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National and International
Solidarity Campaign with the Campesino Association of the Cimitarra
River Valley (ACVC) by Asociación Campesina del Valle del Río Cimitarra In the Middle Magdalena, the arrival of AUV (Álvaro Uribe Vélez) "coincided" with the consolidation of paramilitarism as a military, political and economic project. In the region, there exists a para-State and a para-Economy that complete a model of extractive development, a model that seeks to become legalized through an illegitimate process that negates truth, justice and reparation to the victims of that authoritarian proposal. Nevertheless, the resistance continues, in their territory, the campesinos continue wretched yet stubborn, restless, organized, with their plans and proposals, to stay alive, attached to the land, while the war is defined and a political solution to the conflict is cleared up. For the ACVC, this year represents a new challenge. On one side, to be able to sow the dreams that allow us to have more sugarcane, mills, cocoa, rice, buffalos, cattle, dignified housing, beans, corn, yucca, hens, goats, pigs, fish, chickens and less coca, to be able to live better. From the other side, to be able to continue as an organization despite all the pressure. The military operations, Sol de Oriente and Centella, in the past two years, instead of against the guerrilla organizations that operate in the region, and been fundamentally against our organization; furthermore, the indiscriminate fumigations don't end nor do the human rights violations committed by the Colombian state against leaders and grassroots members of the ACVC. To cite a few facts: - Using judicial set-ups, Álvaro Manzano, ex president of the ACVC and ex UP councilman, was jailed, having been previously illegally detained by the army for 15 days and submitted to psychological torture. - Gilberto Guerra and Andrés Gil, historic leaders of the ACVC have arrest warrants, accused of rebellion. - According to versions of the very same army, intelligence reports are being prepared that would permit the capture of 70 leaders and grassroots members of the ACVC. - AUV's government put a freeze on the judicial statute that constituted the Campesino Reserve Zone in the Cimitarra River Valley, breaking the accords signed during the campesino exodus of the Middle Magdalena in 1998. This statute impedes the execution of extractive projects recently agreed upon with Ashanti Anglo Gold Mines and with investors in the agroindustrial monoculture of Oil Palm in the Middle Magdalena. - The Colombian government not only does not honor the preventive measures recommended by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to protect the ACVC's members, but on the contrary carries out a permanent process of following, attacking, persecution and criminalization of its members. - The army's actions in the region are clearly against the civilian population, as was evidenced during the second humanitarian action in the Nordeste Antioqueño, and as is corroborated by the recent military operations Sol de Oriente III and Centella, accompanied by arbitrary detentions, use of paramilitaries and informants, torture and serious human rights violations towards the campesino. "We are the political wing of the campesino" Colonel Castillo, sent to the region by order of army commanders and an expert in "integral actions" has manifested that his objective is "to finish off the political wing of the FARC," referring to the ACVC. It happens to be that an organization of expropriated, poor and ragged campesinos, but with dignity and political, economic and social proposals, are the sworn enemy of the army and the "enemy within" of the Colombian state. Forcing civilians to "reinsert," illegally turning captured persons into "campesino soldiers," arbitrarily detaining a father of 8 children, forcing them to go hungry, and contracting guerrilla deserters and informants, they are preparing a new battery of intelligence reports against the ACVC. As people who know of the failings of the "integral-ness" of the actions of the Colombian state when it comes to repressing social organizations, we let it be known once again in the conscience and to humanity the only thing that we can let be known, a historic evidence: liberty, integrity and the life of the members of the ACVC are the prime responsibility of those that the State should guarantee instead of violating them and persecuting us. Activities of the campaign in solidarity with the ACVC We invite our friends, companions and colleagues in Colombia and abroad to carry out the following initiatives: - A reunion with the European Parliament and the European Commission to expose the violations and persecution against the ACVC. - International tours to denounce, accompany and search for political support in Canada, the United States, Europe and Latin America. - An audience with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the OAS. - Exposition and documentation of cases of assassinations, violations and persecutions agains the ACVC before the ILO, the World Organization Against Torture, the Human Rights Commission of the UN and the International Penal Court. - An international initiative headed by the FIAN and Vía Campesina to recuperate the Campesino Reserve Zone as a legitimate and legal territorial proposal of the organized campesinos of the ACVC. - An international solidarity conference in the Cimitarra River Valley. - A parliamentary audience on the human rights situation in the Campesino Reserve Zone of the Cimitarra River Valley. Solidarity is the affection between peoples, "So there may not be lands without men and men without lands" |