CSN News

( Translated by Peter Lenny, a CSN volunteer translator)


·    535 extra-judicial executions were recorded from 1 January 2007 to 1 July 2008.

·     In 58% of the cases, the victims were juveniles.


These and other figures on extra-judicial executions, as well as on the context of new patterns and methods of concealing how these crimes are committed, the states most affected, and exposés of some of the most important cases, will all be considered tomorrow, Wednesday, 29 October, as part of the event "Extra-judicial Executions: An Undeniable Reality", to take place from 9 am, at the Gabriel García Márquez Cultural Centre (Calle 11, No 5-60).

At the same event, the International Observation Mission on Extra-judicial Executions and Impunity in Colombia will present its Final Report. The mission took place from 3 to 10 October 2007 with the participation of 13 independents professionals (jurists, journalists, forensic anthropologists and human rights experts) from Germany, Spain, United States, France and the United Kingdom.

Reports on extra-judicial executions in the Catatumbo region and in Arauca state will also be presented.

Organised by the Colombia-Europe-United States Coordination, a coalition of 199 Colombian groups formed for human rights promotion, information and advocacy, the event will be attended by human rights advocacy social organisations, the diplomatic corps, representatives of the United Nations System office in Colombia, members of the Colombian Congress. Invitations have been sent to State oversight agencies and institutions of the central government.

This dramatic situation is sure to be one of the key issues in the examination of human rights violations that the Colombian government will be asked to explain, on 10 December 2008, by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

In their report for the Universal Periodic Review, the 4 platforms on Human Rights and Peace, the Coalition against Connecting Children and Young People with the Armed Conflict, the Working Group on Women and Armed Conflict, the World Organization Against Torture and the Observatory against Racial Discrimination complain that "In the past five years, there has been a 67.71% increase in recorded extra-judicial executions  directly attributed to government forces, and this lapse coincides with application of the policy of “democratic security" applied by the present government since it came to office on 7 August 2002".

In its last report on the human rights situation in Colombia, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights recognised "The persistence of extrajudicial executions attributed to members of the security forces,especially members of the Army", adding also that "Some common characteristics of the complaints are the following: the victims are represented as having being killed in combat; the scene of the crime has been tampered with before the bodies were identified; and often investigations have been initiated by the Military Criminal Justice system. Official investigations reveal that the underlying motives in several of these cases may be related to pressure on the military to show results, or to false claims of success in action by certain members of the security forces to obtain benefits and recognition".

Despite these constant concerns on the part of the Colombian and international communities, on 9 September, Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos declared that there had been “a substantial reduction in cases” of extra-judicial executions, claiming that so far this year only 25 cases had occurred, in contrast with the 102 documented by the organisations.

The cases of Soacha and Ciudad Bolívar and others uncovered as a result of those events in other regions of Colombia have shown not only that this practice is being used persistently and systematically, but also that new patterns and methods are being developed to cover up the commission of these crimes and ensure they go unpunished.





Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI  53701-1505
phone:  (608) 257-8753
fax:  (608) 255-6621
e-mail:  csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net

1. Make an announcement in which they publicly and irrevocably recognize the fundamental role of defenders of human rights, observers, journalists, workers, and those in solidarity with communities and organizations affected by the persistent violence in Colombia.
   

1. Make an announcement in which they publicly recognize that the work of protecting and promoting human rights is a legitimate action and that they look favorably on the expansion of the rights and guarantees to all persons.
   

1. Provide support and respect the work of solidarity organizations and international observers.
   

1. Offer guarantees to those foreign citizens who carry out humanitarian and solidarity work in Colombia.
   

1. Also, provide an explanation on behalf of the Colombian government as to why the German woman and two French men were subjected to arbitrary actions during the time that they were detained in the DAS installation.
   

1. Carry out a critical review of this case and of the government’s pronouncements, ratification of resolutions that prohibit their entry into Colombia for 7 and 5 years respectively, as well as reparation for damages suffered.
   

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No More Terror and Avarice:

We propose a new path for the people for a new country.

 
 
  
October 16, 2008
  
 
  
Author: Minga of the People
  
 
  
What we are proposing today was already presented to the public in September 2004, when we organized the First Indigenous and Popular Congress. They are five basic points that cover many other issues. We have listened with considerable attention to the voices of many diverse sectors within Colombia and throughout the world. We have clearly put forward what it is that hurts us, and have compiled the accumulated pain of many peoples and processes. We want to be practical and concrete.
  
 
  
People who occupy important positions of authority in this country - an authority they have surrendered as a result of their actions and words – have come out publicly to say we are terrorists. Absurdly, they accuse us of attacking the Armed Forces, the largest and most powerful Army of all of Latin America, the greatest recipient of U.S. military technology and training, one that launched a military assault combining the force of the Army and the Police, with tanks and armed soldiers, firing live ammunition against men, women and children who have nothing but wooden staffs and stones. They injure more than sixty Indians, the majority with bullets. They assassinate at least two civilians, and mistreat common men and women of the communities. They burned houses, and committed acts of unquestionable brutality, destroying medical and first aid equipment and damaging food supplies, acting like criminals under the order of the Executive.
  
 
  
Nevertheless, when we detained and protected one member of the police force, and we returned him safe and sound to the authorities, a government minister called us “terrorists.” We don’t have the right, according to him, to detain those same police who are shooting at us trying to kill us. According to him, we only have the right to let them kill us, to mistreat us with obedience to the politics of terror of the regime. According to the President, who gave the order for the brutal attack against us, his government has complied with everything related to the indigenous communities. From his perspective, we are savages, we are dumb, we are irrational. Mr. President, not only have you not fulfilled your obligations to the people, but there are several other fundamental issues that we are raising that you can no longer ignore. We are not liars, we are not savages, we are not irrational.
  
 
  
The government says we are being manipulated by “dark forces,” that FARC has infiltrated our organization and movement. We state through our actions that we are not terrorists, that we are not with the insurgency, that our struggle is legitimate, it is autonomous, and that we do not act under the orders of FARC or any other so-called “dark forces.” We have unmasked a professional soldier who had infiltrated us, sent by the public security forces in an attempt to validate these lies of the President. If there are Indians involved in the insurgency, or any other armed group, it is a personal decision of theirs that goes against our organizational and community process. Stop shooting, stop robbing, stop burning and lying. Stop using your public power to exercise terror against the people. You’re wrong. Respect and listen. It is the only way.
  
 
  
The majority of the members of Congress that support the government of President Uribe, those legislators who have elaborated and approved the laws that displace us of our rights and our liberties, occupy their official spaces with the backing of paramilitary groups, and are involved in the Para-politics scandal currently under investigation. Neither they nor the laws they have approved have any degree of legitimacy.
  
 
  
It is time for us to reiterate our position to the rest of the world. We direct ourselves to all peoples and leaders. We come to you as a result of our struggle, and with the meaning of peoples and processes. With humility we recognize that we don’t hold the universal truth. But with pride we defend our reality. Up to now we haven’t even been listened to. Is it that there is so much fear about what we have to say that we are prevented from even being heard? Listening to us with attention and respect will generate what it is we are looking for: a frank, and sincere dialogue that will lead to concrete consequences and profound transformations. To refuse to listen to us, to call us liars, to say we are manipulated by “dark forces,” to say that we don’t have any proposals, is to fear dialogue, to fear change, to fear the future.
  
 
  
We believe that we are correct. We have thought this through carefully. We have questioned our own goals and options. We have observed and discussed a lot. What we are proposing here as an agenda is what we have come to agreement on amongst ourselves, because we believe in diversity, in open debate, in differences, and there are differences amongst us. We will continue discussing, and constructing in a constant dialogue, because we know that there is not only one truth.
  
 
  
La  Minga of the People that commemorates 516 years of oppression and resistance is a concrete message. So that people will listen to us, so that people stop trying to kill us and displace us, we have come out, we have blocked roadways, we march. And we will continue to do so until our word is respected, and through the course of dialogue we can transform this reality of misery and horror into one of equilibrium, harmony and liberty. It’s not so difficult to understand: Either our proposals are seriously considered in order to construct an agenda of change, or Mother Earth will be forever in a process of extermination. To do otherwise is to accept the destruction of life. This we cannot accept, we cannot let this happen.
  
 
  
We act with precise urgency. We risk our lives and offer our lives for life. We struggle with all our capacity against the sophisticated propaganda that is nothing more than well-crafted lies, against laws and measures that impose the interests of others against life itself and justice. We call on therefore, on the wisdom, the serenity and the respect that comes with dialogue. We love and defend dialogue. But we do so mobilized with firmness. We are people of our word and of dialogue. We live it through our assemblies, and within our Life Plans. Everything that we have created is based on a process of dialogue between contradictions and differences. We therefore need and call on an interlocutor who is legitimate, with whom we can dialogue. And we are totally committed to engage in this process.
  
 
  
What is it that we are proposing?
  
 
  

1. That the necessary conditions for a process of dialogue are immediately established, in order to discuss the five main points of the agenda that we propose;
2. That the dialogue is carried out under the watch and with the backing of legitimate and unquestionably credible persons, and with authority that is recognized in any part of the world;
3. That in this dialogue, every sector of society is represented, according to democratic mechanisms of participation, giving priority to the majority of the population that has been excluded, marginalized and      exploited;
4. That the agenda of the people is developed through a very deliberative and transparent and effective process, and that this gives us the time to construct the country we so desire, step by step;
5. That honesty, truth and respect become non-negotiable  conditions for the development of this dialogue, and those that violate these principles are excluded from participating in the process.
   

1. We reject the Economic Model of global transnational capital and the Free Trade Agreements strategies that have been negotiated with the United States, Canada and the European nations. These treaties are part of a nefarious strategy on the part of major global economic powers. The process of negotiation and the results of these agreements are a threat to our cultures and our  territories, our sovereignty. They surrender our collective resources to  corporate interests and trans-nationals, and directly threaten our Mother Earth. These are not treaties between people but against people;
2. No more war, no more  terror; we reject the government’s so-called “Democratic Security Strategy,” Plan Colombia, the dirty war, para-politics, he militarization  of society and the criminalization of popular protest. We call on truth, justice and reparations for the crimes committed against the people. War is not the answer. And those people who have committed crimes against the people, such as former Cauca governor Juan José Chaux Mosquera, should be judged so that their bad examples will never again be repeated and the victims will be compensated;
3. No to the Constitutional Counter-reforms and legislation of  displacement that has been implemented under the current government, measures that surrender our rights to private interests, and that submit us to silence and forced labor, to exclusion and ultimately death.
4. Demand the observance and strict abidance to the agreements and obligations that guarantee the rights and freedoms of all people such as the ILO agreement 169, the UN Declaration on Human Rights of Indigenous      peoples and others.
5. The creation of mechanisms of sovereignty, peace and coexistence in order to develop and make reality our agenda through a permanent Congress of the Peoples.
   

1. Public security forces must retreat from all indigenous  territories for a definitive time. The territory of Peace, Coexistence and      Dialogue in La Maria,  Piendamo should be respected and immediately evacuated. All the damage      caused by the military aggression of the last few days should be repaired  in an integral way;
2. There should be an immediate cease fire, and an end to the repression against the people mobilized there;
3. We demand that all armed actors leave our territories  immediately, and call for the establishment of territories free of war,  with civilian, international observers allowed in to monitor the situation, under the supervision of the Indigenous Guard of the Nasa   people;
4. The popular, non-commercial media should be recognized, respected, listened to and supported as sources of truth for the unfolding  dialogue. The mass commercial media should be opened up in order to transmit the positions and the proposals of the people, of the excluded  voices, of the majority, and they should make public the truth of the repression and exclusion that we have faced, and not simply represent the perspectives of certain economic interests.
5. We immediately call on the following people to serve as guarantors of the dialogue (without excluding other possible individuals  from the process):
   
   1. James Anaya, UN Special Relator for Indigenous People;
   2. Baltasar Garzón, internationally-recognized Judge, Center for Peace of Toldeo
   3. Evo Morales Ayma, President of Bolivia
   4. Blanca Chancoso, indigenous leader from Ecuador
      

                                       (Translation by Deryn Collins, a CSN volunteer translator)
 
 
Written by  Berenice Celeyta A., Nomadesc.
 
THE FACE OF THE WORKERS

They are men tanned by the sun, strong, seasoned, who work in the countryside, sowing, watering, cleaning, cutting and collecting the cane; others work in the factories producing sugar, ethanol, and industrial alcohol and where their principal labour is working with chemicals. We are talking about at least 14,000 workers in the Sugar Cane Industry of the Valle de Cauca, who have worked in slave conditions since the thirties. They come from Cauca, Choco, Patia and other zones of Narino, looking for the opportunity to work in face of increasing unemployment in the region, others come from closer – from Pradera, Amaime, El Placer, Guacari and El Cerrito.
 
They are the workers of the 13 sugar plantations that are located along the valley of the River Cauca. The majority can show you their calloused hands that wield the machetes with which they cut the cane and their pronounced muscles from working between 12 to 14 hours daily.  For decades they have generated the wealth for 5 families and four of the top economic groups in the country. They have been to the Permanent Assembly (Asamblea Permanente) to show the country and the World that worker’s rights are gained with an iron will to change the inhuman conditions under which they actually live.
 
They have been exploited work wise since the factories arrived, but maintain that in the past things were better. One of the cane cutters of Ingenio Providencia, says slowly, calmly but forcefully: “in 1977 I had a direct contract, I could count on a salary, bonuses, holidays, a pension and Sunday especial payments. The work was hard, we had to work in difficult conditions but the wages were enough to live. On Sundays every one wanted to work because we would be paid the extra hours as dictated by law. Then the companies did not want to contract us directly anymore and made us work through contactors - we got lower salaries; weekly between 300.000 y 350.000. We had to pay the costs of the social security, but all this has  ended since we began the  “asociativas” (he is referring to the Work Associated Cooperatives - Cooperativas de Trabajo Asociado) and it has been a headache for everyone, as we receive less than half, and some fortnights we receive 200.000 a  280.000 and that is for   “he who does not waste time”; and from this the deductions are made to pay for healthcare and pensions, these deductions sometimes reach between $ 180.000 and $ 200.000 pesos; so monthly you end up receiving between $ 220.000 a $ 360.000 when things go well and you tell me how anyone can live on this.”.
  
The nuclear family, on average consists of no less than 6 people, who live on less than the legal minimum wage: 461.500 pesos, 220 dollars; which goes on rent, public services, and schooling for the children, food, transport and health. The cutter«s wages fluctuate depending on production. It is piecework, there are days when cutting the cane is called “raspa raspa”, (literally scrape scrape) which is when they are cutting green cane from which organic sugar is extracted. This is, in their own words, the most thankless task because you cut and cut but the weight does not increase. The «burnt cane«, which is used to make ethanol, is denser and at least weighs a little more. For the workers the weight is important because it affects their salaries, each load is weighed and from this the wages are calculated. The equation is very simple, as well as cruel, a cutter is paid $5,700 per ton and to cut 3 tonnes he must work at least 12 hours daily.


These hardworking men, have made enormous efforts to make the government and the Sugar Cane industries that are associated in ASOCANA, understand that for any human being to continue working, dignified conditions of work are needed. They have used the Right to Petition, trusteeships, meetings with Congress, and public hearings -  such as that of the 14th of June in the municipal of Pradera; a hearing to which the industry and the government were invited but did not attend. Here in the pouring rain, the problems were denounced and a petition was presented, which was sent to ASOCANA.  
 
It was not easy to take the decision to strike on the 15th September, because it is playing with their livelihood, but more than 40 cutters have suffered serious injury due to the riotous action of the war lords. They put their lives on the line because they are dying of hunger and because the poor salaries are not enough to feed the family, let alone cover health care or the children’s studies.  They put their lives on the line because the Social State of Rights (Estado Social de Derecho), which applies today in Colombia, does not allow workers in this country, nor any organised social sector, to speak out against the devastating economic policies that the reign of terror imposes. This is the side of the workers, a face that looks forward, that does not hide in either treaties, nor lies but put its face to the wind, the gases, bullets and pellets that come from the other face of this conflict.   
 

 
THE FACE OF ASOCANA, THE GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC SECURUTY FORCES

It is difficult to describe them; they appear and disappear from political, economic and military scenes of the country. They are like “The Miracle of the Holy Trinity”, three distinct persons and only one true god. They are part of the political caste that for the last decade has written and approved the most backward reforms of any labour system in the world, which daily suffocate the rights of the Colombian workers.  They are the ones who designed Law 780 of 2002 and the Decree 4588 of the 27th December 2006. It is the side of those who have given passage too one of the most infamous forms of contract that has existed in the history of Colombia: The Cooperatives of the Associated Worker. (Las Cooperativas de Trabajo Asociado).  
 
This face of the conflict is represented by Diego Palacio, Minister of Social Protection, a controversial man involved in the Yidispolitica case where the serious violations of human rights committed by this government are actually being investigated. It is represented by the President of the Association of Sugar Cane Growers, Luis Fernando Londono Capurro, who, in the past,  has held the jobs of  Councillor of Cali, Governor of Valle, Minister of Agriculture, Senator of the Republic, President of the  Congress of the Republic and Director of the Liberal Party; and finally, represented by the  Public Forces (Army, Police, Organisms for State Security) these  constitutional institutions created to safeguard life, honour and the goods of the citizens but which repeatedly play the role of the aggressors of the workers and the organised sectors that fight  for the workers rights. The Public Forces have unleashed a military movement without precedent, they have converted the plantations into a theatre of war, carrying guns, grenades, artillery tanks, tanks with cannons that are used in regular wars, never in a social or labor conflict such as we are in.
 
This face is represented by the descendents of Sebasti‡n de Belalcazar, who according to history, between 1536 and 1537 during his stay in Yumbo, planted the first sugar canes. This crop extended all over the River Cauca valley and in 1930 there were three plantations: Manuelita, Providencia and R’opaila. In the region today are 13 plantations, that produce around 90.000 tonnes daily, and are owned by 4 of the country’s economic groups: Grupo Ardila Lule, Grupo Risaralda, Grupo Federacion de Cafeteros, Grupo Corporacion Financiera del Valle. All of whom are found in the 20 most powerful economic groups in the country.


 Plantation            Founded          Owner       Daily Production in tonnes   Incauca                 1963             Ardila Lule                   15.000   
  La Caba–a               1944           Familia  Seinjet                5.200   
  MayagŸez               1937        Familia Hurtado Holgu’n          6.000   
  Central Tumaco        1963        Familia  Salcedo Borrero         2.500   
  Providencia             1926           Ardila Lule                     8.500   
  Manuelita               1964            Familia Eder                    9.000   
  Pichichi                 1941        Familia Cabal Galindo             3.500   
  Mar’a Luisa             1930          Harinera del Valle                  800   
  San Carlos             1945            Sarmiento Lora                 4.000   
  Carmelita              1950             Garrido Amezquita            2.500   
  Central Castilla       1930             Familia Caicedo Gonz‡lez    7.000   
  R’o Paila               1928            Familia Caicedo Gonz‡lez     7.000   
  Risaralda               1.973                Ardila Lule                        800  
Table created using information from research : Recuperaci—n de la Memoria Historica del Movimiento Sindical Valle del Cauca 1976-2006, (Recuperation of Historic Memory of the Sind’cate of the Cauca Valley 1976-2006) CUT Valle,  Hector Emilio Castro, Jaime Montoya,  Ana Cristina Bermudez y Lenny Giraldo.


This is the face of those who own the ancestral community territories and today concentrate on the dominion and possession of the whole geographical valley of the River Cauca, from Santander de Quilichao, in the north of the State of Cauca, crossing the flat plains of the State of the Valle del Cauca, to La Virginia, in the State of Risaralda. The area of influence covers more than 30 municipalities of Cauca, Valle del Cauca and Risaralda.
 
THE STORY OF INFILTRATION

The president, Alvaro Uribe Velez and the Minister for Social Protection, Diego Palacio,  in logical consequence with their policies of National Security, have created a new ruse in this social conflict, which deals with the story of  infiltration which even they themselves do not believe. They say themselves that social control of the whole country is in the hands of subversive organisations. It is possible that before the lack of arguments on the part of the government, before the lack of economic protection and before the devastating truth of parapolitics, the only excuse the governments has for not completing its obligations with the so-called Social State of Rights, is to argue that the legitimate and just social protests are infiltrated by the guerrillas. They have let the world know that the indigenous peoples reclaim the ancestral lands they own and for which there are treaties signed by the government and international demands such as those affected by the Interamerican Commission for Human Rights of the OEA (Comisi—n Interamericana de Derechos Humanos de la OEA), in the case of state responsibility on the massacre of the Nilo, to give just one example.


When the black Communities mobilized to stop the massacres and the irrational exploitation of the natural resources, curiously there was infiltration by insurgents. When the union members came out to call for their rights, they mobilised, using the internal and international norms of Union and Association and they did so because the guerrilla ordered them to. When the defenders of Human rights, carrying out investigations, denouncements, participate in judicial process where it is proven that the actual government is compromised with parapolitics, they are terrorists.
 
They say that the cutter’s strike is infiltrated by the insurgents, it puts into question the military control that the state has in the region and in the sugar plantations. How is it possible that in front of a military contingent of more than 1000 men, the guerrilla commanders can hold meetings with the sugar cane cutters? Could it be that the armed forces and you too are infiltrated by the guerrillas? How is it possible that before the claim for dignified salaries and lawful social benefits you illegitimize the workers with the repeated lie that they are already converted into an institutional monologue?

The Colombian people and the entire world are conscious of the lack of governability that exists today in Colombia, of the illegitimacy of its governors. During the debate in congress with Minister Diego Palacios, last Tuesday the 20th September, someone asked if in cabinet there was a minister too many and another that lacked. Minister Palacio was working as the Minister of Industry and not as the Minister for Social Protection,  who should fight for the rights of the workers.  
 
The institutional lie cannot silence the forceful truth of 14,000 sugar plantation workers, who are not asking for anything more than the minimum rights of the workers be complied with. Mr Minister for Social Protection Diego Palacio, Mr President of the Republic çlvaro Uribe Velez, Members of ASOCANA, slavery was abolished on the 1st January 1852. Therefore you will have to respond before national and international tribunals to answer for the treatment of the sugar cane workers. And in the case that negotiation is not ceded and that agreements guaranteeing the rights of the workers in the Sugar Cane Industry are not established, you will have to give to give account of the violation to the effective norms of the labor right to internal and international level.

 




Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI  53701-1505
phone:  (608) 257-8753
fax:  (608) 255-6621
e-mail:  csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net

( Translated by Eunice Gibson, a CSN volunteer translator)

Narni, October 11, 208
 
Dr. Francisco Santos
Vice President of Colombia
Nariño Palace
Bogota

fsantos@presidencia.gov.co. mailto:buzon1@presidencia.gov.co
 
Greetings:
 
From October 1 to October 6 of this year, the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó undertook a pilgrimage for life, with the participation of numerous delegations of both Colombian and international social organizations.  They included our Italian Solidarity Network and the Covenant of Sisterhood between the city governments of Alburquerque (Spain), Westelo (Belgium), Burgos (Spain) and Narni (Italy), all of them sister communities with the Peace Community.
 
The first activity that was planned was the carrying out on October 1 of silent prayer in front of the installations of the XVII Brigade of the Colombian Army, because of the repeated and unpunished violations of human rights in which members of this military garrison have been involved.  Unfortunately, in spite of the absence of any legal basis, the commander of the Brigade refused to allow the caravan to arrive at its destination.  As a result, the peaceful action of prayer and reflection had to be carried out in the middle of the highway.
 
From October 2 to October 6, the national and international pilgrims travelled around the humanitarian zones and the settlements of the Peace Community, in Mulatos, La Esperanza and La Unión.  The visitors were worried to hear the testimony of peasant farmer families about the strong presence of paramilitary groups.  They maintain their base undisturbed in the district of Nueva Antioquia, as we have complained to the Vice President on several occasions.
 
In the early days of our stay in the Peace Community, we heard reports of the presence of paramilitary groups very near the settlement of La Unión, which, as you know, was the site of atrocious massacres carried out by these armed organizations. Later, on October 4, paramilitaries halted and interrogated three members of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in the town of La Esperanza.  We happened to be there carrying out one stage of the pilgrimage for life.  After they were interrogated and threatened, in order to avoid having one of them, a member of the Internal Council of the Peace Community, be captured and taken away by the paramilitaries, the three farmers were able to reach the area where the pilgrimage members were concentrated.  The situations we have described, and the numerous testimonies of the people who live in the area, have led us to conclude that there is an intensifying paramilitary presence and that there are serious threats against the members of the Peace Community and the other inhabitants of the area.
 
In addition, Mr. Vice President, we would like to express our concern about the dangerous plans that are trying to disparage and criminalize the people who defend human rights, including the Inter-Ecclesiastical Committee for Peace and Justice and Father Javier Giraldo.  They are recognized nationally and internationally for their unconditional support for groups of people who have been particularly affected by the political violence in Colombia.  The recent telephone conversation between retired General Rito Alejo del Rio and former Minister Fernando Londoño, published by a television station, shows the two of them designing a macabre strategy that seems, at least, to have the complicity of some communications media.
 
Once again, we urge you, Mr. Vice President, to intervene so that the Colombian Government will neutralize the paramilitary base that has been established in Nueva Antioquia for years.  We also ask you respectfully to defeat the plans of disparagement and criminalization against Father Javier Giraldo and against the Inter-Ecclesiastical Committee for Peace and Justice that General Rito Alejo del Rio, from his place of imprisonment, is scheming along with his circle of friends.
 
We thank you for your attention.
 
Respectfully,
 
 
 
Dr. Andrea Proietti
President, Italian Solidarity NetworkColombia Vive!
 
Cc:
 
Dr. Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, Minister of Defense
Dr. Carlos Franco Echevarria, Director, President’s Program for Human Rights
Dr. Mario Iguarán, Prosecutor General
Dr. Edgardo Josè Maya Villazòn, Attorney General
Dr. Volmar Antonio Pèrez Ortiz, National Public Defender
Commandant, XVII Brigade, Carepa – Apartadò
Dr. Sabas Pretelt de la Vega, Colombian Ambassador to Italy
Dr. Antonio Tarelli, Italian Ambassador to Italy

 
  



















Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI  53701-1505
phone:  (608) 257-8753
fax:  (608) 255-6621
e-mail:  csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net

(Translated by Eunice Gibson, a CSN volunteer translator)
 

           As soon as the Army stopped us from going and praying in front of the 17th Brigade headquarters, we continued with our journey through the towns.  We have paid tribute and we have felt the dignity that we build every day and that we continue to sow in our community.  The organized formation of our community has allowed us to put together that trilogy that generates life:  land, nature, and community.
 
            People from a number of countries were able to appreciate the beauty of our land, but at the same time, they were able to observe that we did not lie about the actions of death and the threats to our community.  Because of those, we are obligated to make a record of new events:
 
            On October 4, we were walking around the town of La Esperanza.  Three people from the community walked for a half hour and then stopped to buy some cheese.  There were paramilitaries there, with long rifles, in camouflage, with radios.  The paramilitaries interrogated the people and they accused one of the members of our community, a member of our governing council, of being a guerrilla.  They threatened to kill him, and they threatened that in the next few weeks they would begin killing a number of people whose names they had on a list. After an argument, they let them go.  On the same day, October 4, groups of paramilitaries were found in the towns of Arenas and La Union.  They were walking around openly and threatening that they would like to finish off our community. The high officials of the Armed Forces say that paramilitaries don’t exist in this area.  They are lying again.  There are more than 600 paramilitaries walking all around our towns with the protection of the Armed Forces.
 
            On October 5, around 6 p.m., members of the Army in San Jose told several people that their central objective was to finish off this SOB peace community, the only one where they were not permitted to walk around everywhere.  The paramilitaries, on the other hand, will be able to act and thus will be able to carry out their productive plans in the area.
 
            Many people from various organizations in various countries, such as national communities, were able to bear witness to the reality of death that surrounds us.  They have been able to see how those who spread death are lying and how the paramilitaries are advancing with the support of the Armed Forces.
 
            These days of walking have allowed us to continue advancing firmly our principles in defense of our land for civilian uses. Once again we ask for national and international solidarity in the face of these threats of death and destruction against our community.
 

PEACE COMMUNITY OF SAN JOSE DE APARTADO

                                                           October 7, 2008

 



















Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI  53701-1505
phone:  (608) 257-8753
fax:  (608) 255-6621
e-mail:  csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net

• Denial of our rights as Indigenous Peoples has brought us by the road of civil resistance and peaceful protest. We demand of the State the right to Free Association, Opinion and Expression, and the right to peaceful social protest.
• The Government and State of Colombia must comply with the protection of the 18 Indigenous Peoples in danger of extinction. For this they must make an action plan with the national indigenous organizations and their indigenous authorities. We also demand of them in this regard political will and assignment of resources so that the promises may pass from paper to reality.
  

• The present government’s policy legislation has been founded on supporting measures of protection for the investment of multinational businesses to guarantee their interests. Also, it provides them with security through the militarization of territories, for example the Colombia Plan. Consequently they are founded on great policies and plans of development which exclude and violate, such as the Free Trade Agreement and IIRSA [Initiative for Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America].
• Democratic agrarian and urban reform. For distribution of property in the countryside and towns in which displaced persons, unfavoured urban and rural sectors, peasants, those of African descent and Indigenous Peoples can have land and homes. That the indigenous population, people of African descent and peasants can have restored to them the lands taken by violence or by legislative and administrative actions.
• Immediate expulsion of multinationals and transnationals from the territories, because they are the originators and accomplices of violation of the rights of the Colombian people, of massacres, insecurity before the law, and hunger, experienced by many sectors of marginalized and excluded Colombians.
• Immediate cessation of fumigation on the pretext of combating the drugs traffic, and of militarization through the programme of manual eradication.
• We mobilize for the immediate repeal of the Statute of Rural Development.
• Dismantling of the “Statute of Rural Development and Reform of INCODER [Colombian Institute for Rural Development] - Law 30”, as the greatest expression of exclusion, repression and discrimination against the Indigenous Peoples of Colombia, the purpose of which is to deny access to our territorial rights as genuine owners of these lands, and to legitimize the violence and expropriation to which we have been historically submitted.
• Immediate legalization of indigenous territories, carrying out of the agreements and decrees 2164/95, Law 160/94. We demand a budget for the territorial needs of Indigenous Peoples.
• For return of lands to peasants, indigenous people and African descendants who are at present displaced.
  

• Real dismantling of paramilitary groups. For we are still suffering their presence in our territories, those called Black Eagles and AUC [United Self-defence Forces of Colombia] among others.
• Full guarantee to the victims of the right to Truth, Justice and complete Reparation.
• Punishment of those guilty of genocide of Indigenous Peoples and social movements.
  

• On 1st November 2006 the meeting between indigenous peoples and the Colombian State broke up, for the government offered no guarantees to respect the rights of indigenous peoples. We demand full recognition of our rights enshrined in the Political Constitution of Colombia.
• To promote the declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in OEA [Organization of American States] and immediate signing of the United Nations’ declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
  

(Translated by Eunice Gibson, a CSN volunteer translator)

In the midst of the situation that our country is living through, where we see the paramilitary takeover of all government activities and their control over all aspects of society is evident, we have to continue to make a record, so that the barbarous actions that they continue to commit against our community can be judged. The events that we leave to history so that they can be prosecuted and judged some day are as follows:
 
*  On September 25 at 2 p.m., more than 200 paramilitaries arrived at the town of El Porvenir.  They were dressed in camouflage, with long guns and insignias that said AUC.  They arrived at the school, and there was a family nearby.  They told the family that they were the paramilitaries, under the command of “Giovani”.  They said that they were looking for guerrillas and for everybody that collaborated with the guerrillas and that they would kill them. They said that you people have a problem with the guerrillas, because you know very well that we don’t have any problem with the Army—we patrol together.  They warned them to be careful not to open their mouths and tell anyone that we were here.
 
*  On September 26, the paramilitaries were located all day on the road to Porvenir.  They wouldn’t let the farmers pass and they told two farmers, around 11 a.m., that the people would have to leave their farms or else they would kill them. They said the farms already belonged to them, and that they were coming to finish off the Peace Community. They fired several shots in front of the farmers, warning them that these bullets were for the people who live around here.  The town of El Porvenir is located about 45 minutes from the town of La Union, which is part of the Peace Community.
 
*  On September 25, around 2 p.m., a man was killed by the paramilitaries in the Mangolo neighborhood, near where the road goes toward San Josesito.  They fired several shots into him and left him lying in the street.
 
*  On September 14, around 10 a.m., the national and municipal officials were in San Jose and said that they community had to be exterminated.  They said they had tried everything but that up to now they had not been able to, but that now they were going to pull it off.
 
*  On September 13, at 9 a.m., in the town of La Resbaloza, Gabriel Valderrama went to milk some cows and was stopped by the Army. They would not let him pass and they told him that it would be better to leave the area unless he wanted to die.
 
On September 12, the Army entered the home of Luis Graciano in La Resbaloza.  They tore everything up and stole all of their chickens.
 
*  On September 15 at 2 p.m., in the school at la Resbaloza, Uberto Higuita was detained by soldiers who told him that he would be a good one to have his head cut off, and the same for the other people of that SOB Peace Community.  And they told him that they ought to be well aware that they don’t need gunfire to kill people.  It could be done better with knives.
 
It’s evident that the terror and death that they are spreading in the area, the plans for destruction and the efforts to finish us off are not going to stop. Nevertheless, we continue firm in our principles.  We believe that the people who continue to walk with us in many places in the word, will not allow this search for dignity to be annihilated by those who spread death.
 
Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado
 
September 27, 2008
 







Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI  53701-1505
phone:  (608) 257-8753
fax:  (608) 255-6621
e-mail:  csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net