Threats Mount Against the Indigenous Social Movement in Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

September 8, 2008

Threats Mount Against the Indigenous Social Movement in Colombia

by Mario A. Murillo

Rafael Coicué may be soft spoken, but when it is his turn to talk in meetings and indigenous assemblies, the people listen carefully for his deliberate insight and precise analysis. Today, he is one of the most respected young leaders of the contemporary indigenous movement in northern Cauca. This is why there was universal condemnation of the actions taken by state security forces on July 3, 2008 during an indigenous mobilization in his native Corinto, where he was shot, losing all the functions of his left eye in the process. The incident occurred on the road just outside of Corinto, where he was confronted by heavily armed, special-forces commandoes, dispatched to disperse a land recuperation effort by local indigenous activists. Coicué is convinced it was not a random act that almost killed him, but a direct attempt on his life because of the work he’s involved in.

A few weeks earlier in Corinto, the Army had killed two young, indigenous activists during another land recuperation effort. Community leaders say the victims were then dressed up as guerrillas to cover up the action, a tactic apparently being used increasingly by government forces to demonstrate progress in their war against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The use of so-called “false positives” was documented in recent studies by Amnesty International and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and reported in the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post.

“This part of northern Cauca is being disputed heavily right now. The territory of Corinto is extremely fertile, and there are a lot of interests trying to gain control of the area by pushing us out,” Coicué said. “They had been accusing us of being drug-traffickers, as being linked with the guerrillas, as a way to de-legitimize our struggle, and the situation was becoming increasingly tense.”

~snip~
As researcher, writer and activist Hector Mondragón repeatedly points out, the main interest of the government is “not to resolve the problems of the unequal distribution of land in the countryside,” something that adversely affects peasants, Afro-Colombians and indigenous communities equally, but “to maintain and consolidate the concentration of land in a few hands, and the usurpation of communal holdings under the pretext of favoring a productive, rural development.”

More:
http://www.colombiajournal.org/colombia293.htm