[News] Indigenous and Rural Communities on the Move in Putumayo and Nariño
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Tue Mar 2 13:03:23 EST 2010
Indigenous and Rural Communities on the Move in Putumayo and Nariño
Occupation of Puerto Piñuña Police Station for
Sixty-Three Days Ends With an Accord Between the Government and Communities
http://www.narconews.com/Issue64/article4067.html
By James Jordan
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
March 1, 2010
Narco News readers were recently informed of the
<http://narconews.com/Issue63/article3998.html>occupation
by over 5,000 indigenous community members of the
Piñuña Negro police station of Puerto Leguízamo
in Putumayo, Colombia. Their demands included an
end to military and paramilitary harassment,
negotiations with the government over coca
eradication efforts and a commitment to social
development. The eradication efforts had not
included promised help with crop replacement or
improvements to local infrastructure. In many
areas, the two pronged attack of eradication and
military/paramilitary threats has resulted in the
forced removal of inhabitants. But the
communities occupying the Piñuña Negro police station refused to be displaced.
We have recently received reports from FENSUAGRO
(the National Federation of United Agricultural
and Aquacultural Unions) that not only has there
been a victory in that struggle, but also in
similar struggles in Putumayo and the neighboring
state of Nariño. What is required now is that
recent agreements be monitored to see if they result in real improvements.
In the municipality of Puerto Leguízamo, the
Puerto Piñuña Police Station, as well as four
other police stations, was occupied for 63 days
by over 6,000 families. These families were from
eight indigenous communities situated along the
Putumayo river. At first the government turned a
deaf ear toward calls for negotiations but was
finally compelled by the popular movement to
enter into a dialogue. Eventually the government
signed a 45 point accord promising more social
investment and a gradual and voluntary crop substitution program.
This mobilization had caught the attention of US
solidarity activists concerned about US support
of the Colombian military and for eradication
campaigns that cause displacement in places like
Puerto Leguízamo. Military aid and eradication
campaigns have been major components of Plan
Colombia, which has received some $7 billion in
funding from the US. Plan Colombia has been
officially described as both part of the War on
Drugs and as a war against Colombian insurgents.
However, in each, the plan has been a failure.
Cocaine production in Colombia is actually on the
rise. Meanwhile, there has been a reconstitution
of guerrilla forces and newly announced unity
between the two largest such armies, the FARC
(Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and the
ELN (National Army of Liberation).
In the proposed 2011 federal budget announced by
the Obama Administration, there is no funding
allocated for Plan Colombia. Colombia will
continue receiving military and other forms of
aid, but with 20% less than last year. Right now
a lobbying campaign is underway by the Colombian
government to make sure that any budget passed
includes monies for Plan Colombia. Tom Burke of
the Colombia Action Network believes, in light of
the agreement for the US to deploy on seven
Colombian Air Force bases, that we are witnessing
a change in strategies for the US. According to
Burke, Colombia solidarity activists should
recognize that Plan Colombia is a failure and has
only brought poverty, displacement and death. We
should continue to mobilize against it during the
upcoming budget debate. But the expansion into
these new bases signifies that US military
intervention in and around Colombia is being
taken to a new level. The US is trying to take
more direct control of an already doomed
situation. People should call the White House and
Congress and demand that there be no new funding
for Plan Colombia and no new bases.
The mobilizations in Puerto Leguízamo are
indicative of a wave of popular resistance in the
area. In the municipality of Puerto Asís, along
the Ecuadorian border, more than 5,000 family and
cooperative farmers carried out a 23 day protest
concerning environmental impacts due to oil
developments. They were also demanding more
social investment in the area. While officials
with the government run oil agency, ECOPETROL,
have not yet met with community members,
representatives of private oil developers have
agreed to improve relations with the local
population and have committed to undertake social
investment in the region. Also, commissions from
the Ministry of the Environment have been
conducting studies to assess the damage of
contamination due to oil development.
A mobilization in excess of three thousand
families occurred for some 22 days in the
municipality of Orito, along the border of the
adjacent departments of Putumayo and Nariño. In
this area, there was some dispute regarding which
department was responsible for the community.
This dispute had resulted in a lack of social
service and infrastructure development. Because
of the demands of the people, agreements were
signed between the government of Nariño,
seventeen community action councils and three
indigenous communities. Terms of the accord
include the funding and naming of staff for a
health clinic and the allocation of resources for
the expansion of a school as well as other development projects.
According to Nidia Quintero, who serves as
FENSUAGROs treasurer, It is hoped that all of
the signed accords in all these mobilizations
will be fulfilled with seriousness and in the
established places. If it is to the contrary, the
farming communities of Putumayo will no doubt
mobilize anew in order to avail themselves of
their rights and to defend the dignity of their territory.
The US-based Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ),
which has a close solidarity relationship with
FENSUAGRO, has agreed to continue closely
following developments in each of these cases and
will mobilize international solidarity in the
event that agreements are not honored by the
government and other entities. Those wishing to
do so can send an email to
<mailto:info at afgj.org>info at afgj.org requesting to receive updates.
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