Open Letter to Nancy Pelosi From Colombian Indigenous Organization

Cauca, Colombia
April 11, 2008

"Three years later, like us, you said no to the Colombia-US FTA"

Dear Representative Pelosi and Congress of the United States of America:

First, we would like to express our joy and gratitude for the decision made yesterday, April 10, 2008, in the United States Congress. With 294 votes in favor and 195 against, the House of Representatives, over which you preside, decided to indefinitely freeze the FTA between Colombia and the US. We know that this is but one step on a long path, but the result is profoundly meaningful for our peoples, and it opens a window through which we can breathe with strength and rejuvenated spirits. With this letter, beyond expressing our recognition and appreciation as peoples, we seek to open a space for communication between us, because we feel that we deserve the right to be heard and respected. It is long overdue that Democratic Party members of Congress under your leadership should become aware of our democratic decision and analyses, all of which are rooted in dignity and respect for life.

Little more than three years ago, on Sunday March 6, 2005, the first Popular Consultation on the US-Colombia FTA was carried out through a referendum held in six municipalities in the Department of Cauca, Colombia. In that free, open and transparent referendum, monitored by national and international observers and bound by strict electoral regulations, there was a level of participation that had been unprecedented in the history of our municipalities. Ninety-eight percent of the people responded NO to the following question: "Are you in favor of the FTA between Colombia and the United States?" The people expressed their sovereign and conscious decision. Since that first consultation, others have been carried out throughout Colombia, all with the same result.

On February 1, 2005, we had made public a proclamation in which we called for a national popular referendum on the FTA. We invite you to examine this document, which we reaffirm, and whose clarity and eloquence remain relevant today, even more so given the most recent decision of the US Congress. In order that you may understand our motives and perspectives, we believe it is our right to respectfully express this to you, as peoples reacting to a trade agreement that would deeply affect our lives. Through you, Rep. Pelosi, we invite the Congress and the people of the United States to read this proclamation and to treat its content with the respect and consideration that it deserves, recognizing the sovereign and democratic decision of our peoples.

It is important for you to know that from the moment of our carrying out the consultation to today, information on the FTA and its consequences made available to the people of Colombia through the government and the mass media has been absurdly distorted and entirely in favor of those interested in winning approval of the agreement. This has effectively closed any spaces for debate and discussion among diverse perspectives, which would be necessary for Colombian citizens to understand the issue and to take a substantive position on it. In the proclamation of our consultation, we asked: "If the FTA is so good, why is the population being misinformed, and why is the government so afraid of a popular consultation and a conscious and democratic decision?"

Today, in light of the decision you have made, we reiterate the relevance of that question. In spite of the barrage of propaganda in favor of the FTA and the manner in which fear was used to assure people that rejecting the FTA would be equivalent to the United States' abandoning Colombia in backwardness, those who participated in the referendum understood that quite to the contrary, approval of the FTA on these terms and under these conditions would be equivalent to pushing Colombia toward an abyss of backwardness, impoverishment, inequality, and war. We understand that the people of the United States also suffer negative consequences from these kinds of trade agreements, but it is ultimately up to you and the people of the United States to analyze and make decisions on these agreements and their consequences. Rep. Pelosi, the Colombian government was opposed and remains opposed to allowing the Colombian people to understand the real impacts of the FTA that has been presented to Congress; it has closed the spaces of democratic debate and ignored the results of the Popular Consultation. We therefore urge you to examine the Consultation of March 2005, our motives and arguments, the democratic decision of the peoples, and the consequences and implications of this decision. We also invite you to support the right of peoples to understand and decide. With respect to the FTA, this is a right that the Colombian government has not respected.

The Colombian government attempted to discredit the decision of the consultation, alleging that we do not understand the benefits of the FTA and that terrorists and other nefarious forces had manipulated the population. Our response to this disturbing and unfounded accusation is found in the text of the proclamation and in the reality of facts that speak for themselves. The position of the government is racist insofar as it still considers us primitive beings incapable of understanding and consciously deciding for ourselves. Moreover, it seriously threatens our lives and integrity by falsely claiming links with terrorists, claims that easily become death sentences in this country.

Read our arguments and see for yourselves if we can be accused of not understanding. In contrast with the Colombian government's reaction, read and respond with ideas, arguments, and substance. As we said in the proclamation calling for the consultation, we are opposed to neither free trade nor an agreement with the United States. We are opposed to this particular agreement, and we have reasons based fundamentally on substance.

Rep. Pelosi, Members of Congress, and people of the United States, three years after our proclamation and call to carry out a public referendum on the FTA, three years after our people said NO, in spite of the closing of spaces for debate and democratic decision-making, more than 60% of arable lands in Colombia remain in the hands of 15,000 families, less than 0.4% of the population of the country. This immense concentration of land is nonproductive in that the food that we consume comes from the poor, small producers; the large property owners do not produce food. Furthermore, the influx of subsidized agricultural products condemns peasants, indigenous peoples, and rural producers to ruin and hunger, as they face the impossibility of competing with less expensive products and artificially reduced prices. Free trade is making the production of crops for illicit use necessary for survival and for the attainment of basic economic resources. You are well aware that we are being displaced and forced off our lands through violence and war, which serves to open the countryside to the megaprojects of transnational corporations. This eviction has displaced 4 million of our compatriots to the cities, where they live in miserable conditions. This promotes only social and political violence and hatred, thereby perpetuating war and misery.

The agreement would place the price of life-saving medications beyond reach for the majority of Colombia's people and would permit the patenting of life-forms and our ancestral knowledge. The FTA, which you have decided to not consider for now, would back a government whose president, during a "community council" held on March 15, 2008, offered bounties on the lives of indigenous peoples who are struggling to recover the lands from which we have been displaced, lands to which we have a right in accordance with agreements with the very state that now criminalizes our struggles to access its own commitments. Agrarian reform has been transformed into a crime in order to protect particular interests that would benefit from the FTA. In the midst of war, misery, displacement, terror, and deception, there can be prosperity for no one. That is why we have rejected this FTA.

Rep. Pelosi and Members of Congress, we want a trade agreement that is actually an agreement, one that is negotiated among sectors that really represent the interests of peoples-not only among a few who act exclusively in the interests of big capital. We want an agreement that is free and not imposed unilaterally through propaganda, without debate or open and democratic consultation.

We want an agreement that has real trade as its content, trade that guarantees reciprocal opportunity, so that the well-being of peoples is realized in a manner that is autonomous and sovereign and protects nature and life. The FTA that you have decided not to debate for the moment promotes displacement, legalizes injustice, condemns us to permanent war, and leaves us behind.We celebrate the decision that you have taken, and we thank you. This means nothing more or less than respecting our lives. Receive our expression of immense gratitude to your people, and accept our invitation to understand the motives of the decision we made democratically three years ago.

Sincerely,

Association of Indigenous Authorities of Northern Cauca Council

Why Afro-Colombians Oppose the Colombia FTA

Marino Cordoba, founder of the Association of Internally Displaced Afro-Colombians (AFRODES), submitted this post as a guest blogger for The Hill.

Feb 7, 2008

The U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement is considered a non-starter in the U.S. Congress because the country is the world’s deadliest for union activists. Less known, but equally disturbing is the systematic violence now confronting Afro-Colombians.

African descendants comprise 26% of Colombia’s population. As with other African descendants, we face racial discrimination which results in economic hardships far worse than those experienced by the average Colombian. However in Colombia, a vibrant 1980s civil rights movement won full recognition of our cultural rights and collective ownership and community control of our territories and natural resources. The 1991 Colombian Constitution and the landmark Law 70 explicitly enshrine these rights and recognize official democratic Afro-Colombian governance structures, similar to those of your Indian tribes.

The administration of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has worked consistently to undermine our hard-won civil rights and our control of our territories. Systematic violence against our people and assassinations of our leaders continue unabated to this day.

At the end of 2007, angered by the strong opposition of the majority of Afro-Colombian communities to the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA,) Uribe created a new Commission in Colombia that directly challenges our legal governance structure.

To read the rest of this article click here.

New Aid Package Imperfect but Offers Significant Changes

The new aid package is far from perfect. But there are some positive and significant changes thanks to your hard work.

The military aid was cut by $141.5 million (31%), and funding for inhumane and environmentally harmful aerial spraying program has also been cut. Meanwhile there is an increase in economic and sustainable development aid of $97.4 million (71%) with $15 million of the development aid slated for Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities which make up some of the most impoverished and negatively affected by the ongoing conflict.

The new legislation ties 30% of the aid (versus 25% in previous years) to human rights conditions which include: that Colombian army officials be investigated and prosecuted for violating human rights, and that the Colombian government guarantee that the army is respecting the private property of Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities. In the past two years $110 million dollars have been held by the State Department due to Colombian government and army’s inability to meet these conditions. A new conditions places restrictions on the use of US aid for investment in oil palm—used in the making of lotions, cookies and ethanol. Oil palm is and export crop that has led to the displacement of thousands of Afro-Colombians and Indigenous peoples as corporations in tandem with right wing paramilitary groups usurp the land belonging to these communities for this environmentally unfriendly crop.

These are results that should be celebrated. There is much more to be done this year given that the Department of Defense bill, which authorizes more military aid to Colombia, is highly nontransparent and difficult to monitor. Congratulations on all of your hard work and let’s work to make the rest of the military aid in the Department of Defense bill more transparent and accountable.

Pending Vote on Peru FTA Paves way for Colombia

On September 11th the Senate Finance Committee held their hearing on the Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signaling their intention to vote on the trade pact in early October—the first trade vote since CAFTA in July 2006. The Peru FTA is part of the same “one-size-fits-all” model applied to the US-Colombia FTA and its passage could severely weaken our efforts to stop it.

The May 10th deal struck between Pelosi, Rangel and the Bush administration paved the way for Democrats to support the US-Peru and Panama FTAs (see my Aug. 20 blog entry). These fixes also apply to the Colombia FTA but leadership has made it clear more will need to be done before they support the deals. With minor fixes to the labor and environmental chapters and some easing of restrictions on medicine patents, Democrat leadership is now supporting the model they rejected with CAFTA. Many have argued that these changes will do nothing to address the enforcement problems rampant in Peru who lack the resources and political will to improve labor and environmental standards. But beyond enforcement issues, what is still missing in the public discourse is the fact that these fixes do nothing to address the broader human rights and moral concerns around the other 20 agreement chapters – especially in the areas of agriculture, indigenous knowledge, services and investment.

Not one Senator at the Peru FTA hearing mentioned the words development, human rights or concerns about the possible negative impacts in Peru. Instead the focus was on market access for US goods and, of course, security—invoking the threats of Presidents Chavez of Venezuela and Correa of Ecuador. Clearly the interfaith community’s attempt to expand the debate on trade is not yet gained traction in Congress. It also didn’t help to have the AFL-CIO witness go on record as not being for the FTA but also unwilling to say they are firmly opposed to it. This has caused a split within the unions (the Change to Win Coalition is firmly opposed) and has sent mixed messages to Congress—especially freshman members.

Despite this disappointment, the Colombia FTA remains extremely controversial—and US unions are unified in the opposition. This is primarily because of the Colombian record of union organizer assassinations, but also because of the growing scandal connecting the Uribe government with paramilitary death squads. The AFSC Trade and War in Colombia campaign is seeking to expand this debate. It is clear from the impacts of this model elsewhere that the FTA will exacerbate the existing humanitarian crisis faced by the Afro-Colombian, Indigenous and peasant communities in Colombia. A country approaching its fiftieth year of conflict cannot withstand the costs that will surely outweigh the benefits for those living in the rural and communal territories of Colombia.

It remains unclear when a vote could happen on the Colombia FTA. Yet this has not stopped the Uribe government from engaging in an aggressive campaign that includes creating awards and gala events for Bill Clinton, hiring Clinton’s PR firm, constantly lobbying Congress, and hosting endless delegations to Colombia for members of Congress. It boggles my mind to see how Congresspeople can visit a country on a government sponsored delegation and let what is so clearly a carefully constructed tour influence their idea of the daily realities in Colombia. The only way to ensure the delay and defeat of the US-Colombia FTA is to keep the pressure on Congress—this is most effective when coming from their own constituents.

Blood on the Palms: Afro-Colombians fight new plantations.

Written by David Bacon
David joined an AFSC delegation to Colombia last year to research for this article.

This article is from the July/August 2007 issue of Dollars & Sense magazine.

On Sept. 7, 2006, paramilitary gunmen invaded the home of Juan de Dios García, a community leader in the Colombian city of Buenaventura. García escaped, but the gunmen shot and killed seven members of his family.

The paramilitaries, linked to the government of President Alvaro Uribe and to the country's wealthy landholding elite, wanted to stop García and other activists from the Proceso de Comunidades Negras (Process of Black Communities, or PCN), who have been trying to recover land on which Afro-Colombians have lived for five centuries. The PCN is a network of over 140 organizations among Black Colombian communities.

García later told Radio Bemba, "when the paras [paramilitary soldiers] came looking for me, I could see they were using police and army vehicles. They operate with the direct and indirect participation of high government functionaries. So denouncing their crimes to the authorities actually puts you at an even greater risk."

South of Buenaventura along the Pacific, in the coastal lowlands of the department of Nariño, oil palm plantations are spreading through historically Afro-Colombian lands. The plantation owners' association, Fedepalma, plans to expand production to a million hectares (about 3,861 square miles), and the government has proposed that by 2020 seven million hectares will be used for export crops, including oil palms.

Helping planters reach their goal is the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). In what the agency describes as an effort to resettle rightwing paramilitary members who agree to be disarmed, USAID funds projects in which they are given land to cultivate. The land, however, is often located in historically Afro-Colombian areas.

On paper these resettlement projects may appear to be effective components of a national peace process. On the ground, however, what typically happens is that the paramilitaries take on the task of protecting the plantation owners' (and the government's) investment. And Afro-Colombian activists who get in the way pay a price in blood.

Afro-Colombian families displaced by development projects, especially the expansion of oil palm plantations, and by Colombia’s paramilitary and military groups who protect the projects, have created a squatter community, the November 11 barrio, at the edge of Tumaco, a coastal city in Nariño department. The city authorities have used trash, garbage, and even medical waste to create raised pathways between the houses. Water for dozens of families comes from a single tap. [Photo credit: David Bacon.]

See full article in the July/August 2007 issue of Dollars & Sense magazine.

Colombian Women to Visit Congress to Speak on Human Rights, Poverty and Trade

A delegation of six Colombian women will visit Washington on July 23-27 to meet with members of Congress and key partner organizations and discuss trade and war in Colombia from a women’s perspective. After Washington two of the women will travel with AFSC to New York City through August 1 to meet with grassroots groups, women- and human rights-focused NGOs as well as members of Congress in their home district.

All grassroots leaders of Colombian civil society, this extraordinary delegation includes trade unionists, lawyers, indigenous and Afro-Colombian leaders, and women representing communities displaced by the civil conflict.

The delegation will present up-to-date perspectives on violence and threats against trade unionists, the growing numbers of internally displaced people, and continuing abuses of human rights. They will also present their point of view on how Colombia’s rural poverty will likely be worsened by the trade agreement with the United States now before Congress.

The delegation is a result of collaboration between AFSC, Oxfam America, the Alliance for Responsible Trade and the Washington Office on Latin America.

The members of the delegation are:

• Beatríz Fuentes, president of the flower-cutters union Sintrasplendor at the company Splendor, which is owned by the U.S. corporation Dole and exports cut flowers.
• Martha Díaz, president of the civil servants’ union in Santander state, who has received numerous threats.
• Emerenciana Chicunque, leader of the Katmenza indigenous community in Putumayo, southern Colombia, an area of recent attacks by paramilitary squads on indigenous and other people.
• Pilar Rueda Jiménez, anthropologist and professor at La Salle University, Bogotá and leader of the alliance “Make Trade Fair”, a coalition of more than 30 unions and human rights and development groups across Colombia promoting the rights of women workers.
• Maura Nasly Mosquera Mosquera, lawyer and assistant to the National Conference of Afro-Colombian Organizations.
• Alba Lucia Giraldo, head of household and leader of the grassroots group Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, which has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the American Friends Service Committee, and one of the millions of Colombians forcibly displaced from their homes due to threats from paramilitary groups.

"Trading with Colombia"

On Saturday, June 23, 2007 The Chicago Tribune printed an editorial in support of the trade agreement with Colombia: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0623edit1jun23,1,1238302.story . We sent the following letter to the editor of the Chicago Tribune in response to that article:

I was surprised to see The Chicago Tribune come out in support of a Colombia trade agreement, (Trading with Colombia, June 23), after expressing skepticism not long ago about U.S. military assistance.

The Colombian conflict is deeply rooted in political, economic and social inequalities. Almost half of all Colombians live below the poverty line. Working in tandem with the Colombian army, paramilitaries fight guerrillas over the same natural resources sought by U.S. investors. Forced displacement has become a way to seize assets from their rightful owners instead of an unintended consequence of battle.

The solution to Colombia’s troubling human rights record and disturbing history of inequality is not to send more military aid or to sign a trade agreement. It is not about left or right wing groups. It’s not just about cocaine.
The Colombia trade pact is modeled after a "one-size-fits-all" model based on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which has caused the displacement of 1.7 million farmers in Mexico.

Colombia simply cannot afford to add to its already 3.7 million internally displaced, as this agreement would surely do.

Natalia Cardona

Hello from Atlanta

I have just arrived in Atlanta for the first ever US Social Forum! I can feel that another world is possible and certainly get that another U.S. is necessary.

My focus at the USSF is to explore new ways of collaborating on trade both inside and outside the DC beltway as well as working to bring the linkages between trade and war to all the forums I participate in. With tens of thousands of activists converging in Atlanta, it is a prime moment in US movement building history. I am thrilled to be a part of it.

I will send daily thoughts and updates so check it out. My first task is to promote our workshop on trade and war in Colombia (see below description). If you can imagine there are 120 consecutive workshops taking place. That is some fierce competition.

Making Colombia Safe…for Investors

Thursday, June 28 from 10:30 – 12:30

Days Inn Downtown - Dogwood conference room
300 Spring St NW (between Simpson and Baker St.)

Plan Colombia has fueled the fires of the conflict in Colombia and aggravated what the UN calls the worst humanitarian crisis in the western hemisphere. In light of this disaster, the US government's daily $1.6 million outlay for the drug war in Colombia is unjustifiable.

Despite these violations and the failure of U.S. policies to reduce coca production and end the now 50 year-old conflict, the U.S. is preparing to fund Plan Colombia II and has negotiated a new free trade agreement (FTA) with Colombia.

This workshop will feature three speakers from Colombia, including
- Carlos Rosero, PCN (Colombia)
- Hector Giraldo, SINTRAOFAN (Colombia)
- German Bedoya - Coordinador Nacional Agrario (Colombia - not confirmed)

They will help us explore root causes of the conflict, economic and exploitation aspects that sustain the conflict, and how the new free trade agreement is connected to this.

Organized with Witness for Peace