COLOMBIA: TENS OF THOUSANDS OF INDIGENOUS MARCH FOR RIGHTS, AGAINST FREE-TRADE TREATY.
An estimated 35,000 to 70,000 demonstrators marched 100 km to Cali, the capital of the southwestern department of Valle de Cauca, arriving there Sept. 16 in what could be the largest demonstration of indigenous people in Colombian history. Marchers from dozens of ethnicities protested against killings, torture, displacement, and disappearances that have plagued native peoples during the multifaction Colombian civil war. They also stated their opposition to the free-trade agreement (FTA) under negotiation between the US and Colombia.
March on Pan-American Highway lasts 6 days, 100 km
The Consejo Regional Indigena del Cauca (CRIC) announced the march in August and organized it under the rubric of "the defense of the right to life and the guarantee of human rights...no more war, no more massacres, no more removals, no more kidnappings and no more assaults." Indigenous leaders said the demonstration sought to protest against "all expressions of violence, plundering, exploitation, and death, come what may."
The march left from Santander de Qulichao and moved toward Cali along the Pan-American Highway. Union leaders, Afro-Colombian people, and other sympathizers joined the native marchers on their six-day trek to Colombia's third-largest city. The Associated Press reported that most marchers came from the Paez and Guambiana tribes.
Seven indigenous communities of the neighboring department of Cauca planned the march. Cauca stretches from the Andes Mountains in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west and is the ancestral home of the well-organized Nasa community. They organized the march as a "minga"--an indigenous word for an ancestral practice of communities joining efforts toward a common goal--for life and against Colombia's four-decade armed conflict, which pits the government forces and right-wing paramilitaries against leftist guerrillas. Native communities frequently find themselves in the crossfire as different groups battle for territory.
It was not only insurgents and paramilitaries the demonstrators wanted to reach; organizers also had grievances to present to the government. Guambiana leader Jeremias Tununbala said the Colombian government is the principal violator of the collective rights of the indigenous communities. "With each act of agrarian reform and policies of globalization, the Colombian state is taking our lands," said the representative for the 24,000-person group.
"The violation of human rights begins with the state...
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