Declaration of support for the “Minga for the defense of life, territory, democracy, justice and peace” of Southwestern Colombia
He prepared this statement:
Institute of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (IEALC, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina)
The undersigned member centers of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) support the indigenous, peasant and Afro-Colombian peoples of southwestern Colombia who settled on the Pan-American Highway for twenty-seven days to demand respect for life and their territories.
Since the signing of the peace accords between the Colombian state and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army (FARC-EP), at least 482 social leaders have been murdered, according to data from the Institute for Development and Peace Studies. The main victims are peasant, environmental, and community leaders, followed by Indigenous leaders.
Several of these crimes are linked to conflicts over land and territory and to the defense of autonomy and self-governance by Indigenous communities, elements enshrined in the 1991 National Constitution and subsequent legislation. Mobilized Indigenous, peasant, and Afro-Colombian communities maintain that these conflicts have been exacerbated by the agribusiness model and large-scale mining, processes that violate the right to prior consultation and threaten ecological and social integrity.
The “Minga for the defense of life, territory, democracy, justice, and peace,” which began on March 12, has left nine Indigenous people and one police officer dead, and 88 protesters injured. This toll is compounded by the attack on the headquarters of the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca in Popayán and death threats against the movement's leaders from paramilitary organizations such as the Black Eagles.
From the outset of this Minga, the organizing groups affirmed the need for a political debate with President Iván Duque, something that had occurred on previous occasions with former presidents Juan Manuel Santos (2012) and Álvaro Uribe (2008). On April 9, President Iván Duque traveled to the ancestral territory of Sat Tama Kiwe, the San Lorenzo de Caldono Indigenous Reserve in the department of Cauca, with the aim of meeting with the Minga. However, citing security reasons, the president refused to speak with the more than 13 people who were waiting in the main square.
Finally, we welcome the preliminary agreements signed between the Government and the mobilized organizations on April 5, and we hope that the failed meeting between President Iván Duque and the mobilized social sectors will not jeopardize progress in the effective implementation of these agreements.
The following member centers are affiliated:
– Popular Training Institute.
– Institute of Bioethics – Javeriana University
– Center for Advanced Studies in Childhood and Youth – CINDE/University of Manizales
– Institute of Political Studies – Autonomous University of Bucaramanga
– Kavilando Research and Publishing Group
– Just an Opinion
– Graduate School – Latin American Autonomous University
– Ibero-American Network for Research on Imaginaries and Representations (RIIR).
– Center for Socio-Legal Research – Faculty of Law – Latin American Autonomous University
– Ibero-American Network of Pedagogy
– District Network of Teacher Researchers
– Institute of Political Studies – University of Antioquia
– Department of Social Sciences – National Pedagogical University
– Fray Dominique Pire OP Center for Research and Studies in Social Sciences – Santo Tomás University
– School of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities – National Open and Distance University.
– Department of Political Science – National University of Colombia, Bogotá Campus
April 2019
Institute of Latin American and Caribbean Studies
(IEALC)
This statement expresses the position of the signatory member centers and not necessarily that of the other centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.
