The copper-coloured stream

What interests hide behind the recent indigenous demonstrations

With the recent popular strikes and demonstrations against the government, undoubtedly president Álvaro Uribe must have been in a black mood. Or at least in a copper-coloured mood, due to the irrepressible stream of indigenous’ demonstrations that cannot be addressed in the short term, unlike the protests of victims of huge scams (known as "pyramids"), or the strikes of cane harvesters and justice system’s workers. Perhaps were these native communities doing all this noise in behalf of guerrilla groups like FARC? Maybe were those people expecting only positive answers to their demands from a government weakened by scandals like the ‘false positives’ ones?

First, the indigenous communities are not simply a social movement assembled spontaneously in Facebook, but a people. The minga (civil resistance demonstration) that came out from Cauca department last 26 October is an expression of these communities that are certain about what they need in order to preserve their lifestyle: autonomy, protection for their culture, and land. What makes them angry the most is that every four years the president throws the responsibility of solving the problem to the next president, instead of providing a definitive solution. In contrast, the indigenous are well organized since 40 years ago and have a long term political vision.

For example, the indigenous are demanding rights. Sure, the Constitution of 1991 warranted several lovely ones but, besides allowing the natives Jesús Piñacué to be elected to the Senate and Lorenzo Muelas to become Governor of Cauca province, the indigenous peoples virtually have not seen those rights in their everyday life. Worse yet, when the UN adopted in 2007 the Declaration on Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, the only Latin-American country that didn’t vote for its adoption was… Colombia! Uribe’s government abstained because the article 30 stated "1. Military activities shall not take place in the lands or territories of indigenous peoples, unless justified by a relevant public interest or otherwise freely agreed with or requested by the indigenous peoples concerned. 2. States shall undertake effective consultations with the indigenous peoples concerned, through appropriate procedures and in particular through their representative institutions, prior to using their lands or territories for military activities." It is understandable for a government not to be pleased with the idea of territories off limits for its army, but in the other hand, because of this decision we missed the opportunity to endorse a set of political, territorial and cultural collective rights intended to protect our native citizens. This was a global embarrassment before 143 countries that did adopt the Declaration.

They are demanding lands because for the indigenous a territory is inherent to their culture, not only as source of food and protection but as a part of their identity. However, these lands are desired by all kind of dark forces, such as drug dealers and armed rebels interested in having a shelter for their crops, processing facilities and troops; besides, huge economic powers like sugar mills that push the government to keep those lands devoted to sugar cane farming. Previous governments agreed to give to the indigenous communities about 15,000 ha of lands in Cauca province but only two thirds of that have been delivered. Uribe promised to buy for the indigenous the remaining 33% no matter the huge prices of the land, but since he was unable to satisfy their other demands, the copper-coloured stream arrived to Cali, the third biggest city of the country and the most important of the south-western region.

In addition, the indigenous demands protection for their ancestral knowledge and their use of our biodiversity, which crashes against the interests of transnational corporations already used to patent any bug, plant or medicinal use they can found. Of course, those big companies hope Colombian government will defend their interests in the Free Trade Agreement being negotiated between Colombia and the United States. But according to Feliciano Valencia, one of the indigenous demonstration’s leaders, they indeed are not against the notion of FTA, they just ask to be consulted before to make agreements upon matters affecting them directly. The President was not able to provide a definitive solution in Cali and the now bigger stream composed by more than 12,000 indigenous arrived to Bogotá, country’s capital, by 21 November.

Given the evident importance of these demands it is too hard to believe that the only explanation for this minga is the manipulation or direct infiltration by guerrilla groups like FARC, as some government officials have suggested. On the contrary, the more likely explanation is that they are just tired of being ignored and now they are well organized around a plan to be such an annoyance for any government that claim to be unable to satisfy their requests. Since President Álvaro Uribe seems to be willing to run for office for a third consecutive time, the trick of throwing the problem to the next government is not an option: he will manage to solve it or will face a popular outrage never seen in this country.

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