Indigenous Colombians Escalate Fight to Rescue Ancestral Lands

Por

1 December, 2019

^{Photos by Santiago Navarro F}

The Nasa are one of 102 Indigenous peoples of Colombia who were pushed up into the mountains by European conquest in the 16th century, and later by massive sugarcane plantations. Since 2015, they have been carrying out direct actions in which they cut down cane fields, plant organic crops in their place, and allow the native vegetation to cover additional areas within the same reclaimed lands. They call this action “the liberation of Mother Earth,” an initiative that has cost them at least eight lives and approximately 600 evictions by Colombian state security forces trained by the U.S. Southern Command, according to people interviewed.

“They arrive as if they were going to war, with armed state forces,” a member of the Liberation of Mother Earth Movement (Movimiento de Liberación de la Madre Tierra), who asked to remain anonymous for their safety, told Avispa Mídia. “They’ve killed eight of our comrades. They have repressed us heavily.”

People work their way through a farm — Liberated territory in the Third International Encuentro of Liberators of Mother Earth.By Santiago Navarro F

One part of the Nasa people’s ancestral territory is located in the north of Cauca, a department (the Colombian equivalent of a state) in southern Colombia. This region is covered by 250,000 hectares (approximately 617,000 acres) of sugarcane, destined primarily for ethanol production, which is later mixed with other fuels for use in automobiles.

According to the Nasa people’s own research, this giant operation is fed by more than 25,000 water sources that come from the mountains and 2,000 wells that were drilled in the surrounding areas. It consumes 25 million liters (6.6 million gallons) of water per second. This ecological travesty has pushed the Nasa to recover their ancestral lands.

“Modelling for sustainability assessment in the Bioethanol Supply Chain,” published in 2017 by Danny Waldir Ibarra Vega, argues that bioethanol production in Colombia has increased exponentially from 100,000 liters per day in 2006 to more than 200,000 liters per day in 2017.
“The time came to liberate the land,” said one activist, who introduced himself only as José for security reasons. “The mining, petroleum and monocrops … are businesses that benefit a few people. And it must be liberated because the Earth has one purpose, which is to generate life and not death.”

A person with a covered face walks through the brush — A Nasa woman teaches participants how to cut cane. By Santiago Navarro F

“The goal of this action is to let the land return to nature, because that’s how diversity will return, the birds will return, the microorganisms and the plants that were considered [the cane planters’] enemies. The trees will return,” José told Avispa Mídia.“The time came to liberate the land. It must be liberated because the Earth has one purpose, which is to generate life and not death.”

In addition to reclaiming their ancestral lands, they are also regaining their food sovereignty. They have carried out another direct action with the planted and harvested crops: freely giving out food in the poorest neighborhoods of the cities of Cali, Medellín, Manizales and Bogotá. They call this initiative the “Food March,” whose goal, they say, is “a meeting of the dispossessed.” Since the march, dozens of youth collectives and working-class neighborhoods have decided to break up the cement ground and start growing food.

Mirrors

In 2017, the Nasa people convened a first meeting with other people from Colombia and around the world involved in similar actions related to climate change and the reconstruction of territories razed by extractivism, monocrops and the real estate sector.

From August 8 to 11, 2019, hundreds of people arrived in the north of Cauca to participate in the Third International Meeting of Liberators of Mother Earth (Tercer Encuentro Internacional de Liberadores y Liberadoras de la Madre Tierra). They patiently sharpened their machetes as they exchanged knowing looks. With a ceremonial rod, the traditional Nasa leaders danced in single file — together with collectives of anarchists, environmentalists and others who had made the journey — a ritual by which they prepared themselves to cut down one more sugarcane plantation.

Machete in hand, Fabián Serrano from the Imprenta Comunera collective answered the call. “Liberation must also come from thought and from what’s practical. That’s why we’ve come: to nourish ourselves and learn from these practices, but above all to learn to organize ourselves,” Serrano told Avispa Mídia. “Because we have to take up other actions from our own places, we have to see each other as we see ourselves, like a mirror. Because it’s in the cities that the climate catastrophe has started to be felt with greater intensity.”

Ana María Carlón belongs to the Urban Collective of Mother Madness (Colectivo Urbano de la Madre Locura). “Mother Earth is also in the cities; she’s just covered in cement. But in practicing urban agriculture and taking the cement off of her, we are also liberating her,” María Carlón said. “Beyond this, though, there is excessive consumption in urban areas, which I consider one of the worst forms of killing Mother Earth, because the metabolism of the market functions to the extent that we consume, and Indigenous peoples’ territories are destroyed correspondingly.”“The liberation of Mother Earth is not up for negotiation.”

A woman prepares plantains — A Nasa woman cooks foods grown in liberated territory. By Santiago Navarro F

During the event, participants shared their expertise in education, health and traditional medicine, as well as knowledge and experience that have helped the Nasa self-organize and resist. “Indigenous peoples are showing us how to combat climate change and let the land heal by letting it live. We reaffirm that the principal culprit of this ecological imbalance that we are living through today is, first of all, the form of life that has been imposed on us, namely, capitalism,” said María Carlón.

The Foundation of the Regional Indigenous Council of the Cauca (CRIC) was created in 1971. The CRIC decided to recover and expand its territories, strengthening self-governments and refusing to pay taxes to landowners. However, 21 indigenous people who had recovered their lands in the Nile, a municipality of Caloto, were killed in what is known as the Nile Massacre of 1971. “Since this proposal, more than 130,000 hectares (321,000 thousand acres) have been taken back,” according to José. “The government betrayed us more than once with agreements they didn’t follow through on. Today, those of us who take up the mantle of liberators don’t negotiate with the government and we want nothing to do with them. We seek to strengthen our own autonomy with the knowledge that our ancestors have left us. The liberation of Mother Earth is not up for negotiation.”

A woman stirrs beans in a pot over an open flame — A Nasa woman roasts coffee grown in liberated territory. By Santiago Navarro F

Attendees of the meeting last August unanimously supported remaining outside of state institutions and moving toward other forms of resisting the devastation wreaked by industrial sugarcane production.

“What we’re living through is a crisis of civilization,” said Nadia Humaña, from the Dialogue Commission of Southern Bolívar, Central and Southern Cesar (Comisión de Interlocución del Sur de Bolívar, Centro y Sur del Cesar). “It’s not just economic or just social or just environmental. Everything is connected.”

“Our challenge,” said Humaña, “is to think about these problems in an integrated way, confront them, and come up with strategies that take aim at the central points of this system. It’s also necessary to rethink the role of the state and to consider if it’s possible to reverse this destruction.”

A person plays a metal instrument — Nasa musicians initiate a ritual for cane-cutting direct action. By Santiago Navarro F

Assassinations

The process of liberation has not been easy. While the Third Encuentro of Liberators of Mother Earth was taking place from August 8 to 11, 2019, in northern Cauca, the assembled fell silent upon learning that two members of the Indigenous Guard from the San Francisco reservation in the municipality of Caloto had been killed by an armed group. Five people were also wounded, among them a 7-year-old boy.“The government says that these lands have to join in the development of capitalism. We don’t want to join; we want to liberate the land and live simply.”

“Who did it? It’s an armed group that’s trying to control and manage the drug trade and this has us very concerned, because the threats continue to be very frequent in our territory,” said one of the traditional leaders of the Nasa people, who spoke anonymously for security reasons.

Murders of Indigenous Nasa people have increased exponentially since the peace agreement between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) and the government. “So far in 2019,” said Alberto Brunori, representative of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia, “The Office has received information on the homicides of 36 members of the Nasa people in the north of Cauca, approximately 53 death threats and eight attacks. In comparison with the previous year … today at the same date (August 2018) there are nine more homicide cases.” But these figures have risen by nearly a dozen in recent months. On October 29, 2019, alone, five indigenous authorities of the community of Tacueyó were killed by FARC dissident groups.

Two elsers talk while holding a gourd — A traditional leader shares a drink called Chicha with participants in a direct action. By Santiago Navarro F

The Indigenous people who live in the north of Cauca attribute this violence in part to the war that has dragged on for more than 50 years between various governments and the FARC. “For 50 years, the government has told us that we’re FARC collaborators, and the guerrillas have said the opposite,” José said. “Both sought to justify their actions and, in this attempt at justification, murdered many of our brothers and sisters. But we didn’t fall into this game of war, because we see that it’s a business. That’s where the murders began. With this peace agreement, the dispute over our ancestral lands has intensified.”

Since the signing of the Peace Agreement between FARC and the government, the United Nations Security Council in Colombia had verified 226 murders through March 2019.The accord led to the formation of armed dissident groups that splintered from the FARC, including right-wing paramilitary groups like The Black Eagles (Las Águilas Negras) — a decade-old moniker adopted by many disparate groups to spread fear — and an increased presence of organized crime groups, who “are fighting over territory for marijuana and poppy cultivation,” said José.

In 1991 a new constitution was enacted in Colombia that included Indigenous peoples’ rights, but according to the Nasa peoples’ documentation, between 1991 and 2005, “15 massacres were carried out in those years, with more than 500 dead.”“We’re taking the chains off of the land, but also from our hearts and minds. We’re building autonomy and rebuilding life.”

A homestead is seen in the distance — People gather in the liberated territory known as Albania. By Santiago Navarro F

The state of the land itself also comes into conflict with interests that are incentivizing other monocrops, such as the Territories of Opportunity, Program of Cooperation project (Territorios de Oportunidad, Programa de Cooperación), which is expanding avocado, coffee, cacao and livestock production. Helped by resources from the United States Agency for International Development, this program “seeks to strengthen the capacity of rural communities affected by the armed conflict,” according to the government of Cauca.

The Nasa and the Liberators of Mother Earth believe that with these development policies, Indigenous people will continue to remain repressed. “The new government says that they’re not going to buy even one more meter of land for Indigenous peoples and they will neither create nor recognize more collective territories for Indigenous peoples,” said José. “On the contrary, the government says that these lands have to join in the development of capitalism. We don’t want to join; we want to liberate the land and live simply.”

Diana, a young Indigenous woman who introduced herself only by her first name, is responsible for the political education of the young people in this village of liberators. “We’re on maximum emergency alert because they’re killing us, and it’s so painful that this is happening in the north of Cauca,” she told Avispa Mídia. “Their development policies — and the planting of illicit crops that the government supports — are destroying our way of life.”

Two boys play pipes — Young Nasa musicians participate in a cane-cutting action ritual for the first time. By Santiago Navarro F

According to Diana, those who have died in this struggle are mainly youths — the same people who have taken charge of strengthening the organizational process of their community and held firm in the liberation of Mother Earth. “The community cries for its dead, its wounded, and the destroyed crops, but they return and rise up with strength to keep cutting cane and planting food,” she said. “Because when we do so, we’re taking the chains off of the land, but also from our hearts and minds. We’re building autonomy and rebuilding life. We’re harvesting dignity.”

Nasa activists are taking direct action to liberate the land, cutting down cane fields and growing native vegetation. — Young anarchists and people from other political tendencies participate in the Liberation of Mother Earth action. By Santiago Navarro F

A version of this report was published in Truthout

A chronicle of Evo Morales’ fall and the complexity of the rebellion in Bolivia

Por

Avispa

13 November, 2019

by Djamila J. Chasqui and Javier Abimael Ruíz García

translated by David Milan

From the current circumstances that Bolivia is passing through and the different interpretations emerging around the “coup d’etat,” a few reflections that, far from “backing any government,” demonstrate the inherent contradictions of states, and in this case, expose the complexity of the events in progress in this Southern Cone country.

Translator’s addendum: In the 36 hours between the publication of the Spanish original and this translation, Jeanine Añez Chavez, of Bolivia’s tiny white oligarchical class, has assumed the Bolivian presidency. She is horrifyingly racist against indigenous people, as evidenced by this tweet from April 2013: “I dream of a Bolivia free of satanic indigenous rituals; the city is not for the Indians, they must leave for the altiplano and the chaco!” It is very uncertain how the conflict will continue to unfold. This article was written before these events and the writing and translation reflect that.

Comrades, chacha warmis of the communities, your vote has been respected. Your vote isn’t the problem. Red ponchos, green ponchos, they want to see you as imbeciles, as stupid peasants. Why? Because “the president of the peasant communities,” Evo Morales Ayma, wants to stay in power. The tirant who has ordered, who has declared, “go surround them, go and kill.”

Mama Gavina Condori Nina, Aymara woman from the Soras Nation

A disputed race for the 2020 to 2025 presidential seat took place in Bolivia. The elections were conducted with apparent calm on October 20, 2019, but that same day, after registering more than 86% of the rapid vote count, the TREP (Transmisión de Resultados Electorales Preliminares, Preliminary Electoral Results Transmission) and news reports were suspended for 23 hours.

Up until the moment before the suspension, the voting trend presented by the TREP as well as exit polls carried out by institutions like the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés and the ViaCiencia company (the only one with state permission to release preliminary election results) confirmed an imminent second electoral round between incumbent Evo Morales and Carlos Mesa (Bolivia’s 63^rd president, in power from October 17, 2003 to June 9, 2005). Shortly before the counting ended, though, Morales said that since the votes still left to be counted were from rural areas, he was going to achieve the 10% difference needed to win in the first round.

That’s how, after the data started being released again, Morelos, from the MAS (Movement for Socialism), won with a 10.54% lead over Mesa, from Comunidad Ciudadana (Citizen Community, the “opposition” party). This meant Morelos didn’t have to go to a second round and attracted the attention of the Organization of American States (OAS), present as an election overseer, which released a statement.

Images, videos, and messages circulated through Whatsapp and Facebook, speaking of irregularities in the electoral process, miscounted votes, vote count documents signed without official delegates, etc., as a study conducted by engineer Edgar Villegas would later confirm. The study reported vote counts with irregularities that weren’t voided, people who signed as delegates from two opposing parties, and dead people who appeared as registered voters, among other things. The publication of this data on the University Channel’s “Jaque Mate” (“Check Mate”) program fueled the flames of discontent. Villegas himself, as well as the program’s host Ximena Galarza, received threats.

In the street, the first targets of groups that didn’t accept the election results were the departmental electoral courts. Many of them were burned and pelted with rocks in the departments (states) of Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, La Paz, Potosí, and Chuquisaca. Meanwhile in the city of La Paz, the seat of the Supreme Electoral Court (Tribunal Supremo Electoral, TSE)—the highest body governing electoral processes—crowds gathered to demand the judges’ resignation.

Little by little, the conflict intensified. The repression, and attacks by groups in opposition to the state institutions, increased. Days later CNN gave a new platform to Villegas, who said he had gathered more proof, making the so-called fraud increasingly tangible, undeniable, and close at hand.

The presence in the streets of the nine departmental capital cities was overwhelming. Public and private universities, the health sector and teachers—both historically opposed to the Morales government—held vigils, marches, and meetings. At the same time, in the neighborhoods, especially in the central and southern areas of La Paz, groups of neighbors started to block the streets, complementing a national civic strike called by the CONADE (Comité Nacional de Defensa de la Democracia, National Committee for the Defense of Democracy) and the Comité Pro Santa Cruz. The latter is headed by Luis Fernando Camacho, a businessman and lawyer whose figure as a civic leader, appealing to a religious discourse, has grown with the progression of the mobilizations.

After days of the same—marches, blockades, meetings—councils began to be called in the department capitals, with enormous attendance. They asked for a repeat election and the resignations of Morales and the judges of the Supreme Electoral Court, among others.

By that point, judges from several departments had already resigned. Statements from NEOTEC, the company that sold the special software for the election, showed evidence of irregularities in the technical processes that determined the election result.

The protests

MAS rallies and marches fell onto the councils convened by the civic committees of several cities. Some of the councils were aligned with Comunidad Ciudadana or other parties, and some displayed unchecked expressions of party electoralism and similar forms of conceiving of politics. In turn, accusations circulated of MAS dressing public employees up as miners and paying people to attend the marches (there are even some videos of payments and readings of lists of names and sums of money in accordance with their participation).

Drunk on power and alcohol, the shock groups defending Evo Morales, called by Evo himself to encircle the cities that observed the strike, to defend democracy and the rural and indigenous vote, unleashed cruel and indiscriminate violence on the elderly, women, and youth at the entrance to La Paz. Among the people injured was a well-known social fighter, involved in vigils for the victims of the dictatorships, who they left sprawled on the ground in spite of his ailments and advanced age.

To date, there have been three confrontations that led to fatalities. The first occurred in Montero, Santa Cruz, where a 55-year-old and a a 41-year-old were shot and pronounced dead at the hospital. The 41-year-old was a militant with the Unión Juvenil Cruceñista (Cruceñist Youth Union, UJC. Cruceñist or Cruceño refer to people or things from Santa Cruz, a Bolivian department heavily backing the anti-Morales opposition), a renamed shock group that takes direction from the Comité Pro Santa Cruz. The 55-year-old was a neighbor who got wrapped up in the altercation and later died.

Then in a demonstration by the Confederación Nacional de Mujeres Bartolina Sisa (Bartolina Sisa National Women’s Confederation) in Cochabamba, a 20-year-old man died in the middle of massive clashes that included paid protesters. The demonstration left 90 wounded and institutions burned in the town of Vinto, just outside Cochabamba, in actions claimed by the Resistencia Juvenil Kochala (Kochala Youth Resistance), a regional shock group.

Lastly, on November 10, caravans full of miners from Potosí, students, women, and others were attacked on the Oruro-La Paz highway. Men and women were humiliated, the men beaten, the women made to undress. Five people were wounded by gunfire, one of whom died, as the accusations report.

Across the country almost 400 have been reported wounded as of November 10, many of them seriously. There have been more than 200 arrests. Police repression comes and goes; it has varied widely. Sometimes they launch massive amounts of tear gas without consideration, as occurred the night of October 31 in El Prado, La Paz, where there were many children out with their families. Sometimes they just look down from the balconies, like when the miners from Huanuni entered the capital city and detonated sticks of dynamite at the feet of uniformed forces. And sometimes they protect those opposing Morales’ victory from the MAS’s shock groups, as long as the former outnumber the latter, as was the case in the city of Oruro. Here and there, demonstrators chant: “The police have two paths, unite with the people, or be their murderers.”

In the middle of this climate of clashes and tension, a heavily questioned OAS has deployed a panel of experts to audit the Bolivian electoral process, backed by the MAS and the Supreme Electoral Court and faced with an angry populace’s demand that they all leave, because what this populace wants is new elections, which one of the TSE’s judges has declared unconstitutional.

There doesn’t seem to be any agreed upon way out of the conflict, as events like those that occurred on November 5 demonstrate. On that day in the El Alto airport, MAS members surrounded a group of mostly young people that was there to make sure that Luis Fernando Camacho could get into La Paz to demand Evo Morales sign a letter of resignation. This letter has become a symbol of the demonstrations and been photocopied and put up on walls in the city center and on houses of publicly demonized members of parliament, judges, and ministers.

None of the government agencies could offer Camacho much guarantee of safety due to the huge crowd of MAS members waiting for him, so he opted to turn around and fly back to the city of Santa Cruz. On November 6, when he did succeed in entering La Paz, he was accompanied by a massive security detail that looked like a military operation.

The anti-Camacho crowd was there for his second arrival, and although he managed to avoid it, the 500 or so youths who had come to protect the Cruceño leader were forced to enter the airport and stay there for hours before an effort to evacuate them could succeed, as MAS shock groups clashed with police and destroyed convention centers and the El Alto Mayor’s office.

The unrest has also led to price increases, scarcity, and opportunism in central markets all over the country. There is generalized distrust as to which side anyone is on, if you are blockading the street in your neighborhood or if you’re marching with the MAS. Regular people are fighting one another, and the buttoned-down shirts of Camacho and Morales aren’t even specked with blood or the ashes of the Chiquitanía (a region in Santa Cruz department), with which their hands are stained.

They stand before their audiences, spotless, and never cease with their disguised incitements to violence against one sector or another, curiously enough within the framework of the same discourse, in which one denounces the racism of the other, without recognizing his own.

Anti-Morales and pro-Morales groups burn the houses of important figures from one side or the other as well as the headquarters of coca federations and workers’ and peasants’ unions that are loyal to the government.

November 10 and the so-called coup d'etat

Accusations by the “progressive” sector and their solidarity with Evo Morales in the face of a coup d’etat didn’t take long to roll in, and they began to spread far and wide. “Here before the international community and the Bolivian people, we denounce and condemn the fascist coup for its violent acts by irregular forces, who burned down the governors’ houses in Chuquisaca and Oruro, where they also burned down my sister’s house,” the president stated on Twitter the night of November 9.

At midday on November 10, in a press conference, commander of the armed forces Williams Kaliman suggested to the president that he abandon his post and to the opposition that they stop the violence, after which police forces around the country mutinied and the OAS concluded that new elections should be held. Around 4 PM, Morales announced on national television that he was “renouncing the presidency so that the opposition ceases the violence against their family members, union leaders, and the people who supported the MAS,” as the wave of resignations of representatives, ministers, and others surpassed 40 and grew by the minute. Leading the opposition, Camacho burst into the Bolivian government palace, placed a bible over the Whipala flag, and said, “Pachamama will never return to this palace. Bolivia belongs to Christ.”

A motley crowd went out into the streets, some to celebrate by tearing down symbols of the MAS and the indigenous movement, from clearly classist and racist perspectives, rejoicing in Bolivia’s liberation from a leftist dictator.

The aggressions didn’t only come from the opposition, though. It was very painful to watch MAS sympathizers forcing an Afro-Bolivian Cruceña woman to her knees, as the UJC had done in the past to the Collas (an indigenous people) in Sucre and Santa Cruz. It makes tears well up to see the valiant red ponchos of Achacachi, that nearly two decades ago overthrew the murderous Sánchez de Lozada during the Aymara insurgency, converted into a group of mercenaries at the service of power, at the same level as the fascist shock groups of the Civic Committees.

This is not about who takes power, whether one tyrant is less bad than another. And while feminist collectives and women from all over the country have proposed stepping away from the imposed polarization and war logic, up to this point no other alternative has been clearly put on the table for general discussion. So this situation seems to trend towards a resolution that preserves colonial and paramilitary logics, a stark constant of the states in this region of the globe.

Ancestors, apus and achachilas (spirits and revered elders, approximately, in Aymara) seem to be sending us coded messages to this plane of existence. Clouds of flies shield the MAS marches, a giant t’aparaku (black butterfly) alights on a wall of the government palace; all bad omens in the Andean cosmovision. Nothing would have surprised another eagle flying over the government palace, emissary of the lightning bolt that decrees the fall of the leader, as happened with Goni (a prior Bolivian president) during the gas war, but this time, Morales’ resignation was broadcast on video from another city.

What is certain is that we don’t know what will happen. We don’t accept any of the options that they’re offering us: for Morales to stay, for Mesa to come to power, for Camacho to bring the bible to the presidential palace. Nevertheless, the indigenous peoples gathered in the Court of Indigenous and Peasant Justice recently raised the idea of going on the march. The Kuraka of the Qhara Qhara nation, tata Mario Chincha, said in a declaration: “We, the original peoples, are busy in sowing seeds, in agricultural activities; this is what sustains our subsistence. We believe that looking at the situation that the country is going through, we as original peoples have seen the necessity of joining the mobilizations that the government has provoked through the elections.”

The civic-corporate-police alliance, showing a younger and more attractive face of the most rancid conservatism, is an obvious exercise in political marketing. It capitalized on the generalized discontent of a society without more concrete demands than the resignation of Evo Morales and the defense of the vote and democracy, in which people argue whether or not to call this a coup. Meanwhile, regular people fight against each other in the midst of dynamite explosions, broken windows, dam sabotage, water shutoffs, fear, and the stench of frustration.

Qullasuyu, Potosí, Bolivia, November 10, 2019

Indigenous Munduruku in Brazil Say They Are Ready to Resist the War of Dispossession

Por

Avispa

2 October, 2019

Brasilia 2015 Photo by Santiago Navarro F

The indigenous Munduruku of the Amazon, in Brazil, denounce that there are traitorous politicians, daydu as they call it, who seek to justify illegal mining in their territory by co-opting indigenous people to promote its legalization. But they deny this position, assuring that there are “some brothers and sisters, blind because of the brightness of gold, who are playing dirty games to the daydu”, who publicly assume that the Munduruku people are in favor of garimpo and mining.

Various Munduruku peoples, in a public statement, have said that no politician represents them for not representing their way of doing politics and for not being part of their traditional organization. “They can’t talk about our sacred places, they can’t negotiate on behalf of the Munduruku people”, the statement says, referring to politicians who intend to legalize illegal mining in the Amazon.

Attached to agreement 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) on indigenous rights and culture, the Munduruku appeal to their autonomy and their right to decide internally on the projects contemplated in their ancestral lands. In relation to illegal mining, they certainly assume that they do not want it because it is dividing their people, and it is also “bringing diseases, contaminating our people with mercury, bringing drugs, drinks, weapons and prostitution”.

These people are known as fire ant warriors and they announce that they are prepared to resist against all the projects planned for the Amazon. “We are ready for war and we want to warn you that here, in our territory, in the Mundurukânia, occupied centuries ago by our ancestors, where all the parts of the Tapajós find the traces and signs of Karosakaybu and Muraycoko, nobody is going to enter to exploit, destroy and transform everything into merchandise and money”.

Full release

The misgovernment of Brazil does not speak for the Munduruku people

Bolsonaro, in his speech at the UN, says that we indigenous people are “cavemen”. He defines us for what he is. Bolsonaro does not represent us and his words are empty. Our boys and girls have more wisdom than him.

We have gathered village chiefs, warriors, warriors, shamans, singers and teachers from our village Munduruku of the Middle and Upper Rio Tapajós and the lower Río Teles-Pires. We talk about all attacks and threats to indigenous peoples in Brazil, our territories and our rights.

We bring our word.

We know that the daydu - which is what we call treacherous politicians - are making laws to end the process of demarcation of indigenous lands. They want to free our land for mineral exploitation, hydroelectric construction, waterways and for the railway project called Ferrogrão.

They want to end indigenous peoples, destroying our forests, rivers, and sacred places. We are against garimpo* and mining in indigenous lands. The garimpo is dividing our people, bringing diseases, contaminating our people with mercury, bringing drugs, drinks, weapons and prostitution. And greed.

All this affects all indigenous peoples, traditional peasant communities, such as Montanha e Mangabal and mainly our Munduruku people who have lived and protected the rivers and jungles of the Tapajós River basin for hundreds of years. There is no dialogue with those who want destruction. We do not negotiate our lands and we will prevent any organization that serves these purposes from entering the Tapajós.

Some brothers and sisters, blind by the brightness of gold, are playing the dirty game of the daydu and publicly claim that the Munduruku people are in favor of garimpo and mining. We will repeat it: their words are full of daxpim - full of hate and lies.

These Mundurukus who are sitting at these tables in Brasília with you are sick. They let garimpo teams destroy our land, they do not represent us and they are not the majority.

No municipal councilor represents the Munduruku people, because it is not part of our politics and our traditional organization. He cannot speak about our sacred places, he cannot negotiate on behalf of the Munduruku people.

We are more than 14 thousand people and we have our resistance movement and our associations. We have a consultation protocol that they have to respect as a law, and we have the right of veto.

No law can say how the consultation of the peoples should be. Convention 169 already exists to say that it means free, prior and informed consultation and our protocol says how it should be done. They are not consulting us about any law or project they want to do in the Tapajós River region, which is our home.

We have the right to autonomy, to have our organization and decide on our future, as you wrote in the Federal Constitution of 1988 and in ILO Convention 169.

We are building our good living with the wisdom of women, generators of life, of our shamans, spiritual guides, of our warriors, of our leaders and also of our children, and we are ready to rip all these laws and projects that distribute death.

We want to warn you that we are a warrior people. We learned to war with the great Karodaybi in the silences of the early morning, and that is why other people know us as fire ants.

We are ready for your war and we want to warn you that here, in our territory, in the Mundurukânia, occupied centuries ago by our ancestors, where all the parts of the Tapajós find the traces and signs of Karosakaybu and Muraycoko, nobody is going to enter to exploit, destroy and transform everything into merchandise and money. The government has been slow to comply with the laws that you wrote and to expel the invaders from our lands. We denounced more than 20 years ago the performance of pariwat (non-indigenous), loggers and garimpeiros and we always act alone.

But we are not going to stop, or give up. We never lost the war and we have already cut some enemy heads. Is it possible that we have to re-cut enemy heads? We know how to act, based on our policy and our traditional organization.

Munduruku Ipereg Ayu movement, Associação das Mulheres Munduruku Wakoborun Associação Indígena Pariri (Médio Tapajós) Associação, Dace (Teles-Pires), Associação Wuyxaximã, Pusuru Indigenous Association, Associação Kurupsare, CIMAT, Sawe

*Mining of immediate exploitation, generally superficial and mostly illegal. There is a legal possibility to regularize the garimpo in previously determined areas, on an individual or cooperative name, by environmental permit and for certain types of minerals.

Sempra Energy: The Real Winner in Mexico’s Energy Reform

Por

Santiago Navarro F

16 September, 2019

This report was written by Santiago Navarro F. for Avispa Midia with support from the Investigative Reporting Initiative in the Americas, an International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) program, in partnership with CONNECTAS.

Spanish Version: published on September 5, 2019 ⇒ Los “Ventajosos” beneficios de Sempra Energy en México

In 1995, the structural reform of the Mexican natural gas sector opened the door for Sempra Energy to become one of the first private companies to invest in gas transportation in Mexico. Two decades later, Sempra, based in San Diego, CA, has positioned itself as the second most important company in the industry. Its main springboard was a second energy reform, implemented in 2013, which has allowed its subsidiary IEnova to make over 8.7 billion dollars.

Five years after this reform—one of ex-President Enrique Peña Nieto´s signature programs—IEnova’s assets have grown to such an extent that by the end of 2018 it owned 17 gas pipelines, six storage terminals, five solar energy complexes, three wind power complexes, and a thermoelectric plant. It owns six of the 16 interconnection points for gas exports from the US into Mexico.

Although several of the Sempra gas pipelines were disrupted by social movements, the company has not lost a single peso. It has charged for services it never provided through the legal chicanery of “force majeure” and “fortuitous case” clauses in its contracts, which have resulted in a multi-million dollar debt for the Mexican government.

At the beginning of 2019 the current president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, described these agreements made with prior governments as “unconscionable” and requested their voluntary renegotiation.

♦ ♦ ♦

The thermometer can climb up to 95° F on a spring day in the Sonoran Desert, northern Mexico. This is the homeland of the Yaqui people, made up of eight different indigenous groups. In 2012, IEnova entered into a contract with the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) for the construction and operation of the Gasoducto Sonora transport system, which crosses Yaqui territory.

IEnova’s 2018 financial report states that this project, one of the 17 gas pipelines in the company’s portfolio, has been completed and in operation for two years. However, we discovered that, roughly 300 meters from the community of Loma de Bacum, this pipeline remains unfinished and has never provided any kind of service.

Loreta Vázquez Molina, a Yaqui tribe member, guides us through the desert vegetation until we reach an excavation site where we see that a fraction of the pipeline is exposed to the elements. Its two unconnected sides, which have begun to rust, are only separated by a few meters. On either side of the trench where the pipe lies, one can see yellow, metal gas pipeline signs, some already demolished and others pierced by bullets, signs of the conflict the gas pipeline has brought to this community.

Construction began in 2013, and it was supposed to enter into service in 2014. The company failed to inform the towns of the Yaqui Tribe, as stipulated in government regulations, and the town of Loma de Bacúm resisted. Local leaders headed to the Sonoran courts, which ruled in their favor and suspended pipeline construction in June 2017.

Although construction was halted by the legal system, IEnova told its investors that the suspension had been for acts of “sabotage.” IEnova’s contract with CFE stipulates that “sabotage, as with natural phenomena, commercial embargoes, and civil disturbances”, among other reasons, will be considered “fortuitous or force majeure events”. This means that the CFE is required to pay for the use of non-functioning pipelines. These clauses were the ones that guaranteed ongoing payments to IEnova until the beginning of 2019, disbursements that led the state into millions of dollars of debt. Avispa Midia asked the CFE how much IEnova and other companies were paid for these non-operational pipelines, but the agency responded that this information was confidential.

IEnova is not the only company that has benefitted from this: 17 pipelines throughout Mexico have received payment due to “force majeure”, as reported by Unidad de Transparencia de la Auditoría Superior de la Federación (Transparency Unit of the Superior Audit of the Federation). Five of them belong to Sempra Energy. Some have been completed but do not receive the gas they're supposed to transport because other pipelines remain unfinished. These have cost the CFE 16 billion dollars, according to the CFE’s 2018 financial report. These payments were legally valid, though dubious, because they are stipulated in contracts approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE).

Sempra’s subsidiaries have been the greatest beneficiaries of these loopholes, since the five of their pipelines that have received these payments are all high capacity and strategic. Faced with a growing debt, the CFE went to international courts in London and Paris to demand the review and renegotiation of contracts for seven pipelines, including two involving IEnova: the Sonora Gas Pipeline (Guaymas-El Oro fraction) and the Gasoducto Sur de Texas-Tuxpan, where it has investments with TC Energy (formerly TransCanada).

Toeing the political line laid down by President López Obrador, the state, through these legal remedies filed in international courts, claimed that the clauses were invalid since they go against public policy and the greater social good.

However, on August 27, 2019, the Mexican president declared that his government had reached an agreement with three companies that owned four unfinished gas pipelines, including Carso, TC Energy and IEnova. These new agreements extend the lease terms and establish a fixed payment for the rent of private pipelines.

Carlos Salazar Lomelín, president of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE), said that these agreements were established on the condition that companies would return the amounts paid for “force majeure” to the state. This would be "in exchange for a longer contract term or for another set of conditions", the president of the CCE communicated at a press conference.

Under these new agreements, the return of the amounts paid for “force majeure” will only concern these four contracts, which include two of the five pipelines in which IEnova has investments. For the remainder of the gas pipelines, no further information is available.

Concerning the communities that have risen up and prevented the completion of the pipelines’ construction, specifically Loma de Bacúm, the president of Mexico said that the Ministry of the Interior (Secretaría de Gobernación) is working to resolve these conflicts and ready the pipelines, but also said that any further “stoppage of these projects would mainly affect the country and not the companies themselves”.

López Obrador continued: “If pipeline construction stops, it’s the Mexican people who lose, because it is the CFE, not the company [who is investing]”. But the contracts go much further: even though the CFE has invested large sums in the construction of these pipelines, the contracts stipulate that they become the property of private companies. They also require this parastate agency to pay for 100% of the gas transportation capacity, even if only a portion of this capacity is used.

The contracts that the CFE has signed were mainly for the transport of gas en route to various points of energy generation in Mexico, but this transport capacity is not exclusive to the parastate agency, since these companies also use the pipelines to transport the gas they sell to industrial and urban sectors.

At the beginning of 2019 López Obrador argued that the CFE was a successful company which supplied 100% of the national demand until before the 2013 reforms, but today, only 50% of the demand is met nationally. "What happened? Business deals were made with state protections; unconscionable and abusive contracts have been awarded to favored individuals”, the president proclaimed on February 11, 2019 at his morning press conference.

Today it seems that the problem is being resolved, but issues remain with the Guaymas-El oro project, a piece of the Sonora Gas Pipeline that has encountered strong social resistance. One of the main parties involved in the Sonora Gas Pipeline contract is the current president of IEnova, Tania Ortiz López Negrete, who is also the legal representative of the Aguaprieta company, another of Sempra Energy's subsidiaries.

Tania Ortiz Mena, CEO of IEova

Tania Ortiz Mena López Negrete was the foothold that Sempra Energy maintained within the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) during the Energy Reform period. While she was part of this public body as an advisor (2015-2018), she was simultaneously an executive at IEnova (2014-2018).

The CRE deals with oil, natural gas, petroleum, petrochemical, and biofuel issues. It regulates natural gas, both in its price and in terms of new facilities, operation, maintenance, and private security across all activities except production. It collaborates with other administrative bodies to produce contract models and bidding rules.

Tania Ortíz, who has had a wide-ranging energy career in both the public and private sectors and comes from an important family linked to Mexican politics, opened the door for Sempra’s advance in Mexico via its subsidiaries. She took her position in the company after IEnova suffered a million dollar loss due to the fall in the prices of electricity and natural gas (from USD $4.55 in 2014 to USD $2.88 in 2015). She immediately began lobbying for a price adjustment, which helped almost double IEnova's revenues, from $613.41 million in 2015 to $1.368 billion in 2018.

The CRE’s rules of operation are clear in stipulating that members should “avoid making use of their roles as advisors for benefit of themselves or external agents.” But Tania Ortíz promoted annual gas price adjustments that benefited Sempra Energy's gas pipelines in Mexico at the same time that she was part of the Council that oversaw the exercise of these powers. An example? In December 2015, the CRE approved new rates for the Aguaprieta Gas Pipeline, which served as the baseline for the service payments on the non-operational IEnova pipelines.

Several members of her family were part of strategic sectors of the Mexican government during the same period, such as her brother Antonio Ortiz Mena López Negrete, who was Minister for Economic Affairs of the Mexican Embassy in Washington D.C. during Peña Nieto’s administration. Among other things, this agency drew up energy agreements with the United States, mainly concerning oil and gas.

These multiples roles, certainly representing a conflict of interest, were overlooked by Peña Nieto’s administration, but also by that of López Obrador, who appointed Tania Ortiz’s cousin Josefa González Blanco Ortiz Mena as Minister of the Environment. Ortiz Mena was then called out for her own obvious conflicts of interest.

In public at least, President López Obrador has denounced such actions by Sempra Energy and its officials: “How is it possible for a foreign company to hire a former official, in this case from the energy sector, where the company operates? That is totally immoral”, said the president. He also declared that a law would be implemented requiring officials to wait before working for a private company in the same field.

Although conflict of interest is not a crime in Mexico, it could be an act of corruption. According to the Ministry of Public Function (Secretaría de la Función Publica), “A conflict of interest arises when a person may have the opportunity to put their private interests before their professional duties. That is, a conflict of interest has the potential to become an act of corruption”.

Tania Ortíz both managed and lobbied for gas prices and tariffs and permits for export and import between Mexico and the United States for Sempra Energy's subsidiaries. In February 2016, for example, she received authorization from the Environmental Protection Agency to change the land-use designation of a forest for the development of the Rosarito gas pipeline. The permits were also approved by the CRE.

While Tania Ortíz simultaneously worked for IEnova and CRE, she also chaired the Mexican Association of Natural Gas (AMGN), an organ that brings together more than 80 companies, national and foreign, that develop activities in the natural gas sector. In a presentation she gave in July 2016 as part of the AMGN, Ortíz stated that “due to an oversupply of low-cost natural gas from the United States from shale gas production, Mexico opted to build a network of gas pipelines. All those gas production surpluses that we are seeing in the US, the ones that are driving such low prices, all that gas we are bringing to Mexico”.

In addition, Tania Ortíz ventured into other areas while continuing to work for the CRE. On August 16, 2017, as a legal representative of the subsidiary ESJ Renovables III, she signed a contract for the partial transfer of rights to the Integral Port Administration (API) of the state of Veracruz.

In this document, Sempra’s subsidiary was assigned rights to a 147,381 m² area with a 300-meter waterfront to use, build, equip, operate and exploit the port terminal. This port area is one of the most strategic in Mexico due to its geographical position, its capacity, and its rail connections to the rest of the country.

“In regards to our new business ventures, we currently have three terminals under construction for receiving, storing and delivering refined products at the new port of Veracruz”, Tania Ortíz announced in 2019 with great pride when leaving CRE and assuming her new position as CEO of IEnova.

Even though the former official had access to privileged information, IEnova lost two tenders, No. LPSTGN-004/15 and No. LPSTGN-006/15, for the Villa de Reyes Guadalajara and La Laguna-Aguascalientes gas pipelines, respectively. During the ruling, Transparencia Mexicana documented that representatives of Sempra Energy's subsidiaries had already prepared their response to the invalidation of their offer, arguing that “it complied with the requirements established in the bidding framework”. This was recorded by the Supply Management (Gerencia de Abastecimientos) of the CFE which presided over the event, where the winner of the tender, Fermeca, also requested that the record reflect prior contact between CFE staff and IEnova.

Tania Ortíz assumed her new position amidst a complicated context. On February 12, 2019, IEnova suffered one of its worst days on the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV). Having closed the day before at 77.04 pesos, their stock fell to 69.93. The cause was President López Obrador’s announcement that IEnova was one of the companies that had received payment without providing service.

It appears that it is common practice for Sempra Energy to hire former government officials. Luis Téllez was a non-employed shareholder and independent director of Sempra Energy since 2010. Carlos Ruiz Sacristán was also a member of the Board of Directors and shareholder since 2007. These two leading investors are responsible for building IEnova’s financial architecture for participation in the Mexican stock exchange. They also have another thing in common: they were once government officials. Téllez, however, had to give up on the stock market because of the scandal unleashed by his controversial actions during the energy reform period.

According to researcher Claudia Ocaranza, a member of the Project on Organization, Development, Education and Research (PODER), individuals such as Ortíz and Téllez jump between strategic sectors of the government and private companies. “Public officials who are in Pemex, CFE, or CRE open the doors for some transnational private company, then jump into the ranks of these private companies, and they get promoted, as if it were a prize,” says Ocaranza. She continues: "Mexican regulation is among the most lax in Latin America".

Perhaps for all these reasons, the FBI in 2011 opened a bribery investigation concerning Sempra and Mexican officials for the authorization of the installation of the Costa Azul gas pipeline in Ensenada, Baja California. During this investigation Tania Ortíz and Carlos Ruiz Sacristán emerged as spokespersons for the company, the very individuals who have benefited from this revolving door.

Ruiz Sacristán was CEO of IEnova from 2012 to September 1, 2018. At the end of 2019 he was promoted to CEO of Sempra North American Infrastructure. He previously served as CEO of Pemex, Secretary of Communications and Transportation and Director of Public Credit from 1992 to 2000, during the Carlos Salinas de Gortari and Ernesto Zedillo governments. In the private sector, he owns shares in and is a member of the Boards of Directors of Grupo Creatica, Constructora y Perforadora Latina (a Mexican geothermal exploration and drilling company), OHL Concesiones México, and AMAIT (an international airport in Mexico).

The Energy Reform period was the catalyst for Sempra Energy to move into strategic areas of Mexico's energy sector. And it did so: to the extent that from 2012 to 2018, its assets almost quadrupled from $2.5 to $ 8.769 billion, according to its annual financial reports.

Sempra Energy’s acquisitions during the implementation of the Energy Reform have positioned IEnova as one of the largest private energy companies in this country, along with BlackRock and Trafigura.

Growth of the assets of the subsidiary of Sempra Energy, IEnova. In millions of dollars

Militarization in Mexico Advances with a Red Zone in the South-Southeast

Por

Eugenia López

2 September, 2019

Militarism in Mexico is increasing. President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, along with the commander of the National Guard Luis Ramirez Bucio, at an August 13th press conference shared a document titled “The Situation of the National Guard” detailing the process and deployment of troops within the newly created National Guard.

More than 230,000 total troops

Federal officials announced that the new military police has been deployed throughout the entire Mexican territory, with 58,602 troops under the command of the new force, distributed to 150 General Coordinations.

In addition to these troops are 123,465 military troops from the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA), 13,461 from the Marine Secretariat (SEMAR) in permanent deployment for public security tasks, 14,852 troops from the Federal Gendarmerie Forces and 20,584 troops from the Federal Police in “voluntary” transition to the National Guard.

The total amount will be 231,964 troops which will be patrolling throughout the entire nation.

Read also ⇒ The neoliberalism of Mexico´s new government continues to dispossess and kill

Military Training

The training received by the troops within the National Guard is being conducted with the guidance of the Army and the Marines. “SEDENA and SEMAR are taking lead of the National Guard, accompanying its strengthening.” Declared the Mexican President during the press conference.

In terms of training, Luis Rodriguez Bucio clarified that a course for veterans entering the National Guard has been designed, as well as a course for new personnel. In addition they informed the public that in order to train new troops courses are being developed by the Heroric Military College, as well as in the Military Sargeants School.

With regards to the course materials covered, Bucio clarified that it would be “Primarily Human Rights, attention to victims of crimes, gender perspective, and culture of legality”. With this information the officials assure that the government in turn intends for train troops who can guarantee peace and security for the Mexican population.

Many organizations and divers sectors of civil society however have little confidence in the initiative.

“The country’s armed forces are created for war, not for public security, and they have committed serious civil abuses with generalized impunity” affirmed the organization Human Rights Watch in a communique.

“They have also not accomplished reducing violence in Mexico and it is possible that in fact, they have been a key factor which has contributed to the drastic increase in homicides these past years.” Added the international organization.

According to a study conducted between January 2007 and June 2017 by the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH), the armed forces, the Army and the Marines were the security institutions which had participated in the most serious violations to human rights such as torture, disappearances, and executions.

Luis Ramirez Bucio U.S. Army School of the Americas Graduate

It is important to note that the now commander of the Nacional Guard Luis Ramirez Bucio is a graduate of the U.S. Army School of the Americas (today named the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) located at Fort Benning in the state of Georgia in the USA.

This school has trained tens of thousands of troops from throughout Latin America in tactics for counter insurgency, torture, espionage, and intelligence. Its graduates have participated in all of the counterinsurgent operations carried out in Latin America during the last 8 decades.

More state and municipal police with military training

Lopez Obrador declared that the 150 coordinations with reach their total complete amount of 266 by next year.

He also clarified that in addition to the National Guard at a federal level, the government wants to increase the the number of state and local police in the entire country. The new recruits will receive training by the Army and the Marines.

“There is a funding packet which is for security, and what we are proposing is that this fund, which is approximately 10 billion pesos for States and municipalities be used to contract additional recruits and that we reach and agreement so that SEDENA and SEMAR help us in the training of these new recruits. So that this way in act together in a coordinated fashion, and we strengthen the presence of security elements.”
CLARIFIED THE PRESIDENT.ZONE IN THE SOUTH-SOUTHEAST

In terms of the distribution of the troops throughout the national territory, Luis Ramirez Bucio clarified that the bulk of the of the General Coordinations are located in the south and the southeast of the country as well as in Mexico City and the State of Mexico.

In Chiapas there are 11,958 troops distributed within four coordinations; in guerrero there are 10,732 troops in seven coordinations; in Oaxaca there are 10,445 troops in nine coordinations, and in Veracruz there are 13,702 troops in eight coordinations.

We can also see that in the Yucatan Peninsula which includes the states of Tabasco, Chiapas to Campaeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo, which represent relatively low crime rates a total of 27,052 troops have been deployed.

In comparison, states with much higher crime rates, which are experiencing open war situations within criminal organizations received a much lower amount of troops: 4,053 arrived in Durango, 6,401 arrived in Sonora, 7,279 arrived in Chihuahua, 5,550 arrived in Baja California, and 4,535 arrived in Nuevo Leon.

All of this indicates that the newly created National Guard will be used more to ensure the development of mega-projects driven by the current administration, as well as to surveil the indigenous communities who are resisting to conserve their territories rather than to protect citizens.

In fact in Chiapas, the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) announced this past 17th of August that they have created 11 additional Centers for Autonomous Resistance and Zapatista Rebellion (CRAREZ)

“Regardless of military patrols, regardless of the National Guard, regardless of the counter insurgency campaigns disguised as social programs, regardless of the oblivion and devaluation, we have grown and become stronger.” Assured the EZLN.

The trans-isthmus corridor in Oaxaca and Veracruz, they Tren Maya in the peninsula of Yucatan are priorities within the current president’s agenda, as well as hundreds of other mining, hydroelectric, wind energy, and other development projects throughout the South-Southeast of the country.

Indigenous Nasa People of Colombia are on Maximum Alert after Two More Murders

Por

Santiago Navarro F

14 August, 2019

The Nasa, an indigenous people who live in the north of Cauca, Colombia, were once again attacked by an armed group that left five wounded and two dead. This event brings the murder count so far in 2019 up to more than 30.

Very early in the morning of August 10, the Indigenous Guard of the San Francisco reservation in the municipality of Caloto (one of the centers of collective property) were taken by surprise. One of the more than five armed groups that operate in the area attacked the guards with gunfire. Kevin Mestizo Coicué and Eugenio Tenorio were killed, while Leonel Coicué, Sandra Milena Pilcue, Aurelino Ñuscue Julicue, Julio Taquinas, and Edinson Edgardo Rivera, 7 years old, have been wounded. All are indigenous.

Prior to this attack, a pamphlet menacing the indigenous communities and signed by an organized crime group had begun to circulate on social media: "They were warned nicely, but these Indian sons of bitches don't understand, we're going to finish them".
"Who did it? It's an armed group that's trying to control and manage the drug trade and this has us very concerned, because the threats continue to be very frequent in our territory", said one of the traditional leaders of the Nasa people, who spoke anonymously for security reasons.

This scenario occurs in the midst of a transition process from a war that lasted more than 50 years between the many administrations that have governed Colombia and the ex-guerrilla organization known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). During this war, the Nasa people were considered an enemy by both sides.
"The war was very aggressive with us, because the government said that we were collaborators with the FARC, who said that we were collaborators with the government. But to us, the war is a business and we don't collaborate with anyone. The land dispute always existed from both sides. In 50 years, we strengthened our traditional guards and we rose up with our command staffs for the defense of territory and life", commented a Nasa man, who introduced himself just as José.

For the Nasa, "the war that the armed groups has declared on our community, especially the Indigenous Guard, attempts to silence our voices, exterminate life, and take over our territories", stated a communique (link in Spanish) from the 126 traditional authorities organized in the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC) and the Indigenous Guard, as defenders of life in all of its manifestations.
There is intensive industrial sugarcane production in this area, principally for ethanol fuel for cars. This production is backed by the government. Add to this the FARC dissidents who are still armed, and "additionally there are organized crime groups that want the land for poppy and marijuana production", said a member of the Nasa people, who decided to remain anonymous for security reasons.

Since 2005, the Nasa have carried out direct actions for the liberation of their lands from monocrops and exploitation. They cut and dismantle cane plantings with the goal of letting nature itself return to cover the land with its vegetation, but also for the families that make up this people, who cultivate organic food. With the crops that they grow, the Nasa have undertaken other direct actions in which they give away food in the poorest neighborhoods in cities like Cali.

"It's time to liberate and defend the land because they're killing it. And who's killing it? The sugarcane, mining, hydroelectric dams, soy, palm oil. Uma Kiwe, our Mother Earth, is enslaved just like our peoples and we have to liberate ourselves along with her", says José.
While the members of the Indigenous Guard of Caloto were being murdered, the Third International Encounter of Liberators of Mother Earth was being held in the liberated zone called La Albania. People from the diverse geographies of Colombia participated, as well as those from other countries such as Chile, Brazil, Peru, and Mexico, from which pain and rage were shared in one same sentiment.

The authorities present in this space made themselves heard with a call to solidarity to the international community and to other peoples who resist and struggle for the defense of their lands. "From this liberated space, today we say that as indigenous communities, we find ourselves in assembly and on maximum alert to defend and care for our territory. We hope to count on the peoples of the world in their solidarity and their rejection of these actions", they expressed.

1...272829...42 Página 28 de 42