Sunday Afternoon — The Indigenous Struggles in Colombia and Beyond — 10.26.08
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Contents:
1. About This Sunday
2. About Rafael Coicué
3. About Mario Murillo
4. Interview with RC on Democracy Now
5. Article by Mario A. Murillo
6. We Are not Subversives, and We Demand Respect
7. Colombia’s indigenous speak
8. The Media and Colombia
9. Two More Useful Links
http://www.16beavergroup.org/monday
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1. About This Sunday
When: Sunday, October 26th, 2 pm
Where: 16 Beaver Street, New York
What: Meeting / Discussion / Report
More than 10,000 indigenous Colombians have begun a protest march against President Alvaro Uribe. Marchers are protesting the militarization of their territories, the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, and the failure of Uribe’s administration to fulfill various accords with the indigenous communities.
The battle for human rights and dignity intensifies in a new battle front led by the indigenous Nasa people of Northern Cauca in Colombia. For those of you who are in New York City, please join us on Sunday for a discussion with indigenous leader Rafael Coicue, professor Mario Murillo, and other guests.
This event is brought to you by:
El Movimiento por la Paz en Colombia
First Voices Indigenous Radio
Deep Dish TV
Alwan for the Arts
16 Beaver Group
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2. About Rafael Coicué
One of the delegation, Rafael Coicué, is among the most respected leaders of the contemporary indigenous movement. He was the indigenous governor of Corinto in Northern Cauca and representative of the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca, Colombia (ACIN).. A long time Nasa activist, his brother was killed in the 1991 Nilo massacre of 20 Nasa, and he was shot at and lost an eye in July 2008, a direct attempt on his life because of the work he’s involved in. He will be in Washington, testifying before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights about the consistent violations committed against Colombia’s indigenous communities by the government of Alvaro Uribe, including the backlash carried out by the Army and Police against indigenous protesters in Cauca over the past ten days.
It is very important that people in the U.S. learn about and spread information on this struggle. The Alvaro Uribe government in Colombia is a linchpin of U.S. strategy in Latin America and the recipient of billions of dollars in aid.
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3. About Mario Murillo
Mario Murillo reports from Colombia of an intense struggle (more widespread and more violently repressed than Oaxaca) between the indigenous NASA people of Northern Cauca and the Uribe government.
Mario describes the mass upheaval of the indigenous people of Cauca that has spread into a nationwide struggle. The indigenous people’s protests and demands have been met with military force (over 130 wounded, at least 3 dead) and government / media charges that their protests have been orchestrated by the FARC and that they are terrorists. Yesterday a delegation of Indigenous leaders arrived in Washington DC to testify before the Inter-American Committe on Human Rights.
Mario Murillo is the host of New York Pacifica Network radio WBAI’s Wakeup Call-Fridays, a professor at Hofstra University, and a member of the Deep Dish.) He is teaching in Colombia until January.
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4. Interview on Democracy Now
JUAN GONZALEZ: In Colombia, more than 10,000 indigenous Colombians have begun a protest march against President Alvaro Uribe. The march comes one week after three people were killed and dozens were injured at the outset of a national mobilization for indigenous rights. The activists are protesting the militarization of their territories, the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, and the failure of President Uribe’s administration to fulfill various accords with the indigenous communities. Uribe has responded by calling for the investigation of indigenous leaders, including Daniel Piñacue.
PRESIDENT ALVARO URIBE: [translated] The Colombian government asks for the prosecution of those who are violent. The Colombian government asks the judges to investigate the behavior of people like Daniel Piñacue, which is a behavior that incites violence and deserves to be studied by Colombian prosecutors and judges.
JUAN GONZALEZ: The Colombian government has accused indigenous groups of being infiltrated by FARC rebels. Daniel Piñacue denied the allegations.
DANIEL PINACUE: [translated] I am very surprised, and I consider it very unfortunate. I do not cover my face to take action in this walk. My actions are clear, and I face the Colombian people. And this is why President Uribe has to face us, the indigenous farmers and the people here at this protest walk.
AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Washington, D.C., to be joined by Rafael Coicué. He is an indigenous leader in Colombia from Northern Cauca. His brother was killed in the ’91 Nilo massacre. In July, he lost sight in his left eye when he was assaulted by masked gunmen in his home. Rafael Coicué is in Washington to testify before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights.
And we’re also joined in Colombia by Mario Murillo. He’s a professor of communications at Hofstra University, Pacifica Radio producer at WBAI in New York, author of Colombia and the United States: War, Terrorism and Destabilization, completing a book on the indigenous movement in Colombia and its use of popular media in community organizing, currently living in Colombia and blogging at mamaradio.blogspot.com. He joins us via video stream from Colombia.
First, let’s go to Mario in Colombia. Mario, tell us what’s happening there.
MARIO MURILLO: Well, first of all, the march, the indigenous march that began on the 12th of October, it was actually a mobilization. Today, they started-they continued marching along the Pan-American Highway in a peaceful protest. The idea is that the entire indigenous movement from southern Colombia and other parts of the region are going to be merging on the weekend in the third largest city of Colombia, Calle. And that mobilization has already started.
And it comes just a day after-last night, late last night, President Uribe made an announcement, an official announcement, accepting responsibility for misinformation, basically saying that after days and days of denying that any gunfire was being shot at or directed at indigenous communities that were mobilized in La Maria. He actually accepted last night that indeed one police official was caught on videotape by CNN, and that was presented to him yesterday, and accepted responsibility for that gunfire.
But at the same time, he was denying the fact that anybody who was killed or any of the wounded were shot by national police or army officials that went to confront the indigenous protesters over the last week. So even though he admitted it, because it was caught on videotape, I was just speaking to members of the ACIN, Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca, and they told me this morning that, no, the march continues and that the information put out yesterday by the president continues to [inaudible] address [inaudible] principal issues that the communities are putting forth in this mobilization.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And, Mario, obviously, the protests, you said, started on October 12th, which is the anniversary of el Dia de la Raza, or of Columbus Day, as it’s called here in the United States. What is the-in terms of the condition of the indigenous under the Uribe government, what is it like right now?
MARIO MURILLO: That’s a great point, and this is interesting that finally, after over almost two weeks of mobilizing and weeks before the mobilization began, the indigenous communities were putting out communiqués consistently on their websites and holding press conferences to draw attention to five key points that the communities are trying to address and to get the government to address, but it hasn’t gotten any coverage whatsoever. Only the last couple of days, because the government has been forced to respond to the specific points, are the media now here in Colombia actually addressing them.
One of them, you pointed out in the introduction. They’re really concerned about the free trade agreement that was signed by the Colombian government, and they’re waiting for approval in the US Congress. It hasn’t been approved by the Congress. And so, the Colombian indigenous movement and the popular movement in general are saying that this free trade agreement has to be reconsidered, because the communities were not consulted.
Another major issue, which addresses specifically your question about the conditions, is the human rights violations that have been carried out against the communities. The indigenous movements are saying no to the democratic security strategy, the so-called democratic security strategy of the Uribe government, because it hasn’t brought security, and it is by no means democratic, as far as they’re concerned, given the fact that over the last month alone, since early September, over twenty-four indigenous members of the different communities throughout the country have been assassinated, eight of which were attributed to public security forces in different parts of the country, and particularly in northern Cauca. So they’re saying that these human rights violations continue. The displacement of indigenous communities, 400,000 displaced under the six-year administration of Uribe. They’re saying that this all has to stop, and these are the issues that have to be addressed. Unfortunately, the Colombian government continues to kind of whitewash it all and say that, OK, we’re going to talk about lands, territories, that we’re going to buy from large landowners in the south and give some of those lands back to the indigenous communities. But they’re not addressing the fundamental points that the communities are putting forward in this mobilization.
AMY GOODMAN: Mario, thank you so much for joining us from Cauca. Also, as we said, we’re joined in Washington, D.C. by Rafael Coicué, a former mayor of the indigenous city of Corinto in Cauca, in northern Colombia, shot on July 3rd during an indigenous mobilization when he was confronted by heavily armed special forces commandos dispatched to disperse the indigenous activists. Explain what happened to you, Rafael, and what you think needs to be understood by Americans today.
RAFAEL COICUÉ: [translated] Very well. First of all, good morning, everyone who’s listening this morning.
I am here in Washington representing the indigenous communities of the Cauca in Colombia before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to follow up on and to clarify the facts in all the human rights violations that the Colombian state, in administration after administration, has committed against the indigenous communities, Afro-Colombians, trade unionists and students in Colombia.
And it’s true, as you were saying, I am a victim of this state and the different administrations, first because the demands of the indigenous communities are fair and just, and the response of the government has been just repression. And so, on July 3rd, when I was traveling along the road between Caloto and Corinto, the indigenous peoples were mobilizing to free the land, and the anti-riot police was there. And there, I was hit by BBs that they were shooting at us and took my left eye, and I’ve lost the sight in the left eye.
Well, I continue fighting. I continue calling on the government to listen and to understand our just demands and that they respect our right to mobilize. We are peaceful peoples. We are peoples who only have the force of our sticks, the force of our conscience, the force of our word. This is what leads us to mobilize.
And as Mario Murillo was saying, the situation in Colombia today is very critical, very critical in terms of the policies that this government has been promoting. For example, the free trade agreement is very harmful to us, because it means handing over natural resources to the multinational corporations. It’s pillaging our natural resources. It also means exploiting cheap labor that one finds in Colombia, setting up companies that would not have to pay taxes, as well as cultural issues, intellectual property rights issues. The rights of the indigenous people will be decimated, will be destroyed, will simply be relegated to museums and paintings.
And in the face of that, we, the communities, engaged in a consultation in 2005, and we said we are not in agreement with the free trade agreement. Six, this was followed by communities, by students, by rice growers, wheat growers and potato growers in the central part of the country, trade unionists from the national federation CUT, the teachers’ unions. There have been consultations. And most of the poor in Colombia today are rejecting that kind of a treaty. Instead, a treaty needs to respect and recognize Colombia’s sovereignty. There needs to be a fair, balanced economic policy, and all of us peoples should be able to have access to the benefits, not just the industrialists or Mr. Ardila-Lulle, who is the owner of the largest companies in Colombia. All of us Colombians should have opportunities in-under a fair and egalitarian treaty. [inaudible] to the other issue-
AMY GOODMAN: Rafael Coicué, I want to thank you very much for being with us. Unfortunately, we’ve run out of time, former mayor from Corinto. I will say he will be speaking in New York on Sunday. We’ll list where it is on our website at democracynow.org. Special thanks to Charlie Roberts for translation.
http://cdn2.libsyn.com/democracynow/dn2008-1023-1.mp3?nvb=20081025021659&nva=20081026021659&t=0c9c5970e245cc8fcb3b5
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5. Article by Mario A. Murillo
Threats Mount Against the Indigenous Social Movement in Colombia
by Mario A. Murillo
Rafael Coicué may be soft spoken, but when it is his turn to talk in meetings and indigenous assemblies, the people listen carefully for his deliberate insight and precise analysis. Today, he is one of the most respected young leaders of the contemporary indigenous movement in northern Cauca. This is why there was universal condemnation of the actions taken by state security forces on July 3, 2008 during an indigenous mobilization in his native Corinto, where he was shot, losing all the functions of his left eye in the process. The incident occurred on the road just outside of Corinto, where he was confronted by heavily armed, special-forces commandoes, dispatched to disperse a land recuperation effort by local indigenous activists. Coicué is convinced it was not a random act that almost killed him, but a direct attempt on his life because of the work he’s involved in.
A few weeks earlier in Corinto, the Army had killed two young, indigenous activists during another land recuperation effort. Community leaders say the victims were then dressed up as guerrillas to cover up the action, a tactic apparently being used increasingly by government forces to demonstrate progress in their war against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The use of so-called “false positives” was documented in recent studies by Amnesty International and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and reported in the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post.
“This part of northern Cauca is being disputed heavily right now. The territory of Corinto is extremely fertile, and there are a lot of interests trying to gain control of the area by pushing us out,” Coicué said. “They had been accusing us of being drug-traffickers, as being linked with the guerrillas, as a way to de-legitimize our struggle, and the situation was becoming increasingly tense.”
These developments were among the issues to be discussed in the assembly Coicué was putting together with his cabildo in early July. “As a representative of the cabildo, (indigenous council), and as part of the indigenous authority, I was charged with setting up the logistics for an emergency public assembly that we were scheduling for July 4 in Corinto, where we were going to denounce the recent actions taken against the communities by local landowners, the army and the national police,” he said. Unfortunately Coicué never made it to the assembly, forced instead to recover in an emergency room from the wounds to his eye.
The Liberation of Mother Earth
Coicué has been at the forefront of the campaign for the “Liberation of Mother Earth,” which was launched by the indigenous communities of Cauca in 2005. This land recuperation and resistance effort was organized by the leadership in response to the government’s failure to fulfill its obligations to the victims of the December 16, 1991 massacre of 20 indigenous people from the Huellas community, including five women and four children, who were murdered as they met to discuss a struggle over land rights in the El Nilo estate.
That tragic night, some 60 hooded gunmen stormed into the building where the community was meeting and opened fire. Initial news reports indicated that the gunmen were drug traffickers who had been seizing land in the region to grow opium poppies to produce heroin, but it soon became apparent that the culprits were not simply narco-traffickers.
The 1991 killings had followed a pattern of harassment and threats against the Nasa community by gunmen loyal to local landowners who were disputing the community’s claim to ownership of the land. The Special Investigations Unit of the Office of the Attorney General, which handled the first stages of the investigation, uncovered evidence of the involvement of members of the National Police, both before and during the execution of the massacre.
As a result, the government had agreed to return 15,600 hectares to the community that had been targeted by the assassins. The Inter-American Court for Human Rights of the Organization of American States upheld this sentence, and also called on the government to financially compensate the family members of the victims of the massacre. In 1998, then-President Ernesto Samper publicly apologized for the role the State had played in this atrocity, and promised to compensate the victims.
Yet Samper’s public apologies contrasted considerably with the announcement in 2002 by the government of President Alvaro Uribe that there were simply no more resources available from the State to provide any more lands to the indigenous communities affected by the massacre.
After years of government foot-dragging, the “Liberation of Mother Earth” campaign demonstrated to the country that the community was going to take matters into their own hands and return to a strategy that had all but been abandoned in the years after the reform of the Colombian Constitution. The campaign involves dramatic land invasions and occupations of private holdings, mostly controlled by the large-scale sugar cane growers. Once inside these lands, the indigenous farmers begin chopping down the cane, in turn growing and cultivating crops based on the sustainable agricultural practices of the indigenous communities. It has led to bitter confrontations over the last several years. Rafael Coicué, who lost a brother in the Nilo massacre, says that despite having lost an eye just two short months back, he will not rest until justice is served and the communities recuperate their lands.
“The response of the government to our latest, non-violent land recuperation efforts has been to send in the public security forces to confront us head on, brutally,” said Coicué during a break at a recent meeting of the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca (ACIN). “They send in the army, the national police, the ESMAD (Special Forces Police), the local police, all with the instructions to hit us hard, as if we were some violent actors, or as if we were armed guerrillas.”
False Accusations Against Indigenous Leadership
The strong-arm tactics described by Coicué are consistent with President Uribe’s position regarding the alternative social programs of indigenous communities throughout the country, which on more than one occasion the president has described as illegal in their pronunciations of autonomy from the state.
It is reflected also in comments from officials like General Jaime Esguerra, the current commander of the Army’s Third Brigade, who in May 2008 accused the indigenous leadership of working directly with the FARC in its land recuperation efforts. This belligerent rhetoric is a reflection of a long tradition of public officials trying to discredit the legitimate claims of the indigenous communities in the eyes of Colombian public opinion in order to justify the government’s repressive actions on their territories.
More importantly, in the current context, the attitude reflected in these ongoing accusations is the basis of a systematic and pervasive backlash against the indigenous movement’s capacity to mobilize in defense of its guaranteed rights. This backlash is being spearheaded by a complex alliance of reactionary domestic political and economic forces that are at once sustained and promoted by international actors that have a lot to lose if the trend at counter-reform in Colombia does not continue to move in their favor.
The threats against the unity and strength of the indigenous movement in northern Cauca range from direct military confrontation and intimidation by armed actors, to the seemingly peaceful incursion into the communities of evangelical Christian groups, who use the vast economic resources they have at their disposal to attract some of the most marginalized Nasa into their congregations by promising salvation and support, when and if the people surrender the authority of the cabildo for that of the church. Combined with the short and long-term strategic objectives of the Colombian government, under the auspices of the U.S.-funded Plan Colombia, the cohesion of the organization and the communities as a whole is under serious threat.
The Uribe government has made it clear that it intends to apply even more pressure in the coming years to finally dislodge the guerrillas from their former strongholds in the northern Cauca region. The potential for prolonged stalemate is very real. The government’s strategy is to implement some of the same military tactics that were apparently successful against the guerrillas in the southern departments of Putumayo and Caquetá to the northern Cauca theater, making the next phase of the war that much more complicated, particularly for indigenous communities.
It is already visible in the permanent occupation of places like Toribio and Tacueyó, where heavily armed members of the National Police patrol the streets and neighborhoods, and in the confrontations in places like Corinto. Coicué and others in the community are convinced that this reality is not going to change any time soon, and most likely will get more intense as the government focuses more of its attention in the region.
“Throughout Northern Cauca, and one sees it in Corinto, there is an extremely large presence of military forces. There are mobile brigades, special forces, military intelligence, high-altitude battalions operating in the mountainside, all supposed to confront the guerrillas, but impacting us directly,” said Coicué. “In this aspect, the confrontations have increased, the bombardments, the attacks from helicopters. These confrontations have caused deaths, have destroyed houses and schools, have killed animals. As a result, the community finds itself in constant high risk, because the weapons used by both the guerrillas and the army don’t discriminate, they are not precise. So we have declared ourselves in a state of high emergency.”
It appears that much of the attacks against the indigenous movement are indeed systematic. Colombian human rights groups like the Center for Investigation and Popular Education, CINEP, as well as the Center for Indigenous Cooperation, CECOIN, point out that while the number of overall violations against indigenous communities has increased in the first four years of Uribe’s government, the number of acts attributable to the state security forces has also increased.
From 1998-2002, they registered 298 cases in which state actors were directly responsible, whereas from 2002-2006, that number reached 672 cases. State-sponsored political assassinations rose from 26 in the previous presidential period to 62 under the first Uribe term. Increases were noted in all other areas of rights violations as well.
It is no coincidence that Cauca has been one of the departments most affected by this wave of repression, along with places like Putumayo, and the Chocó. Between 2002-2006, CECOIN registered 212 cases of arbitrary detentions against indigenous communities, 61 cases of targeted assassinations, 30 cases of personal threats, and over 114 wounded, mostly Nasa, Kokonuco and Yanacona.
Along with these acts, one must consider the more than 200 “orders of detention” that have been issued, yet have not yet been carried out by state security forces. These orders of detention came about as a result of the clashes between the Army and the FARC in Toribio over the last several years, clashes that resulted in military officials accusing indigenous leaders of collaborating with the guerrillas. Not surprisingly, these orders of capture were directed at the leaders of the community most associated with the struggle for the defense of indigenous rights.
Expansion of Conflict in Cauca
In February 2007, the Department of National Planning (DNP), through its office of Justice and Security, released the document Strategy to Strengthen Democracy and Social Development (2007-2013). Based on the premise that under Uribe’s “democratic security strategy” the government has recuperated the confidence of the national and international community, the DNP’s missive described the next phases of implementation of that strategy. In essence, it was the second phase of Plan Colombia, which would be executed through the President’s own Center for Coordination of Integral Action (CCAI), supported by the US Embassy and the US Southern Command in conjunction with various ministries of the Colombian government.
In introducing the project to the Colombian press, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos made it clear that, following on the apparent successes of Uribe’s first term, the next several years would be dedicated to the “final recuperation of those zones where there is a persistent presence of terrorist groups and narco-traffickers.”
It is a multi-faceted approach that includes a permanent inter-agency coordination of civilian and military functions, under close cooperation with the United States government. Modeled after the Pentagon’s strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq, the idea is to accompany aggressive military operations in areas of strategic importance with the softer hand of the state, allowing for security forces to “win the confidence” of the local community by assisting with various social projects.
However, in a place like northern Cauca, where the communities have an inherently different perspective from the state regarding economic development, security and democratic participation, the results have led to profound contradictions. The civilian-oriented social projects that are penetrating indigenous territories, with unlimited resources, are deliberately calling to question the authority of the cabildos, forcing the communities to choose between remaining loyal to the long-term organizational process of ACIN and the indigenous movement, or accepting attractive assistance packages that have considerable political and ideological strings attached. It is a classic strategy of “divide and conquer,” meant to destroy one of the strongest social movements in the country.
Furthermore, the ongoing clashes between the FARC and government forces in northern Cauca continue to have serious repercussions for the communities themselves. The perpetual confrontation in the region has hampered the cabildos’ ability to execute their community development plans—Planes de vida—due to the almost constant state of emergency the people are forced to endure and the pervasive militarization of their territories.
For the indigenous organization as a whole, the resulting tensions inevitably sidetrack their comprehensive efforts to confront the many other serious challenges they face within the current political context. The conflict provides false justifications for the powers that be to continue to hold down a hard line when it comes to dealing with the indigenous leadership who, despite being independent of the FARC, are still seen as a problem for Uribe precisely because of their oppositional stances on so many issues.
For example, as ACIN and other indigenous organizations mobilize against the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement and denounce the wave of counter-reform measures that the government has tried to push through the Congress in order to make the FTA possible, the movement is repeatedly targeted as working in alliance with the guerrillas.
In carrying out direct actions like the “Liberation of Mother Earth” campaign to recuperate lands promised to them by previous governments, the indigenous leadership is consistently accused by the military of being tools of the insurgency. The land occupations carried out by the community over the last few years are seen as illegal, running counter to the so-called democratic lawfulness that is supposed to come with a stronger state presence in the region. As a result, the indigenous movement has experienced a new wave of repression that is reminiscent of the dirty war years of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Indeed, the democratic security policy of Uribe has not only failed to provide security for the indigenous people of Colombia, but it is being used directly against their collective interests. Both the guerrillas and the government have mutually benefited from the resulting chaos.
All of these issues are converging dramatically in northern Cauca, although they are manifest in many other parts of the country, from the Chocó, to La Guajira, Santa Marta to the Middle Magdalena region, not coincidentally areas with large indigenous populations. The contemporary historical juncture is characterized by a political and social crisis without precedent in Colombia and of utmost urgency for the country’s indigenous, peasant and Afro-Colombian people.
irectly tied to this are the national policies of President Uribe who, strengthened by the unconditional support of the Bush Administration, has administered a process of territorial domination and political consolidation of the extreme right, facilitated by the apparent demobilization of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), paramilitaries that are on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. Independent analysts and human rights activists argue this so-called demilitarization process is deliberately designed to push back the rights of indigenous peoples, which, by their nature, stand in the way of the development strategies of the foreign multinationals, powerful domestic corporate capitalists and large agricultural interests who look to benefit most from the lands that have been usurped by these same paramilitaries.
In July 2008, a commission of indigenous leaders from the entire department met with government officials to discuss ways to resolve the years-long impasse over the issues of land redistribution in Cauca. In participating in the discussions with the Vice-Minister of the Interior and Justice, Maria Isabel Nieto, the delegation hoped to re-activate the Commission for the Integral Development of Indigenous Policies in the Department of Cauca, which was created by the government in 1999.
The commission also called on the government to stop its repeated verbal attacks against indigenous activists, linking them to the guerrillas and accusing them of terrorism. What came out of the meeting, however, was the government’s admission that there were simply no resources in the national budget to redistribute lands to the indigenous communities of Cauca, despite previous agreements to do so. Once again, the people were being told to wait, while other forces were moving forward rapidly with their efforts of counter-reform and consolidation.
As researcher, writer and activist Hector Mondragón repeatedly points out, the main interest of the government is “not to resolve the problems of the unequal distribution of land in the countryside,” something that adversely affects peasants, Afro-Colombians and indigenous communities equally, but “to maintain and consolidate the concentration of land in a few hands, and the usurpation of communal holdings under the pretext of favoring a productive, rural development.”
Mondragón has been active in the peasant and indigenous movement for years, and has written extensively about the unequal distribution of land in the countryside, and its impact on development. He has collaborated closely with ACIN in mapping out strategies to confront the wave of repression that has been unleashed against them in the last several years. Which is why it was not surprising that he was mentioned in a recent article that tried to link him with fallen FARC leader Raúl Reyes, killed by a US-backed cross-border air strike into Ecuador by Colombian forces in March 2008.
The news article published in the August 29 edition of El Tiempo, was titled “Links Between Canadian Trade Unions and the Non-Governmental Organization Fensuagro Seen in Money Funneled to FARC.” It read: “In an email of April 2, 2006, Reyes wrote to a man identified as Hector Mondragón: ‘I want to introduce you to Comrade Liliany, she works with me and at the same time advises Fensuagro (National Agrarian Workers’ Union) in international relations. Naturally she is a Comrade that can be completely trusted.’”
The implication in the article was that “Reyes” wrote this note to Mondragón, an open attempt to tarnish his reputation by linking him to the guerrillas’ second in command. ACIN called the article “a perverse fabrication with deliberately bad intentions… designed to stain the good name…of this brilliant teacher and colleague.” It was yet another example of the many efforts to discredit the indigenous movement and its allies.
It is not an exaggeration to say we are returning to the intensity of the 1970s, when the dirty war tactics of the state confronted head on indigenous claims of autonomy and self-determination. The dismantling of the indigenous territories, or resguardos, a principal objective of Colombia’s economic and political elite for centuries, is closer to becoming a reality today than ever before, albeit by other, supposedly more civil means such as new legislation dealing with forests, mining and water rights, and counter-reforms to the Constitution pushed forward by a Congress whose majority is made up of some of the most corrupt, reactionary and violent sectors of the Colombian right-wing.
Almost 20 years after the Constitution was altered to include the rights of the country’s indigenous people, these rights are becoming ever more fragile. Against tremendous obstacles, people like Rafael Coicué continue to resist.
“Since this struggle for indigenous rights began back in 1971, many leaders have been assassinated, over 800 leaders have been taken away from us, simply for demanding the rights of their people,” Coicué said. “What I’m saying now is that my work in the community as part of the cabildo is not done. So about two weeks after losing my eye, I thought to myself, I am not the first, nor will I be the last to be targeted this way. So I forced myself out of bed and went back to work.”
Mario A. Murillo is associate professor of communication at Hofstra University in New York. He is currently living in Colombia on a Fulbright Research Grant, where he is finishing up a book about the indigenous movement in northern Cauca and its uses of communication media.
Another Front in the Conflict: Colombian Government’s Propaganda vs. Indigenous Media Perspectives
Written by Mario A. Murillo
Upside Down World
Monday, 20 October 2008
Bogotá, Colombia-A week into the Indigenous and Popular Mobilizations in Cauca (and the rest of Colombia), and it is fair to say that the propaganda war is well underway. And so far, it looks like the government of Alvaro Uribe is winning.
On Friday, the President held another press conference stating that they had “clear evidence” that the mass popular protest in Cauca was being controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC. The Commander of the National Police, General Óscar Naranjo, stated unequivocally that the Sixth Front of FARC was behind the disturbances. And at the Palacio Nariño, the Minister of Social Protection, Diego Palacio, stated, with a straight face, “the government continues to respect social protest and mobilization, as long as it is for civil causes,” adding that the sugar cane workers strike and the indigenous mobilizations of the past few days contain the presence of “destabilizing forces.”
These words are echoing throughout the media as I write this, and will undoubtedly go on for hours on the radio and TV broadcasts, as well as the websites of RCN and Caracol, the two mega-giants of Colombia’s mass-commercial media. The government’s claims are also among the top stories in the front-page of El Tiempo, and other major national and regional newspapers, and it has almost become conventional wisdom in the last few days because of the capacity of the Uribe Administration to set the agenda, present its arguments to domestic journalists with indignation and authority, and come off as the victim once again.
And the indigenous movement’s demands for justice are set aside as they face off against the Colombian Army and Police in La Maria, while their leaders are forced to deny the charges directed against them by those in authority. Who do you believe?
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6. We Are not Subversives, and We Demand Respect
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44434
Q&A: “We Are not Subversives, and We Demand Respect”
Judith Henríquez Acuña interviews indigenous leader DANIEL PIÑACUÉ
Daniel Piñacué and other indigenous leaders.
Credit:Judith Henríquez Acuña.
VILLA RICA, Colombia, Oct 24 (IPS) – Colombian President Álvaro Uribe admitted that the security forces opened fire on indigenous protesters in the southwestern province of Cauca, but denies that they were responsible for the deaths of three demonstrators, said Daniel Piñacué, a leader of the Nasa community.
Piñacué, head of the governing council of Calderas, an indigenous reservation in the mountains of Cauca, and a prominent member of the powerful Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC), was interviewed by IPS in the small town of Villa Rica.
The CRIC organised the “minga” (a traditional indigenous meeting for the collective good), the name given to the march that set out from the La María Indian reservation, declared a “territory of peace and co-existence” in the midst of Colombia’s civil war.
The 35,000 indigenous marchers, who belong to a number of different ethnic groups and come from 20 of Colombia’s 32 provinces (known as departments), expect to reach the city of Cali, the capital of the southwestern province of Valle del Cauca, on Saturday.
Piñacué, one of the leading spokespersons for the indigenous protest, told the media that the security forces had used live ammunition against the demonstrators, before the U.S. cable news network CNN broadcast a video this week taped by participants in the march that showed a uniformed man wearing a mask shooting in the direction of the protesters.
On Wednesday, Uribe acknowledged that the police had fired at the demonstrators.
But previously, the rightwing president had publicly called for Piñacué’s arrest.
On Thursday, Uribe gave in to the indigenous demonstrators’ demands for talks, and personally called Piñacué’s cell-phone to announce that he would meet with the leaders of the march on Sunday in Cali.
The protesters are demanding fulfillment of agreements signed with various governments since 1971. “We want the president to set deadlines and timeframes for compliance with these commitments, and we want national and international observers to be present,” Piñacué told IPS late Thursday in Villa Rica, a small town along the Pan-American highway on the way from the La María reservation to Cali.
IPS: Uribe admitted that firearms were used against the protest. What is the indigenous movement’s view?
DANIEL PIÑACUÉ: The president finally recognised — because of a video, not because he believed it when we publicly told him — that the security forces have used violence against the peaceful indigenous march.
What he should also acknowledge is that three Indians were killed and more than 100 injured in the clashes with the army in La María. The wounded are being treated in hospitals in the towns of Popayán and Santander.
IPS: Uribe also agreed to talks. What will you demand in the dialogue?
DP: In first place, since we have been accused of being criminals and of inciting violence, we want our names cleared. We also don’t want to be treated as second-class citizens, and we want respect for our languages and our ancestral customs.
In addition, we are asking for an expansion of our reservations, legal title to our lands, and enough land to keep our cultures alive, work them, and obtain the products needed for the survival of our communities, in order to keep indigenous people from having to move to the cities, which is leading to the gradual loss of our cultural identity.
We are asking not to be violently pushed off our lands — a phenomenon that is facilitated by the Colombian government so that transnational companies can exploit our land, leaving us without water, and without minerals like iron, nickel and gold.
Furthermore, we are seeking the repeal of a number of laws that were passed without consulting us (as required by the constitution) by the illegitimate Congress elected by the narco-paramilitaries, and which hurt our communities: the laws on forestry, water and land. (The far-right paramilitaries, many of whose leaders have been extradited to the United States on drug trafficking charges, have publicly claimed that they control at least 35 percent of the members of Congress.)
IPS: Have the guerrillas infiltrated the indigenous march?
DP: Whenever a protest or march is held, the political leaders in this country always tell the media that the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerrillas are behind it, and that the subversives are manipulating and using the Indians or peasant farmers who are demonstrating for a just cause.
For us that’s an old story. But we have to make it clear to public opinion that we, who are standing up to demand respect for our rights and for the dignity and physical, cultural and political integrity of every one of our indigenous brothers and sisters, as well as the fulfillment of a number of agreements that have been ignored, are the only ‘subversives’ here.
Claiming the guerrillas have infiltrated the demonstration is false, and irresponsibly puts our lives at risk.
IPS: What should the international community know about what Colombia’s indigenous movement is asking for?
DP: They should know what things are really like. That we live in a battleground created by the armed sectors that for years have displaced us from the best lands, and forced us farther and farther up into the mountains.
They should know we are peaceful, hard-working people who are justly demanding our right to our land and the freedom and the right to demand humane, decent conditions to live in peace. (END/2008)
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7. Colombia’s indigenous speak
by ADRIAAN ALSEMA
http://colombiareports.com/opinion/89-from-the-editor/1715-the-indigenous-speak.html
This week saw an upsurge of violence between indigenous Colombians in Cauca and riot police. Many didn’t see the violence coming and have not been able to get a good idea why the natives are so angry and what they demand. Therefore we publish the opinion of the indigenous. A list of proposals to move forward.
What we are proposing today was already presented to the public in September 2004, when we organized the First Indigenous and Popular Congress. They are five basic points that cover many other issues. We have listened with considerable attention to the voices of many diverse sectors within Colombia and throughout the world. We have clearly put forward what it is that hurts us, and have compiled the accumulated pain of many peoples and processes. We want to be practical and concrete.
People who occupy important positions of authority in this country – an authority they have surrendered as a result of their actions and words – have come out publicly to say we are terrorists. Absurdly, they accuse us of attacking the Armed Forces, the largest and most powerful Army of all of Latin America, the greatest recipient of U.S. military technology and training, one that launched a military assault combining the force of the Army and the Police, with tanks and armed soldiers, firing live ammunition against men, women and children who have nothing but wooden staffs and stones. They injure more than sixty Indians, the majority with bullets. They assassinate at least two civilians, and mistreat common men and women of the communities. They burned houses, and committed acts of unquestionable brutality, destroying medical and first aid equipment and damaging food supplies, acting like criminals under the order of the Executive.
Nevertheless, when we detained and protected one member of the police force, and we returned him safe and sound to the authorities, a government minister called us “terrorists.” We don’t have the right, according to him, to detain those same police who are shooting at us trying to kill us. According to him, we only have the right to let them kill us, to mistreat us with obedience to the politics of terror of the regime. According to the President, who gave the order for the brutal attack against us, his government has complied with everything related to the indigenous communities. From his perspective, we are savages, we are dumb, we are irrational. Mr. President, not only have you not fulfilled your obligations to the people, but there are several other fundamental issues that we are raising that you can no longer ignore. We are not liars, we are not savages, we are not irrational.
The government says we are being manipulated by “dark forces,” that FARC has infiltrated our organization and movement. We state through our actions that we are not terrorists, that we are not with the insurgency, that our struggle is legitimate, it is autonomous, and that we do not act under the orders of FARC or any other so-called “dark forces.” We have unmasked a professional soldier who had infiltrated us, sent by the public security forces in an attempt to validate these lies of the President. If there are Indians involved in the insurgency, or any other armed group, it is a personal decision of theirs that goes against our organizational and community process. Stop shooting, stop robbing, stop burning and lying. Stop using your public power to exercise terror against the people. You’re wrong. Respect and listen. It is the only way.
The majority of the members of Congress that support the government of President Uribe, those legislators who have elaborated and approved the laws that displace us of our rights and our liberties, occupy their official spaces with the backing of paramilitary groups, and are involved in the Para-politics scandal currently under investigation. Neither they nor the laws they have approved have any degree of legitimacy.
It is time for us to reiterate our position to the rest of the world. We direct ourselves to all peoples and leaders. We come to you as a result of our struggle, and with the meaning of peoples and processes. With humility we recognize that we don’t hold the universal truth. But with pride we defend our reality. Up to now we haven’t even been listened to. Is it that there is so much fear about what we have to say that we are prevented from even being heard? Listening to us with attention and respect will generate what it is we are looking for: a frank, and sincere dialogue that will lead to concrete consequences and profound transformations. To refuse to listen to us, to call us liars, to say we are manipulated by “dark forces,” to say that we don’t have any proposals, is to fear dialogue, to fear change, to fear the future.
We believe that we are correct. We have thought this through carefully. We have questioned our own goals and options. We have observed and discussed a lot. What we are proposing here as an agenda is what we have come to agreement on amongst ourselves, because we believe in diversity, in open debate, in differences, and there are differences amongst us. We will continue discussing, and constructing in a constant dialogue, because we know that there is not only one truth.
La Minga of the People that commemorates 516 years of oppression and resistance is a concrete message. So that people will listen to us, so that people stop trying to kill us and displace us, we have come out, we have blocked roadways, we march. And we will continue to do so until our word is respected, and through the course of dialogue we can transform this reality of misery and horror into one of equilibrium, harmony and liberty. It’s not so difficult to understand: Either our proposals are seriously considered in order to construct an agenda of change, or Mother Earth will be forever in a process of extermination. To do otherwise is to accept the destruction of life. This we cannot accept, we cannot let this happen.
We act with precise urgency. We risk our lives and offer our lives for life. We struggle with all our capacity against the sophisticated propaganda that is nothing more than well-crafted lies, against laws and measures that impose the interests of others against life itself and justice. We call on therefore, on the wisdom, the serenity and the respect that comes with dialogue. We love and defend dialogue. But we do so mobilized with firmness. We are people of our word and of dialogue. We live it through our assemblies, and within our Life Plans. Everything that we have created is based on a process of dialogue between contradictions and differences. We therefore need and call on an interlocutor who is legitimate, with whom we can dialogue. And we are totally committed to engage in this process.
What is it that we are proposing?
• That the necessary conditions for a process of dialogue are immediately established, in order to discuss the five main points of the agenda that we propose
• That the dialogue is carried out under the watch and with the backing of legitimate and unquestionably credible persons, and with authority that is recognized in any part of the world
• That in this dialogue, every sector of society is represented, according to democratic mechanisms of participation, giving priority to the majority of the population that has been excluded, marginalized and exploited
• That honesty, truth and respect become non-negotiable conditions for the development of this dialogue, and those that violate these principles are excluded from participating in the process.
Main Issues for the Agenda of Dialogue
These themes encompass many other issues that can fit within each agenda point. We present these more as chapters of the dialogue, whereby each sector involved in the dialogue can have input on the specific issues and points that should be discussed. We recognize that this is simply the beginning of a longer process of listening, absorbing, analyzing and ordering a detailed agenda for the urgent transformations that are necessary. The agenda should not be one of exclusion. All the issues and points of all the people should be considered. The agenda that we propose is the following:
1. We reject the Economic Model of global transnational capital and the Free Trade Agreements strategies that have been negotiated with the United States, Canada and the European nations. These treaties are part of a nefarious strategy on the part of major global economic powers. The process of negotiation and the results of these agreements are a threat to our cultures and our territories, our sovereignty. They surrender our collective resources to corporate interests and trans-nationals, and directly threaten our Mother Earth. These are not treaties between people but against people;
2. No more war, no more terror; we reject the government’s so-called “Democratic Security Strategy,” Plan Colombia, the dirty war, para-politics, he militarization of society and the criminalization of popular protest. We call on truth, justice and reparations for the crimes committed against the people. War is not the answer. And those people who have committed crimes against the people, such as former Cauca governor Juan José Chaux Mosquera, should be judged so that their bad examples will never again be repeated and the victims will be compensated;
3. No to the Constitutional Counter-reforms and legislation of displacement that has been implemented under the current government, measures that surrender our rights to private interests, and that submit us to silence and forced labor, to exclusion and ultimately death.
4. Demand the observance and strict abidance to the agreements and obligations that guarantee the rights and freedoms of all people such as the ILO agreement 169, the UN Declaration on Human Rights of Indigenous peoples and others.
5. The creation of mechanisms of sovereignty, peace and coexistence in order to develop and make reality our agenda through a permanent Congress of the Peoples.
Which Way Forward?
1. Public security forces must retreat from all indigenous territories for a definitive time. The territory of Peace, Coexistence and Dialogue in La Maria, Piendamo should be respected and immediately evacuated. All the damage caused by the military aggression of the last few days should be repaired in an integral way
2. There should be an immediate cease fire, and an end to the repression against the people mobilized there
3. We demand that all armed actors leave our territories immediately, and call for the establishment of territories free of war, with civilian, international observers allowed in to monitor the situation, under the supervision of the Indigenous Guard of the Nasa people
4. The popular, non-commercial media should be recognized, respected, listened to and supported as sources of truth for the unfolding dialogue. The mass commercial media should be opened up in order to transmit the positions and the proposals of the people, of the excluded voices, of the majority, and they should make public the truth of the repression and exclusion that we have faced, and not simply represent the perspectives of certain economic interests.
5. We immediately call on the following people to serve as guarantors of the dialogue (without excluding other possible individuals from the process):
1. James Anaya, UN Special Relator for Indigenous People
2. Baltasar Garzón, internationally-recognized Judge, Center for Peace of Toldeo
3. Evo Morales Ayma, President of Bolivia
4. Blanca Chancoso, indigenous leader from Ecuador
In Colombia, we are seeing an indigenous and popular uprising that is on the march. They can, through all the force of terror and propaganda, try to silence us once again. But we will rise up again, and we will continue in Minga until the will of the people is fulfilled.
Minga de los Pueblos
Territory of Diálogue, Coexistence and Peace
La María, Piendamó
October 16, 2008.
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8. The Media and Colombia
http://www.fair.org/blog/2008/10/23/nyt-reporting-priorities-in-colombia/
NYT Reporting Priorities in Colombia
10/23/2008 by Julie Hollar
For over a week there have been huge indigenous protests against the Uribe government in Colombia, in which at least two protesters have been killed by police and more than 100 injured. Uribe denied that police were firing at protesters, until CNN got videotape that showed them doing exactly that.
How is the New York Times covering all of this? The paper’s Andean bureau chief, Simon Romero, filed one report two days ago about a “whimsical riff on the bookmobile”—a guy who travels around rural Colombia on his donkeys, taking books to remote villages. (Other major papers have likewise reported nada on the protests.)
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9. Two Useful Links:
http://www.colombiajournal.org/index.htm
http://mamaradio.blogspot.com/