CPTnet
28 September 2007
COLOMBIA: "You should be afraid of those who come after us"

by Sandra Rincon
translated by Stewart Vriesinga

Jessica Philips and I participated in The Fourth Follow-up Commission to the
Human Rights Situation in the south of Bolivar that took place 17-18
September 2007. The commission visited two rural communities of Cantagallo
and Simiti in southern Bolivar department (province.) The Follow-up
Commission was part of an accord reached between the agricultural-mining
communities of the region and the government following a mass uprising in
the area when the Colombian military shot and killed a small-scale miner
Alejandro Uribe on 19 September 2006.

During the two-day visit of the Commission, which occurred with little local
and regional government participation, I heard the communities' concerns
about the aerial spraying to eradicate coca crops and concerns about the
constant abuses of the army and guerrillas.

"We don't understand how such a low-flying plane can't recognize a crop of
beans or corn and sprays it while leaving coca crops completely untouched.
We aren't against eradication of coca, but we want them to leave our
food-crops alone. The majority of us are peasant farmers who came here
after being displaced from other areas because of violence" one of the
campesinos said.

These peasant communities, which cultivate beans, corn, plantain, and yucca
(currently fetching very low prices in the market) and coca out of economic
necessity, not greed, are becoming increasingly impoverished. Often small
farmers abandon their crops, even coca cultivation, for more lucrative work
in the area's artisanal gold mines, but the livelihoods of miners are also
in jeopardy as the government has handed over their mining rights to
multinationals. Roads are in poor condition or non-existent. Rural schools
are inadequate. Healthcare is sub-standard, and legal and illegal armed
actors constantly pressure the peasants. I am surprised and moved that the
campesinos still want to continue living in the region, making it possible
for those of us who live in the city to go to the market every morning and
buy fresh, locally-grown produce.

I also find hope in their determination not to be part of the armed
conflict. A second campesino affirmed, "This is not our war, what we want
is to be left in peace to cultivate the land. That's what we know how to
do." Nevertheless, threats of antipersonnel mines planted by guerrillas,
paramilitaries returning and abuses of authority by the military are a part
of the campesinos' daily lives.

"The army tells us we shouldn't be afraid of them, we should be afraid of
those who will come after them, because they going to finish off
everything," is a common phrase that community members hear from Colombian
soldiers. "One asks oneself" the leaders say, "who would they be referring
to if not the paramilitaries, which are now calling themselves the