Report Back: July 2007 Delegation to Colombia

In July 2007, CRLN led a delegation to Colombia, focused on the struggles of the Afro-Colombian community, amid human rights abuses, para-military activity, and displacement. The following report came from that delegation and was presented at a Congressional briefing on October 12, 2007. To see a larger version of the photographs and their description, click on the photo.

The Afro-Colombian Struggle for Territory, Culture & Development Amid Political Violence, Economic Domination, and Massive Displacement in Colombia's South Pacific Coastal Provinces of Nariño, Cauca, and Valle del Cauca

August 2007

In a November 2004 visit to Chicago, a founder of the Black Communities Process (PCN), Carlos Rosero, invited U.S. citizens to visit the Afro-Colombian South Pacific Coast, which was suffering human rights atrocities and massive displacement due to entry of paramilitary forces into the region. In October 2005, invitations to visit this region were again extended by PCN representatives from Cauca, Colombia, who were among 20 Colombians attending a national U.S. conference in Chicago seeking to strengthen U.S.-Colombia human rights partnerships. This landmark gathering was marred only by the paramilitary abduction and murder in Colombia of one of the invited conference participants, Afro-Colombian leader Orlando Valencia. Orlando was killed as he returned home from Bogotá, where he had been arbitrarily denied a visa to attend the conference by the U.S. Embassy. In April 2007, a public appeal from Monseñor Gustavo Giron, the bishop of the Diocese of Tumaco, circulated in the USA via Catholic Relief Services calling for emergency solidarity in response to a massive new wave of internally displaced persons (IDP) occurring in the municipality of El Charco in the department of Nariño by unannounced, large-scale state military operations against FARC guerrillas in the area. Within a week, another urgent appeal was issued by Church World Service Andino for emergency aid for and international presence with this new wave of over 7,000 internally displaced persons.

Responding to these invitations and appeals, an exploratory delegation planned by top leadership of the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN) visited Agua Blanca in Cali (Valle), Buenaventura (Valle), Buenos Aires (Cauca), El Charco (Nariño), Guapi (Cauca) and Tumaco (Nariño) from July 14-25, 2007. With contributions from 65 of its 600 members, CRLN also raised and dispersed $15,000 in emergency funds for aid to the displaced, and for Afro-Colombian community organizing.

Colombia's Pacific Coast region is 80%-95% African-descendant, who along side indigenous peoples, have inhabited these isolated territories for 400 years. A common refrain from Afro-Colombians living on the Pacific Coast is: "We are abandoned by the State. We are forgotten, invisible." In fact, there is little evidence of investment by the Colombian State. Like most communities within 50 miles of the Pacific coastline, Charco and Guapi have no roads to them. They are accessible only by air, or boat. "Within our diocese," reported Monseñor Hector Epalza Quintero, the Bishop of Buenaventura (one of only two cities on Colombia's 500-mile Pacific Coast accessible by road) "we have 247 rivers which are our avenues, with a thousand more tributaries serving as the only roads." In this richest watershed in the nation, piped water distribution is either non-existent, or in urban areas, limited to a few hours a day. "We have water everywhere, except to drink," said Bishop Epalza. There is little or no provision for sewage collection, let alone treatment. Health centers (hospitals, clinics) are few and poorly equipped. Educational opportunity is sharply limited after primary school. But this abandonment by the state has also allowed Afro-Colombian communities maintain a high degree of sustainable self-development. The absence of the state has enabled considerable regional autonomy, and the preservation of African culture and identity. After years of organizing, Pacific Coast Afro-Colombian communities secured ethnic identity rights and collective land title to their ancestral territories in the new 1991 Colombian Constitution, and the 1993 Law 70.

Throughout our visit, we interviewed leaders from over 20 of the 160 Afro-Colombian "Consejos Comunitarios" - Community Councils - established under Law 70, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and their community spokespersons, pastors and lay leaders, women and teachers ("profe" was a common title), mayors and city councilmen. In each interview, we asked them for their message to us, to the American people, to U.S. government policy makers, and to the Colombian authorities.

Here is what they told us:

1. In Buenaventura: "Stop the Genocide!"

"Stop the Genocide!" This appeal from Buenaventura's Catholic Bishop, Monseñor Hector Epalza, was direct and immediate. Bishop Epalza described Buenaventura as the third-most-violent city in Latin America. Others believe it to be the first. Whichever ranking is correct, Buenaventura is unquestionably the most violent city in the hemisphere for politically motivated assassinations & disappearances. The numbers are staggering. "In a city of 324,000 people, 400 were assassinated last year (2006)," stated Bishop Epalza. As of May 31, 263 people have been murdered in 2007 - 20 of them women - and 51 persons have been "disappeared". The presence of vying paramilitary and guerrilla factions in Buenaventura neighborhoods has generated most of this violence. They operate with total impunity since the police and judiciary fail to apprehend and prosecute the assassins. The flow of civilians to visit, associate or sell their products from one neighborhood to another is totally monitored and restricted by illegal armed actors. Some 850 women - vendors of fruit and fish - have reported that they are required to pay "taxes" on their product sales to paramilitary operatives. Both paramilitary and guerrilla forces set up temporary roadblocks, where they threaten residents or rob goods. Both illegal forces demand payoffs from both large and small businesses. They threaten and assassinate community leaders engaged in organizing to resolve local problems. They recruit youth by force or with economic incentives. All this has generated enormous displacement between and among neighborhoods.

2. Displaced Persons: "Humanitarian Aid from Our Governments Is Not Getting to Us!"

According to the United Nations staff in Cali, over 1,786 families have been displaced in and around the El Charco municipality between March 2007 and June 2007. The urgent appeal from each displaced person, family, or community leader was that legally mandated material aid from the government was not reaching them. Under Colombian law, the government agency Acción Social is required to provide emergency material aid of food and building materials for the first 3 months of displacement. This aid is not arriving. First responder International Red Cross received consistent high marks for its provision of emergency aid in the initial days of displacement, which is supplemented with emergency aid from NGO's like Church World Service or Catholic Relief Service as well as the local civilian population themselves despite their poverty. But there was universal testimony from IDP's that the Government was not providing the aid its representatives publicly promise, and is violating the law in failing to do so. The communities suspect corruption, inefficiency, and racism, i.e. intentional exclusion from aid because these communities are overwhelmingly African-descendant.

At a forum of displaced in Guapi, Neris Obando, the articulate and persistent leader of 97 displaced families who fled Charco in Nariño, to Guapi in Cauca on March 22, 2007, laid out their needs: "We as displaced need three things: Emergency food support, building materials and a site for dignified housing. After that, all we need is a job, work- credit for small scale, sustainable economic projects. With work, we are no longer dependent on additional aid." Neris submitted a community fishing project to visiting government representatives, to which he have received no response. They also submitted a request for building materials to the local military commander, since the civilian government authorities were unresponsive and "the military seems to be the only state authority which can do things here", but has not yet received a response.*

3. "Military Presence Within Our Communities Places Us at Risk"

This latest wave of displacement has occurred due to large-scale military operations in Nariño province. According to testimony, the guerrillas have long been present in the remote mountains and jungle plain of the Pacific coast. However, the civilian population and guerrilla lived peaceably and separate from each other. The entrance of the paramilitaries and coca into Nariño and Cauca subsequent to massive U.S. funded coca fumigation in neighboring Putumayo province during 2000-2001, introduced unprecedented political violence and massive displacement.

While some of the paramilitary units began demobilizing in 2005, military operations have replaced or augmented them - with two new paramilitary organizations, "Aguilas Negras" and "Nueva Generación", emerging with a particularly brutal and expansive presence. There is widespread agreement among Afro-Colombian leaders that renewed paramilitary-military collaboration is taking place to intentionally displace rural communities so their land can be turned over to multinational corporations for mining & palm oil plantations.*

In February, March and April 2007, a massive military presence of Marine special forces moved into Nariño, occupying the homes and even schools in Afro-Colombian communities. "They prohibit us from going into the hills to tend our crops and secure our food." The military often stole food and sometimes ransacked houses. Guerrillas then attack these military positions in the middle of civilian communities, terrorizing resident civilians in the crossfire. In response to guerrilla attacks, the military calls in air support, which fires indiscriminately into these civilian communities as well as at their guerrilla targets, further terrorizing the people and damaging their property. "We are literally caught in the middle" said a leader of the Consejo de Comunidades Negras de la Cordillera Occidental. "We have the military or the paramilitary firing at us from one side. The guerrillas are firing at us from the other side. When we look to the heavens to pray, and we are fired upon by helicopters from above."

Displaced people were clear to distinguish the longstanding military presence in the municipal seat, which is more responsive to civilian concerns, from Marine special combat forces, which had forcefully lodged themselves in rural civilian communities. In addition to making civilian communities targets by their presence, soldiers prevent farmers from working in their fields, and restrict free movement between civilian river communities. "We have no security with the military in our villages, nor can we move freely inside or outside our communities. We ask them to leave. It is a huge sorrow for one to have to leave one's territory."

4. "End Chemical Fumigations NOW, and Reimburse Us for Our Losses "

The U.S. imposed policy of chemical fumigations in Colombia to eradicate cocaine coca leaf production went into high gear with the passage of Plan Colombia. This program of sustained aerial spraying targeted Putumayo Department in order to weaken the FARC guerrilla, who taxed coca producers and exporters. The aerial spraying of "glyphosate", a highly toxic chemical produced by Monsanto, not only destroyed coca plants, but also nearby food crops. It poisoned rivers, killing fish. It has proved harmful to people, producing both immediate and long-term damage to skin, digestive tracks, and eyesight. Since it destroyed food crops and poisoned the land, chemical fumigation created new waves of displacement.

The chemical spraying in Putumayo in 2000-2003 pushed coca production into neighboring Nariño. With no economic infrastructure support from the state to help market their food crops, poor farmers added production of the more profitable coca to help lift themselves out of poverty. With the production of coca came the paramilitaries, who sought to gain control of the coca market. U.S. sponsored aerial fumigation followed. The fumigation again destroyed food crops as well as the coca, while poisoning the land, water and people. From 2002-2006, numerous waves of mass displacement created by paramilitary violence and U.S. funded fumigation surged into larger coastal towns like Tumaco, Charco & Guapi. Accounts of indiscriminate fumigation of civilian population were endless. The following testimonies are from recently displaced persons in Charco:

Mariana, age 70: "I am from Matingalbe on the Rio Taija. I was between my house and the river when they fumigated. It looked like a white smoke, but was a liquid like rain. I am now blind in one eye from the fumigation, and have poor site with the other eye".

Catalina, age 56: "I am a single mother, and lived in Maiz Blanco. I have only one lung. With the fumigation, I am very sick. The fumigation happened this year. I had two colineras of plantains planted. I fled four months ago. I sold my house for very little money, because there was no way to live there. I receive no aid. No beans, nothing."

Henry, age 49: "I am a teacher. Four months ago, the wind blew the chemicals onto us. I am going blind, and am losing my hearing. My students are losing their mental capacity".

Palmemio, age 37: "They fumigated the soccer field in the village of Rosario where my son Jon Alesander, age 14, was playing soccer. His eyes are damaged. He cannot study because he can no longer read."

Benilda, age 58 & Mariceli Hurtado, age 27: "In January 2007, my daughter Mariceli and I were just returning home from a trip on the river when planes sprayed us and the river. My daughter said, ‘Don't look up', but I did. Now I can't read. I must wear sunglasses in bright light. We are from Cholula, San José."

Carmelita, age 63: "I am from San José. A plane flew by. I went to the balcony of my house. White powder was falling. I went to the street. I was sprayed again. My eyes burned. I can no longer see well."

Maria, age 42. "I am from San José on the Rio Tapaje. Three months ago, we were fumigated. People cannot see. I have a tumor on my breast. I cannot see close up. They kill us with glyphosate, kill us with bullets, or kill us with hunger."

Yalile Quinoñez, AMAV coordinator of 6 "veredas" (villages) of San José on the Rio Tapaje, Nariño, funded by Church World Service (CWS): "They fumigate the river from which people drink water. They fumigate peoples' rooftops. It is indiscriminate. There are hundreds of stories like these. We are 1,000 women. We are very organized. With aid from CWS, we had been working together for 3 years, planting vegetables and fruit to help women have some extra income. All of our gardens were fumigated last year for the second time. Everything was lost. All our work was destroyed. All the funds they spend on harmful fumigation could have been used to create work with groups like us. Because we are very organized, we are effective in production."

"We want to be compensated for the damage from the fumigations, for the loss of all of our crops, illness, and the damage to the environment. The hand of God will be hard on your country (the USA). We believe in God's justice. Restore what you have destroyed, so that your sentence will not be as severe."

According to the Consejo Comunitario of Alsacia, Cauca, as well as the United Nations team in Cali, the fumigations in Nariño have prompted new coca plantings north to neighboring Cauca and Valle de Cauca near Buenaventura. At the same time, while the original intent of the aerial spraying was to eliminate coca supplies in areas controlled by the guerrillas, production moved not only to these three provinces accompanied by paramilitary incursions, but also to the north of Colombia in zones controlled by paramilitaries. As a result, much of the coca trade in Colombia is now dominated by paramilitaries, which despite demobilization, continues to fund a brutal intimidation of the political process.

5. "We Want Reasonable Conditions for a Safe Return to our Lands"

With squalid living conditions and no way to sustain themselves in the towns to which they have fled, most recently displaced persons wish to return to their homes and land as soon as possible. In fact, we heard testimony that often, family males would stay behind to try to protect their property and belongings, while women, children and elderly displaced themselves down river. A considerable number of families have returned since the massive March-June displacements. But many, upon finding living conditions either impossible or unsafe, decided to move again into displacement to the communities in which they initially sought refuge. Displaced persons seeking return to their territory ask for the following conditions:

The removal of military forces occupying their communities so that these communities are no longer targets of combat;
Credits to replant their crops, and
A temporary supply of food until new crops can be harvested.

6. "Consult and Negotiate with the Consejos Comunitarios Rather Than Ignore Them"

The Constitution of 1991 and Law 70 of 1993 gave Afro-Colombian communities collective rights to ancestral lands. To help guarantee these rights, Law 70 set up Consejos Comunitarios, or "community councils," comprised of community leaders, to administer the lands. Currently, the Colombian government and national and multinational economic interests either ignore the community councils, or seek to divide them by illegally purchasing individual land parcels held in collective title. Lands held collectively under Law 70 cannot legally be sold in part, nor can territory be segmented to outside interests. These lands are held in collective trust to be administered through the Consejos Comunitarios. The Consejos Comunitarios have been unified and persistent in calling on the Colombian Government to consult and negotiate with them regarding the use of lands under their jurisdiction. However, according to a United Nations officer in Cali who has monitored the region for six years, "Prior consultation (consulta previa) is required by the law - but this is not happening."

7. "New Laws of President Uribe will Gut Territorial Rights of Indigenous & Afro-Colombians"

The Uribe government has enacted new laws that intentionally undermine the territorial rights of indigenous and Afro-Colombians to control and benefit from the natural resources on their legally titled territories. Among them are the Subsoil Law and the Forest Law. Similar laws being proposed by the Uribe administration are the Water Law and the Rural Development Law. According to Community Council leaders, all of these laws are being pushed through Colombia's Congress to prepare the way for the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

The Subsoil Law designates all resources below 2 meters as belonging to the state, leaving them vulnerable to outside mining interests. The Forest Law, or "Ley de Vuelo," designates all resources over one meter in height, as a belonging to the state. An estimated 80% of Colombia's tropical forests are on the indigenous and Afro-Colombian territories collectively titled under Law 70. This"Ley de Vuelo" opens up these lands to logging interests. These laws disenfranchise Afro-Colombian and indigenous peoples from control of the destinies of forests on their lands which they have protected for generations, as well as the minerals beneath them. This is prohibited under Law 70.

The proposed Water Law would allow any company to gain the right to take water from rivers, even to the point of exclusive use of the rivers. A company could secure a 100-year concession for water from mountain springs, which are currently the source of clean drinking water for populations in higher altitudes living on lands collectively titled under Law 70. The Rural Development Law would give advantages to multinational agribusiness companies, offering subsidies for targeted monoculture crop production on indigenous and Afro-Colombian territories. The government would not subsidize traditional crops, such as cassava, plantains and oranges. It would instead subsidize large African oil palm, eucalyptus, and pine tree plantations. This law will benefit the interlinked chains of national and international markets, but ignores and undercuts the local, small farmer economy.

8. "Yes to Diverse Polyculture Organic Food Crops!

No to Monoculture African Palm Oil Plantations!"

As part of a national strategy, the Colombian government is aggressively pushing African palm oil monoculture on the Afro-Colombian communities without consultation or negotiation. Government agents strongly advocate African palm oil (oil palm) to farmers. Oil palm is often the only crop for which farmers can receive subsidies and loans. Afro-Colombian communities reject oil palm because of its devastating environmental and social impacts. Oil palm plantations deplete soil and require the heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides, eventually leaving the land barren and unusable for any crops, causing displacement and deforestation as farmers move into other lands. Oil palm is slow to produce and may take more than six years for a marketable crop to be produced. Loans are often for five years. The farmers who cannot pay back the loans are evicted from their land. The lucrative nature of the crop leads to fraud and pernicious land deals by investors wanting to exploit this resource. Food security is threatened because land is no longer used for food crops, and food is imported at higher cost.

Favio Cambindo, President of the Association of Community Councils of Timbiquí, Cauca: "We are NOT in agreement with the imposition of African palm oil. It is a way of dispossessing us of our land."

People cultivate diverse crops that grow very well in coastal areas of Colombia without destroying the land. Organic is the norm because chemical inputs are costly and unnecessary in the fertile land. The community councils have developed their own plans to utilize their abundant resources sustainably. They seek government cooperation and funding to effectively commercialize their products, both nationally and internationally.

9. "Yes to Local Community Based Mining;

No to Multinational Corporation Mineral Mining"

In many areas, like Buenos Aires municipality, mining has been a way of life for generations. Now, the government is aiding large multinational corporations in buying land and asserting subsoil rights that are destroying a way of life that has supported the people. A company may come and buy a parcel of land at twice its worth - and then lay claim to surrounding deposits. Remaining miners are then pushed out of business. Large companies only employ a few low-wage laborers. Company mining areas suffer from unemployment, resulting in displacement, high rates of prostitution and crime. Family miner coops are working to develop more efficient, environmentally sound, sustainable, and competitive methods to transport the ore and separate the metal from the ore. These efforts have met with considerable success in Buenos Aires municipality. But there is no investment on behalf of family miners by the national government. In fact, the government actively withholds titles from small miners so they can be sold to large multinational companies. Once established, multinational mining operations sites are cordoned off by military and paramilitary units to intimidate displaced families who return, and thwart labor and environmental regulations.

10. Mega-Projects & the Pacific Rim

Until recently, the government has largely seen the Colombian Pacific rim as an uninhabitable jungle. In the absence of the government, the Afro-Colombian and indigenous peoples in the region have managed to farm the land and create communities in balance with the environment. They received little infrastructure from the government, and much of the land remains without roads.

Now, the government wants to exploit the resources of the land through megaprojects, but disregards the needs and rights of the Afro-descendants and indigenous communities that have lived there for centuries. Various projects are formed without consultation with the communities. Examples include monoculture plantations, privatization and expansion of the Port of Buenaventura, and an intra-coastal water canal. The Port of Buenaventura was privatized, which resulted in the loss of many good jobs for the community. The government plans to expand the port and displace people in one of the poorest, most vulnerable communities. The government is planning an intra-coastal water canal to follow the Pacific coast from north to south, allowing boats to transport goods from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The plan is likely to displace large numbers of people and will have an unknown environmental impact on the region. Any projects should be carefully crafted to benefit the people of the region, with ample consultation with the communities that will be affected.

11. "We Have Our Own Development Plans. Work With Us to Implement Them."

The communities have developed their own plans for development, which call for government investment in community-based, local, national and global trade. Four development plans have been submitted since 1993. These plans were developed through methodical local consultation by the Consejos Comunitarios, followed by a consensus of the Councils themselves. They have been submitted to the government for implementation in the National Development Plan, with no response or result from the government. While the Colombian government helps finance mega-projects like oil palm, it has systematically ignored the projects presented by the Afro-Colombian Consejos Comunitarios.

Neris Obando, President of ASODESPASUR: "We all can participate in the solution of our future. But current laws are not implemented for the development of people."

William Girón, Director of the Pastoral Social of Tumaco: "Investment must be made in human capacitation, with the training and development of local leaders."

12. "Yes to Trade Agreements with Community Participation!

No to Colombia-US Free Trade Agreement!"

Farmers are pro-trade, seeing a way out of poverty and an alternative to the coca crops, but say no to U.S.-Colombia free trade agreements that will only hurt them more. The proposed free trade agreement will enrich multinational corporations and promote privatization of resources at the expense of small producer and the integrity of Afro-Colombian and indigenous lands. Consejos Comunitarios demand trade agreements based on the participation of communities.

Closing Appeal: "We Do Not Want You to Visit, and

Then Never Hear From You Again"

Afro-Colombian communities told us that ongoing, direct links to international organizations are vital as they organize to maintain their territory, culture and ethnic rights. Despite this need, fact-finding visits from non-governmental as well as governmental officials rarely result in follow-up action once the visitors leave. Afro-Colombian leaders ask visiting groups for sustained contact and ongoing communication to make visible their reality and struggle. It is particularly urgent that their voices be heard and their struggle be made visible in the United States, since the U.S. government has greater influence in Colombia than any other nation.