Dr. Victoria Marie, O.S.F.

1
The High Cost of Free Tradefor Indigenous and
African Colombians

• Dr. Victoria Marie, O.S.F.
• Department of Educational Studies
• University of British Colombia.

2
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

3
Introduction

• In November 2004, the author was part of a
  Witness for Peace (WFP) womens delegation to
  Colombia. The purpose of the delegation was to
  stand in solidarity with Colombias 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.

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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.

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Organización Femenina Popular
Las mujeres no parimos ni forjamos hijos e hijas
para la guerra
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.
Ciudad Bolivar, the last stop for many domestic
refugees, is situated on the outskirts of Bogotá.
It has the worst social conditions of Bogotá.
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OFP contd

• It is hard to know which armed actors are here.
  This is like a corridor, which one day its one
  group. The next, its another. Its 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).

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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

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Soacha
Soacha, which looks very much like a refugee camp
on the outskirts of Bogotá, is the new home of
many displaced Afro-Colombians.
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Soacha ResidentBrasili
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.
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 dont give us work. We dont
have friends here. We have no chickens. We have
no farm and we dont 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.
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Women of WFP AFRODES
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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.
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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.
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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).

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Plan Colombia Dispursements
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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)

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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
Macizowho for years have been caught in the
crossfire. 1. Macizo is a region in the
Department of Cauca
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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- Womens
Programs-CIMA
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CIMA Porvenir
A proud display of the community electric mill
used for grinding grains as well as organic
material to use as organic fertilizer.
19
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.
20
Cajibios Youth
The youth of Cajibio are active in the community.
For example, they operate a radio station and
raise rabbits.
21
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.
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The Way Forward in Solidarity
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

• buy fairly traded goods
• Visit or write policy makers
• Write articles and papers
• Donate time and expertise
• Become an online activist