Dr. Victoria Marie, O.S.F.Department of Educational Studies

University of British Colombia.

The High Cost of Free Trade

for Indigenous and African Colombians

Organization

• Introduction – WFP Delegation

• Free Trade and Resistance– Internally Displaced

– Detained and Disappeared

• Plan Colombia and Sites of Resistance– Bogota

– Cauca

• The Way Forward in Solidarity

Introduction• In November 2004, the author was part of a Witness

for Peace (WFP) women’s delegation to Colombia. The purpose of the delegation was to stand in solidarity with Colombia’s women of peace and learn about the effects of United States and other foreign policies on the lives of the Colombian people.

– Met with women from organizations concerned with issues

of labour, internal displacement, the disappeared/detained, health, education and the militarization of civilians

– Met with representatives from the United States Embassy in Bogotá and met with a representative from the Colombian army.

Free Trade Agreements

• eliminate trade barriers

• transnational business interests can set prices

• undercut local prices, forced out of the market

• small farmers are forced to sell their land

• mass influxes of people to urban areas

• creates domestic refugees.

Organización Femenina Popular

Ciudad Bolivar, the last stop for many domestic refugees, is situated on the outskirts of Bogotá. It has the worst social conditions of Bogotá.

The process of shifting from traditional economic contexts to urban environments spells assimilation. Indigenous languages rapidly vanish, and cultural traditions of all types, be they Afro-Colombian, indigenous or Appalachian, disappear within a few generations.

“Las mujeres no parimos ni forjamos hijos e hijas para la guerra”

OFP cont’d

• It is hard to know which armed actors are here. This is like a corridor, which one day it’s one group. The next, it’s another. It’s hard here because the legal armed actors make it difficult for our youth. These armed actors detain young people and humiliate them. They do this not only to youth but men, women and children as well. There are murders here everyday, this is part of the process of “social cleansing.” There is a systematic policy of extermination being carried out by the government and the legal armed actors (OFP Member).

Offshoots of FTAs for Colombia

• Trade Interests– Natural resources, including water and bio-diversity– Real estate speculation

• Impediments to Trade Interests– New avenues of transporting goods – Local populations (95% African Colombian)

• Consequences– Displacement of African Colombians– Increased human rights violations

Soacha

Soacha, which looks very much like a refugee camp on the outskirts of Bogotá, is the new ‘home’ of many displaced Afro-Colombians.

Soacha Resident:Brasili

I came because of the violence. I came with my grandchildren. We went through a lot of pain. AFRODES helps but it is not enough. There are so many bad times for our children. It is a hard life for women with children. So here I am, without work. They don’t give us work. We don’t have friends here. We have no chickens. We have no farm and we don’t have work. We used to live off agriculture in the mountains. We had a little farm. But we had to leave because of the violence.

No one will give me work because of my age. I like to work. I want to work. I would like to raise chickens and then sell them.

Women of WFP & AFRODES

ASFADDES

ASFADDES (Association for the families of the detained and disappeared) was born in 1982 after the disappearance of 13 students, the government failed to provide information about their family members. ASFADDES was founded to find out information about family members and to work for peace, justice and human rights.

The Work of ASFADDES

Something we do that is very import is every May, we make a memorial in memory of the disappeared to show the people of Colombia that there are disappeared here and we remember them.

We document from the first moment that a person is disappeared. We document everything including the fact that the government does not respond. Legal assistance includes taking the person to the different NGOs.

Plan Colombia

• Plan Colombia is the latest U.S. aid package to Colombia and is intended to bring about an end to the violence and drug trafficking in Colombia.

• Includes ten strategies (economic, fiscal and financial, military, judicial and human rights, counter-narcotics, alternative development, social participation, human development, peace and international affairs) designed to address all aspects of the problems Colombia faces (CEDHU, 2001).

Plan Colombia Dispursements

BananaWorkers

• Over 4,000 union activists have been murdered in Colombia since 1980 (Witness for Peace, 2004).

• In 2003, 172 trade unionists were assassinated, 164 received death threats, 26 were kidnapped, 7 disappeared and 50 families were forced to flee into exile (CLUW, 2004).

• “This is the first time we had to travel by land. But the men never have to travel by land. For women in Colombia, being part of a union is very difficult” (Banana Worker)

CIMACommittee for the Integration of the Colombian Macizo1

One of the primary goals of CIMA is to make known the plight of the civilian non-combatants– the vast majority of the inhabitants of the Macizo—who for years have been caught in the crossfire.

1. [Macizo is a region in the Department of Cauca]

CIMA: Timbió“But in the midst of this devastation, our struggles and our pain, we work to effect change. We work with other groups and the women are working on nutrition issues and ways to help ourselves. Now in communities women are starting gardens. This is a form of resistance. Women, men come forward and tell them what we are doing!”

Human Rights Coordinator- Women’s Programs-CIMA

CIMA: PorvenirA proud display of the community electric mill used for grinding grains as well as organic material to use as organic fertilizer.

Movimiento Campasino de Cajibio Small Farmers Movement of Cajibio (MCC)

MCC is an organization of mestizo small farmers from the municipality of Cajibio, just north of Popayán.

Cajibio’s Youth

The youth of Cajibio are active in the community. For example, they operate a radio station and raise rabbits.

Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca

The Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC) was founded in 1981 to regain the rights of indigenous people to their traditional lands, territories and concomitant rights.

The Way Forward in Solidarity

• buy fairly traded goods

• Visit or write policy makers

• Write articles and papers

• Donate time and expertise

• Become an online activist

If ideas or strategies like the treca were more widely adopted, it could offset devastating effects of FTAs and other such policies. We can join ‘la lucha’ (the struggle) by: