(Translated by Eunice Gibson, CSN volunteer translator)
1. Land, territories held collectively, and land ownership system
The country needs a land ownership system where the communities that want to redefine the manner in which production is organized will be able to distribute use of the land, regulate use of the subsoil, and protect the air, water, strategic ecosystems and the way of life of farming communities. That system will focus on harmonizing the conservation of nature with the food production needs of agricultural communities.
Because of the foregoing, we demand:
-That the communities and the people be the ones who decide which should be the uses of the land and the manners of living there, conserving it, and caring for it, based on the worldviews of the people and the farming communities, and in agreement with a policy that includes and respects ethnic, regional, and production differences and that guarantees legal certainty for individual and collective land ownership.
The land ownership system that we demand would have as its base respect for the decisions and the collective concepts of self-government and defense of the land, including:
Indigenous reservations and ancestral territories
Land owned collectively by Afro-Colombians
Areas reserved for campesinos
Areas for agri-food industries
Areas for bio-diversity
Areas that are inter-ethnic and inter-cultural
Other ways in which communities control land use.
All of these will have the character of inalienable rights that can never be forfeited.
The organizations, communities, authorities, and peoples that are mobilized or who by their own choice are included in the process, will develop our own route to deciding on the terms of the land ownership system that will guarantee permanence in land use and inter-ethnic and inter-cultural living together. This path of our own is part of an initiative for peace, propelled by campesino, indigenous, Afro and urban-public organizations that are taking part in the process.
-That the national government provide guarantees for the preparation of this route to a land ownership system and that the above-mentioned concepts be set forth in Colombian law and be regulated in conformity with the decisions of the organizations, peoples and participating communities; including constitutional recognition of campesino and Afro –Colombian collective land ownership.
-An integrated agricultural reform policy that will redistribute and make property ownership democratic, that will dismantle the large neglected landed estate system as a historical expression of inequality and create safe and certain access to land for those who have none, along with a guarantee of land autonomy for campesinos, indigenous people and Afro-Colombian people. That agricultural reform policy should be put together by working with rural and urban-public organizations.
-This policy should have a territorial focus and not just simply of access to land. Hence it should not be limited to just giving land to rural communities, but rather the entirety of common property that is found in the rural territories and in the margins between the urban and the rural areas should be redistributed. That will assure coverage, guarantees and access for indigenous people, Afro-Colombians, campesinos and the urban public.
– Creation of a land fund that is fed by the territories that were plundered, that were property of drug traffickers or that do not serve the property’s social function, or on which there has been an attempt to use it for an unnatural use (the case of the marshes and the beaches) and the idle land appropriated illegally by industrial agriculture.
-That the historical rights of indigenous people, the Raizal community (native islanders), and the Afro-Colombian community to their territories, and especially to the inalienable collective property of the reservations for indigenous people, ancestral territories and the lands of the Afro-Colombian communities be recognized.
-That the unfinished procedures for collective land titling for indigenous and Afro-Colombian people be completed.
-That all of the plans and projects that threaten the enjoyment by communities of their land be halted. That includes surface rights and the commerce in coal that favors national and foreign businesses in the territories and lands belonging to campesinos, indigenous and Afro-Colombian people. We consider these measures to be another means of victimizing the people.
-That the legal rule that substantive rights prevail over procedure be applied to the territories of the indigenous, Afro-Colombian and campesino communities in cases where there are disputes with transnationals, absentee landlords and those who would steal land rights.
-That prior consultation and the free and informed prior consent requirements be extended to the campesino communities, extending the application of Convention 169 of the OIT (International Labor Organization).
-That the massive land purchases made by businesses that have violated Statute #160 of 1994, acquiring more than the UAF (Agricultural Family Units) authorized by that law, be declared null and void.
-That uncultivated land be used exclusively to guarantee the right of campesinos, rural workers and indigenous and Afro-Colombian peoples to have land.
-That all forms of “foreignization” of land be forbidden. In no case should a natural person or a legal entity of foreign origin be allowed to appropriate, use, or rent land surfaces or create any kind of tenancy on the land.
-Compliance with and strengthening of legislation related to condemnation of land that does not carry out the social and environmental purpose of the property.
-The complete restitution of lands that have been stolen from families, communities and people who have been victims of forced displacement, keeping in mind the focus on collective ownership and communitarian emphasis in such reparation procedures.
-The return of lands seized from campesinos for nonpayment of debts.
-Recognition of the different focus and recognizing the perspective of gender toward access, use, and enjoyment of the territory and the land by women.
-Creation of new public procedures in order to carry out the new land ownership system, agricultural reform and environmental protection.
2. An Economy of Ownership Versus the Model of Plunder.
The advance and intensification of the neoliberal model has done serious damage to the national economy, especially to the means of production, marketing and consumption for the campesino, indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities. It has negatively affected the food sovereignty of the people and of the nation. The rules that govern the free market have created a model of plunder that affects decent living for small producers and favors the interests of absentee landlords and agricultural multinationals. As a result, not only the economic interests of rural communities are affected, but also their cultural practices and their way of life.
Because of the foregoing, we demand:
-The transformation of the production model of this country, leading to a planned and agro-ecological policy that regulates the market, and is based on strengthening the campesino, indigenous and Afro-Colombian economy. This new model should lead to a campesino economic system that develops a public policy of recovering the Colombian countryside from the damage created by the free trade and the “opening up” policies.
-Implementation of a policy that restricts and regulates the use and price of agricultural chemicals, as well as undertaking a process of reconversion of national production toward an agro-ecological model, creating a national system of technical assistance based on respect for the environment and the traditional wisdom of peoples and their communities.
-Forgiveness of debts and rescission of attachments on the lands and properties of campesinos, where the attachments were achieved through the existing financial system, and access to agricultural credit at rates that are not determined by the rationale of the market.
-Creation and strengthening of credit unions for campesinos and rural communities, financed by the government and directed by community organizations.
-Removing the investment, intellectual property and service provisions from all of the free trade agreements signed by Colombia, and holding up the approval of new regulations, treaties and international cooperation agreements that weaken national agricultural production.
-A system of subsidies that protect national production, especially in the sectors affected by the “opening up”. Under the system the government should establish prices that support reasonable and reliable income from crops. Along with that, we demand the creation of a system of government purchase and distribution of food and agricultural products, as well as establishment of subsidies for the transportation of food and other products for campesino, indigenous, and Afro-Colombian communities.
-A plan that will have an impact, stimulating the production of basic food crops by small producers. It should have as its base the support of the campesino economy along the lines proposed in the previous paragraph. Along with that, the campesino and local markets should be strengthened. The purpose would be regional integration, in the framework of fair trade practices and eliminating the concept of middlemen.
-A policy of support and transformation of food and agricultural products from the rural communities, creating industrialization processes in accordance with the communities’ interests.
-Prohibition of importation of strategic agricultural products into the national economy.
-Repeal of intellectual property laws affecting seeds (patent rights affecting plants), that favor privatization. That will keep the government from persecuting campesinos who keep, save and exchange seeds. We demand that Laws 1032/2006 and 1518/2012 not be applied and that Resolution 970 of the Colombian Agriculture Institute (ICA is the Spanish acronym.) be repealed.
-Creation of a national, regional, and local system to promote and support the production, selection, multiplication, and diffusion of original seeds. The system should not require registration as intellectual property nor impose regulations that control their production, free circulation and marketing by campesino, indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities. There should also be decentralized economic and technical support for the establishment of safe storage locations for seeds, managed and controlled by agricultural organizations and communities.
-Focus university investigative and academic projects according to the context and the needs of Colombian agriculture, especially the needs of small producers, recognizing and articulating the ancestral and historical wisdom and knowledge of campesinos and indigenous and Afro-Colombian people.
-Improvement in the protection of national food sovereignty according to local needs. Food sovereignty should be declared a public utility, a social interest in the common good for the nation.
-Regulation of Chapter VII of Law 70 as it relates to fostering the development of collective and traditional Afro-Colombian territories. Such regulation should be done with prior consultation and free and informed consent of the people.
-Financing for the agricultural sector, particularly to strengthen the small and medium-sized producers, especially of food crops, by means of a national fund, with resources from, among others, elimination of tax exemptions for big businesses that use national and international capital, as well as the exploitation of mining resources.
3. Mining, energy and rural culture
The poor management and plundering of mining and energy-related natural resources affect Mother Earth and rural communities seriously. It creates environmental impacts that put at risk our biodiversity and the lives of the people. It persecutes and criminalizes the small miners and it only benefits the transnational businesses that are enriched thanks to the economic model pushed by the Colombian government. In that framework, we repeat the necessity of building a new mining-energy model, based on national sovereignty, planned uses, the development of local technology, environmental protection and the redistribution of earnings generated by mining and energy activities.
Because of the foregoing, we demand:
-The beginning of a democratic process to discuss a new national mining-energy policy, with effective participation of the campesino, indigenous, Afro-Colombian communities, and small traditional miners for their survival, through the exercise of inclusive legislation supported by the people.
-We demand the formulation of a new model for redistribution of oil and mining-energy earnings, with the goal of encouraging, advancing, and investing in rural and urban development and obtaining greater resources for social investment and for guaranteeing the rights of the communities.
-Stop granting mining titles and awarding oil fields until there can be an agreement with the rural communities and the workers on a mining-energy policy for the country.
-A mining moratorium that would freeze the awarding of mining titles all over the country. The moratorium should apply until there are real conditions placed on mining that are reasonable for the country and the communities.
-Return of the oil fields and the concessions granted to the multinationals in cases of serious environmental deterioration that is detrimental to national resources, and where there has been violation of workers’ rights.
-Return of all the mining titles that have been approved in ancestral, indigenous and Afro-Colombian territories without carrying out free and informed prior consultation.
-That new mining titles not be approved in ancestral territories, nor in indigenous and Afro-Colombian territories, without compliance with the requirement of consultation in which the established right of the ethnic communities to be the beneficiaries of the concessions is respected, and without furnishing guarantees for artisanal mining.
-Permit the consideration of mining as an activity that is a public utility and in the country’s social interest.
-That in the development of mining policy, strict respect for water, for the páramos (unique mountain ecosystems), forests, protected areas, biodiversity and food production areas, water sources, and all of the strategic ecosystems that support life and biodiversity be guaranteed. In consideration of the foregoing, no mining title in these zones should be approved.
-That in no case should mining-energy projects (titles, concessions and the like) be approved without the requirement of a social license, that is to say, without the authorization based on completed consultations with campesinos and members of the public in the territories that could be affected. Such consultations must be carried out during the application phase of the project, title, or concession.
-Suspend the implementation of hydroelectric megaprojects that affect the territories and communities of campesinos, indigenous, and Afro-Colombian people. Instead promote the implementation of alternatives that supply energy using appropriate and clean technology.
-Revoke the environmental licenses of hydroelectric megaprojects until there is a national dams commission that would guarantee compliance with the demands of those affected by the hydroelectric project.
-Restructuring the formula that determines fuel prices, so as to guarantee a cost of living that is fairer for all of the people, and to achieve environmental regulation of extraction, processing and marketing of hydrocarbons.
-Recognize and provide reparations for the victims and those affected by mining-energy and hydroelectric projects.
Suspend fracking projects, applying the principle of precaution.
4. Plantings of coca, marijuana, and poppies (used for making opium or heroin)
Because of the failure and arbitrariness of the anti-drug policy of the Colombian government, we believe it is crucial to redefine the features that have shaped the treatment of coca, marijuana and poppy crops.
Because of the foregoing, we demand:
-Compliance with the commitments made in the organizing processes with the representatives of the growers of coca, marijuana and poppies in their previous mobilizations.
-A program for social, gradual, agreed, structured and environmental crop substitution that will permit generation of an alternative source of income instead of the income from crops used illegally, such as coca, marijuana and poppies. Such a program should be systematic and emphasize land use planning, agreed-upon procedures, schedules and techniques, with the participation of farming communities and their representative organizations. It should be based on the acknowledgment, formulation, and carrying out of plans for sustainable development, complete and life-giving.
-A program for substitution of coca, marijuana and poppy plants that will take the place of violent programs of eradication and spraying with glyphosate. Those programs are an attack on the life and health of farming, indigenous, Afro-Colombian and campesino communities.
-Releasing the prisoners prosecuted for growing marijuana, coca and poppies. Their actions were not directly related to the marketing of illegal drugs.
-Stop seizing lands used to grow marijuana, coca, and poppies.
-A policy of gradual substitution that will have social investment in the community and will foster alternative crops proposed by the campesinos as its base. We reject substitution based on the imposition of agro-industrial crops such as oil palms, rubber, and the like.
-A substitution policy based on the promotion of productive crops that are part of the campesino economy and can be marketed. They should have crop insurance for the short, medium, and long run. The plans should be based on two guiding principles: the first is the design and implementation of sustainable productive systems and the second is stabilization and assurance that rights are respected.
-Substitution programs based on the stabilization of sustainable productive systems, paying attention to six lines of action: access to land, sustainable productive systems, improvement of infrastructure, transforming the aggregation of land value, access to technical assistance and technology, and access to markets.
-Respect and fortify the traditional medicinal, food, and industrial uses for coca leaves, poppies, and marijuana, within the framework of the productive systems of the agricultural communities.
-Substitution must be managed by the communities and agricultural organizations (indigenous, Afro-Colombian and campesino). It will be the communities that drive the plans for substitution, not the national government.
-Implement plans for agricultural investment that come from the farming communities, with guarantees for production.
-The government must respect and promote production and industrialization of foods and medicines based on the coca, poppy, and marijuana crops.
-Ensure that information is distributed nationally by all available media to inform, educate and train communities on the use of the sacred ancestral plants and everything related to growing coca, poppies, and marijuana.
-No patents shall be granted for coca, marijuana and poppy plants and products derived from processes using them.
-Drug consumption shall be treated as a public health issue, with admission to the public health system.
5. Political rights, guarantees, victims and justice
Owing to the lack of political recognition of the rights of the campesinos, and to the insufficient guarantees of the rights of Afro-Colombians and indigenous people, the high number of violations of human rights, the failure of protection for social and civil groups, the constant stigmatization, persecution and criminalization of those who mobilize to work for a society with peace and justice, we continue to fight for respect for our rights and to demand minimum guarantees that we will be able to live in a democratic society.
Because of the foregoing, we demand:
-The truth, justice and complete reparation for the violations of human rights perpetrated against the farming and civilian communities, with no repetition of such practices.
-Complete dismantling of the paramilitary organizations and the prosecution of their members. There must be international oversight and the creation of a truth commission, so as to carry out effective investigations that reveal the connections between the economic, political and military sectors with the paramilitaries.
-Creation of a truth commission and a policy of recovering the historical memory of the violations of human rights. There must be a search for the truth, for justice, and reparation and its results must be distributed far and wide. The policy must guarantee psychosocial and pedagogical accompaniment, as well as recognition not just of the communities that were harmed but also the associations of victims, in an agreed-upon manner.
-Guarantees for permanence in the territories, especially for the campesino, indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities.
-Justice, truth, complete reparation and no repetition for the people who were arrested, injured and murdered by the government in connection with social mobilizations.
-Guarantees of the right to social protest and guarantees for mobilization, as well as immediate liberty of persons arrested in the protests and for the political prisoners, and that social protest not be repressed by the military or by intimidation.
-Speed and effectiveness in the investigations and judicial procedures that affect those responsible for serious violations of human rights and broad distribution of their results.
-Transfer of all investigations of extrajudicial executions being conducted by the military justice system to the Human Rights and International Human Rights unit in the Attorney General’s Office.
Investigation, prosecution and punishment of the perpetrators, as well as acknowledgement of the government’s responsibility for the 19 homicides and nearly a thousand injuries that took place during the mobilizations of the agricultural strike and the minga (protest movement) of 2013, thus defending their memory and guaranteeing their rights to truth, justice and reparation, as well as assistance for the families of the victims.
-Structural solution of the prison crisis and declaration of a social emergency that will serve to reform the current criminal policy based on the deprivation of liberty, the criminalization of poverty and social protest. We demand other guarantees of civil liberty, leading to a policy focused on prevention of crime, social inclusion and respect for rights.
-Abolish the misnamed “social cleansing” carried out principally against young people by government officials and paramilitary structures and impose exemplary punishments on those responsible.
-Legal and administrative protection for the exercise of politics and for opposition.
-Repeal of the law of citizen security and immediate liberty for all those prosecuted or condemned under the law.
-Dismantle ESMAD (Mobile Anti-Disturbance Squadron) and prohibit the use of the misnamed “weapons with reduced lethality.”
-Eliminate the doctrine of national security and instruct the armed forces in a doctrine based on respect for human rights and for the defense of the country.
-Reform the system of military service, ending mandatory military service, prohibit forced recruitment, and guarantee the application of the court decisions on conscientious objection. Require that civilian authorities perform disciplinary and criminal investigations of members of security forces that carry out forced recruitment, in the country as well as in the city. In addition, we demand universal access to the Military ID card for young people and people whose military situation is unresolved, and its elimination as a prerequisite for any government processing.
-Equality of political, social and economic rights between men and women, from a perspective of gender and of sexual and reproductive liberty. This will assure equal political participation in decisions on matters that affect their lives.
-Real guarantees that the bodies of women and girls do not continue to be an instrument, nor regarded as spoils of war.
-Statutory definitions providing that the murder of a woman is a separate and distinct crime.
-Effective application of Law 1257/2008 and an end to violence against women.
-Enforced recognition of the rights enshrined in the projected declaration of the rights of campesinos that the United Nations is considering; we demand that the Colombian government adopt the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People, in a complete and peremptory manner. We demand that these rights and requirements be incorporated in internal legislation, and the development of public policies that guarantee their promotion and enforceability. While preparations are being completed for carrying out the previous demand, we look for the development of a transition policy that favors campesinos, and indigenous and Afro-Colombian people.
-Wide participation, effective and decisive, in the planning and decision stages for the policy on agricultural production and rural development for the campesino and community organizations, by means of procedures decided in an autonomous manner. We demand the real democratization of the National Federation of Coffee-Growers and of other federations. We demand the effective decision-making participation in the councils and boards of the governmental entities that have to do with matters affecting the rural population.
-Granting recognition and enforceable guarantees of the right of free and informed prior consultation and consent for the campesino, indigenous, Afro-Colombian and urban communities on projects and standards that affect them socially, politically, environmentally, economically, and culturally.
-Guarantees for an honest and genuine policy of restitution of lands that have been stolen, as well as recognition of territories that are sacred to indigenous people.
-Absolute compliance with Orders 004 and 005 of Decision T-025/2004, relative to the situation in which the indigenous and Afro-Colombian people are in danger of disappearing.
-Respect for International Human Rights, including the prohibition of locating police stations and military bases within urban and populated areas, as well as respect for the International Human Rights principle of distinction, seeking not to involve the civilian population in armed conflicts. This includes ceasing the persecution of the civilian population with false criminal charges.
-Acknowledgement, and cessation of targeting and persecution of those who defend human rights, and of social and civil leaders.
-Dismantling, suppressing, and legal regulation of the concept of military criminal privilege, an end to the application of the concept of a legitimate target, extrajudicial executions (false positives) and similar arbitrary actions.
-Democratization of existing communications media, as well as strengthening of alternative , community, regional, and local media. Also the creation of new communications media with broad diffusion and participation of the people.
-Democratization of the electromagnetic spectrum.
6. Social rights
For the Afro-Colombian and indigenous people and for campesino communities, education, health, employment, decent housing and recreation will be thought of as rights, not as services, and they will be developed according to the needs and realities of the communities.
Because of the foregoing, we demand:
-An increase in budget items for social and infrastructure investment and funding for education, housing, health, highways, production, electricity networks, basic sanitation, water and sewer service in rural areas.
-An education policy that is inclined toward a view of public education aimed at campesinos, and that permits campesino students to receive an education that suits their realities and their needs. The foregoing implies the construction of a curriculum and a pedagogy that is differentiated according to the territories, with decision-making participation of the campesino communities and their organizations. We also demand better teacher training and improving teacher training facilities in rural areas.
-Repeal of Legislative Act 01 of 2001, which modifies Articles 347, 356 and 357 of the Colombian Constitution related to education; Law 715 of 2001 and Law 1294 of 2010, which call for privatization of health and education, making them into services and not rights.
-Repeal of Law 30 of 1992 on higher education and working with society to draft a new public education law, free and high in quality, a law that recognizes education as a fundamental right for the common good and with a different focus.
-Forgiveness and freezing of the Icetex debts, focusing on the subsidy given to bids.
-Carrying out and guaranteeing the programs of local education for Afro-Colombian towns and communities of blacks and indigenous people.
-Recognition and full support for the practice, financial support and promotion of ancestral medicine as part of a new health system.
-Implementation of plans for preventive medicine, in rural areas as well as urban areas, according to the cultural practices of every community and region.
-That health care no longer be conceived of as commerce or a business, but rather recognized as a fundamental human right. We demand the repeal of every regulation that mercantilizes health and denies the guarantee of this right. Among those are Articles 48 and 49 of the Constitution, Law 100 of 1993 and the pending health and social security bill.
-An end to the policy of subsidizing demand and the installation of a policy of subsidizing supply in health and education; a new budgetary policy that strengthens educational institutions at all levels and that removes the network of hospitals from the crisis that has systematically weakened it by the actions of the national government since 1993; the end of the intervention of private finance in health and education; the repeal of Law 100 and the New Statutory Law, as well as consultation with society on new health legislation that will completely guarantee fundamental rights and that would contain different provisions for rural areas.
-The fundamental right to decent employment, by means of direct hiring, guaranteed working conditions, attention to and protection for free association, strikes, and reparations for persons who are harassed.
-The creation of a social security system for campesinos, indigenous people and Afro-Colombians, that provides pensions as well as insurance for work injuries.
-A progressive plan for access and complete coverage of the rural population by the system of basic, middle, and higher education, a plan that is responsive to and preserves the identity of agricultural communities and sustainability of their ways of life.
-Immediate hiring of teachers who are qualified to provide the education that agricultural communities need, complete with working conditions and rights.
-An end to privatization and returning to municipal management of services for basic hygiene, pure water and sewer service with social standards; that the community water service be managed by the communities, using social and not business criteria; pure water provided as a right for the common good.
-Repeal of Law 142, which permits privatization of water service.
-Forgiveness of debts of users of public services and lifting of the attachments that have been made to collect those debts.
-Guarantee of a free minimum subsistence payment for rural and urban communities and the implementation of community oversight for the furnishing of public services.
-Rural electric and potable water services for locations that still do not have these services.
-Massive programs of decent rural housing, technical education and access to higher education. We demand the guarantee of rights for rural workers, decent jobs with fair wages and social security.
-That schools, hospitals, and community meeting spaces not be occupied by armed actors, and that their construction not be based on strategic interests of war and battle.
-Respect for communitarian property in the administration of spaces for recreation and public services. These must be communitarian initiatives, intended to maintain their social function.
-Infrastructure must be constructed for the benefit of the communities, with consensus, and not against their interests, nor against Mother Earth, nor for military exercises.
7. Relations Between City and Country
The current configuration of city-country relations demands an immediate and definite response on the part of social movements. The traditional distinction between city and country has generated huge social and economic problems, in which we see a relation of subordination by the country to the city. In that vein, it is critical to eliminate the false and predictable barriers between city and country, in order to advance the assurance of an alliance of the people through new alternative models of land use.
Because of the foregoing, we demand:
-Protection of every water source in the country, especially those that furnish water to large cities. We demand public and community management of water resources and the dismantling of the megaprojects that threaten water resources, their purity, and their distribution. We demand that the government guarantee the financing and administration of community water systems.
-Universal coverage by public utilities for residents of Colombia, and forgiveness of debts contracted by Colombian citizens for such services.
-A new schedule of rates for public utility services with rates corresponding to real costs, with increased subsidies from the government and without including any costs for speculation in net interest margins.
-A halt to the privatization of institutions that lend to public utilities and that are governmental in nature, with oversight by the communities.
-In the cities, especially in the larger capitals, there need to be agreements between the municipalities and the rural areas that provide their food. Such agreements or alliances should have as a priority the links to the agricultural areas, to the campesino reserves, to the Afro-Colombian and indigenous reservations, and to ancestral territories, as food suppliers and for support of the campesino economy. These agreements should function within the framework of regional agreements for food sovereignty and, if necessary, through association with municipalities (as is provided in the Colombian Constitution). Such agreements should be guided by principles of solidarity and their own economy; with that in mind, there has to be recognition by the government of the public market plazas.
-Investment in secondary and tertiary roads for the full exercise of provisioning from country to city.
-Redefinition of criteria for property tax rates; higher rates for large landowners and lower rates for small owners.
-We demand guarantees for the return to the country of those people who live in cities because of displacement, whether they were displaced by violence of by the construction of megaprojects. In the same way we demand that every assurance is provided for those people who decide not to return to the country. We demand that the government recognize the problems created for cities by the models that result in the plundering of the rural sector.
We demand complete urban reform, including:
-Decent housing and surroundings guaranteed by the government. It must contain the critical minimum of public utility services with rates that consumers can pay, in harmony with the environment.
-Dismantling of financial speculation and of land use controlled by the market.
-Legalization of squatter settlements and ending the arbitrary displacement by the government.
-Creating an organic law that sets up a system for urban land use planning. The system must include the participation of communities and public groups and have as its base the different kinds of land use and different ways of life.
-Community participation in decision-making and creation of urban policies, budget planning and/or direction of public resources, for the preparation of development and governmental plans. As part of that, we demand prior binding consultation with the communities.
-Transformation of the model of urban mobility that hampers the privatization of public transportation, with a reduction in fares, and including the implementation of plans for mobility alternatives.
8. Peace, Social Justice and a Political Solution
The previous reasoning and proposals for the country constitute in part the agenda for peace that the social, agrarian and people’s movements are seeking. Our agenda for peace is seeking social justice and a decent life in the rural areas.
Because of the foregoing we demand:
-The political solution to the social conflict and the armed conflict. The advance in the dialogs that are going on in Havana between the government and the FARC-EP; a bilateral cease-fire and the installation of dialogs between the national government, the ELN, and the EPL.
-The rural communities, who are familiar with the harshness and the horror of the social conflict and the armed conflict in their worst manifestations, demand to be participants in the negotiation processes and we propose, we demand that no one get up from the negotiation table.
-Implementation of an integrated peace policy, created by the social and people’s movements and financed by the national government.
-Guarantees for a grand national dialog, one that is expressed in the opening of regional dialogs in those territories where the war continues must relentlessly.
-The demilitarization of indigenous, campesino, Afro-Colombian, urban and university territories and respect for autonomy in those territories that are still in the midst of the social and armed conflict.
-Elimination of the doctrine of national security. Along with that, a reduction in military forces, purging of the military forces, immediate withdrawal of foreign military bases from the country, an end to military treaties such as NATO, repeal of the citizens’ security law and dismantling of intelligence and counterintelligence plans.
-Restructure of the national budget and limits to military spending. Defense expenses cannot be greater than social investment.
-Assurance that organizations, processes and movements can carry out their organizational and political activities for building a social movement for peace; and particularly, dismantling paramilitarism, which we consider to be a mechanism for the exercise of state terrorism.
-Guarantees for the advance of a constituent process for democracy, social justice and peace.
– (This translation may be reprinted as long as its content remains unaltered and the source, author and translator are cited/ Esta traducción se puede reproducir si su contenido permanence sin alterar, y si se citan la fuente, el autor y el traductor)
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