said. "On the one hand, you have discrimination and poverty. But on the other hand, Colombia is very advanced. For example, in Bogota there are over 100 gay bars, a large gay neighborhood, and a pride parade. But there are powerful conservative groups, to which many senators belong and to be against some of these groups you truly risk being killed."

Several Colombian celebrities, including the Latin Grammy winner Juanes, have endorsed the bill.

Postponed for final consideration in the last legislative session, the bill is slated for a vote before the full Senate this month.

http://www.gaycitynews.com/gcn210/acolombian.html

AFRICAN RENAISSANCE IN A COLOMBIAN WAR ZONE

(Sept. 13, 2003)
by Bill Weinberg

Heading south in a "chiva" mini-bus from the teeming and chaotic city of Cali, the road crosses into the southern department of Cauca--one of the most conflicted in Colombia--as suburbs and industrial sprawl gradually give way to small campesino plots and extensive haciendas where cattle graze. On the cusp of this urban-rural divide lies Villa Rica, a community of some 15,000 African descendants. On a wall near where the chiva drops me and my photographer off is a mural depicting Black youth studying, building, playing musical instruments. The legend reads LA JUVENTUD NO VA A LA GUERRA--Youth Don't Go to the War. It was painted by a group of Villa Rica's young residents this July 20, Colombia's independence day.

On the southern edge of metropolitan Cali, Villa Rica must contend with both the urban and rural manifestations of Colombia's endemic violence-- the gang warfare that terrorizes the city barrios and the dialectic of retaliatory bloodshed between guerillas and paramilitary groups that reigns in the countryside. But in Villa Rica, it is the youth--who are most impacted by the violence--that are on the frontlines of resisting it and finding alternatives.

Juan Carlos Gonzalez, now 23, helped found the group Colombia Joven--Young Colombia--when he was only 12. He does some construction work for money, but devotes far more time to his community activism. A young man with an almost relentlessly serious demeanor--in contrast to his friends who joke and sing as they guide us on a tour of the community--Gonzalez explains how Colombia Joven sees cultural revival and recovery of economic self-sufficiency as the keys to an exit from increasing embroilment in the region's armed conflicts.

"We came together to address unemployment, violence, human rights," he says. "We have drawn up a development plan for this region of Cauca, based on local micro-enterprises. We want to recuperate values of love and respect to halt the disintegration of families. We want to empower youth so they wont be recruited by armed groups."

Under Article 55 of Colombia's 1991 constitution, the Afro-Colombians are recognized as having local jurisdictional authority of the same kind that the indigenous peoples were given by the same constitutional reform. But acheiving real autonomy has been a challenge--especially for communities, such as Villa Rica, outside the Afro-Colombian heartland along the Pacific coast in Choco department. Gonzalez is cynical about the officially-instated Afro-Colombian autonomy. "Its a lie, the state doesn't respect it," he says--citing especially the military presence on A fro-Colombian lands in spite of community wishes.

Villa Rica became a self-governing municipality in 1999 as a "fruit of the social struggle," according to Gonzalez. Before that it was part of mestizo-dominated Santander de Quilichao municipality. Santander has large Indian and Afro-Colombian minorities, but the leaders have always been mestizos. A Black mayor elected in 1998 was promptly removed on corruption charges. After this, the Villa Rica residents began petitioning the Cauca government for a referendum on remunicipalization. The referendum was held the following year, and creation of an independent municipality was overwhelmingly approved by Villa Rica's residents. Villa Rica's current Mayor Maria Edis Dinas is a community leader and former Cauca department representative who had led road blockades in the '80s to pressure for potable water projects and recuperation of usurped lands.

Villa Rica now has its own hospital, but still has no potable water. A truck comes once a week to bring drinkable water; what comes out of tap is contaminated by both biological and industrial pollutants. But the overriding concern for the new municipality is lack of economic opportunity.

There is some agriculture in Villa Rica, with a few residents growing platano, sugar and cacao on small plots to sell in local markets. But with inadequate lands, most youth find work in a nearby industrial park--or join armed groups. The ultra-right paramilitary militias pay the best--but indoctrinate their young recruits with a depraved insensitivity to human life. Gonzalez says paramilitary recruits are literally paid by the head. "They give them chainsaws to cut off the heads and limbs of their victims as proof of the kill," he says. "They bring them back and are paid for each death."

Colombia Joven sees recovery of local lands traditionally worked by the region's African descendants as critical to the struggle against violence and paramilitarization. Under 1993's Law 70, the empowering legislation of Article 55, Afro-Colombians have the right to recover traditional lands and hold them collectively, in a system similar to the Indian "resguardos" or reservations. In Caloto municipality, to south of Villa Rica, Pilamo Hacienda--once worked by African slaves--is now controlled by an Afro-Colombian community council. The land was first occupied by the descendants of the former slaves in the 1980s, and was titled as an inalienable communal holding--with no right to resale--under Law 70 in 1994. It is now producing fruit, cacao and cattle.

Just outside Villa Rica's urban center--within the municipality and across the road from the industrial park--lies the former slave-labor cacao plantation of La Bolsa, now a cattle ranch. Juan Carlo s and his friends walk us out there, and the expanse of vacant, verdant land contrasts both the tired and overworked campesino plots and shoe-box factories that surround it. We walk through the gate despite the menacing barks of guard dogs that surround t he stately and palatial old hacienda house in the middle of the fields. As we wait in a drive-way shaded by centuries-old orchid-laden trees, a young mestizo boy comes out. Gonzalez explains to him that we are journalists who want to see the slave-era relics on the hacienda. But we are told that the patron is not around now, and we will have to return later.

We cross back out the gate. But Gonzalez and his friends lead us down the road and across a barbed-wire fence onto La Bolsa lands. We cross a field and arrive at a patch of trees that shade a cluster of decrepit gave markers of brick and cement. The most recent dates are from the 1930s. The oldest bear no visible markings. Gonzalez tells us that this is where generations of La Bolsa's slaves and their descendants--the ancestors of Villa Rica's inhabitants--are buried.

Why haven't you retaken the hacienda, and claimed it under Law 70?, I ask. For the first time, Gonzalez cracks a wry smile. "That's a good question," he admits. He fa ults lack of education about history and land rights under the old Santander municipal government. "Our ancestors struggled for the land and understood their history, but they didn't have a law. We have a law, but we don't know our history."

Slavery was officially abolished in Colombia in 1851, but little changed for many Afro-Colombians, who continued working the same lands under similar conditions as debt laborers. Even before abolition, escaped slaves, or "cimarrones," sometimes founded their own armed and fortified communities known as "palenques" in the rainforest or mountains, devising elaborate tricks to hide their whereabouts--such as only approaching them walking backwards to throw off trackers. Some palenques still survive as autonomous Afro-Colombian communities. At Palenque San Basilio near Cartagena, in the north of the country, a distinct language is still spoken today, incorporating elements of the African tongues Bantu and Kikongo.

Cimarrones from La Bolsa went to a place called El Chorro, on the banks of the Rio Cauca, and founded a community there--because it was the only land available. Even there, they were eventually forced to flee--both by periodic floods when the river broke its banks and attacks by the gunmen of big landowners who coveted the rivershore lands. In the 1930s, the local story goes, La Bolsa's owner, Don Julio Arboleda, was killed by a Black child whose parents he had killed. Don Julio's children who inherited the hacienda were somewhat more modern a nd enlightened--and also found cattle more profitable than labor-intensive cacao. In 1939, they ceded a large chunk of their lands to their former laborers to found a community on. Blacks from both La Bolsa and El Chorro gathered there and founded Villa Rica as a "vereda" or unincorporated village of Santander municipality.

Villa Rica's inhabitants trace their ancestry to Guinea, Senegal and Angola; African traditions survive and are being institutionalized in the new municipality. We watch Villa Rica's children perform the dance called El Chunche at the village community center. Juan Carlos' friend Einer Diascubi, who beat on the bombo drum to drive the ceremony, says the dance depicts rice harvesting and other means of community sustenance. "Chunche" means pollen in Caucana, the region's local dialect, and at one point the young dancers writhe on floor shaking off imaginary rice pollen. Diascubi says the Associacion Folklorica Chango was founded 15 years ago to preserve the dances that contain the collective historical memory of Villa Rica.

A new political group, the Unity of Afro-Caucano Organizations (UOAFROC), has recently come together to extend the land recovery movement--much stronger in coastal Choco department--into Cauca. New cross-ethnic alliances are also emerging. "The indigenous and the African descendants are now cooperating to recover their lands," says Gonzalez. "The Afro-Colombian and indigenous communitiess are the most marginalized in the country. So we took the decision to struggle together."

Both groups have lost traditional lands to government mega-development projects as well as landlord encroachment in recent years. The Salvajina hydrodam built on the Rio Cauca south of Villa Rica in 1980s affected both Nasa Indians and Afro-Colombians. Black residents of Suarez municipality had thier lands seized by the government for the floodplain, and were relocated. Many ended up joining armed groups, Gonzalez says.

In May 2002, the First Inter-Ethnic Meeting of Cauca was held in Villa Rica's school building, bringing together both Afro-Colombian and indigenous leaders to discuss land recovery and cultural survival. Convened by Villa Rica's first mayor, Atie Aragon, it was attended by 2,000 local Blacks and some 3,000 Indians, mostly Nasas.

But such efforts are daily ground down by the harsh realities of war and an entrenched culture of violence. In 2002, eight Villa Rica youth were killed by paras or violent crime--in some cases, the bodies were burned or mutilated and thrown into Rio Cauca, in trademark para style. Paramilitary outfits recruit youth to assassinate both accused guerilla collaborators in the mountains and--making the war nearly fratricidal--their own kin who have become gang members. A Villa Rica-based gang called Los Crazy steal cars and hold up buses on the road to Cali--and are targetted for death in the paramilitaries' "social cleansing" campaign.

In adjacent Puerto Tejada municipality--also with an Afro-Colombian majority--the situation is even worse. Gangs with names like Los Ramallama, Los Emboladores and Los Mechas use military rifles and grenades as well as pistols in wars against both the paras and each other, jacking up a death toll of nearly 600 last year in a municipality with a population of just 35,000. Family members are often killed in retaliation for the killing of paras. A nephew of of Villa Rica's Mayor Dinas was killed by presumed paras--along with 14 others--in a drive-by shooting in Puerto Tejada in August of this year.

Colombia Joven, which is now present in five Cauca municipalities, continues to wage its campaign against violence and militarization of Afro-Colombian lands. Gonzalez emphasizes that the group was founded well be fore Colombia's then-president Andres Pastrana launched a short-lived national program of same name in 1998. The group remains independent of all armed factions--including the government.

When I ask Gonzalez if he has any closing words for readers in the United States, he immediately states that Washington must cut off aid to President Alvaro Uribe's government. "The government is the greatest perpetrator of violence in our communities," he says. When I point out that most of the violence in Villa Rica seems to come from ostensibly illegal criminal gangs and paramilitaries, he responds: "The paramilitary groups are funded by the same government. Everybody knows it."

Before we get on the chiva back to Cali--before sundown, to avoid gang hold-ups--Gonzalez offers his final words: "Every dollar from the United States is one more death. They are cutting health, education, public services-- everything is going for the war. The United States government needs to reflect about what it is doing to our country."

http://ww3report.com/article.pl?sid=03/09/15/0325250&tid=6

Colombia declares war on its own Black citizens

African Colombians demand U.S. support

by Willie Thompson


Children survey the damage after an invasion and massacre in Chocó, Colombia.
Photo: www.isla.igc.org

The Colombian government has declared war on its own citizens of African descent by labeling the activists among them as guerillas or terrorists. Repeated massacres, the latest during a June 14 invasion on the Anchicaya River, where paramilitaries assassinated five and wounded many more, have targeted African Colombian community organizers exercising their constitutional right to own and control their own resource-rich territories, defending them against developers determined to cut down their forests, extract their oil and uranium and steal their land for the construction of ports, highways and hydroelectric projects.

Last week, June 21-27, 11 delegates from Afro-America XXI, an alliance of organizations representing the 253 million people of African descent in 43 countries of the Western Hemisphere, visited Washington, D.C., to report on crises in Colombia and several other countries and demand support. They came armed with the powerful though little known fact that African descendants comprise 30 percent of the 822 million people who live in those 43 countries.


In the Afro-America XXI delegation are, from left, Father Glynn Jemott Nelson, Mexico; Solange Pierre, the Dominican Republic; Roy Guevara Arzu, Honduras; Norma, Panama; Julio Olivera, Uruguay; Chris Rodriguez, U.S.A.; and Maura Mosquera, Colombia.
Photo: www.eltimepolatino.com

I accompanied the delegates, who come from Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, the United States and Uruguay, to meetings with the Inter-American Development Bank, the House International Affairs office, United States Agency for International Development, Lutheran World Relief and the Bert Corona Institute. The delegation also met with the World Bank, Inter-American Dialogue, the Inter-American Foundation and representatives of the Congressional Black Caucus. They are scheduled to travel to New York to meet with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anan, representatives of African countries and the Honduran consulate.

Their message on the crisis in Colombia is expressed in this email I received from the African Colombian leader Harak Olof Ylele, also known as Hamilson Aragon Renteria, who calls himself “just another human being.” In his message, which he titled “When They Slaughter Us” and which captures the feeling of desperation and commitment to die struggling reminiscent of Claude McKay in his poem “If We Must Die,” Harak writes:

“Since the first Afro-Colombian National Conference, ‘Working Together to Live (Una Minga por la Vida),’ in November 2002, African Colombian activists have been branded guerillas/terrorists.

“We wish to categorically state that we are not guerillas/terrorists, so, if and when they kill us, they cannot use this deception to fool the people.

“When they slaughter us, I want the world to know that they will have done so because we are Blacks who refuse to accept the state of affairs to which we have been subjected. We do not agree with a government that is perfectly capable of guaranteeing a decent life for all its citizens but plainly and simply won’t do so and allows our communities to disintegrate. We cannot be a part of a world order that does not guarantee a life of dignity for all humanity, in harmony with the rest of nature.

“When they slaughter us, we want the whole world to know that they are doing so because we are idealists striving for Blacks, Colombians and humanity as a whole - not just the few - to enjoy a decent life.

“Now, convinced of the relevance of our work, we will not hide nor will we desist. Death will have to take us by surprise as we continue to struggle.”

Harak’s email concluded: “They may kill the few of us whose consciousness has been raised and who are laboring so that we can LIVE IN DIGNITY, HARMONY AND HAPPINESS. But they cannot kill the seed that has been sown, and someday the vast majority of people living in shameful conditions will awaken to this realization as well. We will change the rules and put in place others that celebrate diversity, so that we can live a life of dignity, harmony and happiness.

“God willing, they will not kill us and we will continue our struggle and help build another world where CONSENSUS reigns, not imposition.”

The war in Colombia, fueled by U.S. tax dollars, has voided all affirmative action and made survival a priority. African Colombians make up 40 percent of Colombia’s population of 42 million.

Colombian law provides land tenure for African Colombians, but claiming their land can mean death. So many African Colombians have been driven from their homes that they make up 70 percent of the country’s 1.8 million displaced persons and one of every 12 African Colombians. African Colombian leaders have become targets of armed factions, including the government.

In Brazil, people of African descent make up 85 percent of the 173 million Brazilians, but only 6 percent identify as African Brazilian. Wanda Engel Aduan, a panelist at the Inter-American Dialogue forum and technical coordinator of the Network of Policy Makers on Poverty Reduction and Social Protection at the Inter-American Development Bank, reported that Blacks on average have two years less schooling than Whites. The infant mortality rate for Blacks is almost twice what it is for Whites. Both gaps are widening. Discrimination also takes place in the anti-poverty initiatives, with programs designated for African Brazilians often going to poor white Brazilians.

Father Glynn Jemmott Nelson, an African-Trinidadian living in Mexico, reported that about 2 percent of the Mexican population is Black, but they suffer from invisibility, lack of development programs and denial of the African Mexican reality. In Nicaragua, according to Robbin Tobbie, African Nicaraguans are not permitted to participate in business. Solange Pierre of the Dominican Republic, winner of Amnesty International’s 2003 Human Rights Ginetta Sagan Fund Award in recognition of her work on behalf of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent, reported that there are severe problems of racism and rejection in the D.R.

Most delegates believe that the problems are similar throughout the region and demand urgent attention. Agency representatives engaged in the dialogue used the designations African-Latin, African-Caribbean, African-Colombian, etc., a recognition only recently achieved after years of denial and refusal to acknowledge the African roots of half the region’s population.

To support the demands of the delegation, especially an immediate end to the targeting of African Colombian leaders as terrorists, readers are urged to call or write the U.S. State Department, your Senators and Congressmember and the Colombian government. To contact the president of Colombia, write Presidente de la República de Colombia Alvaro Uribe Vélez, Palacio de Nariño, Carrera 8 No. 7-26, Santafe de Bogota, Colombia; fax 00 57 1 286 74 34/286, 68 42/284 21 86; email auribe@presidencia.gov
.co or rdh@presidencia.gov.co. To reach the High Commission for Human Rights in Colombia, fax (+57 1) 313 40 50 or email oacnudh@hchr.org.co.

Willie Thompson is emeritus professor of sociology, City College of San Francisco. Email him at willliemackthompson@msn.com

http://www.sfbayview.com/070203/columbia070203.shtml

Translated Excerpt from

Voces de Colombia: breve mirada a una sociedad urgente

by Ion Arregi
Published by Tercera Prensa/Hirugarren Prentsa
San Sebastian/Donosti

1994 Translation courtesy of Jose & Raquel Gerrikagoitia
Ameriketako Liburuak
Web site: http://coloquio.com/libros.html

Black and indigenous communities in the Pacifico

We are winding slowly and heavily the broken roads of the western mountain range of Colombia. We cross its final elevations and this exuberant nature is going to offer us something fascinating. Suddenly the elevations descend and an impressive horizon opens before our eyes, an immense plain of tropical vegetation. We cannot see, but it is there, like a mute witness of history. Beyond our sight and the thickets. This is the black and indigenous Chocó. Few access routes and an ample selvatic fluvial net, a natural transportation route of its habitants. Through it arrived the Spaniards 500 years ago. It is one of the regions of the Colombian Pacific.

"The Chocó was always abandoned", and "it is Colombia's most abandoned place" are common statements of its people. These remarks can and must be enlarged all along the Pacific coast: Valle, Cauca and Nariño, the remaining departments that make it up and where the overwhelming majority of the people living there are black. A land very rich in natural resources. An activity of intense mineral, forestal and fishing extraction searching easy money.

A black population which has always lived in extreme poverty, with almost total unemployment and serious problems of malnutrition, without health or education services, without running water, with extremely scarce conditions of inhabitability. Blacks in Colombia are estimated at 5 million with significant concentration in the Pacific (1 million) and in the Atlantic regions. In the Pacific, the black population, comprising 5% of indigenous people and another 5% of mixed-race, makes up 90%. This is the place of highest concentration of blacks in all Colombia.

A little bit of history

The black population of the American continent is estimated at 14% (1: footnotes at end) The black presence in America was tied to the need that conquerors and colonists, and, above all, the European kingdoms, had for the extraction of silver and gold. Cheap labor for an intensive and productive work. Mining, plantations, sugar mills were the preferred places for black slaves. Indians were not enough to satisfy those needs and, thus, black slavery was born in America. 1511 received the first black slaves from places as diverse as Mauritania, Ghana, Togo, Dahomey, and also from Nigeria, Luanda y Angola. The business of "trade" was so profitable that slave traders, basically English, French, Dutch. and Portuguese, besides working at it profusely, divided among themselves the places where to recruit the slaves (2).

Starting in the XVI century, the doors of America remained wide open to receive the new slavery and through it kept entering tens of thousands of people of the black race. The "trade" business was very good and the benefits rendered by that massive labor was unsurpassable. In the XVII century about 1.5 million Africans arrived in America. Through the whole duration of the "trade" there were 15 million plus 2 million who died in the crossings (3).

Slavery remained a symbol for blacks. The terms black and slave became one thing. The emancipated blacks, to distinguish themselves from the slaves, began to use the term "African". Starting in 1830, the movement to have them returned to Africa caused the emancipated blacks to call themselves Afro-americans (4). Obviously, the stigma of nature and the beyond were not missing in rounding off this situation. "To go against slavery is to go against God", said the Church. All the black towns, all the persons of black race became, without interception, "pieces of Africa", regardless of their origins or other cultural characteristics, to be bought, owned or sold. In the beginning they were called "bozales" or pure blacks (all slaves of African language received this appellative). Their identity as African people or peoples disappeared gradually under such traumatic conditions. All their needs were satisfied by the masters, who imposed all limits to their activities. Such living conditions broke little by little the African cultural (5) and linguistic traditions.

The Chocó as an example

The Spanish Crown got to the Chocó and found out about the existence of gold. It had to face a long indigenous resistance lasting approximately till the end of the 16th century. An indigenous population estimated at 90,000 people ended up reduced (6) by half. The needs of mining caused the arrival in the early 1700s of the first black slaves to El Chocó. Towards the end of the 17th century, the number of black slaves counted was 17,000. If the indigenous population was reduced by half, the blacks did not want to be slaves any more and, throughout the 18th century, escapes, rebellions and uprisings (the largest of which took (7) place in 1728) were frequent. They wanted to remain blacks with dignity, giving birth to a phenomenon known as "cimarronismo".

The landowners called the cattle that escaped from the pastures "cimarrones" and so were called the runaway blacks, the places where they took refuge being known as "palenques". These were relatively secure places, of difficult access, where the "cimarrones" organized their lives and from where they planned their assaults on properties and masters. The freedom that was decreed in the mid 18th century was fully opposed by the landowners and fully difficult for those who benefitted from the law, since they were freed in the midst of a hostile society and left without means to sustain themselves. Some kept on working in the mines, others worked on arts and crafts, others spread themselves through the Atrato, San Juan, Baudua and other rivers to begin building their huts and working in staple-producing plots. This created conflicts with the natives who saw their lands being invaded. And, thus, they started a life full of uncertainties.

The Pacific today

This region has never stopped being the target of rulers, businessmen and multinationals. The wealthy classes of Colombia, especially those of Cauca, Valle and Nariño have always associated their interests to those of foreign capitals. The enormous riches hidden in its midst (forests, oil, fishing, mining...), its great biodiversity, and its geographic setting, all give this area a high degree of importance. The British and the Americans have always been there from the 19th century, extracting fine woods, rubber, gold, etc. and making multiple studies toward the quantification of resources and all kinds of possibilities.

The American invasion in 1903 and the creation of Panama as a new state (until then Colombian territory and continuation of the Pacific coast towards the north), the construction of the Panama Canal with an ample zone of military protection (a great base included), put over the table the strategic and economic importance of the place, today corroborated by the passing of years. With great difficulty, blacks were breaking with the very strong and initial discrimination.

Little by little were breaking new fields as important as education and began to belong to the liberal and conservative parties and to participate in the institutions and in the regional government. We are already in the 60s of our century. These new representatives introduced old dominations and privileges among the Pacific poor, between those who were always their own brethren and with whom they had shared long hardships and history. Their new social position, their higher economic availability were distinguishing a group from the crushing poverty in which them have live and are living the immense black majority.

Nowadays, the small sectors of well to do blacks who have been achieving a differentiated level of life have initially obtained their resources through their participation in the institutions. that has been the springboard from which they have introduced themselves in businesses, the transport of passengers and also, Œin the extraction of gold, with methods of exploitation as juicy as the "endeude" or falling into debt. But it should not be forgotten that we are talking about a very small group and that, for instance, trading, one of the economic activities which brings most distinction, particularly in the cities and important towns, is mostly in the hands of people of mixed-racial background, the well©known "paisas" of Antioquia.

The afro culture

The black population of the Pacific have been developing cultural peculiarities according to their situation, to their own vicissitudes. A mixture of influences, of cultural components, have been shaping a few traits which to a certain extent are maintained in actuality.

Their previous life, in the conditions of slavery, brought as an effect, the traumatic cut with the original traditions and languages. But a series of new cultural components were giving way to other forms of cultural expression which are maintained and make sense, more so in the field, to a series of events or moments considered very important.[/b]

footnotes

1. Miguel Rojas Mix, Afro-American Culture
2. Rojas Mixx. Opus citatus, pg. 12
3. Idem.
4. Idem
5. Rojas Mix. Opus citatus.
6. Julio Caesar Uribe Hermocillo, El Chocó: A permanent history of conquest, colonization and resistance, pg 19.
7. Julio Cesar Uribe. Opus citatus pg. 67[

http://www.colombiasupport.net/choco/background.html

[This message was edited by ricardomath on March 19, 2004 at 07:11 PM.]

Afro-Colombian struggle for land and justice

by Marino Cordoba

The persecution and displacement that Marino writes about is done in our name. We must say, “Never again in the name of Black Americans will we persecute and displace our people in other countries.” The photo shows Marino Cordova at a meeting at the home of another African Colombian refugee in the United States, Gov. Louis Murillo. Five African Colombians and two African North Americans, including me, met and formed a group called “New People of African Descent.” Our goal is to do all we can to increase the visibility of African Colombians, to provide mutual support for the liberation programs such as reparations in our respective countries and to make each others’ struggles our struggles.
- Willie Thompson

Colombia has 40 million people – 26 percent of them of African descent, mostly in the Pacific region. Since the period of slavery, we have shared that area with indigenous Native Americans.

Fifty years ago, a law was passed that allows people willing to invest in that area to settle there. People began buying small land holdings from Blacks, peasants and indigenous people and turning them into big ranches for cattle and tourists. Private enterprises began exploiting natural resources. Many who lived there were forced into poverty in city slums.

In 1991, Colombia adopted a new constitution. Blacks were not represented in that Constituent Assembly, but we asked the indigenous representatives to take up the defense of our culture and land rights. They won some recognition of our rights that were small, but important.

In 1993, a law was passed that said that the Black population should delineate the areas where it had lived and apply for titles. The law also said that the government must recognize the Black population’s rights and devote money to social spending in consultation with the communities.

The community organizations met resistance from those who had been exploiting natural resources in our region such as gold and wood. Communities demanded title to the land. Since then we’ve experienced assassinations and expulsion by military groups paid by political and business interests.

My organization won the first collective titles in that region. Seven days later, at 5:00 a.m., on Dec. 13, 1996, paramilitary groups arrived in my town, Riosucio, intent on murdering the leaders and their families. Many were taken from their beds and paraded naked through the streets. Anyone who resisted was killed. The shouts woke me up. I ran to take refuge in the swamp along with many others.

At 8:00 a.m., army helicopters started patrolling. The paramilitaries radioed the pilots to attack the swamp, claiming the people were guerrillas. The army attacked us with bombs and rifles, killing many people. Those who survived stayed in the water for three days until hunger and desperation forced us out. Some of us sneaked through the town and reached a rural community across the river. I recuperated there, then fled to Bogota, where I live today.

Two months later, in February 1997, the paramilitaries and army attacked the rural communities in the region and massacred an unknown number of people. More than 20,000 people left the area. Not a single person remained. Today, some are living in Panama, Ecuador and Venezuela, and many are in the big cities.

People who survived the attacks from the Pacific region of Colombia organized the Association of Displaced Afro-Colombians (AFRODES) to fight for our territory. AFRODES helps orient families arriving in the cities. We also work for our return to our home. I head the organization in Bogota, which began in 1999, and have had two attempts on my life. We have requested assistance from the national government, but they say they don’t have the economic resources.

Last year, the U.S. government gave Colombia $1.3 billion for “Plan Colombia” - 80 percent goes for arms. Those arms are being used to attack peasants. They are spraying the croplands with pesticides prohibited in the U.S. and destroying what the people grow for subsistence. Chemicals get into the rivers, which causes health problems for people and livestock.

We need the solidarity of organizations internationally who, like us, fight for justice, because our voices are not heard in our country.

Originally published in News & Letters, May 2002 (www.newsandletters .org). For more information, call Professor Willie Thompson at (510) 601-9116.

http://www.sfbayview.com/123102/afrocolombian123102.shtml

I am familiar with some of the ongoing problems in Colombia. There was a documentary aired on the National Geographic channel about the bad conditions in Colombia and the ongoing civil war there. They were walking around the worst parts of metropolitan Colombia with a former street child, who coincidentally was black. When they went to where the boy and his brother used to sleep, there were almost all blacks there. I cannot remember the name of the slum area, but I was in shock. I was living in San Antonio, TX when the demilitarized zone was reopened for combat. That was a big story since there is such a large number of South and Central American Latinos in South Texas. I also remember at that time there was an outcry for aid from Afro-Colombians to the E.U. I didn't hear any follow up on this story, so I assumed that the E.U. turned a blind eye to their plight. Then I heard within a year that they had come to the U.S. and asked for assistance from black america. I never heard anything else about that either. However, I'm sure that the plight of Afro-Colombians is far from over, especially in light of the articles you have posted here.
Is there any organization or lobbying group that works on behalf of these people that has a chapter in the U.S.? I can personally understand their struggles for land since the few black landowners have had to struggle to get and keep land. Black farmers are losing 100 acres of land a day and the U.S. Agriculture Department has defaulted on lawsuit payout since it was awarded I believe during the Clinton Administration '99 I want to say.
If you have more information on this please post as I check in on this board often.
Thanks, Yssys

quote:

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Originally posted by Yssys:

Is there any organization or lobbying group that works on behalf of these people that has a chapter in the U.S.? I can personally understand their struggles for land since the few black landowners have had to struggle to get and keep land. Black farmers are losing 100 acres of land a day and the U.S. Agriculture Department has defaulted on lawsuit payout since it was awarded I believe during the Clinton Administration '99 I want to say.

If you have more information on this please post as I check in on this board often.
Thanks, Yssys

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I'm not really familiar with what US organizations that may be active in Colombia issues these days. It's been years since I've been politically active on anything, and back when I was active in Latin American issues I was pretty much focused on US intervention in Central America going on at the time.

The only US organization that comes to mind at the moment is the Colombia Support Network. http://www.colombiasupport.net/

Roll on, Colombia

Libia Grueso advocates for Afro-Colombians and their land

by Michelle Nijhuis

22 Apr 2004

The Pacific Coast of Colombia, a narrow slice of jungle between the Andes and the ocean, is rich with plant and animal life. It's also home to about a third of Colombia's 10.6 million Afro-Colombians, descendants of black slaves emancipated in the mid-1800s. In recent years, this isolated area has been hit hard by logging, gold mining, industrial agriculture, and Colombia's civil war.


Grueso. (Photo: David Lent)

Social worker Libia Grueso, a native of the Pacific Coast, is a cofounder of the Process of Black Communities (PCN), a civil-rights group that advocates for Afro-Colombians. In the early 1990s, she and her allies helped pass "Law 70," which granted legal recognition and territorial rights to Afro-Colombians. They've used this national law to battle shrimp-farm projects and other industrial development along the coast. Grueso, 43, has also spoken out against the environmental damage caused by the civil war and U.S. military aid.

This is dangerous work. Since 1998, some 75 Afro-Colombian leaders have been assassinated on the Pacific Coast, and many others have been persecuted for their environmental and civil-rights work. But Grueso's voice still rises with excitement when she talks about the natural and cultural diversity of her home region.

On April 19 in San Francisco, Calif., Grueso was awarded one of six 2004 Goldman Environmental Prizes. She plans to use part of the money for a PCN branch office and the rest to pay for her children's education. She spoke to Grist through a translator.

Grist: Please tell me a little bit about the nature and people of Colombia's Pacific Coast region.

Grueso: It's one of the five richest biological areas in the world -- it has 10.6 percent of the bird species in the world. The biological diversity is threatened by extractive industries, by the timber and gold industries and by all the mega-projects being planned in the area. It is also threatened by the expansion of monocultures: the palm industry and the monoculture of cocaine. Both of them are threatening the natural conditions in the area, and they are also threatening traditional cultural practices. The community in this zone is 93.4 percent Afro-Colombian, and they have maintained practices associated with the jungle. The jungle makes our lifestyle, and our natural vision, possible. The most important thing is that the [Afro-Colombian] community has a different lifestyle, a different kind of relationship with nature, a different sense of life and death. That is what we have to offer the rest of the world.

Grist: How has the civil war in Colombia worsened those problems?

Grueso: First of all, it should be said that armed conflict exists in this area because of a dispute over who owns the land. The area where armed conflict can be found coincides with areas where major projects are being proposed. War in this region is clearly about territory, about the land we have conserved for more than 400 years. It's resulted in the movement of people within our region -- of the 3 million people displaced [by the ongoing conflict in Colombia], 2 million are Afro-Colombian. It's caused our leaders to be threatened, and some have even been assassinated.

Grist: How did you decide to become an advocate for the region?

Grueso: It's a long personal story, but many like myself are conscious that if we don't assume the defense of our culture, the defense of our territory, the defense of nature and our environment, not only will the culture disappear but also the nature associated with that culture. I've had a variety of experiences that have made me conscious of the importance of our region, and how it is threatened by so-called development.

Grist: I understand you helped pass Colombia's Law 70 in 1993. What was the importance of this legislation?

Grueso: It was very, very important. It recognized the right to land, to territory, of the people who have been there for more than 400 years. It made it possible to show the importance of culture and of different and distinct parts of society -- we were able to show them to the dominant parts of the country. It led to the development of a dialogue between Afro-Colombian people and the state.

Grist: What do you consider your greatest victory so far?

Grueso: First, that the Afro-Colombian community recognizes itself as an important player, and has dignity. That we've been able to relate to the other social movements of Colombia, that there's been an intercultural dialogue and a recognition and appreciation of differences -- a recognition of diversity. One can see very clearly, in the jungle itself, that there is a diversity of ways of life. Our vision is that we can construct a different model of development.


The Yurumangui River in Colombia's Pacific Coast region. (Photo: PCN/Solstice Foundation)

Grist: How has the U.S.-backed Plan Colombia affected the Pacific Coast?

Grueso: It really has affected the whole country, in particular the Pacific. For example, in the Pacific practices such as fumigation have begun. Recently a measure was approved to fumigate in national parks -- that is completely anti-nature. In this vehement effort to eradicate illicit agriculture, one can obviously eliminate other plant life. There's been a lot of investment in military products, millions of dollars spent sending personnel and airplanes that poison the forest and water, and no support for people or conservation efforts. We're not in any way opposing the help [from the United States] but how that help is being invested.

Grist: What does this prize mean to you?

Grueso: It's an opportunity to exchange experiences, to reaffirm ourselves in solidarity with those who are struggling to change what development means. It's an opportunity to share the importance of the Pacific Coast jungle and its traditional cultures.

Grist: I understand that some of your allies have been persecuted and even killed for their work. What's given you the courage to continue?

Grueso: We are many people, and we know that this effort is worthwhile not only for ourselves but also for the whole world. If some of us have to die, that means that some of us have to continue -- and in that persistence one finds the strength for the struggle. Our slogan is that our territory is filled with life, happiness, and liberty, and we make every effort in every instance to be happy, despite the things that occur.

http://www.gristmagazine.com/maindish/grueso042204.asp

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ricardomath,

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Afro-Colombians: 'Invisible' People Strive to Survive War, Racism

StraightWords E-Zine, News Report,
Saeed Shabazz, Apr 16, 2004

NEW YORK-- Luis Marillo, an Afro-Colombian activist living in the United States as an expatriate estimates that a little over a one-fourth of Colombia’s 40 million people are Black.

But despite their numbers, he said, Blacks are invisible in the society. “We are struggling for visibility,” Marillo told students at a recent forum at New York University. “Colombia is a very beautiful country, but it has a negative impact on Afro-Colombians.”

Marino Cordoba, who also was forced from his native Colombia because of activism, added that Blacks in South American countries are “still looking for their place at the table” even with their long history in these nations.

Blacks in Colombia are mostly concentrated in the Pacific Coast and struggle to survive, said Cordoba. “The killing of Blacks in Colombia goes unnoticed by the media, also unreported is the issue of displacing Blacks from their land,” he said.

According to Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, Rutgers University professor of African studies, anthropologist and author of the highly acclaimed book “They Came Before Columbus,” pointed to where the Black presence in Colombia originated. In one lecture, Van Sertima cited the mid-19th century work of French scholar Brasseur de Barbong. The Frenchman noted that Cartegena was one of the largest slave ports in the western hemisphere leading into the 17th century, according to Van Sertima. Other analysts estimate 4,000 Africans arrived in South America each year during the early 1600s, Van Sertima added.

Ingrid Vaicius, a Colombia Project Associate at the Center for International Policy in Washington, D.C., said the “invisibility” of Colombians of African descent stems from their staying to themselves on the Pacific Coast. And, she said, the Colombian government does not want to admit that its poorest and most marginalized citizens are Black.

“The secret is out now because of so many Blacks being displaced from their farms and turning up in cities such as Bogotá, the Colombian capital. They have the worst education, and now they are at every stoplight begging and this is causing people to question why this is happening,” Ms. Vaicius explained.

Slavery in Colombia was abolished in 1851 but discrimination remained. By 1991, the struggle of Afro-Colombians resulted in constitutional recognition of some land rights and some cultural rights, similar to rights extended to indigenous people. But the land where Afro-Colombians are concentrated is not only valuable but also the battleground for competing armed groups. That leaves unarmed Afro-Colombians often caught between leftist rebels, right wing paramilitary groups and government forces.

According to Mr. Cordoba, the violence became widespread in 1993, as Blacks became more strident in arguing for their political rights. It was relatively easy to simply kill or displace people and seize land.

“We still have not been able to fit into the political structure in Colombia in a significant way, therefore we cannot argue our issues,” Mr. Cordoba said.

International groups have often cited Colombia’s struggle over land and the violence that surrounds it:

“Colombian peasant movements and organizations are suff