Until theSunnolongershinesby Ancizar Gutierrez

A LETTER FROM THE EMBERA—CHAMI TO THEIR SISTER COMMUNITY, THEKANSAS CITY CHAPTER OF THE COLOMBIA SUPPORT NETWORK

The process of the Plan of Life of the Embera-Chami peopleof the Putumayo in Colombia springs from the feelings andthe thoughts of the community of the municipality of LaHormiga in southern Colombia, very near the frontier withthe neighboring country of Ecuador. It arises from thenecessity of the three settlements of the Embera-Chamipeople, since the Colombian state has placed us in a processwhich would deny us our lands and deliver them to otherswho are not even acquainted with them nor are owners ofthe riches which exist in them.

The ideology and thought of our elders is that we shouldnot let them remove an arm or our mother because theland is our means of remembrance of our ancestors whohave left these lands to us. Therefore we will be resistant and we will continue to struggle until “jirufota wuar “which means that the possession of these lands is the verylaw of origin of our Embera people.

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Campesinos in Putumayo go about their daily lives along the Guamuez River. This region has seen horrendoushuman rights abuses and land confiscation on an unparalleled scale. Is it too much to ask for a simple existence?

The fumigation process affects not onlythe coca, but we the human beings wholive in this country. When confrontationsoccur, many peasants abandon theirlands, but we the indigenous

communities remain and resist allof the conflicts. The reservationsof Argelia, Italia and the CabildoLas Palmeras are also affected bythe conflicts, and this year beganvery differently from last yearbecause they have fumigated ourfood crops, such as plantains,corn, cassava,rice, chiro, etc.These are our daily subsistencefoods. We do not understandwhat the government isproposing to do, but one thing is

very clear for us: we will not abandon ourterritory come what may. We are ready togive our lives for our land and we willkeep resisting until the sun no longershines. We want this to be publicizednationally and internationally, becausethis is not just a cultural attachment tothe land, as the Colombian governmentwrongly thinks, but our right and ourinheritance.

If we had cameras we would send youphotographs, but we are sorry we do not

have them. However, this is not importantbecause you are monitoring everythingwhich happens in our country.

In advance we wish to thank you.

ANCIZAR GUTIERREZ

MARCH 25 Email from Ancizar

On March 25 CSN received thefollowing email update from Ancizar: As aconsequence of the fumigation, we theEmbera communities are suffering anepidemic of fever and the loss of our foodcrops. Our children are those who aremost affected by this. Our animals sufferfrom the fumigation and our crops havebeen lost. These events plus the armedconfrontations nearby are designed to getus to abandon our lands. But, thanks tothe guidance provided by our elders, weare resisting. At this moment we arebeginning to plant rice for subsistence,bur unfortunately we do not have a ricemill. We would be grateful if instead ofbuying glyphosate the US Governmentwould provide us with a rice mill.Ancizar Gutierrez This letter was written by AncizarGutierrez, one of the young leaders of the Embera-Chami who can read and write in Spanish and whotranslated from Embera to Spanish the message fromElder Emiliano Monogamia. The translation to Englishhas been made by John Laun.

Action On Colombia is the officialnewsletter of the Colombia SupoortNetwork, a national peace and justicenetwork of groups and individualsworking to promote respect for humanrights in Colombia and a just relation-ship between the United States andColombia through grassroots activisim.

CSN supports a nonviolent, negotiatedresolution to the conflict in Colombia.

CSN is the only current project ofWisconsin Interfaith Committee onLatin America

Colombia Support NetworkP.O Box 1505Madison, WI 53701-1505

email csn@igc.orgwww.colombiasupport.net

phone 608.257.8753fax 608.255.6621

Since 1977 we have been resisting in aseries of conflicts, but we have also beenfirm and confident in accord with ourlaws and Article 7 of the ColombianNational Constitution, where the state

recognizes the ethnic diversity of theindigenous people. Our thought is thatwe will leave tracks which can not beerased for our descendants, rememberingthe past and taking into account thepresent which we are leaving.

Elder Emiliano Monogamia hasprovided the following message: “Wewish you to help us and to provide usyour great support in opening broadvistas as we have been working hard inour culture to strengthen unity,development and autonomy. Through ourconversation with you we want you to seehow we are living marginalized by theColombian state. For the Colombian statewe have been dead for many years, andfor that reason we ask that you make thisknown in the United States. We want thetwo members of our community who arein the process of being trained as leadersto fight for us, which would be the onlyinheritance which would be left us. I asthe elder know that my life is runningout little by little and I would like to seethem prepared. Then I would go happilyto be with Karagabi, my father, Creator ofthe Heavens".

Until theSunno longer shines continued

They have fumigated our differentsubsistence food crops, among themplantains, corn, cassava, rice, andchiro. These are the crops whichsustain our daily life. We do notunderstand what the governmentproposes to do, but we wish to makeclear that we will not abandon ourland come what may.

Meeting between the Kansas City chapter representatives and leaders of the Embera Chamies in El Tigre.

by Jonne Long

I approached this delegation experiencewith a mixture of enthusiasm andtrepidation. Colombia can be a verydangerous place. Its people have beencaught up for over 40 years in brutalinternal conflict, perpetuated by complexlayers of political power struggles, andresulting in thousands of civilian deaths.Over 3 million Colombians, a majority ofthem women and children, have beeninternally displaced and are living indesperate circumstances.

I am as much dismayed and, yes,frightened, by the heavy toll drug use istaking in the US as anyone else—maybemore so. One of my volunteer activities isvisiting men in the US Penitentiary atLeavenworth KS. The vast majority of themen I see are there because of illegal drugdealing. I see how devastating the drug-based economy/culture is to them, theirfamilies, and their neighborhoods.

So why wouldn’t I be a gung-hosupporter of the U.S. government’s Plan

Colombia “war on drugs”? Why did I eventhink about chancing a trip to Putumayo,one of the hotbeds of coca production inColombia? After all, there is no shortageof peace and justice issues to tackle herein the U.S.

Information about this particularstruggle was placed squarely before mewhen I was study leader for my localchurch Christian Women’s Fellowshipgroup a few years ago and the study topicwas Colombia. I learned of the sufferingof millions of poor, politically voicelessColombians—predominately women andchildren. I was moved by their plight andupset when I learned that much of thissuffering was being aided and abetted byUS government support for the conflict.My tax dollars were being used to helpoppress the citizens of another countryunder the guise of a “war on drugs.”

Seeking others who felt the same, Ifound Kansas City’s Colombia SupportNetwork group, and began attending theirmeetings. They were making plans to

become a full-fledged CSN chapter bytaking the giant step of traveling toColombia and being matched with a sistercommunity there.

The US has provided billions inmilitary aid to Colombia (well over $5billion since 2000) to support PlanColombia’s brutal measures that disregardhuman rights and dismiss humansuffering. Reports indicate the amount ofcoca being grown in Colombia has notdecreased after several years of PlanColombia. It is clear the current programof fumigation and attempted militaryenforcement is simply not meeting thegoal of thwarting the source. It is,however, succeeding in increasing theprofits of Monsanto (who supplies thedeadly chemicals used for fumigation)and the US contractors who supplyairplanes, helicopters, military weapons,ammunition, and personnel (pilots andmilitary trainers). Millions of poorColombians continue to suffer because ofthis misguided initiative. I simply had todo something besides just read about it.

Our point of entry into Putumayo wasthe tiny airport at Puerto Asis, near theEquator. Although I was preparedmentally for the heat and less thancomfortable traveling conditions wewould experience in Putumayo, I was notquite prepared for the oppressive militarypresence we found there. We were notpermitted to leave the small, unfurnishedterminal until we had individually passedbefore a soldier who recorded our passportinformation and asked the reason for ourpresence there. Townspeople were peeringin at us through the barred door andwindows.

I soon came to learn that the Bishop ofthe Diocese of Putumayo, behind thescenes, was playing a critical role in seeingto the logistical and safety considerations

December2007ColombiaDelegation

PersonalReflections

page 3

The unpaved road to El Tigre built next to an oil pipeline.

of our visit. The priest of El Tigre Parish,where our visit was to take place, hadbeen shot four days prior to our arrivalwhile traveling the road we had plannedto use to reach the Embera-Chamicommunities. This event caused a hastyrearrangement of our schedule andmeeting plans. The Bishop hadimmediately dispatched a churchadministrator from his own office, DeaconJulio, to El Tigre to take things in hand,both for the members of the parish andfor our visit. It was determined that ourdelegation would NOT travel all the wayto the Embera-Chami communities, butwould stay in the church dormitory in ElTigre instead. The Embera-Chami wouldtravel to El Tigre to meet with us, whichrequired last-minute transportation andsleeping arrangements for over 60 people.Julio handled it all with grace and goodhumor, and the Bishop visited in personon our first meeting day to greet and prayfor our assembled group.

The journey from Puerto Asis to ElTigre involved nearly 3 hours of roughdusty hilly winding pipeline roads with 12of us (four KC-CSN delegates, our CSNguide Cecilia, Fr. Campo Elias—our local

host, Ishmael—a young man representingthe Embera who came to Puerto Asis togreet us, Julio, two drivers, and a coupleof others) squeezed into a small Toyotaking-cab type pickup fitted with canopyand bench seats in the bed. Our luggagewas piled precariously on top, firstcollecting dust, and later soakedas we drove through arainstorm. But the experienceriding in the little pickupprovided transition/adjustmenttime for what was to come.

The two bare-chestedEmbera-Chami “alguaciles”(peacekeepers) in traditionalface paint and headdresses whomet us with decorated crossedwooden spears in El Tigre were more thanjust a welcome sight after our rough trip.In two short days, they became ourbrothers. Their faces were stern andunemotional while on duty—they andseveral other alguaciles took turnsguarding us day and night while we werein El Tigre. Inside, we were welcomedwith hand/arm shakes, embraces andcheek kisses from their wives andchildren.

The Embera are short ofstature and slight of build, butlarge in heart, principle,determination, and vision.Somehow the barriers of ourdifferent languages, cultures,traditions, environments, andlife experiences were overcomewith determination to forge afriendship built on commonground.

Three languages were inplay: the traditional Emberalanguage, Spanish, and English.The majority of Embera arebilingual (traditional andSpanish), but a few speak onlytheir traditional language. Mostof the older people are illiterate,however several of the young

men are able to read and write at somelevel. Among the rest of us, a few speak

only Spanish, a few are to some degreebilingual in Spanish and English, and Ialone speak only English. Sometimesduring the formal meetings, twotranslations were required: traditional toSpanish to English, or English to Spanishto traditional. Although it was exciting to

witness this wonderful cultural mix, thetranslation requirements also slowed thecommunication process considerably sothat presentations and conversation tooktwice as long. I was personally completelydependent on others to give Englishmeaning to the proceedings, and I wasconstantly grateful to Cecilia and Maria,who were my language lifelines.

Highlights:

•Making direct contact with indigenouspeople facing great survival challenges,yet committed to preserving theirnonviolent heritage and using it as thefoundation for building their future.

•Observing the young Embera mentaking seriously leadership roles inshaping and presenting the componentsof the history and vision of eachcommunity, and deferring respectfully tothe elders during the process.

•Feeling honored that so many of theEmbera people would expend greateffort to come to El Tigre for two days toreach out to us, to protect us, to performtheir cultural music and dance for us,and to invite us into their future.

Concerns:

•Seeing the real live impact of the US andColombian “war on drugs” on the livesof human beings, for example, seeing

page 4

Bob Thatch and Jonne Long from Kansas City withLuis, an Embera leader.

Profound sadness that humanbeings can be so brutal, so callous,so unconcerned about the lives andrights of fellow human beings.Feeling personally and collectivelyimplicated in cause of the pain andsuffering and guilty for not doingmore to “fix it.”

the effects of malnutrition among theEmbera, especially children and nursingmothers, because their legitimate foodcrops have been destroyed by the cocafumigation program.

•Being given deferential treatment formeals and accommodations—notknowing how to insist on eating withthe Embera instead of being servedseparately. Not being able to expressthoughts and emotions directly inlanguage the Embera could understand.

•Meeting face to face with a group ofinternally displaced people near Mocoaand hearing their personal accounts oflosing family members to violence,fleeing for their lives, and being forcedto live on the edge with no help fromthe government—giving flesh and bloodand raw emotion to the stories I haveread about. Not knowing how to help.

•Profound sadness that human beingscan be so brutal, so callous, sounconcerned about the lives and rightsof fellow human beings. Feelingpersonally and collectively implicated incause of the pain and suffering andguilty for not doing more to “fix it.”

Reasons for Hope:

•Many selfless Colombians do care aboutthe marginalized and voiceless amongthem and are working tirelessly to resistfear, organize for human rights, identifybodies found in mass graves, and bringto justice perpetrators of brutal crimes.

•A viable opposition political party isgrowing in strength in Colombia.

•The Diocese of Putumayo is caring forand supporting the indigenous and

marginalized people in Putumayothrough its Office of Pastoral Social andthe Youth Group in El Tigre Parish.

•Colombia Support Network is providinga reasoned, methodical, and effectiveframework for addressing the systemicproblems that marginalize millions ofpeople in Colombia.

Kansas City Chapter DelegationColombia Support NetworkPutumayo, Colombia, South America

Delegation members Bob Thatch, DaveDavis, Maria Pelto, Jonne Long, and AnnSuellentrop are available to report anddiscuss their findings

Itinerary Dec. 2 – 11, 2007: Bogota,Puerto Asis, El Tigre, and Mocoa

The delegation visited an indigenousEmbera-Chamies community in the ElTigre area for the purpose of establishing a

working sister communityrelationship based on mutualrespect and avoiding a patronizingor charitable stance. A keycharacteristic of this community istheir nonviolent resistance incontrast to the guerrillamovements, which have chosen toengage in violent resistance. Inspite of the area’s 42-year history

page 5

CSN guests enjoying a traditional Embera dance.

Main Street, El Tigre

of bloody and brutal conflict, theEmbera-Chamies have had the courageto organize themselves around principlesof nonviolence.

CSN seeks to give political support tolocal Colombian community politicalprocesses pursuing the same goals: anegotiated solution to the conflict andstrengthening civilian society. This workcontrasts with efforts by others tostrengthen armed groups (the USgovernment supports the army andsupplies mainly military equipment thusincreasing the conflict.)

The Diocese of Putumayo, through itsPastoral Social office, and the parish ofEl Tigre served as local hosts during thefirst half of the trip. The second half wasbased in a Bogota hotel. In Bogota wemet with the Ministry of the Interior/Justice, the Ministry of Defense (ViceMinister for Human Rights), the Ameri-can Embassy, and several local NGOs.

Colombian Host: Father Campo EliasDe La Cruz, Roman Catholic priest

Planner, Tour Leader & Translator:Cecilia Zarate-Laun, National ProgramDirector, Colombia Support Network

To arrange a presentation, contact Bob Thatch, 816-333-2322 (day)

or 816-333-3855 (evening)or Jonne Long 816-741-9293

Colombia’sFlowerIndustry

page 6

by Jonne Long

On December 8, 2008 we met in Bogota with Aura ElizabethRodrigues, the Executive Director of CACTUS Cooperative, anNGO, which advocates for the rights and welfare of flowerindustry workers. We learned there are 111,000 flower industryworkers, 65% of whom are women. Only 3% of these workersare unionized. Eighty percent of Colombian flower exports go tothe United States. February 14 is the biggest day of the year forthis industry.

Flower production in Colombia has brought a number ofproblems. The flowers use large volumes of water, with aresultant reduction of Bogota – area acquifers. Flower workerssuffer from large amounts of chemicals inside the green houses,and many of them are not provided proper protective gear. Nordo the owners follow the law requiring a 24-hour wait afterapplying the chemicals before workers may return to the greenhouses where the flowers are grown. And when workers sufferfrom repetitive movements, such as cutting flowers or pullingweeds all day long, growers refuse to recognize these as work-related conditions. Workers who miss work to seek medical helprun the risk of being fired.

The flower companies pay the workers less than theminimum wage, $250 dollars per month with women receivingeven less, only about $150 dollars per month. Workers are oftenasked to work long hours without extra pay for overtime,receiving instead just compensatory time off in slack times. Anincreasing number of intermediary contractors are being used,with shorter contracts (one to three months) and more workersbeing hired as temporary workers year-round. Companies alsobring in inexperienced applicants as “trainees” and then firethem after a few weeks for allegedly not meeting the jobrequirements—-allowing the companies to obtain free labor.Pregnant women are not supposed to work in the greenhousesbecause of the exposure to toxic chemicals, but the flowercompany owners just have the women say they are not pregnantand hire them anyway—-in fact nine companies have even beenreported to have demanded that women workers have theirtubes tied!

Worker’s cooperatives such as Cactus are a relatively new wayof advocating for women’s rights. Cactus has 8,000 members.While co-ops were formed to produce and sell to flowercompanies, now company owners have stopped providingbenefits and rely on the co-ops to provide benefits. Somecompanies have even formed non-profit cooperatives, which theycontrol and which can pay minimum wages and are exemptfrom income tax.

Colombia’s flower industry does not provide the welfare for

workers it claims to. It is not an example of the success of “FreeTrade”. Since women working in the flower industry areresponsible for both production and taking care of children, ageneration of children is growing up without adequate parentalcare and women are denied the opportunity to participate incommunity life. Cactus is seeking to change this by celebrating“International Flower Workers’ Day” each February 14, makingpeople all over the world aware of the Colombian flowerindustry’s exploitation of women and helping workers toorganize and to work effectively for protective laws and practicesin the Colombian flower industry. Cactus does not suggestboycotting Colombian flowers, but rather encourages consumersto make their flower purchases responsible acts by demandingthat producers give their workers decent working conditions.

CSN proposes to organize support for Cactus’ “InternationalFlower Workers’ Day” for February 14, 2009.

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Empty chairs stretching more than 70 blocks along Bogota's Carrera Septima, inremembrance of victims of paramilitary violence

The Colombia Support Network

Action on Colombia

Editor

Cecilia Zarate-Laun

Contributors

Ancizar Gutierrez

Jonne Long

Bob Thatch

Marta Lucia Torres (Email from Tiquisio)

Our amazing volunteers

Stephanie DiBello

Amy Pekol

Matt Weill

Katrina

Design

Randy Clark

By Bob Thatch

The Kansas City delegation visited acommunity of displaced persons on theoutskirts of Mocoa, the capital of Putumayo.The residents brought out red plastic patiochairs, and we sat in a circle to listen to theirstories.

It was pretty grim. They fled their homesbecause of either violence or the fumigationof their crops. They have no money and fewopportunities for employment. In many cases,they reported that a husband or brother hadbeen killed, and the survivors were told thatthey would also be killed if they remainedliving in their former homes.

The “typical” displaced family is a womanwith children. In the Mocoa displacedcommunity there are 91 families—a total of600 displaced persons—who have settled in avalley just down a short, steep gravel roadfrom the main highway into town. They livedthere under makeshift tents made of plasticsheets for a while, but now have rough,unpainted shacks for houses.

We promised them we would relay theirstories, and I trust they will forgivemisspelled names. The President of theAssociation was a man named Nave Nario,

who said “We know the U.S. invests a lot inthe war here, but they do not spend moneyon productive projects, only on fumigation.We are completely abandoned.”

Elivardo Charra said, “We are peasants.We did not want to participate with eitherthe FARC or the paramilitaries. We werethreatened by both to either join them orleave. There is more security here, but fromMocoa on down [to lower Putumayo] there isno security.” He added, “most of us have beenhere five years, on someone else’s land.”

Jose Luis Muñon said he had beendisplaced by violence and threats fromparamilitaries. He said, “Where I lived thepolice and paramilitaries work together, andthe military does not stop them. I have beenhere four years. My brother was killed by theparamilitaries, but I am afraid to report it. If Iwould denounce them in court, in one or twodays I would be dead.”

An older man said “I heard you weretalking about fumigation. It’s fine if theywant to fumigate coca, but they fumigateeverything, even grazing areas for cattle. Ourfood was fumigated—we have pictures toprove it! I would have brought the pictures ifI had known.”

Hilda Lopez said her son had been killed,and Berta Castillo, from nearby Villa Garzón,

said two of her sons werekilled. She apologized asshe started to cry, andsaid she could not sayany more.

Floromundo Cartuciosaid he had lived in atown called Arizona, inthe Municipality ofPuerto Caicedo. Theguerillas came to hishouse and said theywanted his sons to jointhem, so the next day hisfamily fled the area.

Umberto Bravo said his family was in anarea that saw violence from the FARC, theparamilitaries and the Colombian Army. Theymanaged to go back and forth for a while,but then their land was fumigated, and theyhad to leave.

As our session ended, we came backaround to the President of the Association, whoadded, “There is a lot of money being spent onfumigation. It would be better to spend themoney teaching persons not to use drugs.”

We went back to Mocoa, where we spokewith a woman named Mireya, the Secretaryof the Pastoral Social Office of the diocese.We learned that they supply some support forthe displaced community, but they are beingoverwhelmed by the number of personsneeding help, since there are many thousandsof displaced persons in Putumayo, and a totalof around four million in Colombia. Thegovernment passed some laws designed toprovide assistance for them, but no oneenforces those provisions.

page 7

TheRealityofbeingdisplaced inColombia

Shacks of displaced persons in the south of Bogota

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