National Agrarian Mobilization: We Condemn the War-Like Treatment Against the Mobilization in the Southwest of Colombia

18.05.06

On May 15, the National Day of Campesino and Indigenous Mobilisation, autonomously convoked by the campesino and indigenous movement, as well as supported by the Broad Democratic Coalition (Gran Coalición Democrática) and the Unitary Workers Central (CUT), became a historical date in terms of social resistance and struggle against the Free Trade Agreement, rejection of the re-election campaign of candidate/president Álvaro Uribe Vélez, as well as opposition of the campesino community to the Colombian and U.S. policy of continuing forced fumigations and eradications of crops with illicit uses.

Today, mobilisations were reported to have occurred in most of Colombia, and continue in the southwest of the country (the Departments of Cauca, Nariño, Putumayo and Meta).

The campesinos have requested the creation of a national negotiation table, and the government responded violently by way of anti-riot forces, which came to the region days before the mobilisation.

Today, on May 16, more than 25 campesino and indigenous social leaders were reported to have been detained, as well as several leaders wounded, during the confrontations with the public force.

Additionally, we denounce that the governor of Cauca, JUAN JOSÉ CHAUX MOSQUERA, has been irresponsibly saying that the campesinos have been forced to march by order of drug-traffickers and terrorists, which makes the campesinos and indigenous people become targets of paramilitarism.

Lastly, we call on the national and international community to demand that the Colombian government immediately negotiate with the currently mobilised communities. Please direct your correspondence to the following governmental bodies:

President of the Republic
Álvaro Uribe Vélez
auribe@presidencia.gov.co

Vice-Presidency of the Republic
Francisco Santos
fsantos@presidencia.gov.co

Internal Affairs Agency (Procuraduría General de la Nación)
Edgardo Maya
reygon@procuraduría.gov.co

Ministry of Social Protection
Dr. Diego Palacio

Ministry of Agriculture
Andrés Felipe Arias

Ministry of Environmental Affairs
Sandra Suárez

INCODER

Governor of Cauca
Juan José Chaux

Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office (Defensoría del Pueblo)
Wolmar Antonio Pérez
defensoria@defensoria.org.co

Sincerely,

Executive Committee
EBERTO DIAZ MONTES
President

JUAN MENDOZA
Secretary General

AIDEÉ MORENO
Department of Human Rights

The executive committee of the National Agricultural Workers Union Federation (Fensuagro), affiliated to the Workers Unitary Central (CUT), wish to address you in order to state that today, May 15, an important day of national agrarian protest has been carried out:

-Against the Free Trade Agreement;
-Against the fumigations and forced eradication of crops with illicit uses;
-Against the Patriot Plan war policy;
-Against the presidential re-election
-In the defence of national sovereignty and human rights;
-For the right to land, as well as for a comprehensive and democratic agrarian reform.

In this sense, thousands of campesinos, indigenous people and Afro-Colombians are presently in permanent mobilisation in the following regions of the country: the municipalities along the Pacific coast (Iscuandé, el Charco and Barbacoas), blockades along the highway from the coast to the mountains in Ricaute, el Diviso and Mondomo (the Pan—American Highway in Cauca), in addition to the campesino concentrations in the departments of Putumayo, Valle de Cauca and Caldas, as well as in the jurisdiction of Puerto Toledo (municipality of Puerto Rico-Meta).

Up to the present moment, the mobilisations have been violently repressed. In the municipality of Mondomo in the department of Cauca (along the Pan-American Highway), CARLOS URBANO GÓMEZ, OSCAR SÁNCHEZ and ALEXANDER PEREZ, indigenous and campesino persons, were wounded by the army and the police. A large number of demonstrators were also detained, as well as an unknown number wounded.

Facing this difficult situation, the mobilised communities urgently request:

1.That the government and the public force respect the agrarian communities’ right to free mobilisation.

2.The cessation of all violent acts by the public force that may risk the personal safety and life of the mobilised campesino and indigenous communities.

3.Immediate creation of a national negotiation table between campesinos and the government in order to find a definitive solution to the crisis suffered by the rural communities.

Sincerely,

NATIONAL COMMITTEE EXECUTIVE
FENSUAGRO

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