UPDATES ON COLOMBIAN LAND RIGHTS

Law 70 was written to specify the rights that people of African descent have in terms of the land and demand legal protection of those rights.  Click one of the links below to see the Spanish or English version. English version Spanish version (.pdf) Incoder Report on Oil Palm in Black Territories: El Instituto Colombiano de la Reforma Agraria INCGRA, hoy en Liquidación, mediante las resoluciones números 2809 y 2801 del 22 de noviembre de 2000, sustentado en las disposiciones previstas en el articulo 55 transitorio de la Constitución Política de 1991, en la Ley 70 de 1993 y en el Decreto 1745 de 1995, adjudicó en calidad de "Tierras de las Comunidades Negras", los terrenos baldíos ocupados colectivamente por las comunidades negras organizadas en los Consejos Comunitarios de Curvaradó y Jiguamiandó, con un área de 46.084 hectáreas y 54.973 hectáreas respectivamente, ubicados en jurisdicción del Municipio de Riosucio, hoy Carmen de Darien y Belén de Bajirá, en el Departamento del Chocó. See the full report (.doc) Report on Internally Displaced Persons: The link below will take you to the Report of the Representative of the Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, by Walter Kalin.  The report summarizes the land issues in Colombia that confront people of African descent and Indigenous peoples. Report on the Mission in Colombia Report on Human Rights: The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice recently sponsored a human rights delegation to Colombia, and has issued a report for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on the human rights of Afro-Colombians. The memorandum in the link below contains a summary of the portions of the Report the delegation believes are most relevant to any proposed U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA).  They also included some recommendations for the consideration and negotiation of such an agreement. Afro-Colombian Human Rights Report (.pdf) Unfulfilled Promises: "Through its 1991 Constitution and subsequent creation of Ley 70 in 1993, Colombia passed some of the most progressive legislation in the world for guaranteeing the collective property rights of its Afro-descendant minority population. However, the promises set out in Ley 70 are far from fulfilled, as years of armed conflict, the expansion of agricultural and tourist projects, and narco-trafficking have impeded the realization of the legislation’s objectives."  Click on the link below to review Unfulfilled Promises and Persistent Obstacles to the Realization of the Rights of Afro-Colombians: A report on the development of Ley 70 of 1993. Unfulfilled Promises (.pdf) LA LEY 70 DEL AÑO 1993 reconoce la propiedad colectiva sobre el territorio tradicional habitado por las comunidades negras e impulsa el respeto y protección del medio ambiente apoyando las relaciones tradicionales de las comunidades negras con su entorno natural. De 1993 a la fecha, los Consejos Comunitarios, máxima autoridad administrativa de los territorios comunales, han fortalecido el manejo conceptual y elaborado propuestas de manejo del medio natural, asumiendo este aspecto como elemento clave para la consolidación cultural y territorial. (por Juan Pablo Ruiz Soto) Territorios negros, gobernabilidad y naturaleza

INFORMATION UPDATES

June 12 Choco (Colombia): "In the only refrigerator of the hospital there are about 20 pints of blood, but they are not enough for the 1.500 patients that are cared for every month." Choco is Bleeding June 12 Salem, MA: "Entire villages had been displaced and swallowed up by the mine while other communities had lost the centuries-old livelihoods based on hunting, fishing, and farming due to land loss and contamination of the air and water." My view: Colombians suffer for our comfort June 10, 2008 Washington (Reuters): Colombia still sees a chance the U.S. Congress will approve a bilateral free trade agreement caught up in an election-year fight between President George W. Bush and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi <http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/p000197/> , Colombian officials said on Tuesday. Colombia still sees chance U.S. will OK trade deal June 9 Elespectador.com: "Exigimos que el Ministerio del Transporte nos cumpla todo lo prometido y que la resolución que reglamenta el nuevo régimen laboral se cumpla", afirmó Celso Castro, secretario del sindicato de trabajadores, en referencia a lo dicho por Andrés Uriel Gallego, cuando exigió que los salarios de trabajadores a destajo en el puerto no debían ser inferiores al mínimo. Trabajadores del Puerto de Buenaventura entrarían en paro May 25, 2008 elespectador.com: El 36 por ciento de la comunidad afrocolombiana que habita en Cali se encuentra sobre la línea de pobreza. Los caleños no pertenecientes a esta comunidad, son menos pobres (31 por ciento). Afrocolombianos son los mas pobres de cali   Flandes, Colombia: "It was an homage to the indigenous people, Afro-Colombians, peasant farmers and everyone else who has been killed in this absurd war," indigenous activist Manuel Bautista told IPS at the start of a three-day march that will end in the Colombian capital Thursday. Bautista and others affected by Colombia's civil war threw thousands of flowers into the Magdalena river, which crosses the country from south to north, on Tuesday in a "national homage to the victims of paramilitarism, parapolitics and crimes of the state." Click here for the full article Colombia, South America: The situation in Colombia is worsening. Black people and union workers are being brutalized and murdered daily by state police and paramilitary units. Right-wing paramilitary groups are responsible for the majority of human rights violations in Colombia, including massacres and targeted assassinations, particularly those of rural community leaders, trade unionists and other civilians. This is not what the President wants you to believe. Therefore, with the financial backing of the U.S. government, a team of Afro-Colombians will visit Howard University in Washington, D.C. to give the impression that human rights issues are improving, that Black people are being treated fairly, that democracy is alive. Such an impression grossly misrepresents the conditions under which people live and die daily. On the Elections:  The link below leads to a brief analysis of why Latino voters do not support Barak Obama.  The essence of the issue is race: Latinos cannot conceive that anyone other than a white could run the White House, especially if that person is black.  It is written in spanish, though an english translation will be available soon.  Los hispanos, Obama y el racismo Response to the response Letting Down Afro-Colombians: The Shameful Failure of the Black Congressional Caucus: "It's bad enough when the Bush White House and its Republican allies in Congress seek to prop up the paramilitary government of Álvaro Uribe and try to secure a free trade deal. On the other hand, at least the Republican right is consistent in philosophy. Not so with the Congressional Black Caucus, a hypocritical body which prides itself on displaying solidarity with Africans of the Diaspora but which does nothing to rein in a racist regime which is doing its utmost to eliminate Afro-Colombians and their culture." See the entire article by Nikolas Kozloff by clicking the link below. Letting Down Afro-Colombians Scottboro Boys: No crime in American history-- let alone a crime that never occurred-- produced as many trials, convictions, reversals, and retrials as did an alleged gang rape of two white girls by nine black teenagers on a Southern Railroad freight run on March 25, 1931.  Over the course of the two decades that followed, the struggle for justice of the "Scottsboro Boys," as the black teens were called, made celebrities out of anonymities, launched and ended careers, wasted lives, produced heroes, opened southern juries to blacks, exacerbated sectional strife, and divided America's political left. More on "Scottboro Boys"