Only 34 out of each 100 Colombians believe they live in a democratic country

[Judi Lynn]

Only 34 out of each 100 Colombians believe they live in a democratic country
Headline
March 18, 2009

According to a survey done by the Colombian Administrative Department of National Statistic (Dane) only 34 out of each 100 people consider Colombia to be a full democray. Ten out of 100 assured it is not democratic at all, and the other 55 said it is relatively democratic. Even though less than half of the people interviewed said they lived in a democracy, 78 out of each 100 agreed they prefer this form of government rather than any other.

15, 744 people older than 18 were interviewed from September to November 2008 in 24 capitals of several Colombian provinces.

http://www.semana.com/noticias-headlines/only-34-out-of-each-100-colombians-believe-they-live-in-democratic-country/121882.aspx

[Judi Lynn]

1. The deadly fight for land in Colombia

The deadly fight for land in Colombia
Armed ConflictVictims, who are reclaiming their land, are being assassinated, tortured, and threatened. Redress is failing and a bloody reversal of land distribution is occurring.
March 17, 2009

With pistol in hand, for almost two decades paramilitaries expelled rural people from their farms, usurped lots and pressured so that they would sell their land at low prices. It all seemed legal. Through violence they wanted to impose a reverse land distribution scheme to launder the assets of the territory, to politically control regions and to substitute the local land-owning elites. They still fight to the death in order to achieve it, and if something is not urgently done, they will prevail.

Over 5.5 million hectares were abandoned, taken over or transferred through spurious business deals, from which 385,000 families were expelled who are today trying to recover what they had lost. But instead of land, many of them have found death. Ten assassinations, 563 threats, rapes of women and children, beatings and flyers from the paramilitary Águilas Negras group in which they announce new massacres, offices of victims organizations that have been burned and looted. The harassment continues.

Just in Urabá four leaders who sought to recover their assets, stolen by paramilitary commanders but in fact are being held by frontmen, have died. In Córdoba many have given up reclaiming their property where today there are illegal crops. In Valle drug traffickers are killing peasants who received seized farms from the government.

How did it all happen?

Five types of plundering used by drug traffickers, paramilitaries and landowners who take advantage of forced displacement have been identified.

The most serious cases are those in which, with a pistol at the head, people had to sell at low prices. This is what happened in areas such as Urabá and in the areas where “Jorge 40” had his empire. Vicente Castaño, Raúl Hasbún and other paramilitary heads in the area used an ample network of frontmen to force the transfer of lands. There victims are reclaiming the return of 30,000 hectares.

Another form of stealing is that people, who although they have deeds for their land, they cannot return to it because it is occupied by armed groups, by frontmen or by squatters. It is the typical case that Salvatore Mancuso used in Córdoba. An example of it is what happened in Costa de Oro, where a farm of 885 hectares was awarded by the government to 59 small land owners in the early 1990s. They could never make use of the land because Fidel Castaño had installed himself there with his men, who let some of them stay as peons or tenants.

Later, Carlos Castaño “sold” the farm to Mancuso, who sent the message to the peasants who held deeds that either they “sell to me or I will buy it from your widow,” which was his battle cry. Some sold. But those who refused to do so were not able to return.

More:
http://www.semana.com/noticias-print-edition/the-deadly-fight-for-land-in-colombia/121871.aspx

[Peace Patriot]

2. A country where union leaders are regularly assassinated by death squads with

close ties to the government is NOT a democratic country. This survey does not surprise me--although that they got honest answers is something of a surprise. Contrast to Venezuela where something like 70% of the people think they have the best democracy in Latin America. Only the small, rich, fascist, coup-planning minority thinks ill of the Chavez government, because they don't have the power to kill union leaders and others and get away with it. (Only the Colombian death squads who sneak over the Venezuelan border to kill farm union leaders, and then sneak back to Colombia, get away with it.) And now they have to pay taxes, and obey election laws, and everything--they are unhappy rich people. Same in Colombia--it is mostly the well-off minority that likes a government that kills union leaders, peasant farmers, human rights workers and others.

[Judi Lynn]

3. It's true it seems a miracle anyone would dare tell a perfect stranger he/she doesn't see

a government with clear ties to the very active death squads isn't the finest government ever known to mankind.

Any government whose President gets the names of organizers of a demonstration protesting death squads, and denounces them publicly, as the organizers are suddenly murdered is NOT a little bit of Paradise, unless you're a fascist.

The call has gone out this year for their President to allow them to pass in peace, not pass away in peace should they hold another demonstration. The people tried to get two steps ahead of the government by seeking outside attention for their murdered human rights workers.

If I lived in Colombia, and owned a phone listed in the phone book, I'd be very reluctant to tell ANYONE what my beliefs were if it meant I could actually be talking to someone working for a killer government even if they insisted it was a simple anonymous poll.

By the way, I've heard that the death squads have ways of getting peoples' numbers even when they've gotten silent numbers, and are trying to hide from them, like that former para informant who fled to Canada, who gave testimony regarding Uribe attending a meeting concerning a future massacre at a Peace Community, and never stopped receiving death threats no matter where he went, or how many silent phone number changes he went through.