[News] Colombian Government's Propaganda vs. Indigenous Media Perspectives

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Another Front in the Conflict: Colombian 
Government's Propaganda vs. Indigenous Media Perspectives
Written by Mario A. Murillo

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1532/1/
Monday, 20 October 2008

Bogotá, Colombia-A week into the Indigenous and 
Popular Mobilizations in Cauca (and the rest of 
Colombia), and it is fair to say that the 
propaganda war is well underway. And so far, it 
looks like the government of Alvaro Uribe is winning.

On Friday, the President held another press 
conference stating that they had “clear evidence” 
that the mass popular protest in Cauca was being 
controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of 
Colombia, FARC. The Commander of the National 
Police, General Óscar Naranjo, stated 
unequivocally that the Sixth Front of FARC was 
behind the disturbances. And at the Palacio 
Nariño, the Minister of Social Protection, Diego 
Palacio, stated, with a straight face, “the 
government continues to respect social protest 
and mobilization, as long as it is for civil 
causes,” adding that the sugar cane workers 
strike and the indigenous mobilizations of the 
past few days contain the presence of “destabilizing forces.”

These words are echoing throughout the media as I 
write this, and will undoubtedly go on for hours 
on the radio and TV broadcasts, as well as the 
websites of RCN and Caracol, the two mega-giants 
of Colombia’s mass-commercial media. The 
government’s claims are also among the top 
stories in the front-page of El Tiempo, and other 
major national and regional newspapers, and it 
has almost become conventional wisdom in the last 
few days because of the capacity of the Uribe 
Administration to set the agenda, present its 
arguments to domestic journalists with 
indignation and authority, and come off as the victim once again.

And the indigenous movement’s demands for justice 
are set aside as they face off against the 
Colombian Army and Police in La Maria, while 
their leaders are forced to deny the charges 
directed against them by those in authority. Who do you believe?

Looking over the last few days of news coverage 
on some of the major news sources, the imbalance 
of perspectives is unbelievable. On Friday alone, 
I scoured through over 25 news articles and 
dispatches on the websites of RCN, Caracol, El 
Tiempo, El Liberal and Noticias Uno, the first 
three being the media of record in the country, 
with a massive reach that is unchallenged, the 
latter two representing a local newspaper from 
southern Colombia, and an independent, national 
news channel that provides some of the most 
comprehensive investigative reporting in all of 
Colombia. Naturally, many other media are 
covering the developments in the south, and it 
will take some time to filter through it all.

What was most telling of this brief scan of these 
news media outlets was the wide array of sources 
that were cited providing the government’s 
perspective, and the very few voices that were 
cited providing that of the indigenous movement. 
President Uribe, General Naranjo, Minister 
Palacio, as well as the director of the DAS, 
Colombia’s equivalent of the FBI, María del Pilar 
Hurtado, were quoted repeatedly throughout the 
sample, stating again and again how they have 
exposed this nefarious plan to topple the Uribe 
government, manifested in both the sugar cane 
workers strike and the indigenous protests.

Hurtado was quoted in one report in El Tiempo 
saying that “the cane workers strike in Valle del 
Cauca and Cauca contained the participation of 
foreigners who were looking to destabilize the 
government,” without providing any names or other 
evidence. The accusations about the FARC’s role 
in the indigenous protests appeared in 19 of the 
25 articles I collected in this limited period, 
with at least ten not even presenting the 
indigenous community’s response (I should point 
out that as I was going through these news 
articles, I had Caracol Radio turned on in my 
desk, and over a period of about two hours, the 
same correspondent reporting from the 
Presidential Press conference came on at least 
four times, with dramatic soundbites from the President and Minister Palacio).

No doubt, the government’s message was getting 
out through its communication channels.

On the other hand, the sources used from the 
indigenous movement were very limited. The one 
voice that was heard/quoted again and again was 
that of Daniel Piñacué, a Nasa leader from 
Belalcázar, in Tierradentro, Cauca, who has a 
long history in the indigenous movement, but who 
was not one of the principal organizers of the 
mobilization. He was quoted in several of the 
articles in this small sample, stating “that the 
mobilization will continue,” and that “we will 
continue to respect the authorities, while they 
provoke us.” On several occasions he denied the 
accusations about FARC infiltration in the 
movement, but only after the case was already 
made by several of the above-mentioned government officials.

On several reports from RCN Radio we heard the 
voice of Daniel Piñacué’s brother, Jesus, one of 
the most visible indigenous personalities in the 
country, having served on the Senate for several 
terms. Only in one report, notably on Noticias 
UNO, did a voice representing the Association of 
Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca, ACIN, come 
through in the coverage, a significant oversight 
given that ACIN was one of the main organizations 
behind the protest. They and CRIC, the Regional 
Indigenous Council of Cauca, have been putting 
out communiqués and reports for weeks about the 
march, and have been calling on the government to 
meet with them to discuss their demands, but to no avail.

Meanwhile, the entire narrative contained within 
the press coverage of the past several days 
remained stuck on the battles unfolding on the 
Pan American highway, and who was to blame for 
the violence. Television images have shown the 
army and police using gunfire, which in a sense 
refutes the government’s claims that no live fire 
has been used on the protesters. But again, 
commanders on the ground have been given top 
priority, presented as the voice of reason 
against a horde of indigenous protesters running wild.

The coverage has been fundamentally about the 
violence, while the underlying reasons for the 
mobilization have been relegated to the trash bin 
of history. The concerns and demands of the 
popular movement were made completely irrelevant. 
It is difficult to imagine that the media workers 
covering this story are not even partially aware 
of the issues the communities are raising in the 
protests, but in some of the coverage the 
ignorance comes across loud and clear. For 
example, in one report in El Tiempo, which to its 
credit was about the International Federation of 
Human Rights’ criticism of Uribe’s handling of 
the protests, the author states: “The Indians 
initiated the encounter last week in 
commemoration of 516 years since the discovery of 
America, what they call the displacement.”

Nowhere in the piece, or in any other articles I 
tracked in this sample, were the five points 
being put forth by the indigenous movement 
mentioned, even in passing. If even a fraction of 
the movement’s fundamental concerns were made 
known to the public in the reporting, and the 
fact that their main purpose for the mobilization 
was to start a dialogue with the government about 
these concerns, the repressive response from the 
government to the protests probably would have 
been a lot clearer – and indeed much more intolerable- for the average viewer.

The movement is not remaining silent, but very 
few media are really paying close attention to 
what they’re saying. If one were to read from the 
missive the “Popular Minga” released on Thursday, 
their arguments are pretty clear and make perfect 
sense within the current context. For example, in 
response to the constant accusations that FARC is 
behind the movement, they write: “Let us be 
clear: If there are Indians involved in the 
insurgency, or any other armed group, it is a 
personal decision of theirs that goes against our 
organizational and community process.”

The communiqués and the actions of the movement 
have always taken a position of autonomy vis a 
vis the guerillas. The ACIN and CRIC have 
publicly denounced FARC for its incursions into 
its territories. Nevertheless, the Uribe 
government continues to make the unsubstantiated 
link in an attempt to avoid any dialogue with the 
communities. This fact does not come through in 
any of the coverage whatsoever, leaving the 
audience in a permanent state of being misinformed.

Taking it a step further, the indigenous movement 
is always trying to make the point about the 
“dark forces” behind the current regime, 
something that the news media consistently 
overlook. The same government that accuses the 
movement of being manipulated by FARC is in many 
ways illegitimate in the eyes of the popular 
movement, as they expressed clearly in their 
missive released on Thursday. Perhaps one day we 
will see the news media echo these claims as 
often as they present the charges of the government against the movement:

“The majority of the members of Congress that 
support the government of President Uribe, those 
legislators who have elaborated and approved the 
laws that displace us of our rights and our 
liberties, occupy their official spaces with the 
backing of paramilitary groups, and are involved 
in the Para-politics scandal currently under 
investigation. Neither they nor the laws they 
have approved have any degree of legitimacy.”

The reasons for the protests, which are based on 
a profound critique, not only of the current 
government but of the entire system itself, are 
not elaborated on in the media coverage for the 
obvious reason that it goes against the interests 
of those same media, and the political class they serve.

A lot has been written about how the commercial 
mass information and cultural industries continue 
to perpetuate profound myths about Colombian 
democracy and society. This is done on several 
levels, most prominently in the way reporters, 
editors, commentators and the like accept the 
institutional definitions provided by official 
sources to frame the so-called fringes of 
society. For generations, this marginalization 
has also been manifest in the way state 
institutions have limited the spaces whereby 
these dissenting community voices may be heard, 
although precisely because of the years of 
organizing around media and democracy, this 
latter approach has been curtailed considerably. 
Colombia, despite its very fragile democratic 
institutions, has a long tradition of community, 
citizen's based media projects that consistently challenge the corporate media.

The indigenous communities currently mobilizing 
throughout the country around five basic points 
have their own media channels, and are utilizing 
them extensively as the current crisis unfolds. 
There are 26 indigenous radio stations around the 
country licensed as public interests 
broadcasters, plus a constellation of other 
smaller, low-power community stations 
broadcasting to local indigenous communities.

In the department of Cauca, the indigenous media 
are perhaps the most effective and well 
organized, particularly that of the ACIN, whose 
communication network includes one public 
interest station in Santander de Quilichao, two 
community stations – one in Toribio and the other 
in Jambaló – a smaller, low-power station in 
Canoas, plus a video production team and an 
elaborate website 
(<http://www.nasa_acin.org/>www.nasa_acin.org). 
The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia, 
ONIC, also has its own website, which includes a 
virtual radio station, Achi Bedea, which for the 
last several days has been streaming the voices 
of indigenous activists from every region of the country.

These and other indigenous media outlets are 
linked to the broader network of national, 
alternative media, such as IndyMedia-Colombia, 
SICO, SIPAZ, La Red de Prensa Alternativa del Sur 
del País, among many others. They have been 
working feverishly in the last week to present an 
alternative narrative to the corporate media.

In many respects, they have been successful in 
gathering support on an international level, and 
getting NGOs and other human rights groups to pay 
attention. I would argue they have not been as 
successful in getting progressive and independent 
media outlets in the U.S. to pay attention. 
Unlike developments in Oaxaca a few years ago, 
which received considerable coverage by the 
independent media movement up north, this latest 
struggle in Colombia is barely on the radar 
screen of media such as Democracy Now!, Pacifica 
Radio and Alter-Net, media that are completely 
caught up with the presidential campaign in the 
U.S. In this regard, the alternative media 
movement and the social sectors they represent 
here in Colombia has a long way to go in terms of 
penetrating the agenda of like-minded folks in the U.S.

The bigger question at the moment is whether or 
not the indigenous community and alternative 
radio stations and media networks in Colombia can 
counter-act the damaging effects of the 
mainstream media’s overwhelming tendency to give 
an unfiltered voice to the official authorities, 
especially on radio and on television news. It is 
part of a pattern that has gone on for many years 
in the Colombian news media that is not easy to break.

When it comes to coverage and representation of 
indigenous communities, the tendency of the mass 
communication media has been consistent: they 
either ignore the communities by making them 
invisible, clump them all together in a process 
of homogenization, thereby negating their 
diversity and complexity, or present them as 
nothing more than passive actors, the poor, 
defenseless victims of an unjust system – “el 
pobre indio.” There is also the more benevolent 
yet equally harmful tendency of celebrating their 
exotic-ness, embracing the novelty of their 
different forms of dressing, their spiritual and 
healing practices, or their internal justice 
system, without really understanding the significance of each.

Meanwhile, when the communities take matters into 
their own hands in acts of massive protest and 
mobilization, as they are currently doing, the 
dominant media usually represent these situations 
as acts of criminality, emphasizing their 
tendency to break the law–block highways, occupy 
territory “illegally,” etc.–as a way to address 
their grievances. The unsubstantiated association 
with “dark forces of terror,” meaning the FARC 
guerillas, becomes the accepted message that is 
very difficult to refute for the people directly 
involved in the confrontations.

These faulty patterns of media coverage leave the 
audience with the perennial question, why would 
people behave like this if they can employ the 
legitimate instruments of the democratic system 
to promote their interests and seek redress from 
the dominant society? I’ve heard it repeated by 
many people here in Colombia, even those one 
would normally consider to be enlightened: “Those 
Indians in Cauca are always looking for trouble, 
and they constantly want more.”

The current backlash against indigenous 
organizations that are on the upswing under the 
Uribe administration has made it much more 
difficult for the movement to put forward its 
message of social transformation through peaceful 
means to the broader public, especially through 
mainstream channels. This is connected to the 
fact that, with very few exceptions, the 
Colombian mass media rarely if ever represent the 
complex organizational structures of indigenous 
communities, characterized by deliberative 
consensus building, grassroots participation, and leadership accountability.

All of this should not be surprising, given the 
institutional structures that have for decades 
characterized the Colombian media, structures 
specifically put in place by very powerful 
private and state interests who are naturally 
threatened by the kinds of issues being raised by 
the communities and their allies in the popular 
movement. I’ll have more on this in a future post.

Mario A. Murillo is associate professor of 
Communication at Hofstra University in New York, 
and the author of Colombia and the United States: 
War, Unrest and Destabilization. He is currently 
living in Colombia, finishing a book about the 
indigenous movement and its uses of community media.





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