Indigenous, Peasants and Afro-descendents of North-Eastern Antioquia Propose Peace Talks
News from Colombia |
on: Monday, 1 August 2011
Translation. See original article on: http://prensarural.org/spip/spip.php?article6206
The North-East of Antioquia extends along the eastern branch of the Central Cordillera, and is made up of the municipalities of Amalfi, Anori, Cisneros, Remedios, San Roque, Santo Domingo, Segovia, Vegachí, Yalí, Yolombó and Santiago. It is also part of the region of Magdalena Medio, where several key features of the nation’s geography intersect. The economic interests of North-Eastern Antioquia, its fertile soil, highly productive cattle ranching and especially its mineral wealth are all factors in a series of conflicts – especially when they are part of a the practice of development strategies that tend to favour the extractive industries and damage the environment, and whose profits are concentrated in the hands of a few.
“[Those of us] on these lands have been much abused, mainly by the Army which hit these regions very hard. They would tell us that we ought to be careful, that we had no business here, that the lands didn’t belong to us - so we would answer that if the lands didn’t belong to us they belonged even less to anyone else, since we were born there, grew old there and the lands were inherited from our grandparents “ affirms Don Oscar Macias, a peasant leader from the CAHUCOPANA peasant association, one of the organisations participating in the Meeting of Peasant, Afro-descendent and Indigenous Communities for Land and for Peace in Colombia.
The phrase “either you sell, or your widow will” is well known in the region. It shows the way in which the big farms (latifundios) have grown over the last few decades. “The multinationals are very interested in these lands” says Don Oscar Macias “One doesn’t know too much detail, but they say that the Canadians are interested, Quedada and other multinationals. Well, that is what they say to us. But we have seen the interest in our lands. Our lands are rich not just in gold, but also in alluvium, some studies show the land has uranium, it has oil, it has forests, it has water - very beautiful streams. So for a long time that is what they have wanted. We say that the repression, threats and killings in North-Eastern Antioquia were with the intention of creating a North-East without peasants so that the multinationals could come in, and all those Canadian companies, so that they could exploit our riches.”
“Because of all this, for 7 years we have been denouncing what happened in the North-East of Antioquia, what the economic and health blockade was like – here nobody could bring in a pair of boots, or a plastic sheet, nobody could bring medicine in, and that led to people dying, and that is why they killed many peasants in the North-East of Antioquia. So we have been denouncing this constantly, shoulder to shoulder with the national and international organisations that have supported us, so that the world would know what has happened here and why. One says the violence generated here must be because of the wealth of this region.”
“We say to the other peasant organisations that to defend the land we must first organise the people, in the neighbourhood associations, or in the Ombudsman’s committees, because now the whole Colombian people, I think, have to become ombudsmen, not just in the North-East, but across the whole of Colombia, because something unexpected has happened. Historically our grandparents told us that the violence would reach us, and we didn’t believe them but it came true and we have lived it, so for us it is a constant desire to live in peace one day, and to have life respected, have land respected and property respected. That is what we have wanted with all the peoples and all the organisations and all the community, and that is why we invite them and are with them, so that we can one day achieve that desire.”
The effort that peasant, indigenous and black community organisations have made is to call the Meeting of Peasant, Afro-descendent and Indigenous peoples for Land and for Peace in Colombia. This has been the result of a deep desire to build peace with social justice. It is also part of the efforts of the peasant, indigenous and black communities to resist accusations, threats and displacements, torture, deaths and disappearances. The effort was launched on June 21st in the municipality of Remedios, Antioquia, with the idea that the communities that live in the region could also join the national debate over peace.
The Meeting will be held between the 12th - 15th of August in Barrancabermeja, where it is important to do so, according to Don Oscar, because of the importance of speaking of land in a region where displacement, extermination and exploitation of peasants has occurred. “With regard to the land, most of us peasants do not have property titles, we just we born here and were left the land as inheritance by our grandparents, they left us some fields and some then bought a bit more, or opened up more land. At the moment the lands we have are not legalised and that is why we are struggling organisationally, politically and legally to see if one day we can say that they are our lands, and prove it with some document.”
What is coming is a massive effort to ensure that the construction of peace in Colombia responds to the needs of the communities whose history has been one of marginalisation. The communities of the North East of Antioquia invite all Colombians to participate in the National Meeting for Land and Peace in Colombia, and above all to propose dialogue as the way to build peace.
