Colombian Coca Growers Protest the Forced Eradication of Their Crops

March 10, 2008
Please Distribute Widely

Dear Colleague:

In the last week days, thousands of coca growers that had been
occupying town centers in northern Colombia to protest the forced
eradication of their crops have begun returning to their villages
after three weeks of negotiations with local authorities. Their
occupation of four large towns showed that Colombia's much-demonized
producers of the raw material for cocaine are willing to move to
alternative, legal crops – if the government will treat them as
partners rather than enemies. It also brought to the surface, once
again, the suspicious, uncaring and hateful attitudes so many
officials hold toward the country's rural population, a political and
cultural divide that has kept a civil war going here for half a century.

Read the full story, here:

http://www.narconew s.com

And don't miss all the articles from the last week in Narco News.

Journalist Okke Ornstein reports on another aspect of the tensions
between Colombia and its neighbors after the bombing of a guerrilla
camp in Ecuador.

Ornstein writes:

"In 2001, I wrote on these pages that the Darién jungle province
separating Panama from Colombia was a ticking time bomb. Over the
years, however, I started to wonder if I had been wrong on that. All
seemed quiet on Panama's eastern front. But today, the time bomb can
be heard ticking again and may be ready to go off."

Nancy Davies files another commentary from Oaxaca, this time looking
at the case of Eufrosina Cruz, a woman barred from political office
due to her gender, using a very controversial interpretation of
traditional indigenous law:

"Nothing in indigenous usage prohibits governance by a woman; many
towns such as Tlalixtac de Cabrera (about twenty minutes by bus from
Oaxaca City, and roughly twice the size of Santa Maria Quiegolani)
have elected a woman to fill the position. In Tlalixtac, the woman
mayor chosen last week is highly respected for her community services.
Now retired with a pension, she can afford to give her time and energy
to her town. So electing a woman depends on each autonomous town's own
decisions. At present, of the 412 municipalities governed by
traditional indigenous laws known as usos y costumbres, at least 80
impede participation by women. But it's not clear how many of these do
so because of machismo, or because of caciquismo – the power of local
political bosses.

"Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza, who just turned 28, is a university graduate
in accounting, and director of a technical school for indigenous
students. She left her remote hometown of Santa María Quiegolani to
pursue her education and a career. She returned to run for the mayor's
office, supported by a group of women – how many, I don't know, but it
seems from what I read that Eufrosina is leading a true indigenous
women's movement.

"In an assembly held November 4, 2007 under the system of usos y
costumbres, her name was placed on the "ballot" because the outgoing
mayor, Saúl Cruz Vázquez, was sure that in an election in which women
were not allowed to vote, the accountant could not defeat the man whom
Cruz Vazquez had personally selected, Eloy Mendoza Martínez. Neither
Eufrosina or other women were permitted to participate in the
assembly. The big surprise came when the vote tally began to run in
her favor. At that moment, Cruz Vázquez decided to annul the election.
The reason he gave: No women allowed."

Read these stories and more, only in The Narco News Bulletin.

http://www.narconew s.com

From somewhere in a country called América,

Dan Feder
Editor-in-Chief
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews. com

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