Indigenous Community in Colombia Fears Start of "Dirty War"

The political situation in numerous countries in Latin America has been heating up in recent weeks. Many predict that a large-scale revolt could take hold in the poorest nation on the continent, Bolivia, and bring down the government of the US-backed president Carlos Mesa. At the center of that struggle is the issue of control of the country's natural resources. Bolivia is more than 60 percent indigenous and the resistance to the government is fiercely opposed to privatization and neoliberal policies and trade agreements.

Meanwhile, a large indigenous community in Colombia is predicting that a so-called dirty war could break out in an area that has been at the forefront of non-violent resistance to the government of the pro-US regime of President Uribe. Currently, Colombia receives more military aid from the US than any other country in the hemisphere under the guise of fighting a so-called war on drugs.

The community is called Cauca and it represents one of the largest indigenous agrarian reform movements on the continent. Its leaders say their community serves as a powerful example of popular peaceful transformation in the midst of war. Last September, tens of thousands of people from the region marched on Cali in a mass protest against Uribe, sparking a broader national nonviolent opposition to his government. They are opposed to devastating free trade agreements with the US, as well as the massive military aid. They are also opposed to the FARC, who they call authoritarian.

The Cauca region is a key area near the Atlantic Ocean and has gold, oil and gas. This April, the FARC came into the Cauca community of Toribio and killed a child, injured 20 people and basically razed the community to the ground. That in turn provided cover for the government to send in its forces to "secure" the area; in other words occupy it. Now, the leaders of Toribio say they fear a dirty war is beginning that could produce further massacres. Some of the leaders of the community have traveled to the United States to try and avert what they fear could be a major outbreak of violence.

* Ezequiel Vitonas, former mayor of Toribio, Colombia. He is currently an Elder Councellor of the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca.
* Manuel Rozental, a surgeon and human rights activist from Toribio, Colombia who represents the community and its struggles internationally.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/20/1425246