Urgent Action: Campesinos, Indigenous and Afro-Colombian Mobilizations Attacked by State Repression

18.05.06

From “La María” Guambiano Indigenous Reservation, Department of Cauca, Colombia
International Peace Observatory (IPO)

Since Monday, May 15th, when national mobilizations were launched against the Free Trade Agreement and the current administration´s repressive policies, the state intensified its agression against campesino, indigenous and Afro-Colombian mobilizations in the southwestern departments of Cauca and Nariño. More than 18,000 protestors, who shut down a stretch of the Panamerican Highway, have been attacked with bullets and tear gas by ESMAD (Mobile Anti-Riot Police) and the national army. National and departamental government spokespeople have insinuated that these civilian mobilizations have been convened by the guerrilla, converting the protestors into military targets. At least 5 people have been killed by the police.

From the “La María” Guambiano Indigenous Reservation, located 45 minutes from Popayán, we have received the following information from an IPO volunteer, who is among the civilian population and the indigenous people around the village of La María, who have been displaced by the police who entered the town:

1.Tuesday, May 16th, the protestors began a peaceful occupation of a part of the Panamerican Highway between Popayán (in the department of Cauca) and Cali (department of Valle del Cauca) in southwestern Colombia. State repression was immediate, without the least demonstration of interest in dialogue.

2.Wednesday, May 17th, one lane of the Panamerican Highway was voluntarily liberated, but the attacks against the protestors continued.
At 3pm, a commission from the Ministry of Interior was supposedly going to arrive at La María to negotiate with the protestors. Instead those who arrived were the ESMAD, the police and the army, attacking the population with batons and tear gas, accompanied by helicopters that launched tear gas from air.
There is talk of two indigenous women and children dead, as well as the indigenous guard PEDRO COSCUÉ, murdered with two bullets in the head and one in the chest, on May 16th, as the mass press reported too late. There is proof that the ESMAD and police burned the clinic and communications center of La María.

3.At least five civilians have been forcibly dissappeared, 52 detained and hundreds injured from gunshots and rubber bullets. The protestors had held 2 ESMAD who had infiltrated the protest as agent provacatuers.

4.Today, May 18th, the protestors are in and around the village, surrounded by the 29th Brigade of the National Army and ESMAD. The people say the mobilization will continue until the government sits down to negotiate. At 3:30pm, as the representative from the Human Rights Ombudsman´s Office met with the protestors in La María, the army and ESMAD began to attack the civil population just outside La María, in the community of El Pital.

We ask for solidarity with the civilian movilization and we reject the slander that has been launched against the protestors and the use of force on them. We condemn the murders and forced disappearances, a tactic used by the Colombian state to decimate social organization in the entire country.

We are concerned for the security of the civilian population of La María and other parts of Cauca and Nariño, and especially for the personal safety of our volunteer in the area.

We ask you to contact embassies and international missions in Colombia, as well as their respective governments to demand respect for the movilization and a cease to the aggression against the people. Please pass any information you receive from the authorities on to us at the office of IPO.

President of the Republic
Álvaro Uribe Vélez
auribe@presidencia.gov.co
Fax: (+57 1) 566 2071

Vice-President of the Republic
Francisco Santos
fsantos@presidencia.gov.co

Internal Affairs Agency (Procuraduría)
Edgardo José Maya Villazón
reygon@procuraduria.gov.co
Fax: (+57 1) 342 9723

Human Rights Ombudsman´s Office (Defensoría)
Dr. Volmar Antonio Pérez Ortiz, Director
Fax: (+57-1) 640 04 91

Italian Embassy, Bogotá
(+57 1) 218 7206

Spanish Embassy, Bogotá
(+57 1) 635 0218

United States Embassy, Bogotá
(+57 1) 315 0811

Sincerely,

IPO Colombia.

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