Let Truth and people's agrarian reform be the answer to the government.
Let Truth and people's agrarian reform be the answer to the government
Indigenous people injured in Caloto and Paletará by anti-riot squadrons
25 people injured in El Japio and 12 injured in Pisochago.
Natives still resist in the occupied lands.
Guambianos, Kokonuko y Nasa indigenes, as well as thousands of
peasants that are demanding land, have occupied haciendas (a hacienda is
a huge piece of rural property) in several parts of Cauca since the 12th of
October.
They are protesting because the INCODER (Colombian Institute for Rural
Development) is not given funds or legal power to achieve
rural reform,
neither in Cauca nor in the rest of the country.
Indigenous people have occupied the Miraflores farm in Corinto, two
pieces of land in Gabriel López (municipality of Totoró);
Los Remedios
in Silvia; El
Japio, where seven indigenous people were injured when the
ESMAD (mobile anti-riot squad) attacked them on 19 of October; the farms
Fátima, Santa Teresa, San Ignacio and La Selva in the town of Popayán;
Pisochago, Achaquío, El Acuario
and Los Rincones in the town of Puracé, and the farm Ambaló
where
13 Guambianos were wounded by the police.
During the eviction of Miraflores, troups wounded Belisario Tombé, who was hit
by a bullet in the arm, and Isaías Vallejo ; riot cops wounded three indigenous
people from Kisgó
in Los Remedios as well.
The peasants that had occupied Miraflores reached a compromise with the
governor of Cauca, but the latter declared that "one doesn't negotiate with
indigenous people" and was promoting a demonstration against the Guambianos
on the 18th of October, this demonstration was attended by 5 land owners
and 500 inhabitants of the town.
The minister of agriculture, Andrés Felipe Arias, the main person responsible
for the immobility of the state with regard to the agrarian reform, declared
that the government was not going to negotiate either.
On the 19th of October, the police made a coordinated attack against the Nasa
people in El Japio, wounding 25 of them, and against the Coconucos, 12 of
whom where wounded.
Even by using tear gas and force, the authorities failed to evict the natives.
