Since death threats were made a month ago against social movements and individuals in the south-west of Colombia three more indigenous have been killed in the region. Here is a translation of an action alert by human rights NGO Nomadesc:
The organisations below denounce the serious situation facing indigenous communities in the north and west of Cauca. In just two weeks three indigenous have been assassinated and another is in a serious condition in intensive care in Cali. This area has become heavily militarised in the last two weeks. As reported previously, on October 22 a threat was sent to CUT Cali (trade union committee) and Nomadesc from the Municipality of Santander de Quilichao. Five organisations were mentioned, including the indigenous reserve of Cerro Tijeras and six people who participated in the recent Minga were named. The threat was signed by the paramilitary group 'Aguilas Negras Nueva Generation' (Black Eagles New Generation).
The recent Minga denounced the continuing human rights violations suffered by indigenous communities, communities of African origen, farmers, workers and students.
1. On October 29 MARLY CAROLINA HUILA GUAMANGA was assassinated in the village of Damián in the indigenous reserve of Cerro tijeras, Suárez municipality, Cauca.
2. On November 11 REINALDO BOMBA was assassinated in the village of Bella Vista in the indigenous reserve of Cerro tijeras, Suárez Municipality, Cauca.
3. On November 13 NILSON CAMPO was assassinated and EGIDIO OVANDO HUILA seriously injured in a place known as 'the tank' in Damián in the indigenous reserve of Cerro tijeras, Suárez municipality, Cauca. Both of them were travelling by motorbike when they were attacked by an as yet unidentified armed group. According to information from the community NILSON CAMPO was shot 5 times and attacked with a machete. He was shot three times in the abdomen, and once in the cheek and ear.
The indigenous 'comunero' (a joint holder of land tenure) was responsible for the local fish cooperative, and had been treasurer of the indigenous council of Honduras reserve in 2006 and captain of the council in 2007.
It is to be noted that these events happened in the middle of the night or early morning. The culprits would appear to be paramilitary groups that carry out their attacks in camouflage wearing black armbands.
Here is a link to a Guardian article about Colombian farmers suing BP in the High Court for damage caused to their farmland by the oil company's pipeline.
Wednesday 18 November 2009
Tuesday 17 November 2009
Food Sovereignty in Valle del Cauca
The mountains around Tulua, two hours north of Cali, were notorious for paramilitary violence until a few years ago, and many still fear returning to their farms. Paramilitaries like H.H were responsible for thousands of murders and disappearances in the area, many of whom haven't been found.
Tulua is a large regional centre with a population of around 200,000.The nearby village of La Marina has seen increased military activity recently and army helicopters overhead are a daily occurance. The FARC have retreated into the mountains stretching into neighbouring departments and the area I visited hadn't seen any clashes recently.
Three years ago some local farmers who live in one district two hours by vehicle from Tulua town, decided to form their own agricultural cooperative with the aims of supplying their food needs and increasing organic production. It has become the norm throughout Colombia for farmers to focus on one or two crops and cattle and buy produce from local markets, with obvious drawbacks. In lean periods they have to rely on the one or two crops they produce with subsequent malnutrition.
This cooperative is trying to diversify by cultivating carrots, tomatoes, peas, beans, cabbage, beetroot, radishes, yucca and lulo fruit as well as raising hens, pigs and cattle. Many also cultivate coffee. The unreliability and low value of organic cultivation in a tropical climate with frequent insect infestations, forces many to rely on chemically treated produce as well as supplement their income from working as day labourers for wealthier farmers. Organic produce doesn't sell for much more than the chemically grown equivalent so time spent weeding and planting repellents isn't profitable and works out at far less than the 15000 pesos they could earn as day labourers.
To avoid having to sell produce to intermediaries in the main markets, it is sold at the weekly farmers and organic market, which is laid on by the authorities. However, this entails selling their produce early on Saturday morning so they have to come to Tulua on Friday evening and sleep out under the market canopies.
Such small-scale farmers' initiatives are supported to a certain extent by government bodies, such as the Corporacion Autonoma Regional del Valle del Cauca, which exploit the media potential of their projects, but often fail to follow through on their promises. They have supplied greenhouses but failed to provide the suitable engine for the sugar-mill as promised. The poor state of the mountain roads vastly increases transport costs given the necessity for frequent repairs - the local authorities have repeatedly failed to make any improvements. There is also no health post in the community.
For all the government's rhetoric and glossy brochures about supporting small farmers, as the recent farming scandal shows, it is only the already wealthy landowners that benefit from its policies. The small farmer, pushed out onto mountain sides far from regional markets, is limited to ekeing out a living with the hope of the right weather and absence of infestations.
Tulua is a large regional centre with a population of around 200,000.The nearby village of La Marina has seen increased military activity recently and army helicopters overhead are a daily occurance. The FARC have retreated into the mountains stretching into neighbouring departments and the area I visited hadn't seen any clashes recently.
Three years ago some local farmers who live in one district two hours by vehicle from Tulua town, decided to form their own agricultural cooperative with the aims of supplying their food needs and increasing organic production. It has become the norm throughout Colombia for farmers to focus on one or two crops and cattle and buy produce from local markets, with obvious drawbacks. In lean periods they have to rely on the one or two crops they produce with subsequent malnutrition.
This cooperative is trying to diversify by cultivating carrots, tomatoes, peas, beans, cabbage, beetroot, radishes, yucca and lulo fruit as well as raising hens, pigs and cattle. Many also cultivate coffee. The unreliability and low value of organic cultivation in a tropical climate with frequent insect infestations, forces many to rely on chemically treated produce as well as supplement their income from working as day labourers for wealthier farmers. Organic produce doesn't sell for much more than the chemically grown equivalent so time spent weeding and planting repellents isn't profitable and works out at far less than the 15000 pesos they could earn as day labourers.
To avoid having to sell produce to intermediaries in the main markets, it is sold at the weekly farmers and organic market, which is laid on by the authorities. However, this entails selling their produce early on Saturday morning so they have to come to Tulua on Friday evening and sleep out under the market canopies.
Such small-scale farmers' initiatives are supported to a certain extent by government bodies, such as the Corporacion Autonoma Regional del Valle del Cauca, which exploit the media potential of their projects, but often fail to follow through on their promises. They have supplied greenhouses but failed to provide the suitable engine for the sugar-mill as promised. The poor state of the mountain roads vastly increases transport costs given the necessity for frequent repairs - the local authorities have repeatedly failed to make any improvements. There is also no health post in the community.
For all the government's rhetoric and glossy brochures about supporting small farmers, as the recent farming scandal shows, it is only the already wealthy landowners that benefit from its policies. The small farmer, pushed out onto mountain sides far from regional markets, is limited to ekeing out a living with the hope of the right weather and absence of infestations.
Thursday 5 November 2009
Community leaders in Cauca receive death threats for opposition to multinationals
A few weeks ago social movements and individuals received the latest death threats from paramilitaries for their opposition to the attempts of mining multinational Anglogold Ashanti to establish a presence in the northern Cauca region:
'The government continues to fulfill its agreements and commitments
You are defenders of the guerilla, requesting land to plant coca to strengthen the indigenous and the guerilla who don't appreciate the efforts of President Uribe.
With the help of 'Families in Action', 'forest rangers', and 'democratic security' (government policies and programmes) a group of men and women concerned with what is happening in the country, have decided that is again necessary to take up the struggle against those who are camoflaged in social organisations like the CUT (Central Trade Union Committee) Valle, Nomadesc (a human rights NGO), human rights defenders, NGOs, enemies of our democracy.
Those bureaucrats won't let the Cauca region progress by not allowing multinationals into the region who benefit the comunities of Suarez, Morales and Buenos Aires.
Some of these organisations have made agreements with the owners of land titles, requesting evictions from mining zones in exchange for money, as in the La Toma district, and we have a document as proof of this.
We have today decided to declare these bureaucrats a military target... (a list follows of organisations and individuals)
Aguilas Negras Nueva Generacion (Black Eagles New Generation)'
The message was faxed from a phone shop in Santander de Quilichao, which is near Suarez, to NGOs in Cali. At least one resident of La Toma has already had to leave his home because of multiple death threats, but others named remain in the area. Paramilitaries have been responsible for assassinations and intimidation in the region for 10 years - last December Edwin Legarda, husband of an indigenous leader, was killed and their daughter survived an assasination attempt this May.
The north of the Cauca region has been populated by indigenous and black communties for hundreds of years. Blacks were brought to the region by Spanish settlers to work as slaves in 1636 and following the abolition of slavery in 1850 managed to buy land titles with gold. They have continued artesanal mining, agricultural and fishing activities to this day. Whilst indigenous communites have managed to get some recognition of ancestral land rights in 'reserves' (resguardos) black communities have been denied such collective recognition here as they have attained elsewhere, like on the Pacific coast in places like Tumaco. The demography of the traditionally black communities has changed in recent years as many have left and 'Paisas' (those from Antioquia) have bought up land and brought in equipment to excavate quarries and dig shafts. Some suggest their investments in mining are an attempt to launder profits mfrom the drugs trade. The mercury and cyanide used in these processes has polluted the streams and the nearby Rio Ovejas the communites rely on for fish stocks, which have decreased.
Recently, mining multinational Anglogold Ashanti has been trying to acquire land titles in the area and was awarded two in Suarez municipality- in Asnazu and La Toma districts. La Toma is a large hilly area of 7,500 hectares home to around 7,000, many of whom are vehemently opposed to the mining multinational and feel bitter about the awarding of the titles.
At a packed public meeting in Suarez a few weeks ago attended by hundreds, with many on the street listening in, representatives of various government ministeries defended the decision to award the titles and concessions by quoting a law that appropriated a land title from a member of the community who didn't comply with some requirement regarding land use. Other lawyers refuted this, citing a lack of the necessary consultation with the community and a ruling from the Constitutional Court this year that called for legal protection of the collective territories of black communities in La Toma. The government was called on to implement a plan of protection and assistance for the black communties in the area. The representative from the mining ministry tried to wriggle out of its obligations to the black communities by arguing that it wasn't aware of the existance of collective land rights at the time of the awarding of land title and it couldn't do anything about it now. The illegality of the removal of the land title from the original owner and its awarding to someone else with no connection to the area, who then sold it to Anglogold, had to stand.
Concerns were also expressed on environmental grounds with no kind of safeguards put in place. Even if the residents weren't forceably evicted from their homes, the damage done to the environment by the kind of large-scale open cast mining Anglogold practises would make any fishing or agricultural activities unviable. Accusations of crimes against humanity in the International Criminal Court were also made should the government faciliate the eviciton of the community.
It appeared that the mining giant were heeding local concerns as rumours were circulating that Anglogold would withdraw its interest from La Toma. It even called a public meeting in La Toma which around a hundred attended, keen for the company to give a legally binding renunciation of its title. This, of course, it didn't supply, merely affirming the rumours that it wasn't planning any activity in La Toma. The impeccably dressed Anglogold representative gave a brief speech, distancing the company from the death threats and reminding us of the 120 million pesos it has invested in the community, before dashing off. Others talked about Anglogold's record across the globe, where communities have been devastated without compensation and spoke about the legacy of the nearby Salvajina hydroelectric plant owned by Spanish multinational Union Fenosa, which displaced thousands in 1985, who have yet to receive anything. Hardly any locals are employed at the plant with most of the work done by professionals brought in. For the time being at least, Anglogold believes it is more profitable to press ahead with the Colosa project in Cajamarca, Tolima.
There were rumours that some community members had been paid to convince the community of the benefits the multinational would bring and to sell land titles, accusations bitterly rejected by some. Some from the community who had worked for the company elsewhere defended their actions through the lack of local job opportunities.
Although the community has mobilised strongly to resist Anglogold, many fear the multinational will continue to be an unwelcome feature in their lives and on their land.
'The government continues to fulfill its agreements and commitments
You are defenders of the guerilla, requesting land to plant coca to strengthen the indigenous and the guerilla who don't appreciate the efforts of President Uribe.
With the help of 'Families in Action', 'forest rangers', and 'democratic security' (government policies and programmes) a group of men and women concerned with what is happening in the country, have decided that is again necessary to take up the struggle against those who are camoflaged in social organisations like the CUT (Central Trade Union Committee) Valle, Nomadesc (a human rights NGO), human rights defenders, NGOs, enemies of our democracy.
Those bureaucrats won't let the Cauca region progress by not allowing multinationals into the region who benefit the comunities of Suarez, Morales and Buenos Aires.
Some of these organisations have made agreements with the owners of land titles, requesting evictions from mining zones in exchange for money, as in the La Toma district, and we have a document as proof of this.
We have today decided to declare these bureaucrats a military target... (a list follows of organisations and individuals)
Aguilas Negras Nueva Generacion (Black Eagles New Generation)'
The message was faxed from a phone shop in Santander de Quilichao, which is near Suarez, to NGOs in Cali. At least one resident of La Toma has already had to leave his home because of multiple death threats, but others named remain in the area. Paramilitaries have been responsible for assassinations and intimidation in the region for 10 years - last December Edwin Legarda, husband of an indigenous leader, was killed and their daughter survived an assasination attempt this May.
The north of the Cauca region has been populated by indigenous and black communties for hundreds of years. Blacks were brought to the region by Spanish settlers to work as slaves in 1636 and following the abolition of slavery in 1850 managed to buy land titles with gold. They have continued artesanal mining, agricultural and fishing activities to this day. Whilst indigenous communites have managed to get some recognition of ancestral land rights in 'reserves' (resguardos) black communities have been denied such collective recognition here as they have attained elsewhere, like on the Pacific coast in places like Tumaco. The demography of the traditionally black communities has changed in recent years as many have left and 'Paisas' (those from Antioquia) have bought up land and brought in equipment to excavate quarries and dig shafts. Some suggest their investments in mining are an attempt to launder profits mfrom the drugs trade. The mercury and cyanide used in these processes has polluted the streams and the nearby Rio Ovejas the communites rely on for fish stocks, which have decreased.
Recently, mining multinational Anglogold Ashanti has been trying to acquire land titles in the area and was awarded two in Suarez municipality- in Asnazu and La Toma districts. La Toma is a large hilly area of 7,500 hectares home to around 7,000, many of whom are vehemently opposed to the mining multinational and feel bitter about the awarding of the titles.
At a packed public meeting in Suarez a few weeks ago attended by hundreds, with many on the street listening in, representatives of various government ministeries defended the decision to award the titles and concessions by quoting a law that appropriated a land title from a member of the community who didn't comply with some requirement regarding land use. Other lawyers refuted this, citing a lack of the necessary consultation with the community and a ruling from the Constitutional Court this year that called for legal protection of the collective territories of black communities in La Toma. The government was called on to implement a plan of protection and assistance for the black communties in the area. The representative from the mining ministry tried to wriggle out of its obligations to the black communities by arguing that it wasn't aware of the existance of collective land rights at the time of the awarding of land title and it couldn't do anything about it now. The illegality of the removal of the land title from the original owner and its awarding to someone else with no connection to the area, who then sold it to Anglogold, had to stand.
Concerns were also expressed on environmental grounds with no kind of safeguards put in place. Even if the residents weren't forceably evicted from their homes, the damage done to the environment by the kind of large-scale open cast mining Anglogold practises would make any fishing or agricultural activities unviable. Accusations of crimes against humanity in the International Criminal Court were also made should the government faciliate the eviciton of the community.
It appeared that the mining giant were heeding local concerns as rumours were circulating that Anglogold would withdraw its interest from La Toma. It even called a public meeting in La Toma which around a hundred attended, keen for the company to give a legally binding renunciation of its title. This, of course, it didn't supply, merely affirming the rumours that it wasn't planning any activity in La Toma. The impeccably dressed Anglogold representative gave a brief speech, distancing the company from the death threats and reminding us of the 120 million pesos it has invested in the community, before dashing off. Others talked about Anglogold's record across the globe, where communities have been devastated without compensation and spoke about the legacy of the nearby Salvajina hydroelectric plant owned by Spanish multinational Union Fenosa, which displaced thousands in 1985, who have yet to receive anything. Hardly any locals are employed at the plant with most of the work done by professionals brought in. For the time being at least, Anglogold believes it is more profitable to press ahead with the Colosa project in Cajamarca, Tolima.
There were rumours that some community members had been paid to convince the community of the benefits the multinational would bring and to sell land titles, accusations bitterly rejected by some. Some from the community who had worked for the company elsewhere defended their actions through the lack of local job opportunities.
Although the community has mobilised strongly to resist Anglogold, many fear the multinational will continue to be an unwelcome feature in their lives and on their land.
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