Projecting La Memoria in South West Colombia

Trujillo´s challenge of resistance for life. digniy and the fight against impunity.

It is Friday in Trujillo, Valle de Cauca and a collection of youths are finishing a week’s work of repairs to the sculptures of their Garden of Memorial. In this small town over 350 have been assassinated or forcefully disappeared in a plague of paramilitary and state violence. Two more disappeared the night before I arrived in the town. There are believed to be many more victims that have not been reported due to fear of reprisals, one relative described it as the “law of silence”. But the victims of Trujillo refuse to let the memory die. Their hillside memorial shouts loudly across the town below. The psychology behind it is as audacious as it is ambitious.

The town lies in a mountainous drug trafficking corridor linking the east of the country to the Pacific port of Buenaventura. According to those I spoke to, there exists a powerful local “mafia” of paramilitaries, narco-traffickers, landowners, and local political and armed functionaries. It is common knowledge that the State is working hand in glove with more illicit actors and there are many accounts of the army brigade, based in neighboring Buga, entering the town by jeep at night and rounding up victims.

Impunity

After the massacre carried out by the Colombian Army in 1990, Trujillo became the first Colombian case to be brought before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. It is becoming increasingly necessary to seek trans-national paths to justice while the state maintains a de facto policy of impunity. The much hated ‘Justice and Peace Law´ offers knock down sentences, releases and special prisons for paramilitary leaders in exchange for the appearance of `demobilization´. The process has been condemned for not meeting international standard on truth, justice, and reparation by countless national and international bodies including Amnesty International.

Concrete sculptures depict the lives and work of the victims below a plaque with their names. Most of the artists are children or relatives of the dead. Many of the tombs are empty (save personal artifacts and gifts) as the victims have either disappeared or mutilated beyond recognition. Ágata was visiting the memorial with her grandaughter. One evening in 1989 her 18 year old son disappeared and they were never able to find a body. Every night she asks herself where he is. Ágata is by no means alone in Colombia, a country which has seen 40,000 political assassinations and over 7,000 forced disappearances since 1980.

Resistence

Towards the back of the garden stands the 7 countries wall; a part circle wall that links up with 7 other walls worldwide to make a whole. Inset to this monument are 7 boxes that once contained artifacts from the respective countries. Paramilitaries have since shot through the glass and taken the items. The mourners see this as proof that the garden presents a threat to their reign of terror.

The late parish priest, Father Tiberio Fernández Mafla, is a heroic and well remembered figure in the town. In his final Sunday service he said “If my blood helps Trujillo to dawn and flower in peace, I will gladly spill it.” By Tuesday he was found dead, beheaded and chopped into several pieces. Chainsaws are a favorite for the “paras”. Another family member told how one victim was made to drink bleach. Methods of torture are brutal and designed to act as social deterrents.

Memorial coordinator Sister Maritze has seen many corpses in her time. She has an inspiring energy and warmth. “We are fighting to keep the memory alive and fighting against the impunity” she exclaimed. In Colombia this is effectively a political act. Perhaps this explains why this short, grey haired nun is having to change e mail accounts for the fourth time because her communications are being intercepted and blocked.

Recording La Memoria

Much of the work of Colombian human rights NGOs is concerned with recording these crimes for posterity, justice and the hope that they will not be repeated. This is the thinking behind the ambitious multi-volume project `Colombia Nunca Mas´ (Colombia Never Again). The books chart the atrocities of the State and paramilitaries between 1965 and 2000 and frame them in their historical and social context. Each 500 plus page volume covers a zone that corresponds to a brigade of the Colombian Army. The crimes of the insurgency are not included because it is the job of the State to investigate these – who otherwise investigates state terror? The latest such project is the Banco de Datos (Data Bank), a regionalized, multi- organisational project to gather and present contemporary breeches of human rights (by all parties) for access on the internet. The reliance on newspaper reports has traditionally proved both incomplete and one sided. All too often the tendency is to act as a mouthpiece for statements from the Army command.

Frederico coordinates youth arts projects. I met him at the opening of La Galería de Memoria Padre Tiberio Fernández Mafla (The Galery of Memory – named after the mytred priest of Trujillo). Frederico was one of two survivors of a group of 11 who were kidnapped and tortured. His hands bear the scars of being fed into a coffee processing machine. “But well, I go on living“, he smiled “and now with greater purpose and inspiration”. The Gallery is a space for the historical memory of crimes against humanity in South West Colombia. It is sustained by victims and human rights groups. Using artistic expression, testimonies and photos it aims to fight against impunity and for social justice. The psychological and emotional benefit of this is obvious. During the ceremony one of the victims (standing next to a photo of her murdered father) gave a tearful thank you:
“Spaces like this are incredibly important for us so that the memory lives on. We simply cannot carry on in the absence of justice without your solidarity”

Trujillo´s challenge of resistance for life. digniy and the fight against impunity.
Reparación Integral

The aspirations of these brave individuals do not stop with la memoria or even la justicia. They are also demanding integral reparation: psychosocial, political, organizational, economic, environmental and cultural. The National Movement of Victims of State Crimes believes that reparation should reflect the completeness of the harm suffered by the victim. One the one hand it should understand the need of individuals for indemnification and re-adaptation. Conversly, it should assure more general measures of reparation - such as satisfactory guarantees that the atrocities will not be repeated.

These symbolic and artistic edifications of memory amount to a potent dynamic of resistance. Far from being negative and backward looking they are essentially positive, based on concepts of solidarity and hope. By refusing to forget, the victims of South West Colombia are bravely projecting their right to truth, justice and reparation – not just for themselves but for those who have died and those who have still to live.

Buenaventura Assembly Report

WHY ARE THEY KILLING US AND FOR WHAT?

COMMISSION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND PUBLIC AUDIENCES: ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC

Por Informacion en español


Buenaventura is experiencing a grave humanitarian crisis. On Thursday 31 May, 800 people took to its streets to demand justice and the vindication of the right to life, liberty and dignity in their territory. The following day an even greater number packed into the Assembly of the Republic for the Public Audience of Victims, an historic event for the city. La Guarda Indigena (Indigenous Guard) of the local Nasa tribe matched the police in equal numbers. Alongside the throng of journalists and national and international human rights bodies, were a commission from the European Union and a representative from the US Embassy. The slogan of the day was “why are they killing us and for what?”

Violence

Indeed Los Bonaverenses have good cause to ask this question. In 2006, human rights groups put the number of murders in the city at between 400 and 600. It continues to be the most violent city in Colombia with massacres, disappearances, torture and forced displacement counting amongst the many violations committed against its people. So far in 2007 there have been 265 victims. As the most important portal town on the countries resource rich pacific coast, it is a key point of strategy for the States programme of global trade. It is also the battleground both for illicit armed groups, narco-traffickers and powerful economic interests. What is more, there is an added racial dynamic to the extreme poverty and open violence that the overwhelmingly afro-descendent population of Buenaventura is suffering.

Testimonies

The Audience gives safety in numbers to the many families giving testimony to human rights abuses. Many, however, are still sensitive to the possibility of reprisals. Along the walls are displays and photos telling of the many massacres. One such display showed the horrifically mutilated victims of the ´Football Massacre´. On the 19th April, 2005, 24 young local Afro-Colombians were tricked into leaving for a fictitious football tournament. Twelve were later found in a river while the remaining twelve are still missing. A spokesman of the Proceso de Comunidades Negras, Naka Mandinga, gave testimony to the murder of his relatives and asked why his family were being systematically persecuted and murdered. One mother told how paramilitaries entered her house and murdered her two sons. Her tears were reflected by the faces of other mothers in the audience.

No Justice

Very few of the victims of the crimes have any hope of getting justice. Corruption and state links to paramilitary terror mean they few have faith in the Police. Militarization of the slums and surrounding estuaries has brings fear, silence and impunity. Liberal Senator, Piada Cordova, promised to denounce, in the Senate, the crimes of the paramilitaries and the accompanying crimes of the States armed actors. The final speaker looked directly at the (exclusively white) collection of senior officers sitting uncomfortably at the front of the auditorium. “The police are not necessarily a force of protection”, he said “they are also a force for risk, threat and destabilization”.

Poverty

Official and institutional declarations on the violence in Buenaventura highlight the role of narco-trafficking and organized crime. But for local priest, Father Augustine this is a form of discrimination. “It is an excuse for subduing the people”, he said “it is a form of social control and social cleansing”, Indeed the State has failed to provide many alternatives for those who are falling into armed groups or the cultivation and trafficking of cocaine. The Assembly heard how unemployment is well over 40% and 49% of children do not have access to education. In some areas there is an average of 8 – 13 people per house. Health is another basic provision that is severely lacking; the rate of infant mortality is calculated to be between 10% and 50% above the national average.

Exploitation

Far from remedying this, the States “development” of the region to suit the dictates of its macro- economic strategy is deepening poverty and misery. Draconian legislation such as the Ley Forestal (Forestry Law) accelerates the exploitation of primary forest and waterways. Meanwhile villages along the port’s tributary rivers are stripped of collective titles to ancestral fishing waters. Mono-cropping such as African Palm plantations bring forced displacement at the hands of paramilitary groups for the benefit of trans-national capital.



Neglect

The time for the Colombian Government to fulfill its obligation to protect the people of Buenaventura from extreme poverty and illegal armed groups is long overdue. “We are a peaceful and hardworking people” said one speaker. Yet their geo-strategic positioning puts them in the line of fire of powerful interests. To compound this, their socio-political status as a discriminated minority gives them little defense. In this respect their plight is typical of other afro-descendent populations in Colombia who, along with indigenous peoples, bare a disproportionate share of the violence in this war. One banner perhaps best made sense of the `ethno genocide´: ´We Afro-Bonaverenses are marked out for our race and pursued for our riches´.


Zona Marginal performing after the event


Choral group, mothers of victims, opening the event

Sources
ETNOCIDIO EN BUENAVENTURA (Bogotá D.C - Edición No. 162, Mayo 5 de 2007) www.planetapaz.org
http://www.buenaventurasi.com/afrocolombianos.html
http://www.renacientes.org
Por la Vida, la Libertad y la Dignidad en nuestro Territorio
(22 May 2007, Organizaciones Convocantes)
Territorio Pacifico Boletín (1, March 2006)
Cocaine Wars Turn Port Into Colombia's Deadliest City, Simon Romero (New York Times, May 22, 2007)
Massacre in Buenaventura, Urgent Action, Andy Higginbottom (02 May, 2005)

Gold Mining in Colombia; Cauca Assembly in Resistance

Introduction

Buenos Aires is a small Afro-Colombian mining community an hours drive by jeep from the nearest town in Cauca, South West Colombia. The hall of the local college is filled with a variety of faces from the municipio of Suarez – human rights workers, campesinos, Afro-Colombians and members of local indigenous groups such as CRIC (The Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca). One thing they have in common is that they are all extremely concerned about the existence in their territory of the mining company Kedahda. Paramilitary violence arrived in this part of Cauca two years ago - the same time as the company. It is currently seeking to reform the countries Mining Code which will ease the exploitation of mining resources. This will be at the expense of the small mining companies, the environment and the rights of the local communities. This forum is one of the first steps in exercising the right to life, dignity and permanence in the shadow of this mining giant.

Blood soaked Colombian mining operations do not appear on Anglo Gold Ashanti´s oficial map

London/Johannesburg based Kedahda is 99.98% owned by Anglo Gold Ashanti (the World´s second largest Gold mining company) The company is implicated in grave human rights violations across Colombia. In turn, Anglo Gold Ashanti is 42% owned by the former apartheid Anglo-American (the London stock exchange listed giant that declared an operating profit of US $9.8 billon for 2006). With a subsoil rich in basic minerals, Colombia is considered one of the `new frontiers´ for the mining industry. Already there are approximately 4,261 gold mines, 191 platinum and 10 emerald concessions.

Reform of the Mining Code

The reform to the Mining Code will favour applications from companies with economic and technical advantages. The Special Reserve Zones (protected environmental or ethnic territories) will be opened up only to macro- strategic mineral projects. As such, they will be handed to the biggest investors. To facilitate this, public resources such as water and transport will be made freely available even if it is at the expense of local competitors and inhabitants. Taxation will also be flexiblised; if no deposits are found all taxes for the period of exploration will be dropped. To compound this the reform will further repress Colombia´s famously brief prior consultation process. This amounts to a clear violation of the right to territory and participation for countless communities across the country. Meanwhile the inhabitants of Cauca flounder. The day before (19th May) social movements in the department declared a permanent assembly of the people. It´s opening statement denounced corruption, underinvestment in health, education and infrastructure and the misappropriation of their resources to benefit foreign capital.




New Free Trade Treaty

The new changes link up closely to the new Free Trade Treaty between Colombia and the United States. In November 2005 the Minister of Mines and Energy, Luis Ernesto Mejía, talked of “an enormous world of opportunities that is opened up to the energy and mining sector with Treaty". However, these opportunities look set to benefit only the large trans-nationals whilst destroying any form of protection to small scale Colombian producers. All the changes (privatization/ deregulation/ trade liberalization) will be imposed by the security forces of the state. On a daily basis we are now seeing protest and mobilization against the treaty from all sectors of Colombian civil society. Firma Cavellier de Abogados - a lawyers firm involved in the signing of the treaty in Bogotá - own the 0.02% of Kedahda that does not belong by Anglo Gold Ashanti.

Black Gold

Juan Andrés is an Afro-Colombian in his 20´s. He pointed to the largest mine in the community across the valley. “The environmental damage is wholesale”, he told the delegates, “water, land, air and social composition”. By social composition he is referring to the militarization and para-militarization of the community that comes with the arrival of large scale mining operations. Accompanying this are problems of violence, prostitution, inequality and changes of surname which break social cohesion. “Many of us have been relocated to Cali”, said another villager, (Cali is a city three hour drive away) “We are a rich country but there is so much poverty”.
Kedahda Mining and Forced Displacement; Only in the red dot do the two not correlate


Indeed the correlation between Kedahda´s operations in Cauca and paramilitary violence is by no means an isolated incident. Jorge Molano, a Bogotá based human rights lawyer, told how in 70% of the municipalities where Kedahda have worked there have torturing, disappearances and massacres at the hands of these groups; crimes against humanity that total in their thousands. What is more, in 335 of the 336 municipalities people have been forcibly expelled for the appropriation of their land. Anglo Gold Ashanti and the mining industry at large have a shameful track record in contributing to Colombia´s 3.5 million internally displaced.

Sur de Bolivar

In one of the talks a representative recounted the experience in his department of Sur de Bolivar. Since 2004 Kedahda have opened up operations in this department too. The representative told how the company now owns 150,000 hectares across Colombia. From 1996, Anglo Gold and Conquistador Mines found gold deposits in Sur de Bolivar, opening up one of the bloodiest chapters of Colombian history. Paramilitary incursions have been supported on land, in the air, and in the waterways by the 5th Brigade of the Colombian Army. Blockades cut off delivery of food and medicine vital to the survival of the communities. The results were thousands dead and over 20,000 (officially) displaced.
“Our schools and hospitals have been burned to the ground three times”, he said, “and why? Because of the resources on our land.”
It was a brutal warning from history and a heroic tale of resistance. The assembly became animated by his presentation.
“If we organise and believe in ourselves we can do many things”.
Kedahda Mining Operations (Blue areas - victims of accompanying violence)

Workshops

The forum resolved to strengthen the interethnic and community bodies. Nationally and internationally, the Assembly will seek alliances with politicians and organisations such as human rights NGOs. A march in Bogotá is also being planned. The forum forms part of a strategy of local and regional workshops that will culminate in a national forum later in the year. The proposals of this will be handed to `institutional and non institutional spaces´. Ultimately the aim is to counter-propose the reform of the Mining Code.

Conclusión

Perhaps one of the most positive things to come from the forum is the fortification of solidarity and organization between the indigenous groups and the Afro – Colombians. Traditionally there is not much trust between the two groups in the area. Event organizers and human rights NGO La Red de Hermandad (The Network of Brotherhood) believe it is necessary to confront the problem together and form a collective strategy through the exchanging of experiences and ideas. Through mobilization, in the widest sense possible, these communities hope to achieve permanence in the face of Kedahdas ominous advances.


Before Kedahda mine










After Kedahda mine










"Sustainable development" Anglo Gold Ashanti only use open pit mines








For more info on this topic visit www.minesandcommunities.org

US Protester Confront Colombian President (Video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRc8EYov7X0

Here in Colombia the media dutyfully shows Bush´s stategically timed photo calls with Uribe. They come at an extemely sensitive time for both presidents. The new Free Trade Treaty is being discussed in Washington and the parapolitica or ´Para-Gate´ corruption scandal is reaching the highests levels of the Colombian Government and exposing links between the State / multinational and paramilitary death squads.

Big shout out to the US protesters who are confronting Uribe on his human rights record and a big thankyou to the reader who send through the link to this video...

US Protester Confront Colombian President (Video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRc8EYov7X0

Here in Colombia the media dutyfully shows Bush´s stategically timed photo calls with Uribe. They come at an extemely sensitive time for both presidents. The new Free Trade Treaty is being discussed in Washington and the parapolitica or ´Para-Gate´ corruption scandal is reaching the highests levels of the Colombian Government and exposing links between the State / multinational and paramilitary death squads.

Big shout out to the US protesters who are confronting Uribe on his human rights record and a big thankyou to the reader who send through the link to this video...

PEACE COMMUNITY MURDER

PARAMILITARIES MURDER FRANCISCO PUERTA OF THE PEACE COMMUNITY OF SAN JOSE DE APARTADO
14 MAY 2007 Por declraracion completa en castellano vea Peace Community website

Inspite of the arrival of delagates worldwide for San Jose de Apartado in late March, the peace community has suffered a further assasination at the hand of paramilitaries. Since then there have been several well publicized threats against the lives of the community members living in this humanitarian zone.

The muder follows a sting of threats, arrests and violations of the physical and phsycological well being of community members and associates in the proceeding days. These acts were carried out by groups going under the name of Aguilas Negras (a remobilized paramilitary group). All the occurances are documented, dated and timed by the community and continue under impunity from the State both locally and nationally.

The Community sends the following message and call for action:

The continuous deaths, aggressions and threats against our process have not stopped. All the forms of destruction are utilized against us by paramilitaries in joint action with the police to exert pressure, threats and death. Ours historic duty, in the search for respect of civillians in armed conflict, is to give testimony to the facts so that humanity is able to some day to judge these terrorist acts. Again we have to tell of a new murder in violation of the humanitarian zone and against our community:

- Today Monday, 14 from May to the 7:00 to.m., FRANCISCO PUERTA (campesino leader and excoordinador of the humanitarian zone of La Vereda Miramar) was murdered in the front of the Apartadó Bus Terminal by paramilitaries. Two paramilitaries approached him near the store in front of the Terminal where was seated and shot him several times. They subsequently left in peace despite the police presence that surrounded the location.

The same today at 7:30 am. a group of six paramilitaries in civillian clothing were seen with long weapon in el Mangolo. Another four civillian paramilitaries were found with short weapons in Tierra Amarillo. The Military and Police they were found only two minutes from this paramilitary presence.

- On May 13, 10:40: a trader from Apartado arrived to San Josesito to buy some pigs. There he conveyed a message that paramilitaries in the neighborhoods of Apartadó were saying that they were going to carry out a massacre in the Peace Community.

...These facts show the drive of paramilitary murderer that the government tries to hide. They give testimony to a new wave of murders against the leaders of the humanitarian zones and of community members.

This drive of extermination against the community from the Government has again failed since we do not go back before our principles of peace, we will continue firmer than ever. Alongside national and international solidarity we are further animated to continue in transparency to search for an alternative and just world. The work and memory of FRANCISCO gives us force to continue ahead, our greatest sympathy goes to his children and family.

PEACE COMMUNITY OF SAN JOSE DE APARTADO
Mayo 14 de 2007

Please direct denouncements to the followiing authorities demanding that the Colombian Government guarentees the right to life of the community members and recognises it integrity.

Dr. Álvaro UribeVélez - Presidente de la Republica
E-mail: auribe@presidencia.gov.co
Fax: 57 1 566 2071

Dr. Francisco Santos. - Vicepresidente de Colombia
E-mail: fsantos@presidencia.gov.co

Dr. Carlos Franco - Director del Programa de Derechos Humanos de Vicepresidencia
E-mail: cefranco@prsidencia.gov.co, fibarra@presidencia.gov.co

Dr. Michael Frühling - Oficina del Alto Comisionado de Naciones Unidas para los derechos humanos.
E-mail: oacnudh@hcrh.org.co
Fax: 57 1 6293637

COLOMBIA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN ADDS:

In the UK, also send your e-mail to Colombian Embassy: mail@colombianembassy.co.uk with a copy to info@colombiasolidarity.org.uk

If you are in the USA, these are the Colombian Ambassador's contact points in Washington, DC:
Sr. Luis Alberto Moreno
Ambassador of the Republic of Colombia
2118 Leroy Place NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
Teléfono: +1 (202) 387 8338
Fax: +1 (202) 232 8643
E-mail: emwas@colombiaemb.org

International Workers Day Cali - In their Own Words

"Alerta! Alerta! Alerta que camina, la lucha popular en America Latina!
Y venga! Y venga! Y venga compañeros! que aqui esta peleando la dignidad del pueblo!"
"Look out! Look out! Look out here comes the popular struggle in Latin America!
And come, come, come compañeros, for here is the fight of the dignity of the people!"
"Aqui no stamos todos, faltan los presos politicos!"
"Whe are not all here, we lack the political prisoners!"
"Uribe! fascista! usted es terrorista!´"
"[President]Uribe! Fascist! You are a terrorist!""Militares, paramilitares la misma mierda son - matan la gente y dicen que no!"
"Military, paramilitaries are the same shit - they kill the people then say they didn´t!"
"Queremos chicha! queremos maize! Multinacionales fuera del pais!"
"We want chicha! [indigenous drink], we want maize! Multinationals out of the country!"
"Por el derecho de la ladera a ser ciudad, Mesa civica de Ladera, presente! presente! presente!"

"For the right of the mountainside to be part of the city"





"No olvidamos, no perdonamos, no reconcilliamos, verdad! justicia! y reparacion integral! Movimientos de los victimos del estado, presente! presente! presente!"

"We can´t forget, we can´t forgive, we can´t reconcile, truth! justice! and complete reparation! Movement of the Victims of State Crimes, presente! presente! presente!"
´[President]URIBE PARAMILITARY´"Aplauda! Aplauda! No dejé de aplaudí! Gobierno terrorista, se va tener que ir!"
"Clap! Clap! and dont stop clapping! Terrorist Government must go!"
"MILITARES ASSESINOS!!!""El pueblo lo dicen y tienen la razon - Uribe, Mancurso, la msima mierda son!"
"The people say it and they are right, Uribe [President] and Mancurso [paramilitary leader] are the same shit!"[On the privatisation of Cali´s public health service]"Los detenidos politicos no son terroristas, son luchadores del pueblo"
"The political prisoners are not terrorists, they are fighters of the people!"
"El pueblo unido, jamas será vencido!"
"The people united will forever be victorious!"

May Day Message of Solidarity - Cali, Colombia - Oxford UK

From the Comité of Solidarity with Political Prisoners, Cali Colombia, we send a sincere message of solidarity to the workers of Oxford and the Oxford and Districts Trades Council. We have not forgotten your struggle, like our struggle to obtain justice and equality for all. In this way we give our solidarity to your fight and we unite with you as companions even though a sea and thousands of miles separate us.

In Colombia as in England, we are suffering the effects of mass privatization of our public services. Not only public goods are being privatised, but our culture, environment and our system of justice. In Colombia people die at the doors of hospitals because they do not have the economic funds to pay for a system of health that the Sate has left in the hands of private entities. The strategy of this dynamic is to turn around the guarantees of social wellbeing and to increase profits at any cost. Those that are not able to pay are left in the protection of `God´, if the police do not catch them first.

Today we say in concert with the workers of Oxford NO to the policy of `Democratic Security´ of our Government that does not assure the rights of our people but the rights of the social classes that historically have exercised power - silencing social protest in a war against civil society.

We say NO to exploitation. We say NO to the persecution, imprisonment and assassination of our unionists, social leaders and students. We reject privatisation and we reject imperialism. We also reject the British Governments military aid to Colombia and the fictitious resolution of armed conflict through war.

We thank the Oxford and Districts Trades Council and the workers of Oxford for their work in solidarity with the Colombian people.


CSPP (Committee of Solidarity with Political Prisoners, Cali Colombia)
May 01, 2007