[News] Indigenous and Rural Communities on the Move in Putumayo and Nariño

[Anti-Imperialist News]

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 
FENSUAGRO’s 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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