Indigenous Community in Resistance

Nasa Community in Resistance (Municipio de Dagua, Valle de Cauca, Colombia)

It is the crack of dawn on a Saturday and a small group of human rights workers are gathering at the Cali bus terminal (Colombia´s third largest city). After a 90 minute drive through stunning scenery we arrive at Cisnero, a village of the Nasa tribe with some Afro-Colombian families. The village lies along the transport rout between Cali and the pacific mega-port city of Buenaventura. With a mountainous and fertile terrain the region suffers badly from armed conflict, narco-trafficking and exploitation by trans-national companies that operate under the protection of state and paramilitary terror. Yet today is a happy occasion; the completion of a series of community workshops aimed at building resistance and permanence in the face of these atrocities.

In 2003 there was a wave of mass detentions across Colombia, carried out arbitrarily against civilians as part of President Uribe´s `Democratic Security´ policy. Cisnero was hit hard. During a market day of July that year, 54 people (including 5 women) were rounded up, accused of guerilla connections and imprisoned on charges of ´rebellion´. No proof was found to qualify any of these detentions. After 10 months they released the first group of 18 people. To date 12 remain in prison. Many of those released have been recharged and are in hiding or suffer regular police harassment.1

To carry out this detention, the police used civilian informants that were paid in cash. This civilianization of the conflict (another element of Uribe´s ´Democratic Security´ policy) goes against the Geneva Convention. Sadly, Cisnero is only one of hundreds of Colombian communities in a similar plight. In the first 3 years of President Uribe´s rule there were 6,332 detentions of which at least 70% had strong arbitrary elements.2


“We as indigenous people don´t trust anybody”, exclaimed Martha a lady in her 50´s. The adjacent mountains are traditionally territory of the left insurgency. The arrival of the Colombian Army 3rd High Mountain Battalion has led to the deeper involvement of Nasa villagers in the armed conflict and a worsening of their human rights situation.3 “If we go up there they kill us, if we stay here they kill us, so we stay here and resist”. She went on to tell of the loss of land to los colones (colonizers) who are sold the land by paramilitaries that took the land by armed force. This demonstrates again the cycle of violence, displacement and the concentration of land ownership that has left over 3.5 million Colombians internally displaced.

Workshops covered a variety of topics as outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 67 of the Colombian Constitution. It also looked at indigenous rights and the legislation pertaining to it. Colombia is the only country not to have signed the UN, Universal Declaration of Indigenous Rights and many of its ethnicities are now facing extinction.

On a practical level the community is equipped with skills to assert these rights, for example: how to word letters to the local Ombudsman about their right to education, or to the local authorities regarding the status of detained loved ones. The making of public statements was looked at, as was combining work with other villages to aid with things like accompaniment. Adolfo (a member of the community council) stressed that under no circumstances should they have to give the authorities any documents of identification to take away. He later told me that the fuerzas publicas (police and army) use these papers are used to aid the persecution.

In one workshop the participants were asked to draw a map of their community and mark down all the resources within it. One issue that came of this was the existence of a rail track and highway running directly through the settlement. According to Colombian law, the rail company owns 15 meters either side of the rail track and the state owns 125 meters either side of the highway. "After that there is nothing left" complained Adolfo. The very act of discussing and visualizing the surroundings cultivates an awareness of territory - a fundamental entity for indigenous peoples. Territory provides the space to be autonomous and construct plans for the future. By considering what they have the villagers are better positioned to protect their physical integrity.

What is a trans-national corporation? What is a megaproject? These were some of the questions looked at in another of the sessions. In the discussion that followed the Cisneros linked the local rail link and highway to the problem of the corporate takeover of indigenous lands and the violence that accompanies them. A gas pipeline running through their territory makes them particularly vulnerable. Police have been carrying out illegal searches, claiming that gas was being stolen from the pipeline; something hard to believe as most of the villagers were unsure of exactly what the pipeline was carrying.

The work being done in Cisneros is based on the principle of community action through organisation. Central to that is the process of participation. One problem identified in the meetings was the fact that the men are further ahead in their experience of collective decision making. Who looks after the children during the meetings? When should the meetings take place? These are just some of the practical considerations involved in cultivating a community capable of confronting problems collectively. In the final day, female participants (who constituted the majority) expressed their appreciation and said they felt empowered. One lady suggested a meeting to exchange medical knowledge. Plans are already underway for a social festival with invites going out to neighboring communities.

With many of their best men torn from them the Cisneros are reconstructing their social fabric from the base. In a State with a human rights record as poor as Colombia it is necessary to construct alternative mechanisms for the defence of human rights. This means participation, action and symbolic expressions by the community, individually and collectively. In doing so, Cisnero like so many other Colombian communities is constructing grass roots alternatives to the cycle of violence and exploitation. In doing so these communities are inspiring solidarity worldwide.

The Plan Colombia Nightmare in Art

Johnathon tours with the artwork on the giant canvass made of recycled plastic drinks bottles. He facillitates workshops and discussion. See his Wayuu Indigenous blog on links list

The Plan Colombia pesadilla (nightmare)

This graphic is the product of many intercambios about the issue of colonialism in the Andean Region of South America that took place between our collective and organizers over the spring of 2002 in Ecuador, Colombia and the U.S. These exchanges of information and inspiration were collaboratively sewn together into a quilt of images, that are organized into a circuit of progressions and contrasts that inform and engage the viewer throughout their journey of the graphic.


Before and after: barter economy and capitalist exchange

Teaching torture to the army

The long history of colonialism in the Americas, currently manifested in the Andean Region as "Plan Colombia", is a strong metaphor of the multi-faceted destructive influences of U.S. foreign policy and corporate monoculture on a global scale. This graphic attempts to expose the lie of the drug war as a smokescreen for multinational corporation's interests in extraction of the rich biodiversity and natural resources of the Amazon and her peoples. It is an anti-war poster that speaks in the mythology of our times… the cancerous monomyth of corporate globalization, and its antibodies of grassroots resistance.

Here BP is represented as a mosquito/oil pump sucking Colombia´s wealth from the ground. This was the idea of the Uwa tribe who consider oil as the blood of Mother Nature and are surrently resisting oil expansion in their territory in the department of Arauca.

In an attempt to overcome the tendency of images to simply portray "what we are against," this graphic illustrates this story in three "layers" to help the viewer experience the different aspects of an extremely complex, and brutal situation. The mission was to give an illustrated explanation of not just the nightmare, but to also give weight to the inspiring stories of hope, courage and struggle of those that are directly experiencing it. As North American youth that have endured the destructive and racist brainwashing of television, videogames, cultural appropriation and advertising imagery, our collective felt it was essential to produce this representation in collaboration with organizers in the Andean region, to get the story straight. The result, is thick with those voices. The tools produced from this collaboration are being distributed, as anti-copyright material, for use in campaigns in both the South and North of the Americas.

For more graphics with explination see the web page

Find out more and download beehive graphics for your own work. The Collective is donation based and are copy left, all rights reversed.

Ten Years of Peace, Ten Years of Impunity; Peace Community Celebrates 10th Anniversary

*SEE LINKS AT BOTTOM RIGHT OF PAGE

Photo courtesy of www.cdpsanjose.org

It is the 23rd March, and in the searing heat of Colombia´s banana growing region of Uraba, a procession of 170 people descend from the mountains to the town of Apartadó. Completing the four hour walk are international solidarity activists, supporters from across Colombia and proud campesino families marking their tenth anniversary of resistance - the peace community of San Jose de Apartadó.

On arriving in the town over a hundred cardboard coffins were placed at the gates of the cemetery and then the office of local justice in a powerful act of symbolism. Written on the coffins were the names of the assassinated. Some bore the dates of the recent massacre of September 2006. The surprise march of remembrance was a brave move by the community. Whilst police took photos from the periphery, plain clothes members of the army and likely a few civilian informants infiltrated the crowd. The message however was delivered loud and clear: we are still here, we will not forget and we want justice. Walking back from the town the procession hammered crosses on trees that marked the location of murdered compañeros.

In February 1997, paramilitary forces entered San Jose claiming guerilla involvement. They closed down the market, ordered the community to displace and murdered four of its leaders. On March 23rd they declared themselves a peace community. In doing so they removed themselves from the clutch of armed actors that militarize and exploit their society. In ten years San Jose has suffered 35 new assassinations – 33 of these by paramilitaries and 2 by the FARC guerillas. To date the Government maintains these crimes in total impunity.

Around one hundred visitors came to express their support and participate in the week of events, workshops and talks from community leaders and Colombian human rights NGOs. “We live in the age of the globalization of violence”, said one German delegate in a message of solidarity, “your community shines a light on the path to peace”. In equal number were members of other Colombian communities. Some belonged to the embryonic national network of 21 peace communities. One young farmer came from a community that was considering following San Jose´s example. One- by- one they stood up and told of the requisitioning of their lands, the dislocation of their way of life by war and their attempts to construct alternatives to cycle of violence that subjugates them.


By far the largest perpetrators of these crimes are Colombia´s right wing paramilitary death squads Throughout their 15 year history they have committed around 14,000 human rights abuses including 3.300 homicides against civil society: trade unionists, indigenous groups, politicians, judges, journalists, human rights defenders, peasants and social movements According to one hidden Government report they are also responsible for at least 40% of drug trafficking in the country . The recent para-politica or ´Para-Gate´ scandal involving the Government of Alvaro Uribe (a recipient of British military aid) serves only to further expose the use of paramilitarism as an instrument of state terror.

Their economic power has grown in strength alongside their involvement with transnational mega-projects and the displacement of over 3.5 million Colombians. In March this year, Chiquita fruit brands (formerly United Fruit Company) agreed to pay a fine of $25 million to the US Department of Justice for financing the AUC paramilitary organization between 2001 and 2004. Chiquita are one of the largest trans-national corporations operating in San Jose´s Uraba region where the level of internally displaced persons is comparable to that of Rawanda. A related article in a recent edition of Semana magazine spoke of the ´banana para-republic´.

Today the tentacles of para-state violence in Uraba stretch further than ever. Community members recount tactics such as planting camouflage on the corpses of their victims and passing them off as insurgents. Another is the active encouragement of coca production amongst peasants with the end of using this as an excuse for the seizure of their land. In recent years, Government amnesties have served only to re-construct paramilitary activity. Many groups have reformed under new names such as Aguillas Negras or Black Eagles. Human rights groups worldwide also condemn the controversial Justice and Peace Law (2005) which offers death squads virtual immunity from justice. The peace community stands at the forefront of social movements actively campaign against this policy of impunity.

Photo courtesy of www.cdpsanjose.org

The community serves to illustrate that in Colombia, as in Chile and elsewhere, society cannot move forward silently in peace under a state that maintains an absence of truth and reconciliation. The National Movement of the Victims of State Crimes looks beyond the apparatus of state justice with bodies such as the Inter- American Court of Human Rights. It has created an Ethics Commission made up of 25 international and 5 national members. Over 10 years it will document testimonies, animate it in the public consciousness and create proposals for justice and reparation.

On a grassroots level, popular tribunals encourage political participation and clarification of the facts. It has become necessary to unite diverse sectors of social, ethnic and political groups in Colombia preserve la memoria and prevent further para-state genocide. “We are all sons and daughters of the victims” were the words of the movement leader Ivan Cepeda Vargas, who came to speak at the anniversary.

In San Jose la memoria is a living, daily reality and is central to their sense of identity and autonomy. Plans are currently underway to construct a new park of commemoration in the town. Aside from the therapeutic effect of remembrance, the act of reconstructing the past gives vitality to the present struggle for justice. In this sense la memoria and la resistancia are two sides of the same coin.

As the community enters its second decade, it is building new bridges of solidarity and seeking new paths to justice. They continue to be vocal in linking their struggle to the fight against the impunity of state terror. Their bravery in doing so continues to inspire Uraba, Colombia and indeed the World. The challenge is nothing less than to create a peaceful reality in a country where violence and amnesia is a prevailing norm.

For more information visit, the San Jose de Apartadó website (español) or Friendship of Reconcilliation (english).


¨The Community freely:
- Participates in communal work
- Says no to injustice and impunity from the facts
- Does not participate in the war directly or indirectly or carr arms
- Does not manipulate or deliver information to any parties¨


´Travel in peace, your army is on the road. 17th Brigade´ (The 17th Brigade are one of the worse offending brigades in the Colombian Army with respect to human rights)