( Translated by Stacey Schlau, a CSN Volunteer Translation)
CHANGE OF DATES. BOGOTA, March 15, 16, 17, 2014. We, the indigenous peoples, Afro-Colombian people, peasants, fisherfolk, small miners, and other sectors of the people who are connected to the rural areas of Colombia, convoke the National Agrarian Summit: Peasant, Ethnic, and of the People, which will take place in Bogotá, with the goal of advancing the construction of our process of unity.
National Agrarian Summit: Peasant, Ethnic, and of the People
BOGOTÁ, March 15, 16, 17, 2014
-CONVOCATION-
We, the indigenous peoples, Afro-Colombian people, peasants, fishermen, small miners, and other sectors of the people who are connected to the rural areas of Colombia, convoke the National Agrarian Summit: Peasant, Ethnic, and of the People, which will take place in Bogotá, with the goal of advancing the construction of our process of unity.
Last December, 2013, a large group of representatives of our popular and agrarian organizations met in Bogotá in the Agrarian Pre-Summit, to evaluate the recent occasion of work stoppages and agrarian and popular mobilization. At that meeting, the group of leading participants in the social struggle and the important task of mobilization who had come together in August were greeted and were recognized. At the same time we denounced the persecution to which we are subjected because of our actions aimed at protecting our rights and at transformation, through the penalizing and criminalizing of our actions. An example of this is the scandalous number of assassinations of members of the Colombian social movements recently denounced by the Marcha Patriotica (Patriotic March), the violation of citizens’ political rights by ESMAD (the anti-riot police) and the Colombian army, and the disqualifications for ideologically biased reasons by the Inspector General against the Mayor of Bogotá, university professors, y social leaders.
We also recognized the right we have to demand that political negotiation with the Colombian guerrillas FARC-EP continue and be fruitful, and that the process of approaching the ELN and EPL continue, as a fundamental step toward the complex construction of Peace with Social Justices among Colombians. We oppose the current model that continues to impoverish and rob us: the new Agrarian Pact proposed by the government is nothing more than a deepening of robbery and exploitation, a Project intended to deceive millions of rural families, so that they sign deceitful alliances with business owners who exploit our work, and who appropriate for themselves our lands and territories.
So, conscious that the cause of our problems is the public policy that the Colombian government has implemented over the years, but even more, of the importance of our role in the necessary transformation of our country, we call for a unity of perceptions, ways of living, and kinds of work in the popular and social movements, at the Agrarian Summit: Peasant, Ethnic, and of the People.
The Agrarian Summit: Peasant, Ethnic, and of the People intends to be the point of contact for the various agrarian and popular sectors, mediating our debates and creating a unified program in which we declare our agenda for political and social action with a unified spirit. We seek to establish those characteristics, mechanisms, and means of dialogue and negotiation that offer possibilities, guarantees, and permanence to our social processes, and to all rural Colombians. It is not the fragmenting of our struggles, but rather the mutual understanding of our experiences, that will give us the strength to transform our nation.
Our path is oriented toward respecting the right of the people to define the use of the land and which crops to grow, strengthen participatory processes, and those of inter-ethnic and intercultural dialogue, and guarantee the right to food sovereignty and autonomy, as well as the right to prior consultation with informed free consent of Afro and indigenous peoples, and of peasants.
It is evident that the Colombian government lacks the political will to move forward to comply with the accords worked out with all popular actors in the rural sector of the country. Therefore, we propose to continue transforming our process of the Agrarian Summit into a decision-making body representative of our communities and organizations, with the capacity for dialogue and making alliances with other popular sectors, in order to mobilize for our rights and to defend the project of a just, inclusive, and egalitarian nation.
Because of all this, we invite all to participate in the Agrarian Summit: Peasant, Ethnic, and of the People, which will take place on March 15, 16 and 17, 2014 in the city of Bogotá.
“To strengthen the people’s proposals and advance unity, we move toward the
Agrarian Summit: Peasant, Ethnic, and of the People”
CONVENING ORGANIZATIONS:
MINGA INDÍGENA SOCIAL Y POPULAR
MESA NACIONAL DE UNIDAD AGRARIA – (MUA)
COALICIÓN DE MOVIMIENTOS Y ORGANIZACIONES SOCIALES DE COLOMBIA- (COMOSOC)
COORDINACIÓN NACIONAL DE ORGANIZACIONES Y MOVIMIENTOS SOCIALES Y POLÍTICOS
MOVIMIENTO POR LA CONSTITUYENTE POPULAR (MCP)
DIGNIDAD AGROPECUARIA
For more information, contact:
comunicacionescumbre@gmail.com or the websites of the conveners.
(This translation may be reprinted as long as its content remains unaltered and the source, author and translator are cited.)