Delegation update #3
Reply-To: Avi Chomsky
Date: Aug 15, 2006 11:01 AM
I hope some of my fellow delegates will help with this, but I wanted to give you all a brief overview of our trip to the Guajira.
Our time there was divided between the city of Riohacha, on the coast, and the area surrounding the Cerrejon mine, in the interior. Way back in 2002 Remedios Fajardo told us about the indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities in the path of destruction by the mine. Tabaco had already been razed in 2001; now Tamaquito, Roche, Chancleta, and Patilla were being slowly ground down into destruction. We visited and met with people from all of these communities, and also had an amazing meeting with Cerrejon officials.
Basically there are four parts of the trip I'll describe: visits to and meetings with residents of Tamaquito, Roche, Chancleta, and Patilla; overnight with the displaced community of Tabaco in resistance; tour and meeting at Cerrejon; and Mining the Connections conference.
COMMUNITY VISITS: We could not visit Tamaquito, because the land around the small settlement has been taken over by the mine and the road practically destroyed. "It's like we're on an island" residents told us. They came down to Chancleta to join us for a large community meeting there. There isn't a single vehicle in Tamaquito--when someone becomes sick, they have to carry them down to the town in a hammock. They have to carry their water in themselves, walking, from Chancleta. There are 30 families, about 80 people, remaining in Tamaquito.
Chancleta is perched just on the edge of the mine--we could see the gaping pit just beyond the houses there. All of these communities seem to be clinging, almost miraculously, to the hot, dry, dusty land that's basically been rendered uninhabitable by the mine. There is no water anywhere, and the Rancheria River that formerly served as a source has been so contaminated that it can't be used at all. Land that was formerly used for farming, hunting, and gathering has been taken over by the mine, and/or rendered barren by the contamination and lack of water. People described almost constant intimidation and harrassment by mine security forces. Soldiers from the national army circled our meeting and made themselves at home in the houses around us.
"We have been ancestrally mistreated, humiliated in all ways, intellectually, morally, physically, by the company and by the local and national governments" a community leader from Roche told us. The communities are asking for 1) collective negotiations with the company; 2) relocation; and 3) reparations. The company has tried to divide the communities by insisting on only individual negotiations--offering to buy houses and land from individual owners. What the company has refused to recognize is that the communities in the mining area, whether Afro-Colombian or indigenous, are coherent, collective entities that have developed a communal life over the course of many centuries. The indigenous communities date their collective existence to before 1492; the Afro-Colombian communities' oral histories explain that they were founded in the 18th century by slaves who rebelled against the traders who had enslaved them and freed themselves before reaching land. They landed on the Guajira as free people and founded the communities that are now being destroyed.
The dust in these communities bordering the mine is unimaginable. It permeates your eyes, your skin, your lungs. The children, especially, seem to be constantly coughing.
OVERNIGHT WITH THE DISPLACED COMMUNITY OF TABACO IN RESISTANCE: About 100 families from the former village of Tabaco are still organized and fighting the company for collective relocation. Most of them live in the town of Albania--which is also severely contaminated by the mining operation--with relatives or in inadequate quarters. Jose Julio Perez, who many of you met during his tour of the U.S. last spring, is their elected representative.
"Tabaco in Resistance" invited us to spend the night at a finca (farm) called El Reposo, in La Cruz, that they've identified as the site they would like to be relocated to. The finca belonged to a wealthy landowner, who used it as a sort of resort/party area, so there are some structures built there, fruit trees, and plenty of land for farming and cattle. It's outside of the direct area affected by the mine, and the contrast is startling. A rushing, clean fresh-water stream runs through it providing a constant source of water. It is lush and beautiful. Tabaco residents brought in hammocks for all of us, which they hung in the two thatch structures at night. They brought wood, drinking water, cooking pots, and food to make us dinner and breakfast.
The land now belongs to the owner's 45 children. (Apparently this is not so unusual in the Guajira.) The Tabaco community is hoping they can get them to agree to sell them the land, and they believe that the mining company, and the local government, should help them to buy it and reestablish their community there: "re-weave the social fabric" as several people put it.
MEETING WITH MINE OFFICIALS: This was the first time that the mining company had been confronted with a human rights delegation. We really got the royal treatment. They gathered 14 top mine officials including the head of Public Relations, the Medical Director, the head of Communications for Human Rights, Environment and Sustainable Development, the company lawyer, several company sociologists, social workers, and anthropologists, and many others. They talked to us at length about their wonderful practices in the areas of environment, human rights, and community relations, and also plied us with refreshments and lunch.
They most especially did NOT want to talk about local communities affected by the mine. When questioned, they brought out the company anthropologist, who gave us a long speech about how they have not been able to prove that these communities are truly Afro-Colombian and indigenous. Afro-Colombian communities, company anthropologist Juan Carlos Forero told us, have a special relationship to the land and to nature, and we (that is, the mine) don't think that these communities have truly proven that they have that special relationship.
One thing that came through very clearly in this 6-hour meeting was that the mining companies are very, very concerned about their reputations and about bad publicity. This reconfirmed for us that we CAN help to influence their behavior towards the communities by putting public pressure on them.
MINING THE CONNECTIONS CONFERENCE: The conference opened Tuesday night August 8 with the launching of Armando Perez Araujo's book, Codicia a Cielo Abierto, or "Open-Pit Greed," a testimonial novel about the impact of mining in the Guajira. It continued all day August 9. We organized two busses to bring in about 80 people from the communities. There was a strong international presence at the conference including of course our delegation, and Garry Leech from the Univerisity of Cape Breton in Nova Scotia, and Steve Striffler from the University of Arkansas, who were both also involved in organizing Jose Julio's tour. From Bogota, Francisco Ramirez from Sintraminercol and Alirio Uribe from the Jose Alvear Restrepo lawyers collective both spoke; as did union leaders from the Cerrejon mine and the Drummond mine; solidarity activists from the U.S. and Canada, and members and leaders from affected communities. It was an a wonderful opportunity for many of the different people connected to this issue to meet face to face, talk about issues and strategies, and make plans. The "Boston Group Working Plan" that I sent out a couple of days ago came out of these conversations; I'm confident that others inside and outside of Colombia also left the conference buzzing with ideas and hope.
The communities' demands are clear: collective negotiation, collective relocation, and reparations. They are counting on us to bring the international pressure necessary to make these things happen.
Fellow delegates, please correct me if I've missed something glaring or gotten something wrong here! More complete notes will be available eventually, or if you have specific questions, let me know.
Avi
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North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee
