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UniVive! Privatization and Murder in the Universidad de Valle

*The following article part based on interviews with lecturers, students and student leaders of the University of Valle who’s names cannot be referenced for security purposes. Sources at bottom of feed.

‘Education is a right of everyone - socially based. Equally, knowledge is a social entity without exclusion to age, sex and ethnicity.’ (El Educador)

The Universidad de Valle (Univalle), South West Colombia, is known for its radical politics and tolerant liberal environment. It is also one of the most respected academic establishments in Latin America. As the third largest of Colombia´s 14 remaining public universities it has much to lose from privatization. It is currently baring the full weight by a state that seems determined to dismantle all public goods for the benefit of international `free trade ´ and the accumulation of private wealth. Cardboard coffins can be seen placed outside the campus as a reminder of the students who have been murdered because of their resistance against it.

Neoliberal Resructuring

The Dean of the Humanities Faculty is very worried about the implications of the Ley de Transferencias (the legislation pertaining to the regions budgetary allowance). Between 2009 and 2019 these cuts will amount to 51.3 billion pesos. Higher education will be one of the services hardest hit.

The cuts make up part of the National Plan of Development 2006 – 10, a long term legislative package being pushed by the Uribe administration. Of particular worry to the staff is Article 38 of the Plan which will devolve the State’s responsibility to provide pensions at a ratio of 80:20 to the universities. The aim is to make the institutions self- managing and self-sustaining. The effect will be a financial burden around 1.4 billion pesos annually for the payment of pensions alone.

This burden will be transferred to the students in the form of higher fees. After graduating, students will be obliged to make a return payment as a form of education tax. Subsidies will also disappear. The subsequent rise in the cost of food, transport and housing is a big concern for the lower income students of this public university.

These World Bank approved measures of decentralization are pending the approval of the new Free Trade Treaty with the United States. This treaty does not treat public education as an essential service; as such it will be submitted to the laws of the market. Private universities - as profitable enterprises - look set to flourish. Their public counterparts will experience larger class sizes and affected academic standards say FECODE (Federacion Colombiano de Educacion) - the national teachers’ federation.


A Curriculum for 'Development'

Under the changes the curriculum will be re-orientated to technical, more ‘rentable´ vocations. In effect, the establishments will be reconstructed to create ‘qualified workers’. This is in keeping with the Free Trade Treaties ‘development´ of Colombia as an exporter of cheap primary goods with no value added. According to analyst Andrés García, we will see the devaluing of higher education “in as much as the priority will no longer be knowledge but to know how to do”.

Resistance

In the month of May Univalle was in a state of "anormality" – a strike linked up to a national movement of protest against the changes. The period saw frequent police blockades, acts of intimidation and clashes with protesters. In spite of this students remained in the university carrying out other academic activities and holding regular forums on the subject of the privatization. On the 12 June the campus held a national assembly of students and teachers to debate the future of the university. Over 1000 packed into the auditorium to participate in an impressive example oratory and direct democracy. The assembly voted to change from "anormality" to "flexibility" - thereby reinstating classes, though without examinations. Uncertainty characterizes academic life here.

As with universities across the country, Univalle staged a permanent encampment during the student/teacher strike. The aim of the campamentalistas is to form a peaceful resistance based on the principle of permanence in the face of the changes. They are also a space of self-education and the formation of methods of protest. One such method has been to embark busses and deliver a brief seminar of public awareness-raising. On the national Day of the Fallen Student 08 June over three thousand students made symbolic human chain around their campus. The atmosphere was jubilant and defiant. For one lecturer I interviewed this was an attempt “renovate the language of protest”.


Provocation and Stigmatization

The concern of many is the threat of provocation from police violence and infiltrators. Student protest can be used as a pretext to close down the university thereby breaking the resistance as occurred with the Universidad Nacional in Bogota (4 June – 10 July), when the directorship instigated a forced vacation. In the worst case scenario the institution can be reopened with reforms imposed, as was the case in February 2006 with Universidad de Atlantico (Barranquilla). The establishment reopened with its staff drastically cut, fees raised by 1000% and many buildings and assets sold off. The justification for this closure was corruption. As such, Univalle maintains complete administrative transparency to avoid what one staff member described it as “dar papaya” (to give papaya fruit) or to tempt fate.

To add to the sense of siege, the Government seems intent criminalizing the name of student protest. Alex is documenting the protests on his camera. He showed an image of the local Mayors publicity billboard that he found at a bus stop. It claimed that the local government was fighting terrorism and showed a large image of a capuche (masked protester) wearing a Ché Guevara T shirt and holding a rock in his hand. “They are associating students with terrorists for protesting with rocks”, he complained, “meanwhile they are entering our campus with rifles.”


Police Assassinate Students

Graffiti outside the campus reads `Danger - Police assassinating Students in the area’. In recent years, 3 local university students have been murdered by police and paramilitaries in an attempt to suppress social protest: Jonny Silva (22 September 2005), William Ortiz (10 April 2006) and Julian Hurtado (05 October 2006). There have been the frequent occurrences of police entering the campus grounds in armored vehicles and using violence against the students, carrying out searches and even burning possessions. This is in direct violation of the autonomy allotted to Colombian universities by their constitution.

The three fallen students of Univalle

I met the parents of Jonny Silva were very keen that I tell the people in my country to write to the Fiscalia (the Prosecutors Office) demanding that the security and rights of protesting students be respected. Their son was shot indiscriminately in the back by the heavily armed ESMAD public order squadron who had illegally entered the university grounds. He was unable to run from the Police as he had polio. Human rights groups in the city have recently been sending out early warnings on the presence of armed intelligence agents inside marches. On the 20 June, ESMAD entered the campus and violently reacted against protesters with crowd dispersal devices fired at head level. Several were injured and two were detained and later transferred to the local Police intelligence department.

“The Systematic Suppression of Civil Society in the Universities”

“The militarization of the universities is both physical and symbolic. We have a heavy police presence around the ground and infiltration of intelligence and paramilitaries inside the grounds. On the other hand there are national service conditions that restrict access to courses and block graduations. What we are witnessing is the systematic suppression of civil society in the universities”
(Student delivering a workshop on the Day of the Fallen Student 09 June, 2007).

Since the murder of student councilor Julian Hurtado (by paramilitaries in October of last year), there have been acts of police violence, intimidation and stigmatization against student leaders in Univalle and its departmental branches. There have also been at least three death threats by the reinserted paramilitary group Aguilas Negras (Black Eagles) that has resulted in the recipients having to leave the region. I am told by members of the student council that this has had marked effect on the strength and effectiveness of their organisation. Nationally, the last 18 months has seen the murder of 8 student leaders, the displacement of more than 20 students, and the imprisonment of 10 students accused of rebellion.

'All species evolve in Colombia except the rights: Police assassinate students'

Teachers are also frequently found on paramilitary hit lists in Colombia. Indeed the highest number of murdered Colombian trade unionists belong to this profession. Univalle’s teachers' body CORPUV have not been immune to the threats. One lecturer described this as nothing less than the “suppression of critical thinking”.

Conclusion

Resisting the dismantling of these most cherished of public goods, is the most vibrant contemporary mobilizations of social protest in Colombia. Their creativity and consciousness is inspiring to observers from countries with a more depoliticized student population. Yet the changes, if successful, will serve to neutralize one of the last bastions of free thinking Colombian civil society; one step closer to the cultivation of a passive workforce of obedience and productiveness. Stand against this and you may well be met be met by State led methods of oppression, complemented by more illicit, para-state structures. The relationship is perhaps best described by the Spanish metaphor - ‘like dirt under the fingernails’.

In one sense this is just one more symptom of a State that seems intent on rolling back what little state provision is available to the 50% of Colombians who live below the poverty line. Today the stakes could not be higher. The students of Univalle are at the forefront of a national movement to save popular, public education in Colombia. The time to express our solidarity with them is now.

Please write to your local Colombian Embassy demanding that the security and rights of the student protests be respected…or do something more imaginative:

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

DEATH THREAT

'We call on the Student Council of Palmira, Univalle, not to continue with its activities that only serve to fuel this war and plunge the country into disgrace.

This call is for you to abandon the city and not continue carrying out marches or closing the university - depriving the students and workers of their fundamental rights.

If you continue you will invoke THE CONSEQUENCES, especially NAME and NAME. IF YOU DONT ABANDON THE COUNTRY WE ARE GOING TO MAKE YOU DISAPPEAR.

We are not going to allow that you, alongside the Polo Democratico [party] bring these guerilla rats here.

We await for you to adhere to these orders, open the university and leave.

FIGHTING FOR DEMOCRACY
FREE COLOMBIA

AGUILAS NEGRAS
PALMIRA BLOCK'



Sources

ACCION URGENTE: AGRESION Y DETENCION A ESTUDIANTES DE LA UNIVERSIDAD DEL VALLE POR PARTE DEL ESMAD, (Fundación Comité Solidaridad con Presos Políticos Sección Valle, 21 junio 2007)
Siguen las amenazas y los hostigamientos contra el movimiento estudantil (Comunicado a la Comunidad Universitaria y Comunidad en General, Junio 2007)

Alerta Temprana: Hostigamientos en Contra las Lideres Estudiantiles (SINTRAUNICOR, CPDH, CUT, Santiago de Cali 2007)

Ideas: Boletín de Opinión (Facultad de Humanidades, UNIVALLE, no.4 Junio 2007)

La Palabra: Periodico Cultural de la Universidad de Valle (Junio 2006)

Posicón de los Departamentos Frente al Proyecto de Acto Legislativo que Midifica el SGP (Federaci{on Nacional de los Departamentos, 2007, www.fecode.com.co)

‘Unificar el Movimiento Social para Defender la Educacion Publica y Popular’, El Educador Caucano (No.24, Marzo/Abril 2007)

'The Universities: Boosting the Fight Against Tyranny', Gloria Florez, www.pacocol.org/es/Inicio/Archivo_de_noticias/Mayo07/134.htm

Florída: Mass Detention and Brutal Supression of Social Protest

This is a pictoral account of a day of social protest (22/06) in Florida, Valle de Cauca, after 27 civillians were arbitrarily detained the night before. Most were dragged from their homes, passers -by and youths were amongst those gagged, beaten and forcefully questioned in the Police station. The local Authorities have released two documents: one (dated 21/96) declaring that any demonstration against the proposed new waste plant in the town must have the authorization of the local Government Secretary, and another (delivered to ever household that night) naming 10 community leaders as `terrorists, militants and guerillas´ for organizing the protest that day.


This youth is fifteen years of age and was beaten by Police in the station the night before who were demanding information.

This youth is 16 year of age and was arbitrarily taken to the Police Station the previous night 21/06 and beaten

This youth is 16 year of age and was arbitrarily taken to the Police Station the previous night 21/06 and beaten

This youth is 16 year of age and was arbitrarily taken to the Police Station the previous night 21/06 and beaten

This youth is 16 year of age and was arbitrarily taken to the Police Station the previous night 21/06 and beaten

Individuals photoing and videoing assembly of civillians from the balcony of the Alcaldia (Mayores Office).

The arrival of the heavily armed ESMAD squadron to the Alcaldia (Mayores Builing)at 10:15 caused panic and confusion, dispersing the peacefull assembly of concerned townspeople.

The arrival of the heavily armed ESMAD squadron to the Alcaldia (Mayores Builing)at 10:15 caused panic and confusion, dispersing the peacefull assembly of concerned townspeople.

11:30 22/06 Police forcefully evicted peacefull protesters from the main plaza in an apparent act of provocation.

This vehicle had no markings of identification

11:40 Police advance on protesters through town

Mining Community In Assembly - Cauca

SUAREZ, CAUCA, SOUTH WEST COLOMBIA


ESMAD Public order squadron brought into the town. Believed by many to be a form of provocation and intimidartion. Why was this vehicle without any markings of identification?


WE DEMAND
- Respect of our rights as indigenous communities, peasants and afrodescendants
- Respect of the rights recognised in Convention 169 of the International Work Organisation. As such the State may not make resources existent in our territory disposable without consulting th communities.





Gold mining activities, damm to the rear. Army base on adjacent mountain (out of shot)

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)

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...