COLOMBIA:
'Independence? What
Independence?'
Indigenous Peoples Ask
By
Helda Martínez
BOGOTÁ, (IPS) -
Colombia celebrated 197
years of independence
from Spain on Friday,
Jul. 20. On Monday, at
dawn, some 5,000
indigenous people set
off on an 800-kilometre
journey to ask the
government, "what
independence?"
"We're going to the
national Congress to
make it known that we do
not agree with laws
they've passed that
seriously jeopardise
national sovereignty and
the autonomy of
indigenous peoples,"
Feliciano Valencia, an
indigenous leader, told
IPS.
Nasa (or Páez) and
Guambian people started
their journey in
Santander de Quilichao,
100 km north of Popayán,
the capital of the
south-western department
of Cauca.
The rights of indigenous
ethnic groups to manage
and control their
ancestral lands, now
designated reserves, and
to self-government
within them, are
enshrined in Colombia's
Constitution. However,
they are being
threatened by laws and
bills before Congress on
the environment, land
use and rural
development, indigenous
people say.
They are making their
way on foot through the
towns and villages on
the route, but most of
the journey is by bus.
At every stop, they talk
to local residents,
seeking their opinions
about current economic
and human rights issues.
The planned route takes
in departmental capitals
like Popayán and Cali,
in the western Andes
mountains, and Armenia
and Ibagué, in the
central mountains,
arriving in Bogotá,
2,600 metres above sea
level in the eastern
Andes, on Thursday.
"We want to tell the
world that the Colombian
government doesn't
provide the conditions
for Colombians to live
together in harmony, and
we want to call into
question the laws
approved by the national
Congress which hurt the
rural sector," Valencia
said.
He was referring to the
Rural Development
Statute approved in June
by the Chamber of
Deputies, which is to be
debated in the Senate
during its current
sessions, inaugurated on
Friday.
The government's view is
that the statute "aims
at updating a conceptual
model that will promote
development and bring
order and technology to
the rural areas of the
country," said
Agriculture Minister
Andrés Felipe Arias in
comments posted on the
ministry's website.
Conservative legislator
Pedro Ramírez, who
proposed the statute,
said that "it should
point the way for
Colombia's countryside,
so that future
generations can make it
more productive and
competitive, to cope
with the growing demands
of globalisation."
But the protest marchers
say that "this is the
most retrograde law in
several years."
Spokespersons for the
Colombian National
Indigenous Organisation
(ONIC) say that the
Rural Development
Statute "disregards and
tramples on fundamental
laws and rights of
indigenous peoples that
are recognised in the
Constitution, such as
self-determination,
management and control
of our lands."
"Our reserves will be
obliterated, because the
statute establishes that
third parties may have
equal rights within
them. The draft statute
is a strategy to
reorganise the country
so as to facilitate
implementation of the
Free Trade Agreement (FTA),"
they said, referring to
the deal negotiated with
the United States, which
still needs to be
approved in the U.S.
Congress.
The indigenous people
are protesting against
"the government's
insistence on the
approval of the FTA,"
said Valencia.
He is also urging people
to pressure for a
humanitarian agreement
between the authorities
and the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC) for the exchange
of FARC-held hostages
for imprisoned
guerrillas.
The indigenous
organisations also
oppose other government
measures, such as the
Territorial Development
Plan and the Transfers
Law on central
government funding to
the regions, as well as
"territorial
fragmentation proposed
in laws regulating the
environment, and laws
favouring multinational
companies in mining
areas."
And they are demanding a
negotiated solution to
the armed conflict that
has been waged in
Colombia for 43 years,
leaving a legacy in
indigenous communities
of "massacres, selective
murders, abuse against
children and elderly
people and violence
against adults, victims
of cross-fire between
the state and the
guerrillas,
paramilitaries and drug
traffickers," indigenous
Senator Jesús Piñacué
told the media.
The most outstanding
precedent for this mass
mobilisation is the
Popular Minga for the
Dignity of Peoples, in
September 2004, when
30,000 people belonging
to the Nasa and Guambian
indigenous communities
marched from Santander
de Quilichao to Cali.
A minga is a
pre-Columbian indigenous
institution: a meeting
or assembly to achieve a
collective purpose.
Today, the marchers are
saying this is a
"peaceful minga" for the
rights of indigenous
people and all
Colombians who have
suffered under the
policies of President
Álvaro Uribe's
administration.
"National government
pressures against this
minga taking place are
out of order," said one
marcher.
At its outset, the march
did not elicit much
reaction, and was not
covered in the national
media.
Uribe celebrated
Colombia's national
independence day in the
United States, with
fellow-nationals
resident in the
north-eastern U.S.
states of New York and
New Jersey. He said that
"the approval of the FTA
(by the U.S.) will
generate more
high-quality jobs and
reduce violence in
Colombia."
Indigenous journalist
Emilio Basto spoke in
the Nasa Yuwe language
to say: "As long as the
Earth is in the hands of
the powerful, we, her
children, will continue
to be slaves. Freedom
for our Mother Earth!"
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