Colombia’s peasants unified and ready to dig in against government
Colombia’s peasants unified and ready to dig in against government
posted by Steven Cohen
Aug 15, 2013
Four days away from what is potentially the first display of nationally organized peasant protests in Colombia’s history, the government has yet to make any inroads toward negotiating a substantive agreement with the organizers behind the core protests set to begin on Monday.
Despite submitting a formalized list of complaints to the office of President Juan Manuel Santos, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Labor and other relevant government bodies last Thursday, the 10-person team created to represent Colombia’s expansive peasant movement has yet to receive any form of contact from the federal government, one of the team’s members told Colombia Reports.
“Up until now, the government has made no attempt to contact us,” said Francisco Cuadros Castillo, a member of leftist political group Marcha Patriotica and one of the delegates assigned to negotiate on behalf of the peasant movement. “We are waiting for the government to show any will to dialogue with us, but until then, we are preparing for the strike.”
Cuadros, one of ten officials selected to serve on the National Agricultural and Popular Board for Dialogue and Agreement (MIA), spoke about the problems facing Colombia’s sizable rural population and the difficulties of negotiating with the government on behalf of an estimated 30% of Colombia’s population, and all the interests encompassed therein.
More:
http://colombiareports.com/peasants-and-farmworkers-submit-demands-to-agriculture-ministry/