lascartasmarcadas

Mass arrests of Zapatistas in Chiapas

2011-02-05T02:47:00.000-08:00

116 Zapatistas living near the tourist resort of Agua Azul, who I visited and reported on in early 2008, were arrested on February 3rd during a protest against their eviction from the tollbooth leading to the tourist resort. The Zapatistas had controlled the tollbooth for the past 2 years but on February 2nd state-backed priistas (supporters of the right-wing PRI party) backed by the police seized control of the tollbooth.

The following day the Zapatistas occupied and blocked the main road from San Cristobel to Palenque, but were removed and arrested by 500 state and federal police, then taken to the police station in Palenque. The State Attorney has said crimes such as murder, bodily harm, false imprisonment and an attack on the road network are being investigated - one priista was killed and two injured in the clash at the tollbooth. Trying to justify the mass arrests the authorities falsely claimed the Zapatistas had blocked the road leading to the tourist resort and that 17 tourists were being held hostage.

The Zapatistas had been expressing increasing concern about the intentions of the priistas and the Partido Verde (Green party) to develop the Agua Azul waterfalls and its surroundings with the funding of foreign multinationals into a mass tourism complex contrary to their own attempts to preserve the natural beauty of the area. On January 26th the Zapatistas had warned about an eviction of the tollbooth. Workers at the Fray Bartoleme de las Casas (Frayba) human rights centre in San Cristobel have also been documenting attempts by the priistas to invade the land occupied by Zapatistas since 2002 at Bolon Ajaw near the waterfalls.

Here is a translation of the statement issued by the members of the Other Campaign from San Sebastian Bachajon on February 4th:

'We publicly condemn the state government of Juan Sabines together with his collaborators in the bad government, and the following for organising the violent takeover of the Agua Azul tollbooth with the support of a 100 police from different security branches of the bad government - Francisco Guzman Jimenez, Carmen Aguilar Gomez, Juan Alvaro Moreno, Manuel Jiminez Moreno, Juan Jimenez Garcia, Miguel Ruiz Hernandez, Jesus Ruiz Hernandez, Manuel Deara Gomez, Sebastian Ruiz Alvaro, Melchorio Perez Moreno. Two years ago the organisation recovered the tollbooth as the government had seized control of it with a view to enrichment from multinational ecotourism investment and is now doing the same again after putting people in prison.

On February 3rd 121 members of the Other Campaign were violently arrested accused of various crimes in keeping with the ideology of Noe Castanon Leon, Juan Sabines' Secretary of State, to again violate human rights to claim control of the tollbooth.

These are those most responsible for what has happened, and there are currently two missing whose whereabouts we don't know. As an organisation we demand the immediate release of our comrades as we aren't criminals, those mentioned above are.

We are an organisation struggling and searching for a better world hoping to continue living in peace and tranquility to protect the natural resources of mother earth which have been handed down to us. We are an organisation with the dignity to show the government that we are not alone, we request the solidarity of national and international organisations in seeking the release of our comrades, detained for defending their land, its resources and autonomy.'

Fro more visit:

http://mexico.indymedia.org/?article1882

http://chiapas.indymedia.org/

http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2011/02/03/ejido-san-sebastian-bachajon-adherente-a-la-otra-campana-denuncia-que-oficialistas-despojan-caseta-de-agua-azul/#ejido

Assassination of indigenous in Cauca

2009-11-18T16:53:00.000-08:00

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.

Food Sovereignty in Valle del Cauca

2009-11-17T16:14:00.000-08:00

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.

Community leaders in Cauca receive death threats for opposition to multinationals

2009-11-05T10:41:00.000-08:00

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.

Assassination of community leader resisting hydroelectric plant

2009-10-23T09:56:00.001-07:00

Last week, as part of the Minga, social groups from Santander department, mobilised at the construction site of a hydroelectric plant, one of a network of 7 to be constructed across Colombia. The 1000 strong gathering was called to oppose the privitisation of the Rio Sogamosa, which hundreds of families depend on.

Issues discussed included the right to life, agreements not fulfilled by the government, land sovereignty, economic models as well as the privitisation of the river. When the police prevented an attempt to occupy a bridge, the participants, including over 300 women from the Social Movement of Women against War and the Organizacion Feminina Popular demanded their legitimate right to protest and to oppose the selling off of their natural resources.

A few days later local community representatives had a meeting with one of the companies subcontracted to build the dam. President of Puente Sogamoso village council where the Minga took place, Honorio Llorente Melenez, voiced concerns about the potential social and environmental impact of the megaproject on the community.

A few hours later Honorio was shot dead as he was leaving a bar with some friends. His murderer changed his top and was picked up by two motorbikes before they headed towards the main road through the region, passing an army base a kilometre away.

Honorio had lived in Puente Sogamoso since 1986, and started working for a Palm Oil company two years later. He had always been a trade union member and became treasurer of the Puerto Wilches branch of Sintrainagro. He was fired in 2007 and was due to have a meeting with the company about compensation for his dismissal at the Employment Ministry.

Honorio was involved in the campaign for the defence of the Sogamoso river and the threat the hydroelectric plant posed to those living along its banks. He had also been active in the recent Minga.

His assassination was no isolated event but one of many of those committed to protecting natural resources and communities. Three other local community representatives have been killed in Santander this year with regional authorities taking no steps to ensure the safety of these representatives and take action against the armed groups responsible for their murders. A coalition of regional and national social movements is calling on the government to take action against the continuing persecution of social movement representatives and human rights defenders.

The memory of Honorio and others, whose lives have been cut short whilst resisting the depradations of big business, is another humbling reminder of the courage of those determined to protect communities aware of the risks they take and in the face of these powerful outside interests.

The Caribbean Minga

2009-10-22T08:06:00.000-07:00

The 'Minga de Resistencia Social y Comunitaria' (Gathering of Social and Community Resistance) which took place last week in three places in Colombia, builds on the indigenous minga last year when thousands of indigenous spent a month marching from their homelands to Bogota to demand land rights and social justice. They faced massive police repression during this mobilisation and at least one person was killed with dozens injured and arrested.

This year the minga was broadened to include other social movements and took place in the west converging on Cali, in the centre in Bogota, and in Cartagena on the Caribbean coast. Small farmers and artesanal miners from the south of the departments of Bolivar and Cesar, converged on the village of Gamarra on the Magdalena River on Monday 12th to hold their annual 'Festival of the River' event, a celebration of the region's culture with song and dance, as well as a commemoration of the violence the region has and continues to experience. This April a community leader who opposed new palm oil plantations was assassinated by paramilitaries.

After a communal lunch outside the home of a local, a caravan of coaches transported the delegation consisting mainly of farmers' and miners' families to Cartagena where we set up camp on the grounds of a recreational ground on the edge of the city. People quickly organised themselves into different teams to deal with the running of the camp like kitchen, toilets and cleaning. Hammocks were slung along the fences outside and mattresses laid in the sheltered central structure with sloping thatch roof and open sides.

The next day as regional musical and dance groups performed, the local police and authorities with media in tow showed up and organisers spent much of the next few days dealing with them. With spirits high the youthful gathering didn't let this sideshow disrupt the festivities and a constant beat was sustained for the rest of the day. Groups dressed in regional costume performed cumbia and vallenato folk music with an assortment of drums, accordion and guiro.

In the afternoon we were bussed to the beach with the excitement palpable as it was the first time many had seen the sea. After dip we returned to find out the mains water supply to the recreation ground had been cut off so no shower to wash off the salty residue from the seawater. For the rest of the week there was twice-daily provision from a water tanker.

The following day three groups visited different barrios of Cartagena for an exchange of experiences. Some from the rural south of the region were shocked to hear of the urban poverty of the barrios, having their illusions of the 'good life' in the city shattered. We heard about the experiences of some indigenous Senu who had been displaced from their land and settled on a small plot of land in the deprived Membrillal district on the edge of the city in 2002. Originally 140 families crammed into this area but many have since moved away in search of work elsewhere. Their sense of identity has been weakened much through this dispersion of the community. We heard the familiar story of extreme poverty - unemployment, hunger and poor provision of health and education. We walked past a school built by the humanitarian NGO Plan International, which attempts to plug the gaping holes of a state that neglects the needs of the majority. Meanwhile on the other side of town modern luxury hotels and office blocks have sprung up to cater for tourists and the business elite. Locals are still able to visit some of the nearby beaches, but even this is under threat with local authority plans to privatize these. Parallels were drawn with the seizure of land for palm oil plantations on the banks of the Magdalena in the south of Bolivar.

Prolonged showers on Wednesday night meant a disrupted night's sleep for all but didn't dampen enthusiasm during Thursday's festivities in the city centre. With a strong police presence folklore groups performed for several hours right on the edge of the Walled City and many locals and tourists stopped by to watch and take part in the dances in the 'Plaza de la Paz'. Amidst this festive atmosphere, banners were held and leaflets handed out to remind onlookers of the accompanying political message of the communities' determination to remain on their land and for justice for the violence unleashed on them.

The week culminated with a march from the edge of the centre into the Walled City, where the farmers and miners joined social movements from the coastal region including a group of indigenous Wayu, in a mobilization against hunger and poverty. Around 2,000 were closely escorted by police in a two-hour march with no respite from the intense heat and dust and with water sellers doing a roaring trade. Representatives from trade unions, the Polo Democratico left-wing party and student collectives all condemned the rising unemployment, lack of opportunities for the youth, expensive basic services, privatizations, official corruption and human rights violations. Many had drifted away, no doubt exhausted like me, as the march entered the Walled City in the fading light and ended in the Plaza de San Pedro Claver, the 16th century monk who ministered to slaves brought from Africa. We were treated to a lengthy mass with much praying, but the priest did praise the value of solidarity as well as songs by a local musical celebrity and there were some who still had the energy to boogie. The militant message of the march with its demands was perhaps lost in this final ceremony but the message had already been made repeatedly and very publicly earlier in the day.

With little contact between the city and its hinterland the week's activities managed to bring together and dispel mutual illusions. Due to media portrayals many in the city perceive the south of the region to be exclusively guerilla and paramilitary territory whilst those living a tough life on the land are often unaware of the extent of urban poverty. The common cultural heritage with many in the south having moved inland from the coast was highlighted through song and dance.

Throughout the week the authorities pressurised organisers and the police were a constant intimidating presence but they failed to deter the peaceful message of those who eke out a living from the land. Despite the challenges faced in the first 'Minga Caribe' mobilisation, the expansion of the annual Minga to include non-indigenous groups is a defiant stance of the social movements against a regime which has continuously tried to divide them and a crucial step in the strengthening of this network

Migrant Solidarity in Calais

2009-10-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

Having heard about the stepping up of police harassment and attacks on migrants in Calais over the summer I thought I'd hop across the channel myself to show solidarity. In the wake of the French authorities' vow to clear Calais of migrants by the end of the year the CRS (the French riot police) had been given the green light to pressure migrants into leaving by beating them, throwing tear gas in tents, destroying their tents and belongings, even resorting to gas the one water tap for 500 people. Those showing solidarity with the migrants experienced a piece of this aggression, being pushed around, insulted, detained temporarily and prevented from documenting the CRS abuses - you make our jobs (migrant-bashing) harder and we'll make your lives tough was the message.

On my first visit, around a month ago, it was clear that our presence, whilst not stopping the raids and detentions, at least mitigated the violence of the bully boys, who in typical cowardly fashion, didn't hesitate to throw their weight around when just one or two volunteers were present, but were a lot shyer with greater numbers and cameras present. The frequent raids on some of the squats at night or in the early hours, with migrants being released soon after, were blatantly designed just to intimidate them into leaving Calais.

The announcement, a few weeks later, that Calais was to be 'cleared' of migrants within a week had more of an effect with most leaving the largest Pashtun jungle, although others sleeping rough or in squats generally stayed. Despite the destruction of the Pashtun jungle to much media fanfare, by the end of the week the squats and those sleeping rough were still there with the police preferring to concentrate resources on preventing migrants returning to the jungle and continuing with the intimidation, warning migrants that their tents or squats would be destroyed the next day. Cops in plain clothes even visited one squat, shouting insults and threatening to beat up the migrants.

Although there was no full-on immediate 'clearance' that first week, the police weren't tolerating any public show of resistance, clamping down heavily on the small-scale demos on the Friday and Sunday, using the handy French law banning any demo that the authorities haven't been notified of in advance. Volunteers were even summoned for questioning and held for four hours regarding one of these demos, which saw farcical tug-of-war with a banner scenes. Even those who weren't at the demo were held for questioning. In the second week some of the smaller jungles were cleared and those sleeping rough in the centre under bridges were targetted with police forcing them to take all their belongings, bedding and shelters with them at short notice, without any indication as to where they should go. Again farcical scenes ensued with their property going round in circles. One of the squats was demolished restricting even further the migrants' options. The final stages of the 'cleansing' of Calais are in progress now with these migrants being increasingly targetted and talk has moved on now to charter flights to Afghanistan, which immigration minister Besson promises are imminent. This is probably what Afghanis fear most as for many it will mean being caught up in the nightmare of the never-ending 'war on terror' and having to pay back the debts incurred to get to Europe with no means to do so.

At times Calais felt like a town under occupation with hardly a few minutes going by without seeing a national police car or CRS van full of riot police. Calais was swamped with cops. Calais may be cleared of migrants for a while to suit the immediate needs of domestic British/French relations, but, short of a costly permanent police presence in Calais and other ports, migrants will begin drifting back fleeing wars and abject poverty in their homelands searching for something a little more secure in the UK, which most choose as they already have contacts there or at least know English.

Instead of seeking real global solutions to these causes of migration, massive sums are being spent for short-term political gain. As is often the case with mobilisations, most will blame activists and volunteers for the exorbitant expense of the police operations, secure that they will never need to undertake hazardous journeys across borders in search of shelter and security.

Assasination of Colombian indigenous leader in Cauca

2009-03-11T05:13:00.000-07:00

This latest murder takes place during an Emergency Territorial and Humanitarian Gathering in Jambalo municipality, Cauca, where indigenous communities decided to recover the territory for the civilian population and remove armed groups.

On March 6th 2009 around midday, EDGAR ARCACIO OCORÓ, exgovernor of the indigenous council of Corinto López Adentro, was assassinated with 8 bullets at point blank range by unknown men. He was working on the community farm at the time.

EDGAR ARCACIO was a renowned leader in the North Cauca region and had been active in CRIC (Concejo Regional Indígena del Cauca - Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca). He was coordinating a project of rice production with indigenous Nasa and afrocolombian communities.

Together with other authorities, in 2008 he led the recovery of land in Corinto municipality, as is happening now in Jambalo municipality.

Indigenous authorities have just informed us that the Air Force is bombing areas in Jambalo municipality close to the CRIC permanent assembly and the indigenous guard. On March 7th there was to be a public hearing on the armed groups sowing terror on indigenous lands. Throughout the afternoon and into the evening explosions from the bombings could be heard close to populated areas.

Asociación Nomadesc workers contacted the national authorities, who confirmed the bombings in the area, which they said were part of strategic aerial operations, and didn't put the indigenous communities at risk.

Children's presents stopped at Egypt-Gaza border

2008-12-20T07:08:00.000-08:00

A van carrying presents from London children to Gaza's children was stopped by the Egyptian police at the Rafah border with Gaza on Thursday. This was after setting off 2 weeks ago from London and driving through Europe and the Middle East to Egypt. Arriving by ferry in Egypt at Nuweiba on Sinai from Aqaba in Jordan the van was held for 2 days by the Egyptian authorities and the driver told to pay a £500 deposit.

The first humanitarian mission by the Justice for Gaza organisation tried to bring medicine to Gaza in the summer but it wasn't allowed to cross over and spent a month at the Rafah border. The deposit paid that time has still to be returned by the Egyptian authorities.

At Nuweiba a policeman was assigned to the van for 'protection' which was increased to two as the van passed from South to North Sinai. At the regional border crossing the North Sinai police spent an hour and a half checking the van, not trusting the work done by their counterparts over 2 days previously.

Click here for photos of the van.

Some more photos of the journey from London can be found here.

Egyptian security prevent Gaza caravan gathering in Cairo

2008-12-07T01:39:00.000-08:00

A massive Egyptian security presence prevented a humanitarian convoy to break the siege of Gaza from gathering in Cairo on Saturday 6th December. Journalists and political activists were attacked and detained as various security force branches prevented people gathering at the State Council. This location was chosen as the starting point for the Gaza caravan as a lawyer had recently obtained a court order there confirming Egyptian citizens' freedom of movement after previous caravans had been similarly repressed. At an October caravan security prevented people from reaching the meeting-point by kidnapping them as they left home and holding them for the day before releasing them.

100 managed to make it to a spontaneous demo at the Press Syndicate, which was similarly swamped by security, although the protestors were allowed to make speeches and shout slogans in solidarity with Palestine on the steps of the union. Plain clothes thugs stood opposite the demo looking menacing and moving on people who lingered for more than a minute.

One tourist was detained for 30 minutes for taking photos of the security forces and questioned in detail about his presence outside the State Council. The photos were deleted. A security force officer said that taking photos was prohibited due to 'police work' being carried out and that a 'permit' was required.

However, even press with the correct credentials were attacked and harrassed both at the demo and at other locations in the centre of Cairo where they attempted to interview people. A security force officer said that taking photos was prohibited due to 'police work' being carried out and that a 'permit' was required.

For more visit on the Cairo demo visit:
http://www.almasry-alyoum.com/article2.aspx?ArticleID=189468

A demo of 700 was held at the Egyptian cultural centre in Paris protesting the Egyptian government's complicity in the siege of Gaza by preventing any humanitarian aid or other supplies into the strip:

http://www.ism-france.org/news/article.php?id=10550&type=temoignage&lesujet=Blocus

Egypt now controls the southern Gaza borders after the collapse of the 2005 Philadelphi agreement between Israel, Egypt, the EU and the PA, which since June 2007 has not been in control of Gaza.

For repression of a recent Gaza solidarity demo in Cairo visit:
http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/1791.shtml

Human rights abuses Egypt has been criticised for this year include the murder of immigrants on the Egypt-Israel border, the killing and continued imprisonment of protestors during the General Strike at Mahalla in April (both condemned by Amnesty and Human Rights Watch) and the continuing persecution of workers at the Mahalla factory. Opposition figures, mainly Islamist, are routinely rounded up and held without charge.

For more on the recent disappearance of a student blogger visit: http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=18302

Egypt is the third largest recipient of USAID after Iraq and Israel and has had a State of Emergency in force since 1981.

Coca in the news

2008-11-19T05:28:00.000-08:00

I just read this article in the Guardian about the Colombian Vice President urging Brits to kick their cocaine habit, citing rainforest destruction caused by coca cultivation's and the profits going to FARC. He might also have mentioned the right-wing paramilitary and political collusion (the 'parapolitics scandal') or the cooperation between FARC and paramilitary groups in some areas.

On a slightly related note here is a translation of a press release by the Joel Sierra human rights group from Saravena, Arauca, dated November 17th:

The village of Campin, Arauquita municipality, continues to be occupied by an armed group in camouflage and wearing a yellow, blue and red armband with FARC-EP insignia, who according to locals invaded violently, mistreating members of the community, and shooting indiscriminately. This resulted in the deaths of Alcides Ropero and Juan de Dios Isidro Mora, and injuries to Marcos Anibal Mosquera, 35 years old, and Willian Granados Tarazona, 24 years old.

This morning, around 10.45am, in Filipinas village of the same municipality. farmer Jorge Nino was killed.

These events have caused a massive displacement of the communities at risk, mainly to the urban centres of Saravena and Arauquita for self-protection.

Some of the injured and displaced supported the arrival of the army which resulted in clashes with the insurgents. There are currently no exact figures of the injured and displaced, and further deaths can't be ruled out.

We repeat our calls for the armed parties in the conflict to respect the civil population and its social organisations together with their leaders, which according to International Humanitarian Law and the revolutionaries' own ethics, shouldn't be brought into the conflict. We also urge them to end the war waged to address its underlying causes.

We ask the international community to continue monitoring the ongoing social and humanitarian crisis in Eastern Colombia and urge the armed parties to respect the basic rules of war (los mínimos de la guerra).

Narino human rights groups receive death threats by telephone

2008-11-16T01:47:00.000-08:00

Some of the local Narino groups the delegation visited in August were the subject of these threats. Here is the groups' response:

The undersigned social movements, indigenous, afrodescendant and human rights (HR) organisations report to the international community that we have again been subject to threats.

The threats were made by phone to the offices of Humanidad Vigente, Comité Permanente por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos – CPDH Nariño, Cabildo Mayor Awá de Ricaurte - CAMAWARI, Unidad Indígena del Pueblo Awá - UNIPA, Corporación Dignidad, Pastoral Social de Tumaco, el Capítulo Nariño del Movimiento Nacional de Víctimas de Crímenes de Estado, - MOVICENAR, Fundación Desarrollo y Paz – FUNDEPAZ, and a few leaders from the Pacific coast in Narino who have been doing human rights work.

The call, which seems to be a recording, says: "this is our territory, we want you far from here, we'll give you a month to leave you guerilla scum".

In recent months Narino human rights groups have been repeatedly threatened with being killed if they don't leave the region within a month. This is a clear attempt to disrupt the reporting, accompaniment and organisation by communities involved in defending human rights.

These phone calls are the latest in a series of threats by email, regular mail and fax received by Narino HR groups. What is also worrying is that some organisations that have been threatened in other regions have been found in Bogota through their new email addresses.

These threats have been signed by paramilitary groups like the Aguilas Negras, Autodefensas Campesinas Nueva Generación and Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia, who are continuing their policies of terror against the civilian population and human rights defenders (HRD) despite having supposedly demobilised (Bloque Libertadores del Sur).

Background:

1. From July 2007 the Defensoría del Pueblo has issued early warnings (alertas tempranas) about the lack of state intervention and the escalation of the threats. In July 2008 the Defensoría del Pueblo sent a follow-up note on the threats to the governmental Comité de Alertas Tempranas but there has till now been no official reply.

2. On October 23rd a threat from the Aguilas Negras appeared on the internet. This threat was sent to dozens of Colombian organisations, including embassies, trade unions and student groups, in which they are given an ultimatum to be silent, and stating that intelligence gathering has been carried out on "guerillas" for years abroad.

3. Among the organisations threatened in October can be found Comité Permanente por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos – CPDH Nariño, Cabildo Mayor Awá de Ricaurte - CAMAWARI, Unidad Indígena del Pueblo Awá - UNIPA, Corporación Dignidad, Corporación AVRE, Pastoral Social de Tumaco, Humanidad Vigente, el Capítulo Nariño del Movimiento Nacional de Víctimas de Crímenes de Estado, - MOVICENAR, Fundación Desarrollo y Paz – FUNDEPAZ as well as some leaders from the Pacific Coast of Narino.

Accompaniment mission to Narino

2008-08-18T16:07:00.000-07:00

On my way down to Narino, the state in the far south-west of Colombia, I stopped off at Bugalagrande, a few hours north of Cali, and then in Cali. In Bugalagrande, not to be confused with the larger nearby town of Buga, youth groups from Cali came to the social centre, La Otra Esquina (The Other Corner), housed by the trade union Sinaltrainal, to perform some music and dances. This was to mark the anniversary of the murder of Hector Daniel Useche Beron, a local community activist and trade unionist at the local Nestle factory. It was mostly attended by children with a few older local trade unionists giving us some background to labour disputes in the area.

In Cali we were due to attend a hearing against an army sergeant accused of murdering a farmer and dressing him as a guerilla (falso positivo). Jose Orlando Giraldo was tortured and murdered by sergeant Luis Eduardo Mahecha of the Third High Mountain Brigade on March 11th 2006. His commander Bayron Carvajal has been convicted of the murder of other 'falsos positivos' in the Apartado area of northern Antioquia. These cases are usually covered up and rarely make it to court due to army threats and intimidation but the persistence of Jose's family has at least managed to get Mahecha arrested and he is currently in prison. However the hearing was postponed and delaying tactics by the defence mean he may well be released after 6 months - in Colombian law if no charges are brought in this time the case is dropped.

The huge, poor Cali district of Aguablanca has around 500,000 inhabitants (20% of the city's population). We visited Fundacion Semillas de Mostaza (Mustard Seeds Foundation) in the Marroquin barrio, one of the least deprived areas, which has a small library, and puts on activities for children in the holidays and after school during term time. They focus particularly on preserving the country's musical heritage and give classes on Andean music and dances. Despite their tiny space and funds they are a dedicated group of volunteers determined to offer local children something different to the homogenous pop culture.

The state of Narino bordering Ecuador has a population of around 1.75m, with 422,350 in the capital Pasto. 55% live in the country with the rest in urban areas. The village of La Florida, an hour from Pasto, has been declared a disaster zone by the government due to the proximity of the Galeras volcano, and 8,500 locals have been given an ultimatum to leave by December or be evicted by force. The community is split on whether to stay and resist or go along with the government resettlement plan in another part of the municipality. This area is a warmer coffee and fruit growing zone, which the cattle rearing farmers of the colder Florida village area have no experience of. There are also serious reservations about the lack of basic infrastructure in the proposed zone and the inadequate budget set aside for building things like hospitals, schools and roads. The amount of compensation offered for their homes isn't enough to buy even a flat in Pasto. The mayor told us he had a tricky decision to make given the village divisions. Local community groups such as 'Florida Unida' and 'Suyosama' (this means beautiful in Quechua) are against the unilaterally imposed government measures, which lack any kind of previous consultation, and there was talk of recent mining explorations by a German multinational in the area - as in large parts of Narino requests have been made for exploratory drilling in La Florida municipality. The local subsidiary of Anglogold Ashanti, Kedahda, have drilling permits in 28 out of 64 municipalities of Narino. The wooden shelters built nearby in case of an eruption lack water and sanitation and when there was an eruption in January this year only a few families evacuated there.

The village of Ricaurte in the municipality of the same name is about half way along the road to the Pacific coast. This sparsely populated municipality has 11 indigenous reservations, consisting of around 10,000 indigenous Awa. One of the most acultured indigenous groups, the Awa have conserved their identity through occupation of territory, but have in recent years come under increasing pressure from the presence of armed groups on their land. Their indigenous culture had been suppressed for years with teachers being punished for using the Awa language. Some of the youth now learn the language and culture, including use of medicinal plants, in schools in the reservations. We visited a farm in the village with many of these plants. Accused by all sides of supporting others, some have been murdered and around a thousand have been displaced. There haven't been any murders by the army or paramilitaries since 2006, but the death threats and theft of cattle continue. FARC mines continue to kill and maim farmers and their families. Movement within many reservations is severely restricted because of the mines. In the largest displacement in 2005 hundreds lived in the Ricaurte village school during the holidays. Some of these came to an agreement with a local landowner and live in their own shacks while around 40 people still share a hostel with one bathroom.

We met another displaced community of around 100 residents near Ricaurte who have come from the municipality and other areas. They are are soon to be evicted by the landowner. A shelter was built a few miles away by the Italian NGO COPI but it remains empty due to the lack of facilities and distance from employment opportunities. This consists largely of day labour on local farms which pays 10-12,000 daily (3-4GBP) - wages have decreased with the influx of displaced people. Some of these had received a food packet for displaced people while others had received nothing.

The Awa are represented by CAMAWARI (Cabildo Mayor Awa de Ricaurte) whose members now run the local council. They told us of the increased paramilitary and police presence leading to social problems - there has been an increase in crime and teenage pregnancies. Due to debts incurred by previous administrations there is no money for health or education projects in the indigenous reservations. Ricaurte lies in the area of the Pacific-Atlantic development project, from Tumaco on the Pacific to Pasto and on to Puerto Asis in Putumayo and the Amazon basin. This would include the widening of the road in Ricaurte to facilitate the future transport of mineral resources and monocultures like palm oil and cacao. Palm oil plantations are already starting to encroach on indigenous land from the coast and there are suspicions of palm companies financing paramilitaries. The militarization of Narino has accelerated recently with much equipment being transferred from the soon to be evacuated US military in Manta, Ecuador, to the airport in the port of Tumaco, which is also crawling with US DEA advisors and fumigation mercenaries.

The presence of armed groups in the municipality of Samaniego (population 70,000) has increased with the rise of coca production as fumigations in areas such as Putumayo have merely displaced cultivation. As well as the large army presence, the FARC have recently moved into the area and have been fighting the ELN, who have been longer established in the area - many have been killed in recent clashes. A few weeks ago four teachers in a rural area were killed, allegedly by the FARC for being army informants. Locals also suspect that many soldiers' deaths in both clashes and as casualties of mine clearing operations have gone unreported.

In one of the most heavily mined parts of Colombia, by paramilitaries and the army as well as guerilla groups, official figures give over 250 landmine fatalities since 2002 , many of them children. The real figures are more as many victims aren't registered and some die because they can't access medical services for up to a day. In some areas the paths are mined between 6am and 6pm. 800 families are restricted to their homes as their farmland has been mined and hundreds of children are unable to attend school in some rural areas.

The more recent deployment of paramilitaries has brought terror to some villages such as El Decio which was invaded last year by hundreds of paramilitaries, many of them policemen, with one resident killed by being dragged through the streets and others assaulted. There is a manganese mine in the area which guerilla were attacking. More recently in May this year, during a curfew in Samaniego village, a few locals were killed including someone who was found with his eyes gouged out and hands cut off. Many suspect paramilitaries of being behind the flyers which were distributed announcing the curfew. A journalist with the local Diario del Sur who reported the murders was threatened and forced to leave the area.

The previous council negotiated a peace treaty with the ELN (Pacto Local de Paz) who promised not to harm the civilian population, but this has been abandoned by the current administration, who tow the official line that only the president or peace commissioner are authorised to negotiate such treaties. The previous council narrowly lost the elections, claiming that many votes had been bought by the current council. It is hard for humanitarian organisations to operate in the area as guerilla believe that they are collecting information for the army - Operation Jacque only deepened this suspicion. Health workers were recently kidnapped by the guerilla.

Some farmers formed the 'Cooperativa Agrominera del Saspi' in April so they will be better placed to resist future attempts by paramilitaries collaborating with mining companies to displace them. The River Saspi runs through Samaniego and neighbouring municipalities with artesanal mining. Farmers see this type of mining as a viable alternative as fumigations have devasted many of their traditional crops. The destruction of these crops has made coca an even more attractive proposition as it can be harvested every 2-3 months, unlike traditional crops which yield only two harvests yearly.

Click here for photos.

Final Session of Permanent Peoples Tribunal in Bogota

2008-07-25T05:09:00.001-07:00

The Final Session of the Permanent Peoples Tribunal containing a judgement of the activities of multinationals in Colombia has just finished here in Bogota. This three day event was the culmination of a two year process involving six preliminary sessions on the food industry, mining sector, biodiversity, oil industry, public services and indigenous peoples.

Around 2, 000 people attended the tribunal at the National University in Bogota, including many who had travelled large distances in social movement delegations from all over Colombia. It was all due to take place in a large auditorium but as an orchestra needed the space to practice in the mornings these sessions were transferred to a nearby outdoor sports hall. It was almost impossible to follow the speeches in this change of venue, even for native Spanish speakers, so after the first day, when the charges from the preliminary audiences were presented there, the programme was changed to ensure no more speeches would be delivered there. Not being able to attend the recent indigenous peoples hearing due to a clash with the first gathering of the Colombia Friendship Network this section was particularly interesting, and included information on the negtive impacts of ecotourism projects in the Guajira region on the Atlantic coast, palm oil plantations in the Choco and Orinoco, which as well as causing mass displacement desecrate indigenous holy sites, and the murders of indigenous peoples in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta - 400 were killed last year.

Although invited to attend, only two companies responded in any way, the tourist agency Aviatur who claimed that there was no space for public debate at the tribunal, although there was this opportunity during the preliminary hearings, and Metroagua. The charges were also sent to the embassies of the countries where the multinationals HQ are (Spain, US, UK, Holland, South Africa and Switzerland) but none of them responded.

The afternoon sessions on the opening day consisted of talks on the background of multinationals in Colombia, from the 1928 massacre of workers by the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita brands) to the upsurge in paramilitarism and privitizations of the 1990s, through to the impunity and consolidation of the present day. We were overwhelmed with figures such as the estimated 300,000 killed by political violence during the last 10 years and the 5 million missing from the 2005 census, who have left the country or are in internal exile. We were told of the extensive support in the planning of the war from US, UK, Israeli and South African 'experts', with experience in repression of civil populations. In this final phase massacres by the paramilitaries and army is being replaced by targetted assasinations and a policy of 'assisencialismo' (a kind of development or welfare model) which involves the depoliticisation of communities through NGOs and religious groups.

We were told of the 11 'priority zones' comprising 58 municipalities - Cordoba, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Catatumbo, Southern Bolivar, the Bajo and Medio Atrato in the Choco, the Northern Cauca, Tumaco in Narino, Arauco, the Southern Zone covering much of the Amazon, and Putumayo. These areas of strategic importance have also seen the highest rates of political violence in recent years.

The increasing inequality was highlighted by figures showing decreasing salaries whilst GNP has been rising at a rate of around 7% recently. Whilst prices are rising constantly - in my few months here the price of public transport has risen 10% - the minimum wage remains at 15000 pesos (4.30GBP).

Day 2 kicked off with a march from the HQ of the Colombian state-run oil company Ecopetrol, which has been collaborating with foreign oil companies in human rights abuses in areas such as Arauca and Casanare, and marched around town back to the National University. Around 700 attended the march, the change of time and place meaning many didn't make it. We were then treated to regional music and dance outside the auditorium, which continued throughout the daily Bogota downpour. In the afternoon other Latin American struggles were presented, including the Cochabamba 'water wars' in Bolivia where US utilities company Bechtel were kicked out through popular mobilisations, resistance to mining companies in Honduras where many municipalities have declared themselves 'mine free', and resistance to multinationals in indigenous communities in Ecuador. We heard the familiar story of the entry of foreign multinationals leading to displacement, employment deregulation and environmental degradation.

On Day 3 groups discussed topics such as the environment, oil, coal, tourism and labour rights, which were presented to all in the afternoon and a few proposals were made. This included a boycott of the travel agency Aviatur, which is already selling package holidays to foreigners for winter 2009, the exchange of seeds between communities affected by the invasion of GM crops by companies such as Monsanto and the need for improved communications between groups.

This was followed by the presentation of the final judgement, a summary of a 40-page document, that recapitulated much of what we had already heard. Some more stats I gathered were the 17 million living in poverty and 6m in extreme poverty, and the 0.3% that own over half the land. Colombia was compared to countries that have also suffered the ravages of the multinationals such as Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The delivery of the verdict was enlivened by the taking of the stage by around 15 masked students, including a piper who performed for us and a spokesperson who read out a statement highlighing the importance of the 'revolutionary process of the Colombian people to create a socialist society' and calling for the 'liberation of our peoples'. Despite a stern telling off by the head judge this intervention was generally well received and led to more shouting of slogans by some fo the groups present.

In the next few weeks some of the internationals present will be visiting regions to see first hand the devastating consequences of the actions of companies from their home countries.

Today there was a demo by some of the relatives and their supporters of those disappeared following the 1985 Palace of Justice siege, most of whom were cafeteria workers. Former Colonel Alfonso Plazas is on trial for his role in some of the disappearances. There was a small counter-demo supporting Plazas and a large media presence at the court.

Click here for photos.

"It's not that we don't want to. We simply can't"

2008-07-14T15:53:00.000-07:00

These were the words of one villager when confronted by government officials telling them that they wouldn't be receiving coffee and banana plants they had been allocated because they hadn't fulfilled their commitments as part of the project of returning to the land they had been displaced from 9 years ago. The government assisted project, supported by the grassroots organisation Asociación Campesina de Antioquia (ACA), was due to be completed with 22 families returning by the end of July, but has been obstructed by government agencies leading to severe delays.

Landless peasants from other areas in southwest Antioquia arrived in the abandoned village of Promision in 1987 and began to work the land whilst seeking to clarify its legal status. In 1995 they tried to get land rights through the state rural development agency INCORA (now INCODER) and although some decisions went in their favour, many were never informed of this. Some did manage to pay to receive land title.

In 1997 the 38 families of Promision were displaced for the first time by armed conflict and fled to Medellin and the municpality centre of Angelopolis taking their animals with them to sell. They returned in 1998 with the help of the Red Cross and the ACA. They were displaced again in 1999 by paramilitaries when two villagers were killed making any return in the near future impossible.

Seven years later with the withdrawal of armed groups from the area 22 families decided to recover the land with the help of the ACA. Although local police said that security conditions didn't allow for a return locals said that the area had long been peaceful. With the help of the ACA they managed to get official assurances for the construction of 15 small brick houses, as only three of the old ones were habitable, the roofs and walls having collapsed in the others. A contract signed with the local municipality, a local construction company, the humanitarian agency DAPARD, the development agency Accion Social, as well as
the ACA, was to provide food for the first 6 months. The return of children was to be supported by the social welfare agency Bienestar Familia and international organisations agreed to accompany the project.

When some of the villagers initially returned at the beginning of September 2007 they squeezed into the existing houses to help with the construction of the first new houses and plant the first beans, corn banana, sugar cane and yucca. Although the state has provided builders the construction materials (bricks, cements, poles) were deposited at a point much further away than the villagers requested and the mules supplied to transport these materials were old and weak - it takes an hour for one trip instead of the 20 minutes it could have taken. According to some, local officials acted corruptly in the awarding of contracts with materials and mules overpriced.

Three whole families have returned with representives of around 10 others living there helping with construction and planting until their families can return. Four new houses have been built with three others nearing completion. In the next month they will be harvesting the first much needed crops as the state handouts dry out. The roof of one of the new houses leaks, unfortunate given the particularly wet year the area has seen. Although the builders have been alerted to this defect they have yet to rectify it.

The village school was occupied during the displacement by another family who have property elsewhere, meaning that families deciding to return have to leave children behind in other areas if they want an education.

When they returned in 2007 the still habitable structures had been occupied by others who initially refused to leave. When the police did evict them they returned to threaten the retornees but the threats have stopped now. However some of the village forest, which forms a protected habitat, has been burnt illegally by a farmer who occupied the land and is using it for his cattle. Although this farmer is rarely there family members living nearby keep an eye on it. Given the continuing presence of these local landowners who continue to occupy the village land the villagers have much less land than they had before, and they have to struggle to get even this registered. The ACA is currently trying to ensure they don't have to pay to get this land registered. There are understandably suspicions of collusion between local landowners and the municipality, going back a long time.

The villagers have created their own cooperative 'Empresa Comunitaria de Promisión' and plan to sell organic coffee and vegetables, but as the food runs out, many houses still have to be built and the unseasonably wet and cold weather takes its toll on their crops, they face a precarious future. They continue to toil in all conditions, with all family members chipping in, crowded into the existing houses to give their families a future other than that as 'living like animals in the city' as one villager commented.

The alternatives in the countryside also don't appeal. Many others in the municipality work in the coal mines, which have an increasingly appaling safety record - two youths recently died when a mine shaft caved in. Apparently many have died in the mines in recent years. Those working on neighbouring farms receive the minimum daily wage for occasional work (15,000 pesos, 4.50 GBP) or 1,000 pesos a kilo of coffee during the harvest which works out about the same.

During my 10 days there I contributed, hacking chunks out of the hillside, loading sacks of concretes onto mules, planting and weeding. During this time many officals from DAPAD turned up and a meeting was held with the villagers who were accused of not meeting their commitments and made to sign forms saying they agreed to renouncing coffee and banana plants which would be provided to nearby villagers instead.

Click here for photos.

small Colombian town in civil strike

2008-06-28T15:54:00.000-07:00

On Thursday 26th June the small town of Facatativa, 10 miles outside Bogota, blocked the main road through the town in protest at local council plans to charge for public lighting. For around 12 hours locals defended barricades in Faca and the neighbouring village of Cargenita, also situated along Route 80, one of the main roads leading out of Bogota.

The police, including 300 from the riot squad, fired live ammo and massive amounts of tear gas, leaving 20 injured, including a 15-year old shot in the arm, who is being operated on in an attempt to prevent permanent nerve damage. A pensioner was reported by media to be in a serious state in hospital after riding his motorbike into a cordon set up by locals.

Faca rose up previously in 1996 and 1999 against the increasing cost of public services, with locals blocking roads and reclaiming public institutions. In 1996 the police murdered one local.

Roads were blocked at 4am with buses and lorries, with burning blockades set up during the morning at other points along the main road. As well as firing live ammo the police threw tear gas into the faces of blockaders, but were unable to break the determination of locals to maintain the blockades, supported by neighbouring villages.

The strike was only lifted once the council had canceled the planned street lighting fee and agreed to talks on improving other public services such as waste collection, telephones, electricity and water supply. As locals celebrated the news a police helicopter circled low overhead for around 10 minutes. 18 children arrested were released the same day but 4 adults were still being held the following day.

The police imposed a curfew and alcohol ban, and patrolled the streets. In the early evening the few locals on the streets were not stopped. Intelligence services prevented access to the hospital to the family of the youth seriously injured in the arm with live ammo.

Mainstream media reported looting and damage to cars and ambulances. Wandering around the streets after the strike was lifted the only property damage I witnessed was one smashed window on an ambulance.

Click here for photos.

human rights and composting in Casanare

2008-06-26T07:10:00.000-07:00

My week long trip to Casanare with the organisation we accompany kicked off with a human rights workshop in Yopal, the state capital, organised by the Asamblea Permanente de la Sociedad Civil por la Paz (APSCP). The APSCP, a platform of social organisations, is itself part of a coalition with three other human rights organisations, which in 2006 launched a 'National Action plan for Human Rights and Humanitarian Rights' (Plan Nacional de Accion en Derechos Humanos y Derecho Humanitario - PNADHDIH). Working with foreign government agencies and the Colombian government Human Rights Commission (Consejo Nacional de Derechos Humanos - CNDH), the PNADHDIH is apparently following a Peruvian model which focuses not just on human rights abuses but issues such as gender equality and multiculturism.

One of the functions of the APSCP has been touring Colombia's states giving human rights workshops on the PNADHDIH to local community leaders. As the organisation we acccompany is the one with the most community contacts in Casanare, they were asked to call together local rural council leaders. Casanare was one of the last regions to be visited by them. Unlike the organisation we accompany who always travel the 8-10 hours by bus to the region, the APSCP pair flew in for the day from Bogota.

In the morning they gave their human rights presentation whilst recognising the limitations of this in an environment where those who denounce human rights abuses are routinely intimidated, attacked and assasinated by paramilitaries and the army. In the afternoon the

local leaders discussed in groups the human rights situation in their areas and fed back the familiar pattern of displacement, intimidation, assasinations, environmental degradation and widespread immunity enjoyed by the army and armed groups. The day was an almost unique chance for regional leaders to gather given the lack of security and large geographical area of Casanare. Although most had a long journey back to their communities and so left in the afternoon some stayed on for a few games of pool in the evening.

As well as human rights work the organisation we accompany also does agricultural training and the following days were spent accompanying them in a project involving a survey of local farms and teaching organic composting techniques. This involved mixing manure with chopped sugar cane, banana plant husks and wood, a chance for all, no matter what age, to get stuck in and get smelly and dirty - in a few months they will follow up to check on the progress of the composting project. The farmland in that particular area isn't that fertile due to largescale deforestation and soil erosion.

It was then back to Yopal for the second of Espacio's workshops on our pen-pal scheme. It was a good chance for those signing up to the scheme to learn something about UK culture and living conditions and dispel any media-influenced preconceptions they may have, as well as the protection element of the scheme. What struck me about those attending both this and the human rights workshop was the willingness of some to talk about their lives and communities to me, a stranger. Perhaps this was because they hadn't had the secure spaces to do so previously.

One guy told me how he had been kidnapped by paramilitaries a few years ago after being falsely accused of guerilla links by an informer, was tortured for a month, which involved having his hands tied, being hung from beams and told he would be executed the next day, before being released with permanent disability. He has since been unable to work, and although registered disabled and entitled to help has only received a carton of provisions worth around 50,ooo pesos (16GBP) - he said most of such assistence goes to family and friends of those doing the handing out. A displaced farmer with two young children told me he works irregularly on short term contracts, for the local council or on local farms. At 7GBP a day the council pays better than the farmers who pay the minimum wage of 4.50GBP.

The trip back was delayed by a massive hold-up on route when an articulated lorry got stuck in the mud, blocking all traffic for hours - this is a common occurence in the rainy season. Fortunately we had just started the trip and so decided to spend another night enjoying more of the hospitality of local farmers in the hills - the bus driver wasn't so friendly but we eventually managed to recover some of the cost of the full journey we had paid.

I read in the paper today that the first land has been handed back to displaced farmers under the 2005 Justicia y Paz law. This was after the 95 families had spent 13 years spent in homelessness on being forcibly removed by paramilitaries.

a true story which we have to tell

2008-06-15T09:35:00.000-07:00

The Colombian organisation which my collective is working with has just brought out the first issue of a publication called 'La Ruta de la Libertad'. They call it a 'bitacora de caminantes', which translates as 'walker's binnacle' - highly original.

Apparently a binnacle is a case or box on the deck of a ship containing navigational instruments. They explain this in their editorial by saying that it is 'more than a report of the organisation's activities, but a vision of those who have walked some of our country's regions, examining, working, but above all learning from those belonging to communities along our path. Our paths have led us through the state of Casanare, the foothills of Casanare and Boyaca states and the district of Ciudad Bolivar in Bogota'. Ciudad Bolivar is a poor slum area within the municiple boundary of Bogota home to many displaced people.

This 'binnacle' of 20 pages contains articles on the geography, nature and recent history of these areas. For more background on Casanare click here. Below is a translation of a tribute to an indigenous leader murdered last year. To mark the anniversary there was a memorial event this April. Unfortunately I couldn't attend as I was doing accompaniment in Sur de Bolivar, but a friend went and reported that it was a personally moving as well as worthwhile solidarity experience.

'Without doubt, the first history lessons we receive in school or which adults tell us, concern the arrival of the Spanish in Colombia in 1492, who with violence and repression murdered and displaced our indigenous peoples, the first inhabitants of this rich land, and what's more, robbed a lot of the gold they came across, leaving only misery, disease, hatred and an irrational ambition for power.

Today, more than 500 years later, history hasn't changed, our farmland is occupied by multinationals representing savage capital, which is used to finance a dirty war, with the permission and support of our governments. Daily we have to witness millions of displaced people, remember thousands of disappeared people, cross rivers of blood spilt by the poor, by indigenous farmers and by all those who try to resist to defend what is most sacred: life and territory.

This time they don't come for gold, but for some time they have been robbing us of the oil, the water, the forests, freedom, knowledge, and finally, the land. All that's left is to take from us the right to breathe.

What we now want to make known, and which is part of our own history, is that there are still indigenous communities resisting despite the war declared against them, and that they will continue their just struggle for the basic rights to exist, for land, autonomy, freedom of thought and peaceful coexistence, maintaining harmony between mother earth and humans, not with humans as masters of nature, as is the attitude of the invadors and exploiters of our country.

Now we have to pay homage and remember the indigenous chief Alvaro Salon Archila, leader of the Uwa community of Chaparral Barronegro, located on the border of Casanare and Arauca, between the municipalities of Sacame, Atocorozal and Tame, who gave his life to defend his territory, to teach his community to resist and struggle for dignity and social justice. Alvaro fulfilled the dream of his father, the chief Antonio Salon Archila, whose dying words were, 'my son has to be the leader and fighter of tomorrow, the defender of our territory', which is what he became, at the age of 20 assuming his father's legacy. He always stood up to the interests of individualists and others who threatened his community. He survived the massacre of La Cabuya, carried out on the border of Sacama Casanare and Tame Arauca, on the night of 19-20 November 1998, where five people were killed, including a seven-month pregnant woman.

According to the Attorney General those responsible were members of the Counterinsurgency Battalion No25, part of the 16th Brigade based in Yopal, Casanare. Some officials have already been convicted.

Only his physical existence ended on the afternoon of 23rd April 2007, at the age of 42, when he was crossing a path together with his wife, in the township of San Gregorio in Tame province. An explosion in circumstances which remain unclear, took his life. Fortunately his wife Marleny Camargo survived - in this country very few witnesses survive. The army in a press release reported his death as the result of an anti-personnel mine placed by the insurgency, but his community claims that it was a deliberate act in a region with a large army presence as part of the 'democratic security' policy of President Uribe. It is a mystery that the mule on which the chief was travelling didn't suffer any harm. Will the right to justice, truth and reparation be respected in this case? Or will this add to the long list of murders with impunity in this country?

Alvaro Salon Archila, as the more than 400 indigenous of the Chaparral Barronegro territory believe, is more alive than ever in their hearts; he will always be their son, leader, defender and fighter.'

Colombian palm oil workers still on strike

2008-06-12T17:59:00.000-07:00

Palm oil workers from the Yarima district of Santander state have been on strike now for nearly two months. Two weeks ago their road blockade was violently cleared by riot police firing rubber bullets and using a water cannon, leaving 15 injured. The USO (Union Sindical Obrera de la Union de la Industria del Petroleo - Oil Workers Union) have been representing the workers in negotiations in the state capital, Bucaramanga.
Here is a translation of a communique from the Yarima community negotiating committee on June 6th:

'On Saturday 31st May, after 41days since stopping work and the refusal of the palm oil industry to set up negotiations to resolve the social and labour conflict, finally concrete negotiations were agreed, with the municipal council of San Vicente de Chucuri and PDPMM (Programme for Development and Peace in the Magdelena Media) acting as guarantors. However the negotiations have been bogged down by the repeated refusal of the employers' commission to recognise the legitimacy of the workers' negotiating committee appointed by the community and their lack of will to come to an agreement beneficial to both parties. Amongst other issues the following stand out:

the palm industry until now has been granting the minimum guarantees to the negotiating commission in terms of accommodation, transport and food - it has complied with offers made to the community before the start of the current phase of the process.
the employers' negotiating commission has refused to sign any document containing a timetable, as requested by the social protection ministry, the people's defender, and the church. There is also no mention of any will to resolve the conflict in the shortest time possible with the relevant guarantees.
the employers' negotiating commission has repeatedly insisted on dividing our commission by dealing with the themes individually, thus seeking to weaken us, and has constantly demanded that in order to make progress we have to call off the strike, which we have vehemently rejected as none of their proposals are serious.
the employers have shown a lack of will in fulfilling the committment made on May 31st to set up a negotiating table on June 6th to discuss this social conflict in the Santander State Government, in the presence of the following: the Governor, the mayor of San Vicente de Chucuri, palm oil companies, Ecopetrol, the company Centromin and the PDPMM, amongst others.
we denounce the constant harrassment we have been subject to from armed people in plain clothes, which has forced us to request security from the Secretary of the State Government.
we repeat that this process is colective involving the whole of the Yarima community, therefore any agreement should encompass all the workers, without exception.
there have been no agreements on the key issues, only on side issues, which don't offer any kind of guarantees to the Yarima community.

The commission appointed by the community has been serious and responsible in its committment to Yarima, we won't submit to any undue pressures with the aim of destroying the community, we have shown a willingness and commitment to negotiate, but the employers' commission has used delaying tactics to fail to reach agreement. We hold the palm industry responsible for worsening the conflict, and if negotiations fail it wil be because of a lack of will on their part. This Yarima commission came to Bucaramanga to negotiate our demands, but has come up against an employers' commission which has made no sincere efforts to resolve this social and labour conflict.'

This conflict has featured in the national press, and last week agriculture minister Andrés Felipe Arias made comments putting the whole community at risk: 'Yarima disrict has been hijacked by anarchy, by a trade union that has links with the guerilla, and the government knows what the true aims are of those promoting a farmers' movement in the area'.
Yarima district is an important agroindustrial area with 7,000 hectares of palm, 15,000 of cocoa, 3,000 of rubber, as well as cattle ranches and coal mines. It is a rich area with companies raking in profits, but the population lives in poverty with abysmal working conditions and a lack of access to health and education.

Street theatre in Bogota downpours

2008-06-10T21:11:00.000-07:00

For the last four years on the tenth of the month, the Colombian social organisation Rayuela has staged street theatre in central Bogota. This usually involves placing bricks with the names of victims of the armed conflict in the central square, Plaza de Bolivar, laying out banners and handing out roses. Sometimes they block streets and hold up the bricks to the traffic. Despite the rain, which persisted all day, today they did several blockades.
In 2005 when Victor, a popular breakdancer, was murdered in the poor Bogota barrio of Altos de Cazucá, his friends' initial reaction was to give up their dance and music to seek vengeance. These violent urges were converted into creative ones by the professionals from various disciplines of Rayuela, and two months after the murder, his friends displayed the funeral notices of the 250 youths of the area murdered by paramilitaries since 2003. Some of those continue to take part in Rayuela's activities to this day.
Today, one group headed for Cazuco, whilst another set off for the National University where a number of blockades were carried out on the main road outside the university entrance - the university was chosen to mark the recent Day of Student Victims of Violence. Wearing white T-shirts saying 'Nunca Mas' (Never Again), the dozen performers first warmed up in a nearby side street, before marching to the main road where they spread across two lanes of traffic and held up the bricks, whilst some walked among the stationary traffic holding them up to car windows. After this had happened a few times cops started showing up, first on motorbikes, then in vans and finally a water-cannon that looked like it had seen a lot of action made an unexpected appearance.
Being sodden enough, it was then decided to head off to the main square to unload the hundred or so bricks and place them outside the Congress, along with a few banners. Due to the heavy rain there weren't many passers by and the security present didn't show much interest, no doubt aware of this monthly ritual. Some soldiers placed the roses offered to them on the bricks and a few tourists took pictures but it was an otherwise low key affair.
The bricks back in the truck it was then off to a nearby busy intersection where the traffic was totally blocked for nine minutes - I was told they normally do this for only three minutes. There were several video cameras filming the action, and the cops kept a low profile, telling some of the blockaders to get up and move on, but without enforcing this. Deciding to call it a day we headed off to refuel with a slice of pizza and coffee.
At the post-action debrief those blockading felt positive about the actions, which lasted longer than usual, and the response from passers by.
As well as in Bogota, Rayuela also do street theatre and music workshops in a few other regions in Colombia. They call the street theatre 'Teatro Efimero'.
Click here for photos.

Students mobilize in Cali

2008-06-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

On Friday 7th June students from the Universidad del Valle (Univalle) in Cali marched to the city centre to denounce state repression against their university, which has seen 4 students murdered in recent years and the imprisonment of four students two months ago, one of whom remains in prison, accused of 'terrorism'.
June 7th marks the anniversary of a national strike in Bogota in 1929, supported by students, who for the first time fell at the hands of the police. This tradition of targetting students in Colombia, has continued to the present day, especially at Univalle. In September 2005 Univalle student Jhonny Silva was murdered by police at a demo in the presence of international observers, which was followed by the murders of students William Javier (April 2006), Julian Hurtado (October 2006) and Katherine Soto (August 2007).
Andres Palomino, who hasn't actually been charged with anything but has spent the last two months remanded in custody, is coincidently one of the witnesses of the Truth Commission into Jhonny Silva's murder. The other three students arrested alongside Andres have all been released without charge.
Attempts to hold the police to account for Jhonny's murder are continuing despite the Cali criminal court's foot dragging. In 2007 three senior riot police officers were linked to the murder with the court recognising that armed police had entered the university and fired live rounds at the students. The police were ordered to present their defence but have yet to do so.
On Friday's march to the city centre, several hundred students demanded justice for those murdered and the release of Andres Palomino. The march was accompanied by around 50 cops who looked on disapprovingly as students flyposted the route and a few redecorated bus shelter adverts and empty walls. They spent a couple of hours in the square outside the regional government offices before gradually dispersing.
Click here for photos.

A 'Womens Gathering' in Sur de Bolivar

2008-05-15T07:26:00.000-07:00

Whilst in Tiquisio I was asked to do an accompaniment for a national capacity building NGO in the south of the Sur de Bolivar region, which was on the way back to Bogota, where I had to return anyway. For once I got to see the main highway up to the north, the Troncal Americana, during the day as I travelled south to Barrancabermeja. For almost the entire journey luscious cattle ranches and industrial-scale palm oil plantations flanked the road, this prime land having been largely cleared of smaller scale farmers. A large hoarding on the edge of the road read 'Quien sembra palma cosecha riqueza y paz' (whoever plants palm reeps wealth and peace). Palm oil has been aggresively promoted by the government in the region, in some areas replacing traditional crops with poor pay and conditions for those who work on the plantations, often displaced farmers.
The 'Tercer Encuentro de Mujeres del Sur de Bolivar' (Third Women's Gathering of southern Bolivar) took place in a village in the hills near the small port of San Pablo. It soon became clear that this was something of a misnomer as it was made up mainly of women from outside the area, from NGOs and groups in the EU-funded 'El Programa de Desarrollo y Paz del Magdelena Medio' (El Programa), as well as local children. There were more local men than women at the workshops, some of whom catered for the entire three day event. The lack of women from the region was attributed to the threats recently made against the regional Federation of Farmers and Miners, and divisions in local communities, although these weren't elaborated on. Some men vowed that next year would be different with men doing the catering. Someone told me that it was always difficult for farmers to attend gatherings even for a day as the demands on their time were just too great, although some would willingly attend if aspects of their daily life could be taken care of, like childcare. Also, communities in the region were very isolated - some young women had had to travel two days to get there.
Workshops were held on the history and problems faced by the region and village we were in, and how they could be addressed through community cooperation. Around 20-30 attended these sessions with the children making their own contributions withthrough colourful drawings.
Far more popular were the evening cultural events and football matches. As well as the ever-popular Vallenato music and slow dancing, there were displays of traditional dance in costume from the Caribbean Coast (Cumbia) and a piece of theatre depicting a paramilitary invasion of the village, which elicited strong reactions from the audience - many professed to having witnessed such scenes. The football matches, men and women playing separately, were divided into locals vs outsiders. The local womens team were well organised with their own kit and trainer and predictably beat the visitors, who resisted valiantly. The visiting men were helped out by the local contingent to make up the numbers, and an evenly matched encounter resulted in a draw, with some, as is usual in such 'friendlies', taking it far too seriously. Perhaps this was due to the large crowds (for such a small place) which gave the games atmosphere and that extra edge.
Coca has been grown in the area for years and the recent aerial fumigations have had little effect other than to wipe out the crops (both coca and traditional)of small farmers without affecting the larger growers. Coca grows a lot more quickly than other crops so farmers who have had their crops erradicated naturally turn to it. Cacao, one of the alternatives to coca promoted by El Programa, takes 2-3 years to bear fruit, whilst yucca and rice yield two yearly harvests. Even a Programa-sponsored cacao project of 60 hectares in the Santa Rosa del Sur municipality has fallen victim to the erradication program set to last until 2020. I was told that due to the isolation of many areas it just wasn't profitable enough to grow traditional crops due to the expense and time needed to transport them to market whereas harvested coca can be carried in a few sacks. Apparently over 20 years ago marijuana was grown but has been almost entirely replaced by coca.
More recently erradication teams have been physically removing the crop. According to locals where some erradicators were injured by mines planted by guerilla a few local farmers' homes were burnt. These teams are made up of soldiers, who often don't wear insignia, as well as freelance elements.
For photos visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12940191@N08/

Mosquito territory

2008-05-14T05:28:00.000-07:00

Due to the death threats against named individuals in the Sur de Bolivar region, some were taking advice and considering their future in the region whilst the projects they were involved in faced an uncertain future. With this state of heightened alert I was requested to accompany a member of a community organisation in the area back to their village and spend some time there to show international support.
This meant another overnight coach trip up to Agua Chica but this time we crossed the Magdelena River further north and travelled by lorry all the way across relatively flat terrain to the municipality of Tequisio. The four hour trip passed sites hinting at the past violence and strategic interest of the region for multinationals. We passed Mejiya village where ten years ago paramilitaries had burnt all the houses and murdered a farmer, because guerilla had been based in the area. Some of the villagers had returned and rebuilt simple wooden structures. We passed a hill where mining company Anglogold Ashanti's Colombian subsidiary Kedahda had recently done exploratory excavations but they had moved out their machinery and there is currently no activity. The mining company had bought up excavation rights across the region. Most of the mining activity in the region is in the mountains further south which I visited on my last trip, although there are a few mining villages in the foothills a four hour walk from Tequisio. That the violence in the area is ongoing, although much reduced since the paramilitary onslaught in the late 90s and early 2000, was brought home by reports of the murder earlier the same day and on the road we had been using, of a gold buyer and his two escorts. They had been killed by paramilitaries for alleged links with guerilla. No-one showed particular surprise at the murders. The large military presence in the region seems confined to strategic points with paramilitaries and guerilla still active in the surrounding countryside.
Tiquisio municipality is sparsely populated, with many having left its villages due to the violence and subsequent economic depression of the area. As elsewhere in Sur de Bolivar many are displaced persons from elsewhere in the region. Around 20,000 live in the municipality, the two main villages being Puerto Rico and Coco de Tiquisio. Apart from the dirt road to Rio Viejo on the Magdalena River the area is connected to the rest of the country by a tributary of the Magdelena, along which merchandise is transported to the villages. I was told there was little in the way of agricultural produce exported, the area's remoteness making this unprofitable. The average daytime temperature is 35C.
The local community group, 'El Proceso Ciudadano por Tiquisio' started off as an autonomous initiative in 2003 but became one of the 'Espacios Humanitarios' of the European Union funded 'Laboratorio de Paz del Magdalena Medio' (peace laboratory of the middle Magdalena region) in 2005. The three employees of the Proceso, a priest, who is the director, and his two assistants, were some of those named in the death threats a month ago by the northern branch of the 'Aguilas Negras' paramilitaries. They left the area a few weeks later, just before I arrived, as did others with death threats in the region.
Their work in the municipality involved promoting sustainable development in the form of agricultural cooperatives as well as raising awareness of human rights and International Humanitarian Law (IHL). One local said it was this latter activity that made made them the target of death threats.
As well as running the Proceso the priest carried out his ecclesiastical duties at the church on a mound overlooking the village of Coco de Tiquisio. Another mound was the site of the village primary school until the army occupied it five years ago for their base in the area, infringing IHL - the school had had to move down the hill into smaller buildings with little space for the children to play. I was told the army presence in this small village had just been beefed up to 'strengthen security' in the wake of the death threats. During my stay there the army had apparently asked after me but I was never approached directly and didn't even have my passport checked at the checkpoints when entering and leaving the village. The soldiers on duty did ask what I had been doing there when I left but more out of curiosity. One said 'Ah, eres gringo', as if that settled the matter that yes, I wasn't up to any 'terrorist activity'. When they discovered my nationality a few English football teams were mentioned, due to their recent successes in European competitions.
Despite the absence of the Proceso staff locals were determined to press ahead with the various projects. I visited a cooperative farm near Puerto Rico where rice was being planted in the scorching midday heat. The farm also grows sugar cane and yucca. The Proceso project in Coco de Tiquisio has some cows, pigs and chickens and a fish pond was currently being dug by workers employed by the municipality. They were getting 15,000 pesos (4.30 GBP) for a days work and in the absence of other local sources of employment there were many takers. There are plans for a vegetable plot. At a farm owned by one of the Proceso members we gathered building materials for a chicken enclosure being built. This was being constructed from guadua wood, a strong bamboo like tree. Whilst there we helped outselves to the tropical fruit in abundance - mango, papayo, guayaba - and worked the mechanical mill to extract the sweet resin from sugar cane (guarapo). Despite the heat and strong mosquito presence it felt good to be doing something practically usefully rather than being a symbolic international presence in the community offering a vague kind of support or solidarity, however useful this might also be.
Talking to locals I learnt something of the complex nature of the violence suffered by the area at the hands of paramilitaries, guerilla and army. Heavy fighting between paramilitaries and guerilla 10 years ago led to many farmers being killed by both sides, accused of aiding the other side. A view I have often heard expressed in the countryside is that campesinos are caught in the middle of conflicts and have little choice in how they deal with the armed parties. One campesino who had lived a long time in the area said that most of those killed by paramilitaries did have some kind of dealings with the guerilla, however minor, and only by avoiding any kind of contact with them could people like him hope to stay alive and remain in the area. As well as campesinos, shop owners and small merchants were also targets.
Many campesinos also had their cattle stolen by paramilitaries which led some to leave the area and others to move to the villages of Coco de Tiquisio or Puerto Rico. Guerilla had previously stolen the cattle of large landowners in another area. With families unable to support their children some parents moved to cities in search of work, leaving their children behind with relatives. As the paramilitaries withdrew from the villages around 2001 the army moved in, establishing their permanent base in Coco de Tiquisio in 2003. Despite the greatly reduced levels of violence the army has been responsible for killing campesinos and dressing them up as guerillas, a practice known as 'falsos positivos'. Someone told me of such a case in the neighbouring municipality of Achi last year. Although many knew about the Justice and Peace Law of 2005 which had provisions for denouncing abuses by the army, of around 35,000 families of victims, only around 1,000 had so far registered.
Apparently there is a history of intimidation of the local clergy. The previous priest had been forced out at gunpoint and before that the Franciscans had had to flee dressed as women. It transpired that the current priest and his assistants wouldn't return, following the advice of pretty much everyone who advised them. Two priests from nearby municipalities were also to be relocated.
I heard some criticism of the previous municiple administration, which was said to have distributed funds and resources (computers were mentioned) to family and friends. This practice is called 'serrucho', meaning saw, suggesting the way the pie is divvied up.
When the time came to leave I got up at the crack of dawn as recommended but still managed to miss the only 'chalupa' (what they call passenger boats up there) out of there that day. The only other option was a 3 hour ride on the back of motorbike, without a break, on a stony, pockmarked track without a helmet, an experience I don't wish to repeat. I will never miss another boat again.
For photos visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12940191@N08/

Colombian mining federation members on state of alert following death threats

2008-04-23T08:35:00.000-07:00

Following a 22-hour journey by bus, taxi, boat and foot we arrived at the gold mining community of Mina Caribe in the Serrania de San Lucas part of Sur de Bolivar. As the track leading from the regional centre Santa Rosa, had been made accessible to vehicles for another few kilometres, including a crucial uphill bit, we only had to walk for and an hour and a half, half the time it took on my companion's previous trip to the area one and a half months ago.
The army encampment we passed on the hill above the village gave a further clue to the militarized nature of the area - there had been two checks along the river, one for documents the other just luggage. That these soldiers weren't in the hills for the views was confirmed by reports by locals that the day before a local gold buyer had been arrested and taken off by helicopter for carrying a pistol without a license - I later learnt he was released a day later. Apparently army helicopters are used for such essential matters but if a local is seriously ill they have to be carried off on a stretcher to the road.
We were greeted with the drink of choice, at least among the men, beer, and after the pleasantries talk quickly turned to the more serious matter of the death threats issued last week against the local federation of farmers and miners (Fedeagromisbol), and the Colombian NGO I was accompaning, amongst other groups and priests in the region. After the trip I discovered that these death threats had been narrowed to specify leading members of these groups.
The following day a gathering was held in the village with representatives from most of the mining communities in the area, including some who had walked/ridden for hours to be there, and the turn-out seemed impressive with around 100 packed into the hall and some outside. Disappointingly but predictably, there were only a few women. The meeting was dominated by the pressing matter of the death threats, although time was found for many other issues. It was a chance for locals to find out about their representives' meeting with government officials in the regional centre of Bucaramanga a few weeks ago. The mining ministry had made committments to ensure the return of displaced people and the miners' continued existence in the region and the Federation had proposed a 'Zona Reserva Especial Minera' for the region. A follow-up meeting in Cartegena for the previous week had to be cancelled due to the death threats, and the government had only decided to send along minor officials anyway.
People complained that they paid taxes on the gold they exported from the region but saw little
in the way of social investment in the region, the army being the main official presence, as I was to discover for myself. The general lack of security was commented on with 32 murders occuring between December 2007-April 2008 in the local municipality. There was spirited talk with someone saying that their communities have been threatened for years but they have continued the struggle to exist in the mountains and someone else saying that although more people would probably die it was worth continuing this struggle.
There was much discussion of the rapid progress of the vehicle access track into the mountains, funded by the communities. In another month or so the road would reach the first mining community. All the communities contribut different amounts to the road and further fundraising ideas like raffles were raised. By the time the last agenda item, the environment, most had left, due no doubt to the long trek many had to make to their communities. However, some had clearly come to address this agenda item and spoke passionately about the damage caused by the practice of dumping sand containing the waste products of gold-mining like cyanide and mercury, in the streams surrounding the community, killing the fish - the water comes from much higher up the mountain so isn't an immediate concern. Structures have been built for the storage of waste until it can be treated but these aren't used by many. It was suggested that this could only be addressed by imposing fines on those guilty and someone pointed out practically that although this was a serious problem the lack of people still in the meeting meant nothing could really be done until there was enough local will-power. Someone told me that people from an environmental agency had visited and there were plans to clean up this environmental damage. All in all it was considered to be a successful gathering with much participation and a date was set for the next one. For me it alone was worth well worth the 22 hour trip.
The high levels of violence the area suffered at the hands of the paramilitaries has been well documented. They held had the area under siege and in 2001 this was broken temporarily by a 'Caravana Por la Paz' with an international presence. It seems this siege is still partly in place as the most direct route to the nearest city of Barrancabemeja is said to be controlled by paramilitaries, which means a two day trip if you don't want to travel at night. When members of the Federation have to travel there for meetings with officials or to sign papers it takes the best part of a week. Many in the communities rarely visit even neighbouring villages, let alone leave the hills. Everything is brought in on mules with electricity provided by a few generators around the village. For heavy loads helicopters have to be chartered but due to the cost they are used only rarely for essentials like mining equipment.
In the evenings community life, for the males, focuses around the village pool halls where they play a different version of pool with the balls lined up along the side and potted in sequence - it is however allowed to pot a ball out of sequence if the one in sequence is hit first. Points are also deducted for penalties based on the value of the ball to incur the penalty which can be costly if you foul on a 15. Like in the west a drinking culture goes with the game.
Staggering up to the village square one afternoon, not from access of alcohol rather a lack of oxygen due to the steep ascent, I was surprised by a few soldiers loitering around the edge of the square watching the little there was of life going by, mostly children and animals, and munching recent purchases. I was told they had been camped above the village for the last few days and came into the village to buy stuff. However they hung around a good few hours and the following day I saw one further away from the square hanging around outside someone's house. No-one seemed to be bothered as if these were regular visits. They are from the nearby military base and are a new battalion who haven't engaged so far with the villagers. The previous battalion would search people's houses and turn up with masked informers who supposedly knew who the guerilla were. They would also force their way into village council meetings. The locals are understandably apprehensive about what this bunch would be like.

more death threats against human rights NGOs, social movements and priests in Colombian region

2008-04-14T07:57:00.000-07:00

Here is a press release from the Red de Hermandad y Solidaridad - Colombia (Network of Friendship and Solidarity with Colombia) issued on April 11th regarding threats from paramilitaries active in the Sur de Bolivar region against Fedeagromisbol (a local federation of farmers and miners), the NGO Sembrar, El Programa de Desarrollo y Paz del Magdalena Medio (the program for peace and development in Magdalena Medio) and priests. As its name suggests this region lies in the south of Bolivar state around 500km north of Bogota.

1. Today, April 10th 2008, a threat signed by the self-styled paramilitary structure “Águilas Negras, Bloque Norte de Colombia” (Black Eagles, northern block of Colombia), was sent to various e-mail accounts declaring members of Fedeagromisbol, Sembrar, Programa de Desarrollo y Paz del Magdalena Medio and the priests of Regidor and Tiquisio to be military targets, in which it was added that 'your name (sic) has been added to the list of undesirables who should be eliminated, by the national government', indicating them to be supporters or members of guerilla groups.

2. In this threat it was stated that 'you and the organisations you represent are a problem for Colombia', passing sentence that 'for every criminal act against democratic security (sic) that you organise inside these villages, you will be exterminated one by one, in list order.

3. The threat made clear that those mentioned had been followed in the municipalities of Tiquisio, Arenal, Morales, Aguachica, La Gloria and Regidor, stating that 'expect that wherever you organise stupid meetings you queers will be screwed over.'

4. The threat concluded that 'we are constantly watching you sons of bitches as the time has come to put an end to your perverse activities in these villages. The plan to annihilate you could begin at any moment. We won't hesitate to assassinate you, so get your friends ready to bury you.'

5. On April 1st 2008, at a meeting in the town of Barrancabermeja attended by the Vice-President and Public Prosecutor, the Director of the Presidential Human Rights Commission, Dr Carlos Franco, referred to events in Puerto Rico and Tiquisio, saying that Fedeagromisbol caused a scandal at every opportunity.

6. At a Mesa de Interlocución del Sur de Bolívar (Committee for Dialogue in Sur de Bolivar) meeting on April 2nd 2008, delegates from the mining ministry, the institute of geology and mines, and the Bolivar state government agreed that:
'given the grave human rights situation in the Sur de Bolivar, the mining ministry and the Bolivar state government are committed to working towards a high-level meeting as soon as possible, with the participation of the Vice-President, the Attorney General and Public Prosecutor, to deal with the issues and adopt measures to solve the existing crisis'.

Although the above authorities are aware of the gravity of the situation, until now we are not aware of any measures having been taken to overcome the crisis nor of any meeting having been arranged. There is concern about the continuity of the Committee for Dialogue regarding mining issues, when the state persists in refusing to take serious and adequate measures to guarantee human rights in the region.

7. These threats have been directed against the human rights NGO Sembrar, which in recent years has accompanied residents and organisations in Sur de Bolivar in monitoring and denouncing abuses and giving human rights training.

El Programa Desarrollo y Paz del Magdalena Medio (the programme for development and peace in Magdalena Medio) is an organisation which with the support of the EU, international governmental and non-governmental entities, the national, state and local governments, has taken part in the Laboratorios de Paz (Peace Laboratories), accompanying and supporting organisations and communities in Sur de Bolivar in developing peace initiatives, programmes of economic, social, cultural and institutional development, and ensuring the human rights of the region's inhabitants.

The Farmers and Mining Federation of Southern Bolívar, Fedeagromisbol, which comprises farming and mining groups in the region, has been generating wealth for the region for decades by promoting farming and mining projects. The Federation is part of the Committee for Dialogue in Sur de Bolivar, which has been involved in dialogue with the Colombian government since 2005 working towards the respect of human rights and development under conditions of equity, dignity and sustainability.

These threats have also been made against the priests of Tiquisio and Regidor who have been committed to accompanying communities and organisations in Sur de Bolívar.

Thanks to the work of these entities, communities have started a process of reclaiming meeting spaces to discuss the productive, sustainable use of the land and how to continue living in the region with dignity. The forced displacement of many families has thus been prevented.

Background

a. On March 31st 2008 various organisations, including Fedeagromisbol and Sembrar, publicly denounced that during the Sixth Assembly of the Agromining Federation of Sur de Bolívar between March 27-30 in the municipality of Tiquisio, members of the national police force and the Nariño Battalion of the Second Army Brigade repeatedly tried to enter the building where the assembly was taking place to identify the Federation's directors.

The presence of an informer, protected by the police, was confirmed, who days previously had threatened a Fedeagromisbol member. In addition the police persisently made inquiries about the Federation President, Teofilo Acuña. This aggresive and intimidating behaviour was carried out by a sublieutenant of the national police force Miller Rojas Rubio and first sergeant Rojas of the Nariño Batallion of the Second Army Brigade.

b. The presence of the self-styled 'Black Eagles' paramilitaries in the municipalities of Santa Rosa, San Pablo, Simití, Arenal, Morales and Tiquisio, amongst others, has been repeatedly denounced. They act in an open and public manner without the police in any way taking any action to restrict their activities.

c. On July 2 2007 Amnesty International published their report 'Colombia:the reality of trade-unionism. Dates and figures', in which were expressed their concerns about the situation of the Agromining Federation of Sur de Bolívar, highlighting the extrajudicial execution of the mining leader and Fedeagromisbol member Alejandro Uribe Chacón.

d. On April 26th 2007, while attending a Committee for Dialogue in Sur de Bolivar in the municipality of Santa Rosa, with delegates from various national ministries, Teofilo Acuña was arrested.

On January 5 2008 the daily 'El Espectador' announced that : 'An intelligence report shows Acuña to be a guerilla of the ELN with the alias of ‘Téofilo’, going on to say, 'in the village of Buena Seña he declared to the community that they couldn't allow the entrance of mining multinational Kedahda' (part of AngloGold Ashanti).

e. On March 5 2007 at 7am members of the Nueva Granada battalion arrived in the community of Mina Piojo, part of Santa Rosa municipality, and arrested 12 people including Omar Nunez, member of the Mina Mochila Junta de Acción Comunal (village council) and Agromining leader, Guillermo Mercado, member of the Mina Fácil Junta de Acción Comunal and Juan Toloza, resident of Mina Piojo village.

The 12 people were held in different places and then brought to one place. During the journey soldiers asked persistently about the Mina Piojo Junta de Acción Comunal president. Additionally members of the Nueva Granada battalion attacked the detained residents and defamed the region's social organisations, saying 'both the village councils and the mining organisations are part of the guerrilla forces'.

f. On March 19th 2007 , the Nueva Granada battalion turned up in Paraiso in the municipality of Montecristo, having captured Alfredo Atehortua, Wilson and Adeidi, local residents known to be civilians. The previous day, the army had been told - falsely - that these men were guerilla deserters.

This unit invaded the Porvenir ranch, belonging to Efrain Ramos and Yadis Salazar threatening to take away Efrain and his cattle, claiming he was part of the guerilla. Efrain showed the army documents proving his ownership of the cattle. One of the soldiers threatened: 'we're here today but tomorrow the aguilas negras are coming'.

g. September 19th 2006 in the municipality of Santa Rosa the community and mining leader Alejandro Uribe Chacon, also a member of Fedeagromisbol, was extrajudicially executed by soldiers of the Nueva Granada battalion. His body was presented in public as that of a guerilla killed in combat.

'El Espectador' had stated shortly beforehand that 'Alejandro Uribe is effectively an active member of that organisation' going on to add 'in March 2006 Alejandro Uribe (alias ‘Andrés’) addressed a meeting of the need to prevent the entry of multinational AngloGold Ashanti's Colombian subsidiary Kedahda''.

Alejandro Uribe's death caused a massive mobilisation in Sur de Bolivar, which led to the government promising to ensure respect for human rights in the region. Until now the government hasn't complied with the agreements made.

Demands

Giving the gravity of the threats, we demand the following of the Colombian authorities:

1. That the events denounced above be thoroughly investigated, leading to the culprits being brought to justice.

2. That the records of the Security Forces of the region be immediately revised and altered as they present a threat to residents of the region in their current form.

3. Guarantees of the right to life, liberty, personal integrity and freedom of association of members of the Agromining Federation of Sur de Bolívar - Fedeagromisbol, Sembrar, el Programa de Desarrollo y Paz del Magdalena Medio and members of the dioceses of Magangue and Barrancabermeja, especially those directly threatened.

4. That a meeting be called at the first instance as was agreed by delegates of the Mining Ministry, the Institute of Geology and Mines, and the Bolivar state government in Barrancabermeja on April 2 2008.

Signed by:

Federación Agrominera del Sur de Bolívar, Corporación Sembrar, Organización Femenina Popular, Comisión de Interlocución del Sur de Bolívar, Red Europea de Hermandad y Solidaridad con Colombia, Red de Hermandad Colombia, , Coordinador Nacional Agrario, DH Colombia, Corporación Utopía, Asociación Nomadesc, Campaña Prohibido Olvidar, Sintraunicol – Valle del Cauca

Organisations accompanying the Committee for Dialogue in Sur de Bolivar:
Programa Desarrollo y Paz del Magdalena Medio, Equipos Cristianos de Acción por la Paz, Diócesis de Magangue

Teofilo Acuña is in UK this week, giving talks about the situation in Sur de Bolivar.

Zapatismo and Zapaturismo

2008-04-12T15:16:00.000-07:00

The other night I was chatting to someone who had written a book about the Zapatistas a few years ago and had kept up an interest in Zapatista affairs. She told me that she had heard many Zapatistas had 'gone north' (left for the US) in recent years like millions of other rural people from Latin America. This surprised me, not having heard this during my three months in Chiapas, most of which was spent living in a Zapatista community in the lowland, tropical, ethnic Tsetsal area. One guy from the community who spoke better Spanish than the others (proficiency in Spanish in Zapatista villages is patchy) and had spent time as a seasonal worker in the tourist resort of Cancun, spoke to me of his desire to learn English so he could work in the States but this was the only time I heard Zapatistas referring to their northern neighbours, and he didn't push the English study, preferring instead to chat with his friends or play football or cards in his freetime.

The Zapatistas have come in for criticism from many sources in recent years, including some previously sympathetic ones for 'selling out', and not remaining true to their original ideals of self-sufficiency based on working the land they managed to recover from feudal landowners. It has been said by those previously supportive, that most of their income is now generated from seasonal work in the tourist resorts of the 'Mayan riviera' or the oilfields of the Gulf, the proceeds from which are used to buy the corn given to the Zapatista administrative centres as a kind of tax, as this can be earned much more easily than from the land. While undoubtably true that some source of income is derived from such work, it is a gross exaggeration to suggest that the proceeds from such seasonal work unable them to kick back and take it easy the rest of the year on their reclaimed land, given the low wages in Mexico, especially for seasonal workers. More likely it means they can afford a few new clothes and vary their corn-based diet somewhat. It is hard to take Western city-based lefty anarchist types begrudging the Zapatistas a few luxuries, as if they should stay in poverty in their communties all year to satisfy some externally imposed high moral standards or expectations. From my limited experience there are enough committed Zapatistas willing to suffer the hardships of not taking from a state that is waging a low-level counter-insurgency war against them, and living largely off the land to make sure they will be around for at least another 14 years. How many other movements have lasted this long?

Years after they were considered fashionable and feted in left-wing circles, both at home and abroad, they continue to consolidate their structures and resist the divisive politics of the big political parties in Mexico's poorest state. One only has to look back to the invisible poverty suffered by the indigenous Chiapanecos prior to the 1994 uprising to see how far they've come. Although life for the Zapatistas is undoubtably better despite the continuing hardship and political repression in some areas, access to services in indigenous areas has improved as the Mexican state has been forced to invest in Chiapas. Perversely the Zapatistas have not been those to benefit most from their own sacrifices, living as they still do with limit access to health and education.

Before arriving in Chiapas my knowledge was limited to the iconic video footage of unarmed Zapatistas taking on the Mexican army in the 90s, chats with friends who had visited 5 years ago and some of Marcos' speeches from the mid-late 90s, which gave a useful insight into the origins of the uprising and the subsequent counter-insurgency operations. It seemed that in recent years the Zapatistas had faded from the 'scene', and I was told that most of the work for volunteers in Zapatista communities now revolved around 'development', such as providing health clinics and education.

It came as a surprise then to hear their spokesperson Subcomandante Marcos ('el Sub') talking at a conference last December in almost apocalyptic tones of the threat the Zapatistas were now facing, the most serious since the 1994 uprising, and berating the 'left' for an almost total lack of support. True, in recent months a few Zapatista communties had faced aggressions from state-sponsored paramilitary groups, particularly in the community of Bolon Ajaw near the tourist resort of Agua Azul where some members had been badly beaten and houses burnt. Also in August a community had been evicted from the Montes Azul area of the Lacandona jungle so Marcos did have some justification for his statements and attempt to rally the 'left' that turned up to the conference, which Marcos promised would be the last for some time. These aggressions had also been cited as the reason for cancelling the tour of Mexico the Zapatistas were on as part of 'La Otra Campana' ('The Other Campaign), a few months previously.

Having read of some of the massacres and massive repression suffered by the Zapatistas in the 90s I was sceptical of Marcos' remarks. Despite the comparitively low profile of the struggle in the international media there was still too much international awareness and too many human rights groups in Chiapas for the Mexican state to get away with any large-scale repression. There are two organisations that provide protective accompaniment in Zapatista communities that have been attacked or threatened with eviction and other groups document the situation. Marcos' words and the international response did have some effect as the community most under siege, that of Bolon Ajaw, saw scores of supporters visit in December and January and unsurprisingly the aggressions and threats against the Zapatistas largely stopped. In February volunteer numbers dropped off as most of the earlier visitors had been in Chiapas for the conference and the New Year encuentro anyway. However there was still a permanent international presence in the community into March and despite provocations including armed state police entering the community with a member of the intelligence services, creating a siege mentality, the villagers are holding out. Inevitably the local paramilitary transferred their attentions to the international volunteers with frequent threats at the gate where volunteers enter the track leading to the community.

Despite the cessation of physical attacks the community has been unable to go about its daily work in the cornfields furthest away from the centre of the community for fear of encountering unfriendly, local paramilitaries and accompaniment has to be provided for anyone leaving the community or fetching water. This is no doubt the desired result of the harrassment and threats designed to grind down psychologically and restrict physically the Zapatistas until they leave the land they have been working for the last 5 years, so it can be turned over to tourist development and the politicians at local, state and federal level make a tidy buck. Unlike in other developing countries where resistance movements have less of an international profile, the Mexican counter-insurgency operations have to be imaginative to deal with the Zapatistas who persist on hanging on to prime real estate. That said, there was nothing subtle about the arrest and torture of two Zapatistas from the community of Betel Yochip at the start of February. Fortunately a human rights delegation from Europe was visiting Chiapas at the time which may have helping in securing their release after a week.

Foreigners, mostly students, continue to visit Chiapas attracted by the Zapatista allure although I was told that the numbers of volunteers are far down on years past. This surprised me initially given the numbers staying at the hostel for volunteers in San Cristobal de las Casas, but many turned out to be students doing research on the Zapatistas and some were just travellers passing through. Indeed, most of the 'volunteers' staying there spent far more time in San Cristobal than roughing it in indigenous communities and were more interested in each other than in the Zapatistas.

The organisation I was with said that most volunteers couldn't spend more than a week in the community because of the basic conditions, despite the latest camping equipment many took along with them to ease their stay. The Zapatistas, living in simple wooden structure with earth floors and sleeping on wooden boards with blankets for protection, looked on with curiosity at the volunteers' comforts, sometimes asking how much such items cost. Most of the gear and the food brought into their community would have been way beyond their purchasing power, which was one problem I had with the international presence. The Zapatistas, especially the children and youth, would see this high-tech, quality, equipment and comfortable clothing which would only make them more aware of their own material discomfort. Likewise with the food brought in, the children would sometimes hang around the kitchen (the volunteers had their own kitchen in the community), looking wide-eyed at the volunteers eating in the hope of being offered some. Whilst the international presence offered the Zapatistas some kind of security it could have been done by many volunteers with more sensitivity. This is often the case with solidarity work where foreign activists spend or week or so in Palestine or Chiapas for the experience and to take a few photos so they can tick it off their adventure tourist list, without a real awareness of the effect their behaviour has on the community they are supposedly protecting or showing solidarity with. I could see why one organisation in Chiapas ensures their volunteers live separately to the Zapatistas - the danger of 'contamination' is a real one.

The determination and dignity with which the Zapatistas I had the privelege of living with, dealt with state-sponsored harrassment and an influx of foreigners was a humbling experience and made me aware how so much more real their struggle is than our 'struggles' in the West where activists rough it for a week or two in the summer whilst enjoying the benefits of living in the developed world the rest of the year.

Community rebuilding in northern Tolima

2008-04-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

Having arriving in Colombia a few days before, received some crash-course training and dashed around sorting out essentials like a mobile phone I was off on my first accompaniment to Tolima state, which on the map doesn't look far from Bogota, and isn't in distance but the many mountains to be negotiated and poor roads and weather meant the trip took 14 hours.
Not having come across the name of Tolima in my mugging up on Colombia beforehand the area was a blank page so what I learned of its important mountainous setting in the rise of armed groups and more recent paramilitary activity was new to me. What surprised me on the winding journey down from the plateau of Bogota (2600m) through the neighbouring state of Cundinamarca were the empty roads. Apart from an army checkpoint and a few quick stops this made for smooth progress to the regional centre for the north of Tolima, Libano. However, from there things were far from smooth. In the morning much rain had fallen in this area, turning the hillside dirt tracks into seeemingly impassable and muddy deathtraps. The good humour of the others crammed into the jeep amid the weekly supplies reassured me and it seemed that we would make it in tact and in reasonable time as we slid across and through the mud always at least a few inches clear of the increasingly steep precipice. Our luck ran out half way up as numerous attempts to tug the jeep clear of its woeful predicament failed and we were left on the edge of the road in the cold and dark for an hour until back up arrived in the form of another jeep which managed to free ours. Arriving at 10pm at our host family, within minutes a much welcome meal with cups of steaming coffee was laid out for me and the local NGO guy I was accompanying.
The 'vereda' (village of scattered farms like a township of the past in Ireland) I was to spend the next 8 days in, was being supported in the process of rebuilding community structures and participation by the local NGO. A few years ago foreign NGOs had provided the finance for the construction of community buildings which house a school, shop, health clinic and butchers for the 70 or so families of the 'vereda'. With the help of the local NGO, community participation aimed at created some autonomy developed - a communal farm was set up, profits from the shop were invested in the health clinic, school and farm, overseen by the 'Junta de la Tienda Comunitaria' (communal shop committee). Somewhere along the line communal processes broke down and the community became divided leading to less participation in these communal processes. The killing of the shop committee president 4 years ago by paramilitaries and the recent murder of the shop committee president in a nearby 'vereda' in January in unclear circumstances haven't helped.
Despite this breakdown some families are still committed to communal structures and repairing community relations. When no teachers were sent to the primary school at the beginning of last term classes continued with volunteers - inexplicably some in the community oppose this, arguing that as the school was built for teachers sent by the local government to give classes in and none have been sent it should stay shut. Thus the community is divided with about half the number of children now attending as previously. Similarly local governement has withdrawn funding for the nurse in the health clinic, claiming lack of funds.
The purpose of the visit was to assist in the slow process of rebuilding community relations in the face of mutual recriminations concerning events stretching back around a year, in which time the two sides - that of the communal shop committee and the 'Junta Accion Communitaria' (the official village committee) - didn't meet. Fortunately I was able to assist in more concrete ways by helping to gather some of the coffee harvest of the community farm (not that easy on 45 degree slopes in the mud, at least not for novices) and repair the dirt-road linking the area's 'veredas' with the regional centre. Despite the urgency of this work if the locals are not to revert to using mules to cross the mountains a disappointing number turned up for this community activity.
The local NGO managed to facilitate two meetings in the local school - the first one between representatives of the opposing sides and the second one a village meeting open to everyone, to which the NGO personally invited many families. Despite not understanding many of the actual points made, it was clear that there is a lot of work ahead if the village is to reach the high level of community participation which I was told was the case a few years ago. First signs were encouraging with the two sides actually airing their grievances in front of each other for the first time in a year and recognising the common ground of urgent health and education problems. The NGO facilitator did a good job of ensuring these heated debates never went beyond this.
A fair number eventually turned up to the open meeting, although it was disappointing to see some scoff the free lunch only to resume their Sunday drinking ritual afterwards. As at home alcohol plays a large role in this community and it was commented that it was a shame not as many made it to the meeting as turn up to the regular parties or cockfights in the area.
Although difficult for me to judge the usefulness of the trip the NGO felt things went well in what will be a slow process. The general sense of community discouragement was offset by the commitment of the few community members still dedicated to communal processes and making sure some children don't miss out on an education.
Another feature of the week was the presence of two women part of the Coordinador Nacional Agrario (CNA), an NGO set up in 1997 to promote food sovereignty, environmental issues and the rights of small farmers. They gave a few workshops on composting which even fewer attended than did the community meeting - most just have no time to spare with the demands of agricultural life. Also with the village being scattered around a hill it is a fair trek for many to attend these community activities.
The family who hosted us in their already cramped house were welcoming throughout and patient with my limited understanding, unfamiliar as I still am with many local words and expressions, which aren't used in Mexico. I was even given instruction on grinding and moulding corn to make 'arepas' so I could help with food preparation (cornmeal rolls) which made me feel better about being catered for. Meat plays a large part of their diet, unlike in the Zapatista community where I was living in Chiapas, so being vegetarian surprised many and caused many an amused remark. I was also told that I shouldn't eat eggs if I believed eating animals was wrong, an argument I had to concede. However, with a daily diet of rice, beans, yucca, arepa, and eggs, renouncing the latter was a sacrifice I wasn't going to make.

Zapatistas condemn invasion of community by state police

2008-03-01T10:11:00.000-08:00

The Good Government Council of Morelia denounces the events of 21st February in the Zapatista community of Bolon Ajaw.
On Thursday 21st February 2008 at 4pm, two Zapatistas from Bolon Ajaw went for a wash in the river but before arriving at the river saw five members of the state police force 300m away accompanying a civilian reporter with a video camera.
On seeing the five agents they ran back to notify the other villagers. Whilst they were doing this one of the agents used his pistol, firing three 9mm shots in the air and advancing within 50m of the community. One of the three cartridges of the fired bullets is in our hands. Receiving the news the villagers at home gathered to defend their village.
The agents ran along the river flanking the village on the left in order to surround it. The villagers also ran along the river carrying sticks not to kill or beat them, but just to pressure the agents into leaving them alone to live their lives in peace. We don't carry weapons to shoot with, as we know that they are also human with families and we would never fire weapons as they do without respect for human life.
Aware of the villagers' movement the agents withdrew towards Agua Azul after beating two female villagers on the arms with rifle butts. One was beaten on the right side of the chest and the other on the left shoulder.
Since January 30th the villagers have known of a government plan to enter the community as a threat was made to evict the community on February 20th, and so have been awaiting this day.
The villagers have been peacefully living in their huts, going about their lives and working the fields when the agents disrupted this calm. The villagers aren't used to the presence of police in the village as they are not dangerous criminals but seek a peaceful life growing and harvesting corn and beans.

For full Spanish version of the denunciation visit:
http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/denuncias/889/

The following article appeared in 'La Jornada', Mexico's left-leaning daily, on February 26th:
Anti-Zapatista tension and harrassment increases in Bolon Ajaw

Threat of eviction made in presence of internationals
Hermann Bellinghausen, Chiapas, February 25th

If tension could be measured by a thermometre here it would register "hot". Very hot. Overflights by helicopters at very low heights since Saturday. Physical and verbal attacks by neighbours from Agua Azul throughout January and February. A failed intelligence operation last Thursday on the land of the Zapatista community, resulting in an assault. Permanent patrols by federal and state police. Official versions of events for media effect have criminal consequences as confirmed by recent assaults on Zapatistas in the Agua Azul river area.
The Tseltal community of Bolon Ajaw, mostly monolingual, are on constant alert. The women and children no less than the men. No-one walks the paths alone, the men stick to the community and its immediate vicinity. A few adult women are the only ones with machetes, which they carry when fetching water in plastic containers weighing more than a child. Whilst a woman offers the reporter a calabash brimming with bitter pozol, the men sit silent on the family plot.
Two white helicopters circle above, one with the colours of the national flag in a stripe, the other smaller, with a blue stripe. "One belongs to the government, the other the police", the indigenous villagers deduce. Both helicopters descend almost to tree level above the village, and feint somersaults in a U-shaped manoeuvre.
Now there is no shortage of government "leaks", "it is said" in the reporting media that OPDDIC (the paramilitary group responsible for attacks on Zapatistas in the area-translator's note) will disband soon and it is predicted that its members will gravitate towards the PRD ("centre-left" party in power in Chiapas-translator's note). Some of them, from the Chilon municipality, have installed a second toll booth for tourists near to the entrance to Bolon Ajaw. The official booth, also administered by OPDDIC, is nearer the Agua Azul waterfall in the municipality of Tumbala.
The opening to the path leading to Bolon Ajaw is nicely fenced off, meaning a slope has to be climbed in order to reach the path. Just a few metres away on the road travelled by thousands of tourists, tour operators and official vehicles, a group of men in an apparent state of intoxication and identified as members of OPDDIC, offer insults and threats.
" Get the hell out of here!", one shouts and approaches the slope where international observers from Germany, the US, Switzerland and Mexico are accompanying Zapatista women waiting to take the reporter to Bolon Ajaw.
In Tseltal the same individual who the Zapatistas identify as Óscar García López, from Agua Azul, threatens:
"Tomorrow we're going to come and kick you all out", followed by a torrent of abuse.Such hostility is strange coming from those who don't have any right to the land they wish to evict, as if they are doing the dirty work of Profepa (the Mexican state environment ministry-translator's note) and the police.
"We are always worried. We get death threats, stones thrown at us and bullets fired at us", an older man says on the edge of the village. When questioned on the very public handover of weapons by OPDDIC he replies, "It was a farce. They themselves admit that they only handed over the ones that don't work, that they still have the 50 good ones for their "defence".

Peace groups in Chiapas condemn threats against international observers

2008-02-08T13:34:00.000-08:00

At a press conference in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas today two peace groups condemned recent threats against international observers in Zapatista communities and produced video evidence of some of the threats.
The groups CAPISE (Centro de Analisis Politico e Investigaciones Sociales y Economicas) and SERPAJ (Servicio Paz y Justicia en America Latina) presented a video showing paramilitaries threatening the observers and preventing their vehicle from leaving. The observers were part of a brigade of observers sent by CAPISE to the Zapatista community of Bolon Ajaw, which has been attacked by paramilitaries and is under threat of eviction.
In the video from December 30th 2007 members of paramilitary organisation OPDDIC (Organisation por Defenso de Derecho de Indigenos y Campesinos) can be seen verbally abusing the observers, and threatening the women with rape. The video can be found with Spanish subtitles at :
www.youtube.com/user/capisemexico
The two organisations will be presenting the video evidence and statements to the police with a view to securing the arrest of the aggressors who have been identified and have committed the crimes under Mexican law of using threatening language and deprivation of liberty (the blocking of the observers' vehicle).
In addition to the threats documented in the video international observers in the nearby community of Betel Yochip have been threatened by paramilitaries in the last week. This is where two Zapatistas were beaten, tortured and imprisoned a week ago:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/02/390852.html

The two were released from prison today after the intervention of several human rights groups.
For more on the press conference and CAPISE (in Spanish) visit:
http://www.capise.org.mx/

Zapatistas imprisoned after attack by paramilitaries and police

2008-02-06T13:41:00.000-08:00

On February 1st two Zapatistas from the community Betel Yochip near the tourist resort Agua Azul, left their home early to work on a house on a house being built for human rights observers.Travelling by motorbike they had almost reached their destination when they were stopped by two armed paramilitaries travelling in a red Tsuru car without number plates and protected by two police patrol vehicles with registration 052 and 053 containing two officers.
One of the Zapatistas, Eliseo Silvano Espinosa, was shot in the foot, whilst both him and his father Eliseo Silvano Jiménez were beaten severely before being transferred to a police station in Palenque. There they were tortured for seven hours, between eight in the morning and three in the afternoon. They were then forced to pose for photos wearing balaclavas and carrying weapons.
Only then was the son was transferred to hospital with multiple injuries to his face and arms as well as a shot right foot. He was then transferred back to prison where he remains with his father. The two are to appear before a judge tomorrow (Thursday) where the police will request their continued detention in custody.
On the night of February 1st after the events Zapatistas from betel Yochip saw other non-Zapatista members of the community meet with the police, revealing the complicity of federal, state and municipal forces in the violence against Zapatistas. The Zapatista Junta de Buen Gobierno accuses supposed President Calderon and State Governor Juan Sabines of direct involvement in this latest violence.The Junta asks supporters in Mexico and the world to be alert to the continue oppression and arrests faced by Zapatistas who vow to stand up for their rights. For more on recent attacks and harrasment of Zapatista communites (in Spanish) visit-
http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/

translation of extracts from an article in 'La Jornada', Mexico's left-leaning daily-
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2008/02/05/index.php?section=politica&article=014n1pol

Hermann Bellinghausen, Monday 4th February
Two Zapatista farmers were brutally arrested by two state police officers and two armed strangers in the community Betel Yochip' in the northern zone (of Chiapas).Eliseo Silvano Espinosa was shot in the leg and brutally beaten. Then Eliseo and his father of the same name were taken to a Palenque police station where they were tortured for seven hours. They were then forced to wear balaclavas and carry weapons whilst having their photos taken. The youth was hospitalised in a serious condition and guarded by over 20 police officers.
The events occured on February 1st. The 'Junta de Buen Gobierno (JBG) Corazón del arcoiris de la esperanza, en el caracol de Morelia' (one of the Zapatistas' civil automonous governing bodies) declared that in Betal Yochip "two compañeros left this community to work on a house for the human rights observers who come to show solidarity with us in the face of governement aggression.
The indigenous Zapatistas were travelling by motorbike.They had almost reached their destination when they were stopped by two armed paramilitaries travelling in a red Tsuru car without number plates and protected by two police patrol vehicles with registration 052 and 053 containing two officers."
One of those detained was injured in his right leg. "The damaged state of the woodland site where the beating and torture took place bears witness to these events."
The JBG sent a commission to the area, which found one used and one unused cartridge of a Luger Win 9mm. The Eliseos were taken into detention in Palenque where they were "tortured for 7 hours between 8 and 3".

Acteal, Chiapas, marks 10 years since massacre

2007-12-23T13:54:00.000-08:00

From 20-22 December the indigenous organisation 'las Abejas' held a gathering at the place where ,10 years ago, 49 of their members were massacred by paramilitaries armed and backed by the Mexican state (21 women, 15 children, 9 men, 4 unborn babies).
'Las Abejas', a pacifist organisation who backed the Zapatista demands, were given shelter and land in Acteal by the local pro-Zapatista community but refused to leave when threatened by paramilitaries.
Following the international civil society outcry after the massacre, local paramilitaries and lower officials were arrested and given long jail terms. However these sentences are now being appealed with the support of current Mexican president Calderon and no higher officials were called to account for the massacre. Ex-president Zedillo, ultimately responsible for the counter-insurgency operations in Chiapas at the time which resulted in the massacre at Acteal among other atrocities, is currently director of the Centre for Globalisation at Yale University. There is an international campaign to get Zedillo to resign from this post. They can be contacted at:
The Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
Betts House
393 Prospect Street
P.O. Box 208360
New Haven
Connecticut 06520-8360
Email: e-mail_globalization@yale.edu

For more on Acteal visit:
http://www.counterpunch.com/ross12212007.html
http://www.massacreforetold.com/

Protest March against Kidnap of Activist in Oaxaca

2007-12-08T15:48:00.000-08:00

On Friday several hundred marched through the streets of Oaxaca to protest the kidnap last Sunday of Nancy Mota Figueroa, member of the Coordination of Women of Oaxaca (COMO, which is part of APPO). Nancy was kidnapped by suspected cops and released an hour later after being tortured.
Here is Nancy's testimony of her ordeal:

On Sunday December 2, 2007, around 11:45 or 12:00, I found myself walking along the streets of Jazmines in Colonia Reforma, where the store “Pitico” is located.

At that point, a braking car was heard and when I turned my face. I felt two people lift me up and fling me into a truck. Immediately after, they blindfolded my eyes with a rag that was covered with a liquid. They began to ask me questions referring to what I knew “of the leaders of the APPO. Tell me what you know of Flavio Sosa, Zenen, Erangelio, Patricia Jimeinez y David Venegas.” I did not answer. They continued insisting and I did not answer. Later they grabbed me by the hair and squeezed my hands behind my back and they forced me to put my head between my knees. They pulled back my hair to push two pistols against my head. They asked me if I thought I was a bad-ass or what and I didn’t answer. Immediately afterwards they began to say that I talk to my family, that everything was going to go to shit. In this moment I told them that everything they wanted was with me that they not touch my family. They responded that for this there was only one big-mouth. I heard one of them say, “Shoot her already so that we can dump her.” I heard them cock the gun.

I told them that if they shoot that they do it now because all of this is going to shit. They told me another time “You think you are a bad-ass or what?” When this was happening one guy began to touch me on the back. I got up and kicked him. They forced my arms back and punched me in the stomach. I don’t know how long they had me, the truck was roaming about. When they decided that this was all, they told me that this is the first of many times they will wait for me because I know a lot of information, especially in respect to the APPO. They told me that they would wait for the moment to find me alone. At that point, they braked and said, “Stop your participation if you don’t want this to happen to your brother or more than that. How you like to defend women, for the next time you are going to defend her with proof of rape.” They grabbed me and shoved me out of the car and threw my cell phone at me. They left me behind the Hotel Fortin Plaza, where there is a vacant lot. When they kicked me out of the truck, I called a friend to tell her, but with the fear that they will harass my family. I thought what will happen if I don’t make a denunciation at the moment? Now I do it convinced that we cannot keep silent. Similar things have happened to many friends, and they did not want to denounce it to protect their families but enough already with the harassment. The repression must stop against us.

Attentively,
Nancy Mota Figueroa

founder and member of the commission of press and propaganda for the August 1 Coordinator of Oaxacan Women. Councilor with the APPO student sector.

For more visit:
http://elenemigocomun.net/1372

Megamarch and ceremony mark anniversary of Oaxaca mass arrests

2007-11-28T11:45:00.000-08:00

On Sunday 25th a megamarch of over 50,000 marched the 6km from the airport to the Zocalo. The march left at 8am and didn't arrive at the Zocalo until midday. Consisting of mainly teachers there were also many represatives of other groups in Oaxaca state and from other states like Chiapas and Guerrero. A small group of masked-up youth around 50 strong ensured the surroundings were liberally redecorated en route.
Despite the calls for a combative rather than festive spirit the latter mood prevailed on the warm, sunny morning as those on the megaphone repeated their calls for justice in Oaxaca and the unity of the social movements. The fragility of this unity briefly surfaced when the hoodies tried to disrupt the order imposed on the march by the APPO security and march at the front. The over-zealous security tried to physically stop them before calmer voices managed to quieten the situation and the march proceeded into the city centre.
In the Zocalo the usual podium was set up and and a few speeches given by APPO 'leaders' before the crowd dispersed for Sunday lunch. The grafitti in the historic centre was then swiftly removed by council officials.
A few hours later, around 4, a crowd started to gather in the Llano park for an indigenous ceremony to 'restore spiritual equilibrium' or mourn the dead from last year's repression. Many people injured, psychologically or physically or both on November 25 2006, lit candles and turned to face the four cardinal points, while women spiritual leaders dressed in white wafted burning copal and prayed, to help heal the participants. Among the 'healers' stood Chiapas men in their ritual hats of ribbons. It was an event supported by and attended by civil organizations such as Limeddh, EDUCA, and VOCAL. As night fell a candlelit march of around 300 headed for the Pañuelita garden by Santo Domingo and then on to the Zocalo where the ceremony continued and was followed by traditional dancing.
Both in the Llano and Zocalo the state government had laid on rival musical events in its desperate attempts to attract attention away from its murderous activities last year and the militarisation of Oaxaca. Despite the lack of police presence on the day in the week before the police were deployed in numbers across the city centre and helicopters regularly circled overhead. It was widely publicised that the security forces had just been kitted out with new 'toys' like riot gear, uniforms etc. In the days since the march the centre has also been full of police, if not in the Zocalo, then lurking in neighbouring streets.

Chiapas disaster zone deprived of wealth it generates

2007-11-20T10:12:00.000-08:00

An article in last Saturday's Jornada, the national left leaning PRD-supporting paper, commented on the tragedy in Juan de Grijalva in Chipas, where 25 villagers were killed by a landslide, highlighting the poverty in an area which generates energy and petrol but which doesn't benefit from its natural resources.
Ostuacan is the main town in the Ostuacan municipality, where JdeG is also located, but Ostuacan has an irregular supply of electricity. According to a local doctor the town was only granted a constant supply of electricity a day before the arrival of President Calderon and Chiapas governor Juan Sabines Guerrero in the area.
A transformer in the town burnt out 2 months ago but despite repeated calls to the national power company it wasn't fixed, leading to blackouts in 2 blocks. When there is light wind or rain the lights go out for 10-15 days although there is a hydroelectric dam 26km away.
There are 40 oil wells in the municipality but to get petrol the residents must travel to a neighbouring municipality 60km away along a narrow road that suffers landslides. Those who try to sell petrol in Ostuacan are threatened by the local cops.
Meanwhile in the capital of Tabasco, Villahermosa many streets are still filled with furniture and household goods destroyed by the floods and thousands are still waiting to be vacinated - nothing like the scale of Bangladesh but a country with the natural resources of Mexico could be expected to be capable of organising rubbish collection and the provision of vaccines.
The film about the electoral fraud last year came out at the weekend, imaginatively entitled 'Fraude 2006' and cinemas were packed out all over the country and in some places where it wasn't put on people protested. In Oaxaca the out of town multiplex where I saw the film on Sunday night was full. The multiplex is in a huge shopping complex of US chains which 10 years ago were fields. The film is more blatantly pro-PRD than 'Fahrenheit 9/11' was pro-Democrat, only 'Fraude 2006' has come out after the elections not before. There are numerous interviews with the PRD leader AMLO, Lopez Obrador, and footage of the encampment in the Mexico City Zocalo in the summer last year. The encampment was dismantled as the security forces stepped up their presence unlike here in Oaxaca where the barricades lasted until November with their removal requiring Federal Troops and costing the lives of 27. The film also focused on blatant incidents of electoral fraud such as a film crew recording the opening of ballot boxes before the selective recount and some electoral commision recounting some votes which hadn´t been counted correctly. However only a fraction of the votes were recounted - you were left with the feeling that the overwhelming majority voted for AMLO. Somehow although some of the details were revealing the film didn´t leave me with the sense of having learnt anything new.

Demos on day of third annual report of Oaxaca Governor

2007-11-17T10:33:00.000-08:00

On November 15th four large marches paralysed the streets of Oaxaca in the morning in protest at the governor Ulises Ruiz' delivery of his third annual report. Whilst three marches converged from the city boundaries on the Zocalo thousands of teachers marched to the out of town shiny Congess of Deputies to blockade it and prevent the arrival of the Deputies. However when they arrived there at around 9am most of the Deputies were already inside but the governor was prevented from giving the report in person with a lackey handing it over instead. With the Congress surrounded by mostly teachers, grafitti was spray painted on the entrance by the few autonomous elements and the local press reported 3 smashed windows and some other minor property damage.
However the march security ensured there was little spontaneous activity, which was unlikely anyway given that almost all the marchers were teachers-they even tried to erase the grafitti when everyone had dispersed. A few speeches were given, the teachers held their sectional meetings and by midday everyone had dispersed, most to enjoy the rest of their day off whilst a few made their way to the Zocalo.
At the Zocalo there had been similar scenes with thousands of teachers cramming the square to hold their meetings whilst the speeches given from the bandstand in the centre by the Section 22 Secretary Ezequiel Rosales Carreño and a few other spokespersons were largely ignored. Rosales Carreño gave an interview to national commercial TV station Televisa before rushing off after around 15 minutes surrounded by his personal security detail.
Meanwhile a vigil and fast had been set up outside the cathedral for the victims of last year's state terrorism. The fast, which lasted from 9-5 included ex-prisoners of the Tepic Nayarit prison over 1000km away who were sent there after being arrested on 25/11/06 where they spent over 20 days, widows of the victims, relatives of those still detained and NGO members. Unfortunately neither the Section 22 spokespersons nor the majority of the teachers attended the fast to pay their respects. Photos of last year's state repression were on display in the tent and canvases of resistance art were placed in the square outside the cathedral.
During the afternoon the Zocalo was full of plain clothes cops to make sure the fast ended on time and nothing disrupted the official event in the evening in the Museo del Palacio on the other side of the Zocalo. 300 specially selected guests heard Ulises Ruiz deliver his report assisted by video screens displaying the 'achievements' of the state govt in the last year.
A report was given by an International Commission of Human Rights Jurists into the human rigts violations in Oaxaca last year in the nearby uni law dept. This was organised by the German NGO Diakonie and addressed by La Liga Mexicano de Derechos Humanos and other NGOs. Some of the torture victims also spoke. Some are still physically damaged, being left crippled or with facial deformities, as well as the thousands psychologically damaged by the repression.

APPO in the Congress

2007-11-14T09:46:00.000-08:00

Here is another article from Noticias, written by a political prisoner which sheds some light on the division within APPO between those seeking political representation and autonomous groups. David is a member of VOCAL (Voces Oaxaquenas Construyendo Autonomia y Libertad)

With the judgement in favour of the 'coalition for the good of all' by the TEPJF (electoral commission) to grant them political representation in the person of Zenon Bravo Castellanos, the ex-APPO advisor, a clear strategy on the part of the criminal state can be discerned to undermine the struggle of the people of Oaxaca, who even today, despite the terrible times we are living in , oppose the murderous governor with peaceful and brave resistance and seek their own paths to liberate themselves.
Although in February APPO debated and declared to the media their intention to conduct a social struggle from below, in a peaceful manner and separately to the institutions of corrupt power like political parties and the government, and decided by consensus that anyone or any organisation taking part in the August and October elections as candidates of any political party should remain outside of the APPO council, there was a clear majority in favour of not participating in the electoral process. On finding the names of ex-APPO advisors among those of electoral candidates, the government of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz didn't hesitate in 'welcoming APPO' to the democratic struggle in its corrupt institutions of power, and the media referred to these people as 'APPO' candidates. This wasn't a result of misinformation or an ignorance of APPO agreements and much less an off-the-cuff comment, but simply wrong. On the contrary, the government of Ulises Ruiz with the collaboration of the ex-APPO advisors turned electoral candidates Maria del Carmen Lopez Vasquez and Zenen Bravo Castellanos (FPR candidates -note: Frente Popular Revolucionario - a Marxist-Leninist party) and Jesus Lopez (FALP candidate) has tried to undermine the whole social movement, which confronts not only those who hold power but power itself as the source of authoritarianism, corruption and injustice which does so much harm to our peoples. By coopting certain key figures and creating a real or imagined leadership in the media, the government has been able to tame the social movements until they are unrecognizable from how they looked at the start, devoid of content and honest aspirations.
In Oaxaca we have the dramatic experience of the honourable and combative COCEI (La Coalición Obrera Campesina Estudiantil del Istmo), once feared by the rulers, now turned into 5 COCEIs, which are just as corrupt and debased as the political parties with which they have established alliances. For this to happen there have to be ambitious people inside the social movements capable of twisting their ideological debates and doctrines with a cynical pragmatism that allows them to negotiate and betray without qualms. The APPO council is full of such people, most of them, although not all, are involved with the FPR, and one of these is Zenen Bravo, the very same whose dark political career includes having participated together with Enrique Rueda Pacheco in October 2006 in secret talks with the then govt secretary Carlos Abascal to arrange the teachers' return to classes, which paved the way for the entry of the PFP and subsequent repression of the social movement. Furthermore the accusations made by the now deputy (Zenen Bravo) against me of being a policeman and thief, prepared the ground for my arrest and imprisonment last April. This certainly isn't the first time that the deputy and his organisation the FPR, have served the criminal state govt in having abandoned their principles and demoralized the APPO struggle, although most effective in this respect has been the eternal spokesperson and persecuted politician Florentino Lopez Martinez, also of the FPR, who on numerous occasions has expressed in the name of APPO political positions and opinions at odds with those of the Assembly, but which match the petty interests of his own org. With a deputy in Congress the FPR now wants to demolize the social movement even though this has to be passed by a majority, which at the last APPO assembly on November 3rd, decided to form a Third Assembly with a view to reorganising the social movement. The FPR, headed by Florentino Lopez, unable to prevent this decision being taken by the majority, left the Assembly in a failed attempt to disrupt it again revealing their sectarian and hegemonic interests.
Despite the enormous harm which this Stalinist org does, the FPR and its deputy Zenen Bravo, whose obscure role exceeds the vileness of its deeds, it is his former membership of APPO which is most damaging, as there is no doubt that the new deputy will be used by Ulises and the political class as a symbol of the corruption and decadence political power has been able to instil in the social movement. The new Deputy sitting comfortably in the Chamber of Deputies will be the daily evidence for the other Deputies and social movements of what the movement has become: the taming of the movement symbolised by its most cowardly and opportunistic members. Fortunately long gone are the days when the aforementioned enjoyed the respect and credibility of the majority and today they debate in front of a discredited audience, enjoy physical liberty, power, money and the protection of the media, which their servile and submissive attitude towards the criminal govt allows, while many other orgs and people suffer persecution, aggression and imprisonment.
The violent action of the govt of the recent November 2nd, the unjustified detention of around 20 movement members and the invasion of homes for more than 2 hours by Ulises' police, are the signs of continuing repression by the Oaxaca govt despite public declarations of reconciliation, peace and tranquility. But also these events are the unquestionable signs of a govt in complete collapse, hardly able to keep itself in power with rifles and bayonets. Even when the govt repression, the threats and the betrayal by leaders leads to an abandonment of principles and fear, and the electoral process with candidates of the supposed left leads to the betrayal of the efforts and hopes of the people at the ballot box and in the immorality of political parties, the people of Oaxaca who continue to mobilize and struggle in rebellion outside the political process are a convincing sign that APPO lives and is in a slow but steady process of revitalization. As a political prisoner of conscience I cannot but respond to this courage and spirit from inside, although the criminal Ulises in a fascist and vindictive misuse of the law, has accused me of new crimes, some as serious as rebellion and assault on communication routes and assault among others. I endorse once again and for always my committment to my people on this long and difficult road, full of obstacles and thorns, which we are embarking on, uniting the new resistance with that of 500 years of resistance of the native peoples of our parents and grandparents in search of a new world of justice, peace and dignity for all.
I take this opportunity to urge you once more not to ever relinquish your principles in this liberating and peaceful struggle. We have already resisted for over a year in collective confrontation with the govt, and the blood of the 26 fallen in battle still awaits justice, which only we are able to secure.

Residents of Oaxaca district block roads to demand services

2007-11-13T15:30:00.000-08:00

The first I knew of any local action taking place was the sound of traffic on the dirt track near my house which is usually quiet. There was a steady stream of traffic on this track which due to its poor condition isn´t used much by local traffic. Closer inspection revealed that this traffic was using the track as the parallel main road had been blockaded by residents of the district demanding services for the taxes they pay. Their banners demanded drinking water, proper drainage, security, street lighting, rubbish collection and pavements. Like many other local residents I have to dispose of my own rubbish, which I compost and burn unlike many who leave it in fields or on the verges of roads, and lack street lighting in my neighbourhood.
It turned out that local residents had blockaded many of the main roads in the area for a six hour period from 9am-3pm yesterday. There have already been many such actions in the state this week, which sees the governor deliver his third annual progress report. The residents are delivering their own verdict in the form of blockades and marches. In one town in the north of the state, Tuxtepec, the local 'Citizens Defence Committee' occupied the town library and tried to take over the municiple offices before being beaten and arrested by the local cops.
Here is a translation of an article from the local left-leaning paper 'Noticias' which is the most popular local daily. My local paper stand sells around 300 daily compared to 70 of the rival right-wing rag 'El Imparcial'.

November one year on - testimonies of repression, by Victor Raul Martinez Vasquez

The testimonies of the brutality endured by those arrested are heartbreaking and include cases of sexual abuse. Many of those arrested have suffered serious harm, not only physical but also social and psychological.
Eliud Amni Martinez Sanchez, for example, turned up at the prison in Tlacolula with a fractured skull, dislodged eye, fractured nasal passage, dislocated right shoulder, fractured left knee, three broken fingers and multiple injuries to the back and face. Eliud was beaten for 45 minutes, on each question being hit : 'what is your political affiliation?', 'what barricade were you on?', 'who is your boss?'.
The architect Porfirio Dominguez Munozcano was arrested and beaten on 25th November on leaving a stationers near his home in the Old Town. He was imprisoned and almost lost his sight:
'The first blow I received to the head left me unconscious. I woke up 2 hours later with a bandaged head and my face and body soaked in blood with bruises everywhere. I was in the Oaxaca Zocalo with my hands tied along with another 50-60 people. I had somehow been bandaged, all us who had been arrested walked past the soldiers, who beat us with their rifle butts. We were then taken off to an unknown destination and tortured psychologically en route.
They told us they were going to drop us off on the side of the road so that some helicopters would pick us up and throw us into the sea. They kept us in a state of terror and continued hitting us. Fortunately we arrived at the womens´ prison in Tlacolula. It was about 2 or 3 in the morning. There they continued beating and threatening us until dawn. Then they said they were going to put us into the helicopters. You can imagine the terror we felt.'
Finally the architect was sent to hospital in Oaxaca where they had to perform surgery on his face to save his sight. Then he was sent back to Tlacolula prison where he wasn´t released until December 15th ´for lack of evidence´.
Edith Coca Soriano, a 30 year old biologist postgrad student, tells how she was arrested in the ´Él Pochote´cinema when police dressed in blue beat her in the head, threw her to the ground and started kicking her. She was dragged to a van with other women who had also been beaten in the head.
'Then they put us into other trucks and took us to an unknown destination, but I was told it was the hangars at the airport, where we were again asked for our name and address. Many insults were hurled at us and we were told we would be raped'. She tells that after spending 48 hours without food and only a bit of water in Miahuatlan prison, on the morning of November 21st the PFP (Federal Police) came for them, put them in a helicopter and tortured them psychologically, telling them they were being taken to Veracruz to be thrown into the sea. On 28th, without explanation, she had all her hair cut off: 'it had taken me 12 years to grow it - it was down to my knees and it was all cut off. On 29th we were taken to court and told that we were being kept in the medium security prison of San Jose del Rincon'.
In subsequent testimonies she said that she hadn´t been allowed to talk to her lawyer despite all the tine that had elapsed and that she wasn´t allowed to change her clothes until December 15th when 43 of those arrested were released.
Mercedes Cumplido Pantoja, a 47 year old farmer, stated : 'I was told I was going to be killed brutally, was beaten and sworn at, told that I was a bitch and an idiot and asked 'who paid you to go?' and 'how many thousands of pesos were you paid?'
Ruth Cabrera Vasquez, a 48 year old trader from Chiapas, tells how she was put in a truck with 11 other women and taken to the Llano park where they were thrown to the ground and had their photos taken while 'they continued to insult and mock us. We were taken to the police HQ in Santa Maria Coyotepec and from there to Cereso de Miahuatlan...we were kept standing in a cubicle for many hours in the cold and were terrified.'
Julio Hernandez, in his column, mentions that previously 'in Tlacolula prison, the police, knowing that the women were already suffering with the pain of the beatings, put sticks between their legs, implying they were going to rape them, even with the oldest'.
In the book 'Voices of Courage in Oaxaca' there are more testimonies by women who were the victims of human rights violations last year. In Nayarit various prisoners cite threats of castration. Relatives of the detained created the Commission of Relatives and Friends of the Disappeared, Detained and Political Prisoners of APPO (COFADAPPO) which set up a camp near the prison in Nayarit. To support them with their legal cases, on the initiative of the painter Francisco Toledo, various lawyers offices formed the 'November 25th Committee'.
According to statements by these professionals there is a 'mountain of judicial inconsistencies right from the moment of the arrests. Many of them have been shown to be passers-by on November 25th. Lawyers weren´t granted access to the files until long after the arrrests. There is proof that the persons concerned are innocent of any crime'.
Even the president of the Nayarit State Human Rights Commission stated that it was 'inconsistent that the judge dealing with the cases was 1200 km away from where the detained were being held and that they must be transferred to Oaxaca so they can be guaranteed a fair trial'. The relatives even turned to the UN offices in Mexico. There they applied to the UN High Commisisoner for Human Rights, Louis Arbour, to send envoys to Oaxaca. They testified that during the conflict between APPO and the governor Ulises Ruiz, '500 people had been imprisoned, of which 200 were still being held under various charges. 122 suffered serious injuries, 64 of them from firearms and 52 required urgent hospitalization. Furthermore 15 were killed and hundreds tortured.'

Note - actually at least 26 were killed and some are still disappeared but their families daren´t speak out for fear of reprisals. There is still a lot of fear in Oaxaca.

Repression in Oaxaca on anniversary of 'Battle of the University'

2007-11-03T11:20:00.000-07:00

On November 2nd 2006 students and supporters of APPO repelled federal police forces backed by the military police, who attempted to take barricades surrounding the university in order to invade and capture the university radio station. During the 7-hour long 'Battle of the University' dozens of APPO supporters were arrested and injured.
To commemorate the event barricades were to be errected and tapetes (coloured sand memorials) laid at the 5 Senores crossroads near the university. At around 7.30 am, after the sand had been laid and the crossroads partially blocked, truckloads of armed police arrived and started arresting and beating those present. Dozens were arrested and a few required hospital treatment after being beaten in the head. Around half were subsequently released with the rest being held overnight. Reporters were also attacked.
Throughout the day truckloads of armed police patrolled the area and there was a heavy police presence in the nearby main cemetery where families were marking the Day of the Dead at the family graves. It is joked here that this was to prevent the dead rising up to tell the truth about the murders and repression stalking Oaxaca.
A march was called by APPO for around 3pm as a response to the earlier police repression. Around 500 marched along the ring road towards the 5 Senores crossroads but stopped on reports of truckloads of armed police occupying the crossroads. The march resumed after the police withdrew to surrounding streets. On reaching the crossroads a tapete, with floral display and candles was laid to commemorate the 26 murdered by federal, state and paramilitary forces last year.
This week has seen an escalation in police brutality in Oaxaca. On Monday a student was beaten by the police and several others followed and threatened after a commemoration.
The Federal Attorney's office chose this week to leak the 'nearly complete' findings of an investigation into the murder of Indymedia NY activist Brad Will on October 27th last year. According to these findings Brad was shot twice, the first time from 50 cms and then again whilst being transferred to hospital. This Federal investigation merely repeats the lies of the Oaxaca 'justice' department. These lies contradict all the testimonies of eyewitnesses near him at his death, none of whom saw anyone shoot him. Photos also prove that Brad was shot during the defence of the barricade and not whilst being transported to hospital. Conveniently the vehicle Bard was transported in and his clothes went missing from the Oaxaca 'justice' department.
According to 'Reporters without Borders' Mexico was the second most dangerous place for journalists in 2006, after Iraq, with 9 murdered. Since 2000 32 journalists have been murdered and 7 disappeared. Half of these have been attributed to drug-related investigations.
For more visit:
http://www.elenemigocomun.net/
http://www.friendsofbradwill.org/

Teachers turn out in force

2007-10-30T14:32:00.000-07:00

On Saturday 27th two marches converged on the Zocalo to commemorate the murder of US indymedia journalist Brad Will and local teachers. One left Calicanto in the Santo Lucia del Camino district near the scene of Brad's murder, whilst the other started at the Prokuradia (State Attorney's office) about 3 miles from the Zocalo.
Around 5,000 mostly teachers attended the Prokuradia march, the main demand being justice for the victims and an end to the impunity protecting the murderers.
The march on Monday 29th kicked off the new action plan of Section 22 of the teacher's union. Their leaflet vowed to reactivate their struggle against the neoliberal policies imposed by international organisations, causing misery, unemployment, drug addiction, wars and the handover of natural and strategic resources to multinationals.
In particular they oppose new IMSS (social security) legislation which will privatize services such as pensions. This law was first passed in 2005 but an amended version was passed on 31/03/07, which cancels the right to a pension. Section 22 vows legal resistance to the new law and to petrol price rises which wil have a knockon effect on other products.
As well as the usual demands for the release of political prisoners, cancellation of pending arrest warrants and 'recovery' of Section 59 schools, they also call for a General Strike to stop the neoliberal structural reforms.
Marches occured across the state with the one in capital Oaxaca attended by over 10,000 teachers and supporters. They marched the 4 miles from Brenamiel district in the north as this was the site of the murder of IMSS nurse Jorge Alberto Lopez Bernal a year ago when the PFP (Federal Police) also invaded the Zocalo. The megaphone speakers made continued references to socialist principles, mentioning Chavez' resistance to US imperialism.
There was some spraypainting around the Zocalo (the usual mix of anarchist and Marxist), including the bandstand and an out of place wooden march recently erected. This activity was brought to a halt by an overstrict teacher, obviously missing classroom discipline.

Return of the marches in Oaxaca

2007-10-22T10:29:00.000-07:00

October is seeing a resurgence in political activity on the streets of Oaxaca. First came the thousands-strong march on October 2 to commemorate the 1968 massacre of students at Mexico City university, naturally with a large student contingent, although the teachers also turned out in force after their two-day strike.
Nobody was the winner of the local elections the following Sunday with over half the electorate not bothering to vote. Fraud on the part of the governing PRI party was widespread, with the governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz caught on tape ordering employees to vote for PRI, which won by suspiciously small margins in many municipalities. In the capital Oaxaca, the 'Convergencia' candidate, supported by elements of APPO (the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca) lost by a narrow margin to the PRI candidate.
However, this was all par for the course and there were no large mobilisations the following week. On Wednesday 18th the opposition PRD called a demo in Xoxocotlan, a district of Oaxaca City, and a few hundred marched the 3 or so miles to the Zocalo (central square).
Thursday 18th was the first anniversary of the murder of teacher Panfilo Hernandez Vasquez. He was shot three times in the stomach by undercover police waiting for him outside a meeting. Around 5,000, mostly teachers, from all over the state marched from the Fuente de las 7 Regiones to the Zocalo. Unlike on October 2 there was no redecoration of the colonial architecture en route. Panfilo's widow and the widows of some of the 22 others murdered by the police held wreathes and banners at the front and gave speeches at the Zocalo.
As well as demanding justice for those murdered, none of which have been investigated, the teachers demanded the release of the political prisoners, the cancellation of pending court cases and the return of schools seized by the rival Section 59 of the teacher's union - Section 59 was set up last year with government funds as a rival to the long-established Section 22. As seems normal on marches here, it was self-organised, with traffic being redirected by those at the front. For photos visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12940191@N08/sets/72157602531496886/

Next Saturday will mark the first anniversary of the murder by police of US Indymedia journalist Brad Will and a mass mobilisation has been called for the weekend by APPO. Mexico was recently ranked 136 in a world ranking of press freedom by watchdog 'Reporters without Borders', below such beacons of free speech as Columbia and Morocco.
Mobilisations have also been called by APPO for October 29 to mark the anniversary of the invasion of the Zocalo by Federal Police and November 25.

Thousands march in Oaxaca to mark anniversary of 1968 student massacre

2007-10-03T13:06:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday 2nd October between 2-3,000 students and members of the local popular resistance APPO ( the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca)marched from the edge of Oaxaca city centre to the Zocalo (central square). Among them were around a hundred masked youth who extensively spray painted walls on the route with slogans to commemorate the 1968 student massacres, condemn the corrupt local governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, call for the release of political prisoners and a boycott of local elections this Sunday.

In 1968 in Mexico City, just before the Olympics 200-300 demonstrating students were massacred by the security forces with the complicity of the CIA.

Before the march some local youth had acquired spray cans from a local shop and 2 were arrested as a consequence according to local media. The march started from the Fuente de las 7 Regiones around 2 miles from the centre with no police or security forces present.

It was made up of several blocks - the masked up and more radical at the front, followed by the communist/Marxist red flag waving contingent, with mainly teachers at the back.

The march progressed with different representatives taking turns on the megaphone whilst the hoodies and balaclava clad liberally adorned the colonial archictecture. Most notably the Justice Ministry and the Governor´s Palace on the Zocalo were redecorated. By the following morning, however, most had disappeared under the brush strokes of the super-efficient clean-up squads whose work can be seen on walls all over the city, blotches of colour designed to obscure the reality of murder, torture, detention and intimidation that Oaxaca has had more than its fair share of recently.

On reaching the Zocalo speeches were given affirming that resistance is very much alive in Oaxaca but the crowd quickly dwindled as the sun went down.

According to local media a further 6 people were arrested leaving the demo.
Schools had been closed all over Oaxaca state as teachers called a two-day strike on Monday and Tuesday.

The only visible presence of the security forces during the march was a helicopter which very quickly circled the Zocalo.

For photos visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12940191@N08/