Wisdom of the elders guides path young people walk

(Translated by Sharon Bagatell, a CSN Volunteer Translator)
07/13/2010 ACIN: Tejido de Comunicación

Last weekend, in the village of Santa Elena, near the town of Corinto, more than 800 youth from different areas of Cauca and some delegations from Bogota and Medellin took part in the twenty- sixth Assembly of the Alvaro Ulcue’ Youth Movement,  “Youth weaving alternatives for the strengthening of the Plan of Life in Defense of the Territory.”
The twenty-sixth Youth Assembly began with a march from the village of San Rafael of Corinto to the main park of Corinto. The delegations then walked toward the village of Santa Elena where they were received by the indigenous authority and the local community, beginning the assembly with the presentation of the participating delegations.

During the four days of the assembly, the participants worked on topics such as the abuse of the sacred coca leaf, the politics of eradication, the consequences of the Plan Colombia in the territories, the military build-up, the recruitment of children and teenagers, the topic of human rights and diverse problems that the youths currently experience.

“The idea of walking, sharing, and evaluating the work done by the Youth Movement during this period, and the election of the new coordination for the year 2011-2012 brings us together, but above all, we gather to analyze and propose alternatives to the principal problems that are affecting youths, such as the recruitment by the different armed groups, drug trafficking, and the implementation of megaprojects in our territories. These are among many of the situations that put youth and all of the populations of our communities at great risk. We meet here to grow together in the reflection of our own history and to support diverse ideas for the strengthening of our Plan for Life,” declared Trino Pavi, of the Alvaro Ulcue’ Youth Movement.

The path of the youth has developed from listening to the experiences and knowing the fights the elders have had to wage in different places.  “We have a historic responsibility we must carry out as integral parts of a process, of a community, and as part of Mother Nature.  We are responsible for keeping our elders’ dreams alive and carrying forward in a good direction the present and future of our communities with our critical, analytical, and purposeful perspectives as youth,” expressed the members of the Youth Movement.

Proposals in response to the problems

During committee work sessions, the youth identified as major problems the armed conflict, megaprojects, and drug-trafficking.  In light of these problems they are greatly concerned about the disequilibrium that is happening in all aspects of community and territorial life, considering that currently the entire life of the community, the organization, and the territory is threatened and permanently at risk. The youth thus made proposals to confront the problems.



Involvement of youth in armed conflict

There are signs of grave harm inflicted on families and communities caused by the indiscriminate war in the territory.  With respect to involvement, on the part of all of the players in the conflict, of children and teenagers in armed conflict, the youth as well as the elders have proposed:

* Keep spirituality alive as a protection strategy, through rituals and ancestral methods of caring for the territory and the community
*  Continue consciousness-raising and training of youth,  a work articulated by parents and teachers
*  Involve each day more youths in organizational dynamics, and strengthen the alternative, such as music, dance, and crafts, for children and youth.

Mega-projects

*  Build up sources of information for youth about topics related to multinationals and mega-projects so that they are able to understand strategies of  deceit and plundering implemented via the mega-projects.

* With authorities, create alternatives to mega-project employment for youth.

Drug-trafficking
The commodification of the sacred coca plant has affected communities and youth in many ways, including cocaine consumption. With respect to this grave problem, the youth propose:

* Promote and support other types of crops such as coffee, agricultural products that can be consumed, and others that can be marketed
* Educate the community about other uses of the sacred leaf, such food products and medicines, and the creation of mini-businesses with such products
* Carry out a census in the communities of the people who depend on the illicit and to create alternative local projects, so that the armed groups will be left without a pretext for invading the territories
* Train young people about other possibilities of crops and the generation of economic alternatives for families
* Continue support and building of Tul gardens with cultivation of plantain, yuca , cilantro, carrots, tomatoes, beans, and other crops by the town councils.
 
Tape of committee work
“I congratulate you, for your strength and your organization. You are a great example of hope for the youth of the cities.  I invite you to continue resisting the multiple threats and attacks that we live through. We shouldn’t fall for the imaginary future life that they sell us in the media.  You are fortunate to have the possibility of knowing your history and be able to think about your future with the support of the elders and these very organizations.  Let’s feel deeply how we belong to Mother Earth, let’s have a greater closeness of the spiritual with nature, and let’s not forget to share our ideas clearly with the youth of other sectors and organizations. This is my message, “ stated a youth from the Muisca delegation of Bogota to the assembly of the Alvaro Ulcue’ Youth Movement.
With the election of Jorge Humberto Palomino as new coordinator of the Alvaro Ulcue’ Youth Movement, and the music and dance and cultural events, the twenty-sixth youth assembly came to a close.  The commitment to contribute from a youth perspective to the strengthening of the communitarian “Plan of Life” and to the processes of peaceful resistance toward the construction of a new community was reaffirmed.

Colombia Should Stop Being Washington's Peon

RECALCA: Colombian Action Network Against Free Trade

(Translated by Elaine Fuller, a CSN Volunteer Translator)

On July 21 the Colombian government made accusations in the OAS about the supposed presence of FARC leaders in Venezuelan territory. According to what was known immediately afterwards, Uribe had had these documents in his possession for months, and numerous analysts analyses and political leaders - among them the ex-president of the PDA, Carlos Gaviria – in his possession for months; thus it appeared thought it strange that the documents were made publicfor this action to have been made public only two weeks before the change in government and thus purposely impeding the normalization of relations with the neighboring nation; as was being indicated by . According to indications given by the president-elect, Juan Manuel Santos and the government of Venezuela, the objective was to deter normalization of relations with a fraternal country.

The U.S. Assistant Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America, Arturo Valenzuela, immediately labeled Colombia’s denunciation as “‘very serious.”’ The Colombian government, on the one hand, says it is defending Colombia’ss the dignity of Colombia with regard toagainst Venezuela but, on the other hand, shamefully backs down tobefore the demands of the United States, ratifying an unjust commercial treaty and installing Yankee military bases in the four corners of Colombia.

Uribe’s The temperamentaluntimely accusations, of the Uribe government that even included accusing Chavez of squandering oil riches, angered the Venezuelan government, which immediately broke off relations with Uribe.
In several past interventions, Chavez declared that he respected Colombian sovereignty and that he counseled the Colombian guerilla fighters to stop the armed struggle, stating that “The the conditions don’t exist that would allow them to take power in the foreseeable future do not exist” and that “they have become the principal pretext for U.S. imperial interests to completely penetrate Colombia and from there attacktransformed the original pretext of their authority to thoroughly penetrating Colombia and from there attacking Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Cuba.” At the same time, Chavez declared that he will not permit a Colombian military attack.
Meanwhile, a magazine like thesuch as The Economist, with undeniable with undeniable anti-Chavez credentials, asked Uribe to allow Santos to governleave governing to Santos and asked Santos to name Uribe as ambassador to Beijing.
Until the last day of his administration, Uribe iswas determined to make enemies with neighboring governments that have chosen a path of development distinct from Washington’s the dictates of Washington and to thatthat end usesd the subject of the FARC as pretext, demandingrequiring neighboring governments to capture guerilla leaders that he hasthey have not been able to capture in Colombia.
At the same time, he spreads a new smokescreen is spread over the tremendous scandals that directly involve the presidential office with telephone wiretapping and the existence of masscommunal graves with hundreds of dead in the Macarena zone.

The rupture of relations between Venezuela and Colombia affects the people of both countries and contradicts the traditional cultural and economic ties that have allowed fraternal relations between their peoples. Uribe’s bellicosityThe Uribista Bellicosity seekswants to impose its ideals on everyone and has resulted in acarried out a 74% reduction in exports to its fraternal brother nationcountry, going from six billionthousand million dollars to little more than a billionthousand million dollars, seriously damaging the agricultural and industrial sectors of the country.

We call upon Santos’ the government of Santos to initiate thestart upon the path way towards the normalization of relations with its fraternal nationbrother country on the basis of resolving differences by means ofthrough dialogue, non-interventionby not intervening in the internal affairs of either of the two countries, by the recovery of economic trade and by putting into effect effortsforces towardsfor the integration of Latin American without interference from the United States.

Indigenous Proposal for the human right to water

ACIN: CAOI Communications
(Translated by Emily Schmitz, a CSN Volunteer Translator)
07/14/2010
 
Before the end of this July the United Nations General Assembly will acknowledge water as a Human Right.  This is one of the key proposals of indigenous towns and their organizations, ancient guardians of water as a sacred life-source.
 
UN adoption of this right is a result of indigenous and social organizations’ involvement in lengthy fights and long processes.
 
“This recognition is the result of a long process developed by internal organizations.  We are reminded of the War for Water in Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2000, sparked by proposals to privatize municipal water supplies.  The recent Multinational Mobilization in Ecuador held as its main objective to reject the privatization and institutionalization of the Hydraulic Resource law but did not reflect proposals of indigenous organizations,” stated Miguel Palacin Quispe, general coordinator of the Andean Coordination of Indigenous Organizations.
 
The pretension to privatize water also motivated the unity of the Uruguayan town in 2002 when the National Commission in Defense of Water and Life called a query against these attempts.
 
Idelfonso Cavasa, head of the National Council Committee on Land and Territory of Qullasuyu Ayllus and Markas Qullasuyu, stated that this organization supported adopting water as a Human Right, taking into consideration the principles and values of native peoples.
 
“We, as the original native peoples, have always been the eyes of water contamination.  We propose to rationalize the distribution and consumption”, indicated indigenous authority.
 
Presently water as a human right is a global fight due to the influence of neo-liberal globalization, which considers water a valuable resource and promotes not only privatization, the consolidation of a resource into only a few hands, but also indiscriminately promotes its use by extractive industries such as mining and petroleum, irreversibly contaminating water sources, added Palacin.
 
Indigenous Proposals
 
Water for indigenous peoples is a vital element, not only for our populations but as well for the entirety of nature and humanity.  Opposing this, the international financial sector views water as a strategic resource in population control and market gains.
 
Under the framework of Good Living, indigenous peoples and organizations propose the following propositions in reference to water resources:
 
Water as common heritage.  The entire plan of action involving water should be to protect and conserve it.  This would guaranty the equality of its availability to secure the existence of all living beings on the planet.  To accomplish this, water systems should be secured and protected in both its immediate and original locations, congealing actions and mechanisms which promote the integrity of ecosystems, animal species, and plant and community life with dignity and upholds cultural identity.  Water is inherited from the earth and completes all forms of animal, plant and human life.
 
Water as public domain.  This principle implies that water is defined in Constitutions as a public good under the control of society as a whole.  At the same time it should formulate fair-use mechanisms that respond to both natural and human needs, prioritizing rights to subsistence, food sovereignty and local development.
 
Water is a shared good, not merchandise.  The hoarding of water by certain sectors of the economy – mining, industry, agricultural or the exporting sector to name a few – impoverishes the vast majority of users and of nature itself.  Therefore no business, neither national nor transnational, or particular person has the right to take control of water resources or hoard its use for private lucrative means at the expense of the rest of the community.  In order for water to become a good of the public domain it must become a vital resource; which is not regarded as merchandise, is not given a price tag and is not subject to the laws of the market. Water, therefore, cannot be subject to free trade agreements.
 
Revaluating knowledge, technology and Andean organization.  The wisdom of the Andean world, their technological and social systems in water management, start the principle of harmonic coexistence with Mother Earth and are based on a collective ownership of water. This ownership is based upon traditional social and legal systems which have guaranteed the sustainability of ecosystems since immemorial times and as such should be preserved, respected and well-known.  Today, traditional systems of water management have been marginalized.  However, as they have been developed and tested over hundreds of years, they should serve as valid alternatives in water resource sustainability.  These systems need to be better understood, valued, recuperated and spread as sustainable developmental technology.
 
Fundamental management and participatory systems.  Systems of water management should be based upon a concept of wholeness, taking into consideration territorial origins, compatible uses and the resource sustainability.  Determining the priorities of water usage should involve participatory mechanisms which guaranty conservation and equal access.  Sustainable management projects require that information on the state and availability of surface and ground waters, which today is almost non-existent, rarely systematical and difficult or costly to access, instead be made public.
 
Participatory institutionalization and social control.  Legislative norms and water management forms should guaranty the availability of water in terms of both quality and quantity.  This will secure the sustainability and fulfill necessities of local ecosystems and human populations.  In order to achieve sustainability at both watershed and national water levels, governmental systems should directly involve local, pre-existing water authorities such as Indigenous communities, farmers, irrigation associations and other water users.  Government should respect and value traditional indigenous and farmer community rights and procedures which are considered fundamental and communal; and as such should be regarded as the heritage of all humanity.

A Visit to the Chicaque Cloud Forest

Cecilia Zarate-Laun
(Translated by Emily Hansen, Assistant Program Director)

Just thirty minutes from the chaos and noise of Bogotá lies the Chicaque cloud forest. The pure air and clear waters of this peaceful forest make any visitor quickly forget the racket of the nearby large city. The forest envelopes the visitor in a state of mind focused on meditation, spirituality and history. Accompanied by agronomist Eliseo Daniels, a guide who works for the park, our delegation from the University of Nebraska-Kearney, along with two professors from the University of Santo Tomas, began a long morning of coming to understand this beautiful forest.
 
Our guide began by thoroughly explaining what a cloud forest is and how it is of global importance. Cloud forests are found in altitudes between 5,000 and 10,000 feet above sea level, and the fauna of the forest removes water from the fog and clouds when the wind blows, thereby helping to preserve the ecosystem that allows the forest to thrive. The fog that arrives to the forest comes from many different areas, and is therefore a mixture of cold air currents such as those from the Bogotá and Magdalena rivers, and warm air currents from the nearby town of La Mesa and from the departments of Tolima and Huila.
 
Upon capturing the water from the clouds through a process called evapotranspiration, the plants of the cloud forest concentrate in their leaves this water that has never been rain. The trees and plants then filter the moisture through their roots to supply the water sources that become rivers. Due to constant dripping caused by this process the floor of the Chicaque forest is always wet, and drops of water are constantly falling.
 
When the winds combine and turn into water, streams are created. Chicaque, Velez and La Playa, forming a beautiful waterfall, are just a few examples of such streams. The forest is full of plants such as orchids, ferns, lichen, bromeliads, and epiphytes (plants that grow upon another plant), many of them endemic, only growing in this forest. One of the aspects of the forest most highlighted by our guide was the largest oak forest near Bogotá. This oak forest contains trees that are exclusively of the Quercus Humboldtii species. This species is, sadly, endangered because the hard quality of the wood makes it a very desirable commodity, and during the 19th and 20th centuries this type of oak was used to construct houses and railroads.
 
When we noticed that there were not many bird sounds in the forest our guide explained that the noise of visitors silences them, but that when the birds are singing, especially at dawn and dusk, the noise can be deafening. Many different kinds of birds can be found in Chicaque, including fifteen different species of humming birds. One species, the Black Inca (Inca Negro) is endemic to the forest. There are also other animals such as sloths, armadillos, squirrels, spiders, nocturnal monkeys, butterflies, amphibians and lynx.
 
Through the middle of the forest runs a path made of great stone slabs. Our guide explained this path’s history: Originally this path was a road for the indigenous people who went to trade with the Chibchas, a Colombian indigenous group that lived in the highlands. During the colonial era the road was paved by the indigenous people to facilitate the passage of horses. It was via this road that the Viceroys arrived to take possession of the Viceroyalty of New Granada (Nueva Granada was the colonial name for Colombia). It is because of this history that on the two-hundredth anniversary of Colombian independence parades were organized to travel this road, and some of the stones were fixed for the commemoration of the independence celebration.
 
We are very lucky to have had the opportunity to get to know this marvelous forest because, unfortunately, with a continuing increase in population, poverty and the need to cut wood for cooking, constructing houses, or ranching, the cloud forests are disappearing. Global climate change is raising temperatures and changing water cycles. Plants that are endemic to forests such as Chicaque are dying.
 
After a long walk through the forest we arrived at a shelter where we enjoyed a soup lunch typical of the Sabana de Bogotá high plateau region. Chicaque is a private forest; in the early 70’s a group of ecologists decided to buy the plot of land in order to conserve Chicaque as a forest reserve near Bogotá. This forest is unique because you can geographically see up to what point the destruction of the cloud forests in Colombia has arrived, because the people of the Sabana de Bogotá region are using the portion of the cloud forest just outside of the park boundaries for the production of flowers and grains that are not native, and for the shepherding of milk cows.
 
It was a privilege for our organization to be able to make this visit, because it offered us a place of rest and meditation after an exhausting week of being in meetings and hearing tragic tales of the history and reality of the conflict in Colombia. The visit to Chicaque is an experience that we will repeat with future delegations.  CSN would like to thank Professor Rafael Mantilla from the University of Santo Tomas for putting us in contact with the Chicaque park administration.
 
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During our time in the Chicaque cloud forest, we were privileged to be accompanied by Professor Peter Bunyard, an English biologist who explained to us how the climate change is affecting the Amazon region. One of the students on our delegation, Junior Journalism Major Josh Moody, wrote about his conversations with Professor Bunyard :
During our hike through Chicaque my classmates and I chatted with Santo Tomas Professor Peter Bunyard, a biologist by trade. Dr. Bunyard explained the importance that the Amazon region plays in the world climate. Having performed fieldwork in the Colombian Amazon rain forest, this was a matter of great importance to Bunyard, one that he possessed a thorough understanding of. Bunyard argued that rampant destruction of rain forests is contributing not only to global warming, but also to a series of catastrophic and destructive weather patterns prompted by this deforestation. Bunyard predicted that unless the trend of deforestation ended, destructive weather patterns would continue and global warming would accelerate.
Dr. Bunyard and I also engaged in a conversation about aerial fumigation policies, in which I recounted some of the points we had heard the previous day from Carolyn Cooley, the U.S. Embassy Political Officer charged with the task of overseeing human rights. Bunyard seemed shocked at my recollection of Cooley glossing over the facts and citing biased reports in defense of fumigation policy. As determined as Cooley had been about denying the damage, Bunyard was equally assertive that fumigation policies are severely damaging to the environment. The two of them fell on opposite ends of the argument, and I found Bunyard's professional opinion to be more realistic and less policy driven. Unlike Cooley, I believed Bunyard.
             
 

From the United Fruit Company to Drummond

(Translated by Emily Ellis, a CSN Volunteer Translator)

With this article Maria Tila Uribe refreshes our memory of how and why the banana massacre 80 years ago came about, and the hands of the army and United Fruit Company (now Chiquita brands).

With around seven million inhabitants at that time, our country had a certain character of virgin forest, they swarmed the traditional haciendas of almost feudal customs, it was a country of gold mines, platinum, carbon, salt, emeralds, immense coffee plantations, banana, and also tobacco and forms of slavery in the rubber areas of the Amazon.

Twenty-five years had gone by since the “kidnapping of Panama” -that's what they called it-and with the first quota of 5 million, of which 25 the U.S. paid in installments for that territory. Plus the rise of the coffee price, plus the external debt acquired then, and the violent invasion of foreign capital, the 20's  turned into the decade of acceleration of the industry and the start of economic and physical infrastructure necessary for the incipient Colombian capitalism.

 That's how modernization came to our country, then one met the new machines for manufacturing that accelerated the industry and artisans' manual work, coffee thresher machines, pedal sewing machines that grandmas used, mills and of course everything electric, as well as auto-mechanics, since cars replaced horse-drawn carriages.

It was a key decade, and outstanding in the 20th century, not just for the transformation that the technology back then took effect on the lives of the people but for what the two biggest social phenomenons of the first 50 years of this century meant: the birth of a working class and the incorporation of women into the labor market.  The first given by the change of the lives of thousands of rural peasants that stopped being tied to the haciendas like sharecroppers or renters and they started to massively incorporate into worker concentrations by means of a new pay system:  a salary.  Legions of workers went to work in different types of jobs: 20 thousand on trains, more than 600 thousand men and women made possible coffee exportation, other thousands in canal construction, aerial cable, highways, port adjustments.  Women for their part, which at that time could only work as teachers or nurses, now were needed in tailoring workshops, antioch textilery, match, beer, tobacco and other recently opened factories.  Also, they were starting to train large groups of secretaries for office work.

For that disproportionate mobilization the government expedited the law of circulation, which permitted entire masses to come to work as laborers in North American enclaves: Tropical Oil Co, in Barrancabermeja, exploited petroleum; Frontino Goil Mines and Choco Pacifico, gold and platinum and the famous United Fruit Company, protagonist of the worker massacre and the end of the decade, in the banana area of Santa Marta.

 The natural consequence of those laborer concentrations was the organization and the discovery of the power of strikes.  The abysmal social differences of wealth and poverty and the barbarity of a hegemonic regimen in power for 42 years, that utilized displacement, death and torture for their adversaries, united the different social sectors and at the middle of the decade, they founded the first National Worker Confederation and the Socialist Revolutionary Party, both instances as a result of a process of organization and of years of experience.

 Their national leaders, among them Tomas Uribe Marquez, Raul Eduardo Mahecha and Maria Cano felt and confronted their struggle in the clamor of the large strikes, the last of which was the Banana Area one, run by the most representative Sixto Obispo, Adan Ortiz Salas, Aurelio Rodriguez, Jose G. Russo, Erasmo Coronel, and also by women like Josefa Blanco, secretary of the Orihuecha union, who under her responsibility had 100 laborers, with them she oversaw that there was no cutting of bunches of bananas and ambushed and reduced small groups of uniformed men that then brought them to the strike committee  to make them reflect if it were the case, or get information from them or to judge them.  Another forgotten woman was Petrona Yance, the most outstanding of 800 women that participated in the strike.

President Abadia Mendez and his minister of war named General Carlos Cortes Vargas as Commander General with an overabundance of attributions.  He set December 5th as the date to negotiate the sheet of petitions that contained nine points.

The 25 thousand strikers had in their favor the sympathy of the population and their own mayor, of the indigenous of the Sierra Nevada, the businessmen and some livestock farmers who sent them beef for  their support.  And somewhat uncommon, contrary to popular belief, was the fact that a lot of North American workers sympathized with them.  It is also known that there were individual and group desertions in the first part of the strike, recruits who refused to fire and others who turned in their arms to workers.

It is estimated that 5000 workers were in the plaza when they were surrounded by 300 armed men.  The survivors were counted and after a bugle playing, Corte Vargas himself gave the order to fire three times.  However, no one ever knew how many deaths there were.  The people's oral and written accounts differed: from 800 to 3 thousand and they added they threw them into the sea.  The officials admitted from 15 to 20.

That was the “christening of the fire” of the Colombian working class.  The court marshals came, as did the subsequent selective murders of other leaders and imprisonment of other national and local leaders.

In defense of the incarcerated, came the young lawyer Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, who left for Colombian history an unforgettable page that ended with success since all the people accused were acquitted.

The decade of the 20's has been called with reason, the revolutionary gold period of Colombia.

Attempt on union leader, a DRUMMOND mining worker:

Once again there were assassination attempts against union directors from SINTRAMIENERGETICA, a union organization that groups workers from the multinational company DRUMMOND in Colombia. Esteban Padilla, an executive member of SINTRAMENERGETICA, Chiriguana section, is a recognized social leader among the coal workers.

According to the union report on Wednesday July 14, in the city of Barranquilla, when he was traveling in his own car, Esteban Padilla was a victim of a criminal assassination attempt, and is a member of the board of directors of Sintramienergetica and employed by the company Drummond Ltd in Colombia.

 Two hired assassins on a motorcycle shot at the union leader, leaving him gravely injured, and the bodyguard with him was also injured the same way.

Esteban Padilla is a recognized social and union leader and also works as truck maintenance mechanic for the past ten years in the Pribbenow mine, located in the town of La Loma de Calenturas, in the center of the department Cesar.

Union leaders from Sintramienergetica, Chirigana section rose up about it and commented indignantly that we have received this news, and for as much as these workers at this multinational company have always been victims of these criminal attempts.

In 2001 five managers died for crimes against humanity, a situation that until today is unpunished with tolerance from the state and indifference with which sees these attempts; a situation that involves that us workers, leaders in particular have to live with our families in constant anxiety, without the national government complying with the protection that it is obligated to provide every citizen, union leaders in particular, now that the number of crimes everyday has risen before the accomplice look of the government.

In their activity as laborer supporters and representatives of DRUMMOND LTD, the union leaders expressed how the paramilitaries murdered the president and vice president of the National Laborer of Mining and Energy (Sintramenergetica) Union on March 12, 2001. Valmore Locarno Rodriguez and Vicepresiente Victor Hugo Orcasita Amaya were traveling in the bus that takes the La Loma mine workers to their homes in Valledupar.  The vehicle was intercepted by the paramilitaries who proceeded to murder at that place and kidnap  Orcasita, who would turn up dead hours later.  Locarno's presidential successor in the union, Gustavo Soler, was also killed seven months later in September 2001.

 

 

 

 

The situation of the miners of Echandia, in Marmato Caldas

Oscar Gutiérrez Reyes, Manizales, July 25, 2010
Translated by Azucena Mariategui, a CSN Volunteer Translator

On Thursday, July 23, starting at 6 in the afternoon, the miners of the Echandia district of Echandia in Marmato Caldas crossed a wooden and barbed-wire fence on the path up to the school and cemetery and extended black sheets of plastic, like tents, to protect themselves from the weather, set out food for everyone and declared themselves on strike against the Canadian multinational company, Medoro Resources, because the company, shielded by its power and money, intends, as the government looks the other way, to evade and infringe upon the rights of the people of the upper-west of Caldas

The conflict originated in Medoro’s underhanded intention to develop and operate a shaft mine in an area that, according to existing law, is to be used by small- and medium-sized mining companies, and in no way by large companies, let alone this foreign one. What is happening is that the mining authority is evading the law and allowing abuses by the Canadian company.

Medoro Resources alleges that it bought the mining titles that it says allow it to operate six mines in the Echandia sector. If the legislation were respected, that purchase would be illegal. The miners, for their part, claim that the company wants to go ahead with a modern, mechanized operation that, in time, would leave them without material to process and with the risk that their mines would cave in because of the mining method used by the multinational. The Canadians hope to extract 150 tons of rock per day from the lower part of Burro hill.

And the risk is very high because the company works in all directions and skips levels in which it could work, as was reported to the Ministry of Mines in a forum held in Marmato. In that meeting, the official from the Ministry of Mines maintained that since it is an area governed by private law, the Ministry would not have the authority to intervene in the Echandia conflict, which gives carte blanche to the company to attempt to impose its conditions upon the miners.

They are permitting the company to work on the property of others, and the property does belong to others (although the company may claim the existence of a title) because the miners have been working the mines in peaceful and continuous possession for almost 20 years. There are 37 mines, with 220 direct workers, their families and those who provide services to them: muleteers, storekeepers, transportation workers, and others.  They would be seriously harmed, since the company, upon receiving the mines, would close them, causing the loss of mining jobs and thus the means of support for the workers and their families.

The owners would also be greatly affected. They would lose their savings and investments made over many years to put up mills and other machinery, and to undertake public works that allow them to exploit, in different installations, the gold that, through artesanal methods, they remove from the mines to forge wealth for the nation.

Before the strike was even 24-hours old, the company's directors were in Echandia, but not to resolve the problem, rather to try to confuse and deceive the miners. However, the miners did not yield and agreed to present Medoro with a memorandum, summarized in the following points, in which they defined terms for an understanding and settlement with the company:

-That their [the miners’] status as legal and legitimate owners of these operations be recognized, and that it be made clear that they carry out their activity in an area that is governed by private law, in accordance with the national mining registry.

-That, provided that they reach a written agreement between the parties, the miners of Echandia would be willing to allow the company to operate mines, but only provided that the company guarantee that it will do no damage and will compensate the miners if any damage is done.

-That as legal and legitimate tenants, the miners are willing to pursue economic negotiations over their attending rights as miners, within the prescribed parameters of the Constitution and the law.

-That they will defend their rights and interests within a strictly legal framework, and that they will not violate any regulation.

-That the interests of Medoro and the interests of the community cannot be confused, and that the civil and economic rights of all inhabitants of the sector known as upper Echandia, must be discussed and agreed upon in due course.

In this way, as they told us during the visit that we made to the area, the miners made it clear that they are not willing to abandon their mines, and furthermore, that they and other sectors of the community have interests to protect and defend, such as the lands, crops, homes, stables, the school, the cemetery, and everything that living many years on the hill of gold of Caldas means.

It is known that throughout the area of Marmato and its neighboring municipalities, the Canadian firm hopes to develop an open-pit mining operation, and it is also known that they intend to do so by displacing the inhabitants of Burro Hill, where Marmato is located. Through the procedures that it is now developing, they also want to remove the people of the hill of Echandia, through a policy in which the government guarantees to the company the security of the investors, and to the miners, who have been living there for generations, assistance in leaving their homes, properties, and lands.

It is the duty of democrats and patriots in Caldas and Colombia to back the civil struggle that these miners are carrying forward, and to demand of the government and the Canadian multinational, respect and common sense, coherence and responsibility when they resolve the conflict with the community of Echandia.

Empower a rural Colombian community to protect a mountain ecosystem from mining

The citizens of the town of Cerrito, in the Santander department of Colombia, are organizing resistance to stop the imminent development of mining projects in the Almorzadero páramo.  The páramos are distinctive mountain ecosystems of alpine meadows, peat bogs, lakes, and forest that are rich in biodiversity.  They are known as a “water factories” for the unique role that their plant life play in drawing water out of the air and soil and distributing it to the surrounding area. The residents of Cerrito are dedicated to protecting the Almorzadero from mining because the coal that is under the high-altitude páramo is crucial to filtering the water that flows from the mountain-top into innumerable streams, rivers and lakes in Colombia, providing the population with clean water for small-scale farming and other vital needs.  For twenty years, the people of Cerrito have been resisting mining in the area, and have successfully blocked several mines proposed by multinational corporations and backed by the national government.
Through a process established by the Colombian constitution, the Cerritanos have created a popular initiative that would designate the Almorzadero páramo as a special zone where no mining activities are permitted.  The initiative would also give the citizens the general ability to create protected ecological zones and require that they be consulted about proposed land use projects in those zones before they are undertaken.  The municipal council is set to consider the initiative at the end of August and either pass, reject or modify it.

Take Action: Send an email to the municipal council of Cerrito urging them to pass the citizens’ initiative to stop mining in the Almorzadero páramo. In the email, express your support for the popular initiative, the protection of the Almorzadero, and the right of the citizens of Cerrito to make local land use decisions.  

Sr. Hugo Alberto Fernandez-Jaimes : alcaldia@cerrito-santander.gov.co
Mayor of Cerrito

Sr. Olinto Calderon- Basto : contactenos@cerrito-santander.gov.co
President
Cerrito City Council


You may use the following email or write your own.  
August 12, 2010

Ladies and gentlemen
Town council
Cerrito Municipality, Province of García Rovira
I’m writing to express my support for the community-backed initiative to protect the Almorzadero páramo from the imminent threat of mining.
This initiative is an important step in the two decades long struggle to prevent mining activities in this ecologically important area. This initiative will preserve the distinctive páramo ecosystem and ensure that the water needed for the life and livelihood of the regional population is not endangered.  
I would like to express my full support for this initiative and hope that you, as representatives of the people, recognize that this collective action of the citizens of Cerrito is an important action in defense of the environment and an advance in public participation in the political process in Colombia.  I urge you to give your full support to the passage of this initiative.
Sincerely,
 
If you want to see some views of the Paramo del Almorzadero (Spanish)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwxYC-ljAas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db8H_e7S29A








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Yuripari Corporation

(Translated by Emily Schmitz, a CSN Volunteer Translator)

The Yurupari Corporation expresses their utmost concern for the continuous massacres and has issued a warning call due to the quantity of massacres seen throughout various departments of the country:, which include massacres such as those in Antioquia and its capital Medellin and in Cordoba and its capital Monteria.  These are cities that undoubtedly rely upon some of the best security plans and most prominent presence of armed forces.  We find it important to mention the continual violation of human rights in this country which is impacted by actions or the absence of the involvement of the Colombian State itself.

We call civil and military authorities to attention to tend to the urgent manner of the urgent state of the right to life

Five Massacres

In 2010 delinquent gangs in Cordoba carried out five massacres, leaving twenty-five people assassinated.  The first multiple homicides were registered last February 6th in the municipality of Buenavista, when four people were killed with gunshots, their bodies left abandoned in the middle of Troncal street.

On the twenty-first of March attacks turned to the division of San Juan, located in the jurisdiction of Puerto Libertador, when seven people in a bar were gunned down by assassins.

Even Colina Real, a neighborhood in Monteria, did not escape this string of crimes when, on April fourth, four youths chatting in a store were killed when they were showered with the bullets of these criminals.

The most recent act was registered this past June twenty-ninth when an armed command unit reached the village of Los Cordobas in rural Montelibano and killed five people, several of which were in a football field.

The Colonia El 72 was converted into the fifth massacre of the year; a product of a bloody battle which occurred on the twentieth of June.

Through information gathered from “El Meridiano de Cordoba”, Antioquia and its capital Medellin have had three massacres in less than a week:  the first occurred early morning on Friday, where eight died in Envigado, a similar scene followed on Sunday in Cisneros with four deaths and on Wednesday in Uramita where seven more victims were seen.  These events could be a product of disputes by gangs over the control of micro trafficking such as cultivation zones, exportation routes and hallucinogens.

 

Eating Rice from Arkansas or Colombia?

By Libardo Gómez Sánchez, Diario del Huila, Neiva, August 2, 2010
(Translated by Janelle Nodhturft, a CSN Volunteer Translator)
The flow of the Mississippi River carved out the Delta Region in the state of Arkansas and what in the past was an empire of cotton production today has become the largest producer of rice in the United States. John Smith is a typical North American farmer and linked with the Riceland Food Corporation, the largest miller and marketer of rice in the world. This year like every other year, John went to the office of the manager of the district of Eastern Arkansas to speak with Derrick Opal for information about the conditions of the trade negotiations for the 2010 crop season. Mr. Opal confirmed that the Department of Agriculture of the United States was ready and willing to smooth over any inconveniences presented to the farmers by the climate or unexpected plagues that would affect crop yields. He also ensured that Riceland Food Corporation for its part would guarantee good prices for the rice, like they were able to do under the Clinton Administration when they took hold of the Haitian market. This time the administration is close to confirming the free trade agreement with Colombian which assures the opening up of a new market with more than 40 million consumers. Additionally he related that the subsidies the farmers receive from the U.S. government would continue, allowing them to sell their products abroad even when the prices are lower than their cost of production.  
At the same time, Lázaro Salazar, a life-long rice farmer from Palermo does not know what to do because he’s obliged to contract with the agrarian bank in his area and is struggling severely with his crops. He planted the rice on his plot of land, tended to it with fertilizer, irrigated the land, pulled out weeds, and still a few days before his harvest mites appeared and shortly following this, bacteria destroyed his crop. As if they were working with a small amount susceptible to sudden loss, ten thousand units fell and were gone in an inexplicable way. Here there isn’t a surplus in production, contrarily there’s a shortage.

Every year John receives free assistance and accompaniment from cooperative extension services offered to him by the Division of Agriculture at the University of Arkansas. He can also review the short term weather forecast using Weather Channel web pages and count on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to keep him informed of agricultural policies, market trends, federal subsidies and special events and programs for agricultural producers. Additionally, the Boards of Trade in Chicago and Kansas City keep him in the know about commercial operations involving rice and the future prospects of the rice market.

Meanwhile Lázaro watches TV to get the very generic daily climate reports of Max Enriques and receives menacing notes from his bank threatening him with his unpaid mortgage charges on the plot of land. The technical assistance he was receiving from a cooperative is canceled on him and he can’t afford the purchase of some of the primary agricultural materials he needs. The sixty units per hectare that he reaped are far from the 120 that he is used to yielding and he no longer sleeps thinking about the FTA that President Uribe of Colombia signed with the United States. The agreement will facilitate the arrival of rice from Arkansas and flood the Colombian market, causing the price Colombian producers get paid for their rice to fall. Colombian rice will never reach Colombian consumers with Arkansas rice available so cheaply. This situation will cause farmers to leave large areas of farmland when faced with the impossible demand of paying even their costs of production, let alone anything else. With this disadvantage in place, people from Bogotá surely won’t miss the farmers that produce their food in Colombia. They’ll be in the streets of the city, far from their plots of land and livelihood, on August 4th, calling on the government to understand that in the end a policy in defense of national agricultural production is equal to food security for Colombians.

The Justice and Peace Law has Meant Five Years of Impunity

Thursday, July 29, 2010

By IPS <http://www.colectivodeabogados.org/IPS,391> 

(Translated by Kevin Funk, a CSN Volunteer Translator)

Five years since the ratification of the 2005 "Law 975" (known as the Justice and Peace Law), Colombia has still not achieved minimum standards of justice in addressing the multiple crimes committed by the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), which has left the door open to painful episodes of impunity. Likewise, the truth about the phenomenon of paramilitarism in the country continues to be fragmented and unsubstantial, and each day the uncertainty regarding the process of granting reparations to the victims of the AUC grows. 

This was asserted by representatives of Antioquia human rights organizations and movements of paramilitary victims at the close of the forum "After Five Years of Law 975…Neither Peace nor Justice for the Victims." The well-attended forum took place in Medellín on Friday, July 23.

For those in attendance, the legal and political balance of this mechanism of transitional justice designed to reincorporate demobilized AUC members back into society is not at all encouraging.

 

The figures speak for themselves. The sentence issued on July 29 against Uber Enrique Banquez Martínez, known as 'Juancho Dique,' and Edgar Cobo Tellez, known as 'Diego Vecino,'—both members of the group Héroes de los Montes de María—is the only definite sentence to date that has been handed down under Law 975. One may recall that the ex-paramilitary leaders were found guilty of perpetrating the massacre of Mampujan, Bolívar, committed in the year 2000 during which 13 peasants were killed and an unknown number forcibly displaced.

The 'negative balance' of this Law does not end here. According to figures from the High Council for Reincorporation into Civilian Life, 3,861 former combatants from these groups have taken recourse under this law. Of these, some 2,872 were low-level members who demobilized collectively, about 25 were unit leaders, and around 964 were in custody at the time of demobilization. Nevertheless, only 2,161 ratified their petitions and, among those, some 670 are participating in hearings before the Justice and Peace prosecutors—in other words, less than 2% of the total AUC ex-combatants being tried by transitional justice. Thus far, there have been 1,790 hearings and approximately 641 are still in progress.

Moreover, an additional 19,000 AUC members have been given protection under the Principle of Opportunity, sanctioned by Law 1312 of 2009, which means that more than 60% of the total number demobilized could receive amnesty for their crimes, (some 31,700, according to official figures), provided that the Attorney General suspends, interrupts or withdraws criminal investigations, as the Principle of Opportunity stipulates.

For Soraya Gutiérrez, a lawyer and member of the José Alvear Legal Group, another series of difficulties that have been detrimental to the rights of victims to access justice has been apparent during this period. In particular, these challenges have been highlighted during voluntary court proceedings. As Gutiérrez states, "In the proceedings, it is very common for applicants to say their victims were members of guerrilla groups; very rarely are victims identified as civilians. If you add to this the difficulty that the victims have gaining access to these proceedings, and the fact that even when they do, they have limited possibilities to challenge what is being said, that which begins to takes shape is a plot to justify all of the crimes against humanity committed by the paramilitaries." According to Gutiérrez, this is taking place due to the lack of interest demonstrated by the Justice and Peace attorneys and the magistrates of "Control of Guarantees" in challenging or confirming the validity of statements made during proceedings:"It's true that resources are an issue and that there is a lack of  understanding of the Law on the part of judicial operators. However, it is also true that it is the responsibility of the District Attorneys to challenge these versions, and they are not doing so. Thus, we are constructing the truth based on the versions of the victimizers." 

 

Gutiérrez also points out that the lack of judicial representation of the victims constitutes yet another serious obstacle in their quest for justice. "Although the National Government assigned this job to the Public Defender's Office, this means that a city like Bogotá has 60 public defenders for 6,000 victims and Barranquilla has 28 public defenders for 12,000 victims. In the Cesar region, there are just four defenders to represent victims from four departments. How can it be claimed that the victims have effective representation?"

In terms of truth, one of the country's significant wagers with Law 975, non-governmental organizations have also expressed reservations regarding the progress to which the government has pointed. For Jairo Ramírez, a member of Movice, the extradition of 13 paramilitary bosses to the United States in May 2008 constituted the heaviest blow to the search for truth. "At the time, seven of the extradited leaders were acting as witnesses in trials having to do with 'parapolitics.' We thus lost an historic opportunity to learn the truth about the scale of paramilitary involvement. Moreover, given that in the last five years some 820 of those who demobilized have been assassinated, some under strange circumstances while in jail, we might conclude that we are facing a silencing of the truth."

Nevertheless, the Executive considers that, thanks to these voluntary court proceedings, further information has been made available regarding crimes involving 350 politicians (regional leaders, members of congress and public servants amongst others), as well as at least 220 members of the armed forces and around 5,000 individuals, which will help shed light on a number of different crimes. 

Similarly, the National Government has pointed out that the recognition of thousands of criminal acts committed by former paramilitaries has resulted in more than 3,000 exhumations of mass graves, in which 908 bodies have already been identified and handed over to their respective families.

Although facts such as these were recognized by those attending the forum, for Liliana Uribe, a lawyer of the Corporación Jurídica Libertad, the results remain inadequate given the gravity of the crimes, including forced disappearances. In fact, she warned that the law provides no guarantee of preventing similar crimes from being repeated in the future:"The most recent figures from the National Commission of Disappeared Persons and Legal Medicine show that in the last three years, 38,025 people have been disappeared. According to the Colombian Office of the High Commission for Human Rights of the United Nations, 10,000 of these cases correspond to forced disappearances. This type of crime is becoming more prevalent. So, has this instrument succeeded in fomenting peace?" Uribe did not hesitate to classify the law as a political failure, as it has not fulfilled its mandate of guiding the country toward reconciliation and peace. "Proof of this is the persistence, in various regions of the country, of paramilitary activity being used as a strategy of social control and a means of intimidating social leaders. The government insists that these are groups of narcotraffickers - not counterinsurgents - but, didn't the AUC finance itself through narcotrafficking? So we really aren't seeing anything new here."  

Although the Colombian Government emphasizes that, thanks to the application of the Justice and Peace Law, the victims of paramilitary violence have been made visible (281,661 such victims have already been registered before the Attorney General), human rights defenders state that, in spite of this, those affected by paramilitary actions continue to face threats and intimidation, a situation exacerbated by the fact that they cannot count on any type protection from the government. As Soraya Gutiérrez states, "In the last five years, 25 leaders have been killed, many of whom were linked to processes of reclaiming lands taken by the paramilitaries. This underlines the lack of protection offered to victims."

In light of all of these statements, it was not unsurprising to hear, throughout the forum, the idea that the Law constitutes a mechanism for impunity. The victims still have not know justice, the truth continues to be evaded, and, as expressed by one of the participants, "Let's not even bring up the topic of reparations."

The greatest number of displaced people has occurred under the Uribe Government

By Isabel Coello
Monday August 9, 2010 at 10:34 AM
(Translated by Emily Schmitz, a CSN Volunteer Translator)
http://colombia.indymedia.org/news/2010/08/116990.php
 
Jorge Rojas interview, director of the Consultancy for Human Rights and Displaced People (CODHES). CODHES has stated that farmers who are expelled from their lands find it almost impossible to recuperate them again.  Colombia continues to have the second highest displaced population in the world due to armed conflict, surpassed only by Sudan.  There are 3.4 million people in Colombia who have had to abandon their homes due to conflict.  The director of the NGO has focused his attention on displaced populations and has drawn a disturbing and growing relationship linking displacement to a new form of paramilitary activities, where vital zones are cleared for strategic exploitation, such as seen in the production of palm oil.
 
What do you think of the democratic security policy?
 
According to government figures, there were 2.4 million people displaced during Uribe’s years in office.  We ask where democratic security was for these people.  There is security for large land owners, industries, banks and foreign investors.  However the same cannot be said for those who have had to abandon their homes due to guerillas, paramilitary groups or the actions of law enforcement.
 
Has displacement in Colombia worsened or improved in the era of Uribe?
 
According to the government’s Social Action figures, there are 3,400,000 displaced persons in Colombia, 2,400,000 of which occurred under Uribe’s government.  This is to say that the majority of displacement which has been officially recognized was produced under Uribe.  If we were to replace official figures with those of CODHES and the church, we see that there have been 4.9 million displaced in the last 25 years (1985-2009) which spanned through six different governments.  More than half the number of displaced peoples was produced under Uribe.  Here it can be noted that the Uribe government has seen the greatest number of displacement in the recent history of Colombia.  This can be seen in both official and our own figures.  
 
Where is displacement produced?
 
We are preoccupied by the large macro-economic link which connects displacement to an economy boosted by minerals and energy resources.  These companies are benefiting in the midst of conflict. I am not saying that they are involved in the displacement of peoples or even in violence, but they must know that they are operating in conflict zones, in the middle of violence, of displacement and aggressions against the civilian population.
 
Does this include Spanish companies?
 
There are many companies of various nationalities.  I do not have a direct assertion against any one Spanish company, but there is a concern about how human rights are affected when these companies invest in the country.
 
How does the displaced population live?
 
There is a 60% poverty rate and a rate of 90% indigence seen in displaced populations.
 
Many leaders fighting for restitution of land have been assassinated.  What does this situation indicate?
 
That these new paramilitary groups have an intention to consolidate the dispossession, to secure the land and impose rural development supporting the intensive production of palm oil farms and other products to produce agro-combustibles. Restitution is a right.  It proceeds when a person abandons land due to violence (while retaining ownership) and it is then taken by someone else.  This land must be returned.  But this is very dangerous; more than 35 leaders that have attempted this have been assassinated.
 
What must a displaced person do so that their land is returned?
 
The burden lies on the victim.  There is an entire bureaucratic network which makes it very difficult.  And there is a containment wall of armed illegal groups making it very difficult to impose restitution demands.  The Attorney General is searching for 23 companies and large land owners in Choco that, in the nineties, attempted to take farmer’s land through all types of ruses, assassinations and forced displacement. The Constitutional Court has halted the negotiations of land through a noteworthy action which we salute.
 
And the adjudication of idle lands that the State has legally given farmers; how much land has been actually given?
 
Mafia does not permit that the State adjudicates quality land to poor farmers.  The State has attempted it.  One example involves a group of farmers who received property titles from the hand of the Republic and were told:  Go, and enjoy it.  One of them men who wanted to go was killed.  Later, the entire community was displaced. The Government has seized two million hectares (taken from the mafia) but could only deliver 48,000 to 70,000 to farmers.  Ridiculous. This shows the inability of the State to democratize land in a country with the highest inequality in the world. 68% of the best lands are held by .4% of land owners.  This is the reason for conflict.  Behind the institutionalization lies an embedded mafia which stops any advancement in restitution or adjudication of lands.  New paramilitary groups prevent this from occurring.
 
Do these groups emerge in opposition to guerrilla?
 
The paramilitary experience of the nineties is presented as a grand strategy in guerrilla combat. But there were few fights between paramilitary and guerrillas and many massacres against the civilian population.  The paramilitaries followed the School of the Americas model which in a sense removes the water from the fish:  disjointing, creating terror, assassinations, massacres and the displacement of thousands of civilians under the accusation that they make up the social base of the guerrilla. This has not changed.  In effect, the massacres of the nineties were conducted in order to control political institutions and allowed for the emergence of these new paramilitary groups which control and secure dispossession and dominance over goods and lands.
 
Source:  http://www.publico.es/

The Media in Colombia: the Information Manipulation Business

7 August 2010
by Yesid Bubú Baltazar
(Translated by Rich Henighan, a CSN Volunteer Translator)

In recent times, the international geo-political context has shown that those who dominate information have the power to control peoples’ minds. In present-day Colombia the major political and economic machines can be seen to manipulate the private media at whim, thus maintaining control over public opinion.
 
It is no secret that Alvaro Uribe’s belligerent, authoritarian discourse and his Democratic Security policy are sustained by the high esteem they enjoy in public opinion. This is due to the relentless publicity for Uribe’s so-called “policy achievements”, broadcast mainly on the private channels RCN and Caracol.
 
All military outcomes of armed confrontations in the present conflict are glorified in the media to favor the State. Little or nothing is said about how much balderdash the government invents in order to show results in the midst of all the misery, death and inequality generated by the bloody, bellicose Democratic Security policy.
 
One clear example is the “false positives”, which there was so much pressure to publicize. Why don’t the media deploy all the information and disclose the truth to the public about all the Government’s fabricated “false positives”?  Why does the Government single out as terrorists all the reporters and alternative media that try to get to the truth of these events, so as to publish it and expose to the world the real causes of this “bloodless” Colombian conflict?
 
It is enough to say that – just like what is happening with health care, education and housing – access to information is being restricted more and more as a right and is quickly becoming closer and closer to a macroeconomic policy. With the privatization of the media, any players with the economic means can buy, traffic in, manipulate, twist, destroy and hide information, or inject it into society at their convenience.
 
Access to knowledge brings with it better understanding of our realities, our situation and our social conflicts. One step towards such knowledge is access to information, for which the main transmission channel is the media. The major political and economic sectors of the country are very clear that to allow a society free access to information and knowledge represents great danger to their capitalist interests.
 
If we start to think and try to understand the underlying reasons for this chaotic state of affairs, then we can identify injustice and realize that passivity makes us accomplices to many injustices. This simple state of awareness can undermine any imposed authoritarian policy. Those who govern us know this and that is why their public agendas and plans – and above all their private ones - always make a priority of controlling Colombia’s main media.
 
This history policy manipulating Colombia’s media has been such that, for a country that calls itself a democracy, unimaginable numbers of journalists have been murdered in the last thirty years for doing honest journalism in Colombia. These were journalists who could not be bought, who told the country and the world about endless injustices and exposed the culprits.
 
For that reason, socially responsible journalism will always be a target for State terrorism. Clear examples of this are Comunicadores para la Verdad y la Vida and Emisora Payu’mat of the ACIN, which suffered attacks on their facilities – and the threats, warnings, exiles and deaths continue, all for speaking the truth.
 
Written by: YESID BUBÚ BALTAZAR - Comunicador para la Verdad y la Vida – Municipality of Florida, Department of Valle del Cauca.  

Report on the ills of Colombia's foreign policy

By: Andrés Molano Rojas, Professor, Universidad del Rosario, Academia Diplomática San Carlos
(Translated by Peter Lenny, a CSN Volunteer Translator)

UN Newspaper Edition No. 135 http://www.unperiodico.unal.edu.co/dper/article/un-periodico-impreso-no-135/
http://www.unperiodico.unal.edu.co/dper/article/cronica-de-males-de-la-politica-exterior-colombiana/  

Monothematic, reactive, and improvised. Such is Colombian foreign policy, whose deficiencies, with an enormous historical weight, have generated inertia and very resistant routines. The challenge is to transform it and turn it into a real State policy.
 
The Final Report of the Foreign Policy Mission of Colombia, brought to light in April, makes for reading as timely as it is mandatory. On one hand, it offers a pertinent diagnosis of Colombia's foreign policy, and on the other, a persuasive and sensible inventory of the tasks to be undertaken.

A national, collective, and multi-sectorial effort is needed to make this critical reading. Only in that way, as the document points out, will Colombia be able to take advantage of the opportunity that it has, amidst the changes on the global and regional stage, and in its internal situation, to make a change in its international relations and formulate a new strategy of corresponding with the world.

The country has to design and execute a foreign policy that allows it to find its own place on the global stage, from where it can play a protagonist's role and exercise some type of leadership, taking advantage of its resources and experience with issues that are currently relevant in the global agenda.

The work of the Mission can be taken advantage of to make a report of the ills that afflict the conceptualization and practice of Colombia's foreign policy. Some have a long history, and it would seem that, upon repeating them, the Mission is more of the same. But redundancy is sometimes a powerful pedagogical tool, and, by virtue of insisting, perhaps the moment will arrive in which these characteristics and tendencies are corrected.

Like this, Colombia's foreign policy:

It's essentially idiosyncratic, and, therefore, it suffers from a deficit of institutionality. This is reflected in the way in which its handling depends on the character and the chosen affinities of the decision-makers, and in particular on those of the President of the Republic, taking priority over (and in spite of) institutional capacities. This has negative repercussions in the rationality of the decisive processes, and inhibits the development of the specialized bureaucratic structure that must be in charge of its implementation.  

It tends to be mono-thematic and one-directional. Whether it is about narcotrafficking or the fight against terrorism, the foreign agenda is usually defined in function of a lone dominating issue, which means leaving aside others in which the country also would have things to say, interests to defend, positions on which to lead, initiatives to promote, but which tend to be relegated to the second level, and end up being turned into lost opportunities. At the same time, the narrowness of the agenda leads, almost invariably, to a restriction in the contents of Colombia's foreign discourse and its repertoire of speakers, while dialogue with others tends to be transmitted residually or is evaded altogether. In the end, it means losing visibility and leverage at the moment of intervening in multilateral forums.  

It is state-centric and excessively government-centered in its conception and application. Diplomatic missions and representation serve as true bridges that connect San Carlos Palace with other State Departments and Foreign Offices, but overlook – literally – a wide and mixed group of social actors whose influence is underestimated, when it is not demonized or looked down upon. Said another way, Colombian diplomacy is anachronistically state-centered and seems to have difficulties in adapting to a globalized and non-polar world, in which states do now function (if they ever have) as unitary and lone actors of the international system. On the internal level, this tendency is reflected in the scarce participation that civil society effectively has in the discussion of foreign policy issues, habitually considered the forbidden preserve of the federal government.

It is preponderantly reactive and only occasionally proactive. There is a tremendous “strategic vacuum” in foreign policy. Governments make goals and objectives, but rarely do they make explicit the mechanisms and necessary resources to reach them. So in practice, the conduct of the country on the global stage is strongly conditioned by purely contextual pressures and needs, and it is oriented more by short-term ambitions than by strategic valuations and long-term projections. In that sense, the country limits itself to reacting to external stimuli and global dynamics, and has not developed sufficient capacity to process and integrate them, and even anticipate and channel them in favor of its interests.

It suffers the consequences of the improvisation with which in Colombia public policies are designed (and executed) with special intensity. All the aforementioned perhaps can be synthesized in just one word: improvisation. Something which many public policies in Colombia suffer from, and which in the case of foreign policy makes its impact felt in to main aspects. First, in the way in which it is designed – without taking into consideration the calculus of the costs and benefits that each decision entails; and, if that were not enough, with the pretension that said costs can be easily eluded or avoided. Second, in the enormous frequency with which foreign policy decisions seem to be made and applied totally out of context, as if responding to a parallel or virtual reality that has nothing to do with the internal reality nor with current international dynamics.  

Responsibility, of whom?

It must be avoided, at all cost, that the Mission's report end up turning into another collection piece, lost on a hidden shelf of the Foreign Office.
Even with the best will, the new Administration will not be able to – by itself – fulfill the task of transforming foreign policy. To begin, the duties mentioned previously have an enormous historical weight and have generated inertia and very resistant routines. Perhaps the government can start the effort, but who knows if it will manage to keep it going.

Therefore, we must drive and strengthen this transformation from the outside. For example, from political science and international relations programs in the universities, to the unions, social organizations and communications media, etc. That is also the best path so that Colombia's foreign policy may become, finally, a real state policy.

 

Wisdom of the elders guides path young people walk

(Translated by Sharon Bagatell, a CSN Volunteer Translator)

[ 07/13/2010] [ Author: Tejido de Comunicación]

Last weekend, in the village of Santa Elena, near the town of Corinto, more than 800 youth from different areas of Cauca and some delegations from Bogota and Medellin took part in the twenty- sixth Assembly of the Alvaro Ulcue' Youth Movement,  "Youth weaving alternatives for the strengthening of the Plan of Life in Defense of the Territory."
The twenty-sixth Youth Assembly began with a march from the village of San Rafael of Corinto to the main park of Corinto. The delegations then walked toward the village of Santa Elena where they were received by the indigenous authority and the local community, beginning the assembly with the presentation of the participating delegations.

During the four days of the assembly, the participants worked on topics such as the abuse of the sacred coca leaf, the politics of eradication, the consequences of the Plan Colombia in the territories, the military build-up, the recruitment of children and teenagers, the topic of human rights and diverse problems that the youths currently experience.

"The idea of walking, sharing, and evaluating the work done by the Youth Movement during this period, and the election of the new coordination for the year 2011-2012 brings us together, but above all, we gather to analyze and propose alternatives to the principal problems that are affecting youths, such as the recruitment by the different armed groups, drug trafficking, and the implementation of megaprojects in our territories. These are among many of the situations that put youth and all of the populations of our communities at great risk. We meet here to grow together in the reflection of our own history and to support diverse ideas for the strengthening of our Plan for Life," declared Trino Pavi, of the Alvaro Ulcue' Youth Movement.

The path of the youth has developed from listening to the experiences and knowing the fights the elders have had to wage in different places.  "We have a historic responsibility we must carry out as integral parts of a process, of a community, and as part of Mother Nature.  We are responsible for keeping our elders' dreams alive and carrying forward in a good direction the present and future of our communities with our critical, analytical, and purposeful perspectives as youth," expressed the members of the Youth Movement.

Proposals in response to the problems

During committee work sessions, the youth identified as major problems the armed conflict, megaprojects, and drug-trafficking.  In light of these problems they are greatly concerned about the disequilibrium that is happening in all aspects of community and territorial life, considering that currently the entire life of the community, the organization, and the territory is threatened and permanently at risk. The youth thus made proposals to confront the problems.

Involvement of youth in armed conflict

There are signs of grave harm inflicted on families and communities caused by the indiscriminate war in the territory.  With respect to involvement, on the part of all of the players in the conflict, of children and teenagers in armed conflict, the youth as well as the elders have proposed:

* Keep spirituality alive as a protection strategy, through rituals and ancestral methods of caring for the territory and the community
*  Continue consciousness-raising and training of youth,  a work articulated by parents and teachers
*  Involve each day more youths in organizational dynamics, and strengthen the alternative, such as music, dance, and crafts, for children and youth.

Mega-projects

*  Build up sources of information for youth about topics related to multinationals and mega-projects so that they are able to understand strategies of  deceit and plundering implemented via the mega-projects.

* With authorities, create alternatives to mega-project employment for youth.

Drug-trafficking
The commodification of the sacred coca plant has affected communities and youth in many ways, including cocaine consumption. With respect to this grave problem, the youth propose:

* Promote and support other types of crops such as coffee, agricultural products that can be consumed, and others that can be marketed
* Educate the community about other uses of the sacred leaf, such food products and medicines, and the creation of mini-businesses with such products
* Carry out a census in the communities of the people who depend on the illicit and to create alternative local projects, so that the armed groups will be left without a pretext for invading the territories
* Train young people about other possibilities of crops and the generation of economic alternatives for families
* Continue support and building of Tul gardens with cultivation of plantain, yuca , cilantro, carrots, tomatoes, beans, and other crops by the town councils.
 
Tape of committee work
"I congratulate you, for your strength and your organization. You are a great example of hope for the youth of the cities.  I invite you to continue resisting the multiple threats and attacks that we live through. We shouldn't fall for the imaginary future life that they sell us in the media.  You are fortunate to have the possibility of knowing your history and be able to think about your future with the support of the elders and these very organizations.  Let's feel deeply how we belong to Mother Earth, let's have a greater closeness of the spiritual with nature, and let's not forget to share our ideas clearly with the youth of other sectors and organizations. This is my message, " stated a youth from the Muisca delegation of Bogota to the assembly of the Alvaro Ulcue' Youth Movement.
With the election of Jorge Humberto Palomino as new coordinator of the Alvaro Ulcue' Youth Movement, and the music and dance and cultural events, the twenty-sixth youth assembly came to a close.  The commitment to contribute from a youth perspective to the strengthening of the communitarian "Plan of Life" and to the processes of peaceful resistance toward the construction of a new community was reaffirmed.

About concessions and the movement for liberation

(Translated by Steve Cagan, a CSN Volunteer Translator)

Libardo Gómez Sánchez, Diario de Huila [the Huila Daily—SC], Neiva, July 19, 2010

 

Tomorrow will be the 200^th anniversary of what is known as the Cry of Independence in Colombia. In effect it was the first expression by those born in this land against the control that the Spanish Crown exercised over all economic, political and social activities, and which of course privileged foreigners to the detriment of native whites, mestizos, mulattos or native people. The capacity to generate productive activities or to move forward leadership functions within the social organization was truncated by the norms of the epoch, which allowed only the Spanish to exercise them.. The shadowy Casa de Contratación de Indias Occidentales [the Chamber of Commerce of the West Indies—the institution that controlled finances in the Spanish colonies—SC] reigned over all the commerce that entered or left through the ports, guaranteeing an intervention that would benefit the Spanish Crown and reducing the possibilities of the development of the colonies themselves. Constructing a future in that epoch for the American peoples was only possible by liberating themselves from that yoke, from that ballast that impeded their free [self-] determination. On the other hand, the colonies were so important for Spain that she did not hesitate to move thousands of soldiers from one continent to the other with the goal of impeding the liberation movement.

 

To some people this situation seems only like something from the past, since when they do not see troops with foreign helmets they suppose that we enjoy total independence; the forget that in these two centuries that have passed the world has evolved and has perfected other sophisticated and subtle forma of dominations, even though the old ones are used, as is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among these new instruments of intervention we have the presence of foreign capital when it has no restrictions, the commercial treaties known today euphemistically as "free trade," and recently the so-called concessions which hand over absolutely everything without countervailing benefits for the nations. The last has produced what we call those who sell their country, especially useful since they can deliver, without restrictions, natural resource like petroleum, coal, gold, nickel, water and the electromagnetic spectrum fort communication, the internet and television signals, freight roads, natural parks, jails, aqueducts, garbage—in general, exploitation of all the tangible and intangible [wealth] that is found under the ground, above it or in the air in the territory of the nations without their peoples being able to murmur when they are affected by the consequences that are generated the management of any wealth or activity is handed over to someone who, without any hindrance, seeks only his own profit.

 

All these forms of domination currently weigh upon Colombia, without mentioning the authorizing of the military bases; foreign investment does not demand a national peer, nor a transfer of technology, nor employment of national parties, nor supplying the national market, nor local reinvestment; the FTAs do not consider the asymmetries with the developed countries, delivering all the advantages to the foreign firms, making national production vulnerable, and in the end the concessions fair only generates journalistic controversies, such as the case of the third television channel, but in the end they deliver themselves and damage our national patrimony.

 

A concession by definition is the confirmation of inability to attend to or develop an activity, since it consists in authorizing a third party to carry out a function or so that a profit is taken from something that belongs to yourself for the benefit of another. At the same time, independence is understood as the capacity to make decisions on your own, without the undue influence of foreigners, as in the Colombian case, [where] the first definition is confirmed and the second is not applied; we should be ashamed for not having maintained the sovereignty for which our past heroes sacrificed their very lives, and the best way to pay tribute to them would be top commit ourselves to the second independence.