borrador raizal determination

SELF-DETERMINATION& DEVELOPMENT

RAIZAL

SCHOOL

SAN ANDRES, OLD PROVIDENCE AND SANTA CATALINA

RAIZAL SELF-DETERMINATION & DEVELOPMENT SCHOOL BOOKLET

“Introductory training onRaizal people History and Rights to Self-determination &

Development”

Training sessions 2015Conducted by:

The Association of Baptist Churches of the Archipelago

of San Andres, Old Providence and Santa Catalina(in representation of the RAIZAL ALLIANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT)

President: Rev. Ricky Newball Grenard (2015)

THE RAIZAL HISTORY… AND SOVEREIGNTY

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President:Rev. Ricky Newball Grenard

Researchers:Jairo Rodriguez DavisOscar Ogiste Francis

Website:http://rsds.raizalalliance.org

Email:[email protected] Phone: (57-8)-513-2663

Address:Perry Hill, Harbour View # 7-335. San Andres Island, Colombia

Co-sponsored by:Departmental Government of the Archipelago of San Andres, Old Providence and Santa CatalinaGovernor Aury Guerrero Bowie 2012-2015

RAIZAL SELF-DETERMINATION & DEVELOPMENT SCHOOL

BASES OF THE SCHOOL

The Raizal Self-determination and Development School (RSDS) is an institution of informal education, actually guided by the Raizal Alliance for Development. It does researching, teaching, design and guided actions toward the implementation of the rights of self-determination and development for the indigenous Raizal People of the Caribbean Archipelago of San Andres, Old Providence and Santa Catalina

THE HIDDEN COLONY IN THE CARIBBEAN

1822 20151990 2000

193 Yea

rs

COLONIALISMOf

It is “said” that the Raizal People Freely” associated with the Gran Colombia

Raizal People still seeking Self-determination

The Archipelago of San Andres, Old Providence and Santa Catalina

The historical claims of the indigenous Raizal People to have self-determination on their ancestral territory have existed along with the everlasting colonialist policies of Colombia ruled over them.

Generation comes and goes, continue trying, reacting and protesting against the regime, but it still remains…, even some groups made great resistances. Others show an 'illusion' of betterment, when the reality confirms that genocide is in course: lands and territorial dispossession, displacement, unsustainable overpopulation, no self-government, etc.

1822 - 20XX: TRY AGAIN

SELF-DETERMINATION

THE HIDDEN COLONY IN THE CARIBBEAN


...Our campaigns follow thegambling addiction model.The last bet didn’t pay offbut the nest one might...if... if... if... if... if...

We are just doing te over and over again “same old thing” and fooling ourselves that it might work next time.

We are stuck in a where our are feedback loop fliluresinterpreted as signs that we should repeat our failed tactics but thetelltale sign tryharder. This is what it is to colonized is not that we’re falling, but that we’re fooling ourselves, and don’t see it as a feedback loop...

(Help i’ve been colonized and i can’t get up, Jane Anne Morris)

Nex Exit

DECOLONIZE

Self-determination and development are essentially collective human rights, and their implementation calls for the understanding (consciousness) and empowerment of the people as an all, not only of some. The behaviors of many people contribute to the system, even it might done unconsciously through lack of understanding.

“…The issue of whose minds are colonized is a delicate one. We all know people whose minds have been colonized. Who are they? They are other people — people out there. They are somebody else. Not us.It's time we did the unthinkable and asked ourselves if we have been colonized…” (Jane Anne Morris)

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The RSDS was then conceived to help in providing to the people a set of adequate knowledges along with the promotion of enduring actions that are to be done by themselves; actions that are coherent and not contradictory to the concept and essence of their rights. The RSDS is focused on first overcoming the mental colonization on the Raizals, which is considered to be hindering them from properly recognizing, understanding and implementing their inalienable rights of sovereignty, and their right to self-determination (both prerequisites for the implementation of the right to development).

It is needed: (1) a massive, in-depth teaching and practical exercise of those and other rights; (2) the promotion of a true democracy by a conscious Raizal People to overcome the illusions, lies and manipulations of the regime. Those are the bases for the creation of RSDS.

(… much of our pelple don’t know… butMental colonization, ignorance, corruption and colonialism are rampant in the islands; some don’t know, some don’t accept it, some are afraid of it, some prefer to be ruled by others, some are betraying their people for personal interest -$$, prestige & power-, lot of inferiority complex, some believe that they

are discriminating the immigrants –and not noticing that the reality is the contrary-, some don’t care,…, you see, Colombia has use more that 100 years under colonialism.

RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION

United Nation IHCHR, Geneva (SW), February, 2013

Do you knowthat yo (the Raizal People) have right to self-determination?

Yes i do( but )

DECOLONIZETHE HIDDEN COLONY IN THE CARIBBEAN



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HISTORY OF THE SCHOOL

The RSDS was envisioned in 2011, and evolved in its conception during the following years; its concept and vision were shared to seek economical, technical and moral support from many organizations and individuals in the Archipelago and outside, in order to carry it to a practical implementation; it faced much difficulties and slow materialization, until the decision to make greater sacrifices and sufficient investments were taken, then it happen! Distinguishably, some individuals and families, with strong faith, hope, love and determination, persisted and paid a high sacrificial price to bring it forth.

A place to operates the administrative and academic affairs that the RSDS was needing, found way at the Association of Baptist Churches of the Archipelago (ABC-A) headquarter and at the Christian University of San Andres and Old Providence islands (C.U.) campus (abandoned , at that time). The faith was materialized with hard-working, serious, constant and systematic actions (1) to recover and conserve the Christian University Campus, (2) to seek for funding, (3) to have an accurate curriculum and working tools for the establishment and operation of the RSDS, (4) to find ways to guarantee its applicability and sustainability. In 2015, with funding, material and professional support from organizations, churches, individuals, and a grant from the departmental government of the Archipelago, the RSDS formally started its first round of Training Sessions at the C.U. campus, in November 2015. The RSDS is a mobile school, and actually has a center of operation at the C.U. and at the ABC-A.

Christian University of San Andres and Old Providence

3INDIGENOUS RAIZAL PEOPLE SELF-DETERMINATION AND DEVELOPMENT SCHOOL

A TRIBUTE TO REV. DR. GEORGE M. MAY

Dr. George M. May, the founder and first president of the Christian University of San Andres and Old Providence, is a native of San Andres Island. In 1951, he was admitted in Wayland Baptist College. Dr. May had a vision of providing a university education to native islanders. Upon his retirement from South Park Baptist Church, Houston, Texas in 1992, George May returned to San Andres to work with the local people to establish the first institution of higher education for Afro-Caribbeans. The University was formed in 1999. In 2004, George May became ill and had to resign from his position as president of the Christian University.

MISSION

The RSDS seeks to support and help provide a practical guidance for the political and mental decolonization of the Indigenous Raizal People life and Territory, and so it retells their history, rejecting the single story of the colonizer, it teaches the true version of their establishment and ownership of the Archipelago, strengthen their Caribbean identity, shows the essence of their collective human rights as a People, and demonstrate the illegitimacy of the dispossession of their political right to self-determination and of their inalienable land rights

THE RAIZAL HISTORY… AND SOVEREIGNTY THE RAIZAL HISTORY… AND SOVEREIGNTY

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done by systematic and continual acts of colonialism, which it expose; and it complements its teaching with the promotion of actions toward the exercise of the rights to self-determination and development for the Raizal People.

VISION

The RSDS envisioned an Indigenous Raizal People freed from mental slavery and colonialism, empowered to restore their full sovereignty over their ancestral Territory, better equipped to pursue the physical and political decolonization of their life by assuming their right to self-determination. They will be enabled to establish their own authorities and self-government, which should guarantees their control on their social, political, cultural, environmental and economic sustainable development, all under a spirit of Love and God-centered.


THE SCHOOL PRINCIPLES & VALUES

The RSDS on its road to existence had refined its design in order not to be an isolated educational project disarticulated from the other areas of the integral reality of the Raizal People trapped by the effects of colonialism; it needed to contribute to a real transformation, to the decolonization of the Raizal People life and Territory, and to a real sustainable development. It has to be practical, with coordinated actions, under a clear understanding of the essence of self-determination and development, of the relations between both rights, and of the integrality of man through his relationships with God, himself, others and the creation.

NATURAL LAW: it comes from the belief that people, as creatures of nature and God, should live their lives and organize their society on the basis of rules and precepts laid down by nature or God. God is the source of natural law. Society is not natural to man, but is the product of a “social contract”; and so with governments.

NATURAL RIGHT: Any right that exists by virtue of natural law.INALIENABLE RIGHTS: Incapable of being alienated, that is, no subject to sale or transfer, inseparable. So is the right of Indigenous People to their Ancestral Territory and lands.

COLLECTIVE RIGHTS:

RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

FREEDOM:

DIGNITY:


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SOVEREIGNTY:

LOVE:

SERVANT LEADERSHIP:

INTERDEPENDABLE:

UBUNTU: I am because you are. (African philosophy)


THE DANGER OF THE SINGLE STORY(Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigerian novelist)

“…A single story is created that show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become. It is impossible to talk about a single story without talking about power.

…There is a word, an Igbo word that I think about whenever I think about the power structures of the world, and it is ́ nkali´. It's a noun that loosely translates to ´to be greater than another´. Like our economic and political worlds, stories too are defined by the principle of 'nkali': How they are told, who tells them, when they're told, how

many stories are told, are really dependent on power. Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person.

…The Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti writes that if you want to dispossess a people, the simplest way to do it is to tell their story and to start with, ´secondly´. Start the story with the arrows of the Native Americans, and not with the arrival of the British, and you have an entirely different story.

…The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.

…I've always felt that it is impossible to engage properly with a place or a person without engaging with all of the stories of that place and that person.

…The consequence of the single story is this: it robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar

RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION THE RAIZAL HISTORY… AND SOVEREIGNTY

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“Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to

dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower

and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but

stories can also repair that broken dignity.

…when we reject the single story, when we realize that there is

never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of

paradise”.

Source:https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story

?language=en

You might have heard different versions of a single story about the Raizal People. That such a single

story continues to rob the Raizal People of its history, identity and dignity. In order to recover all

those, we are here retelling our story… our own story.


HISTORY OF THE RAIZAL PEOPLERETELLING OUR STORY, OUR OWN STORY

The Raizal People need to retell their story, not the single story arranged

by other ones and uses to diminish, to disposes, and to maintain the

people under mental slavery.

INDIGENOUS RAIZAL PEOPLE OF CARIBBEAN

Archipelago of San Andres, Old Providence and Santa Catalina

Sons and daughters of “freedom”, made sons an daughters of “slavery” and “colonialism” still pursuing self-determination

To show “WHO ARE THE RAIZAL PEOPLE” and to demonstrate their legitimate right to sovereignty over their Ancestral Territory (the Caribbean Archipelago of San Andres, Old Providence and Santa Catalina), and their right to self-determination, the answers to the following six questions will give you bases to understand:


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We, the raizal people, are predominantly BLACK, WHITE, INDIAN ....

Where they came from?

How they reached to the Archipelago?

When they reached to the Archipelago?

Who was the owner of the Archipelago?

What they came to do to the Archipelago?

How they owned the Archipelago?

A mixture of AFRICA, EUROPE, AMERICA

Descendants of the FIRST PEOPLE, the

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, that established and conserved together

as a people, until today, on the

Archipelago of San Andres & Old

Providence. (our ancestral territory)

Asia

America

Europ


Treaty of TordesillasThe 1494 decision still influencing today´s world

(By Stephen R. Brown) “…(1493) With the stroke of a pen, the pope created an imaginary line dividing the world on a north-south axis in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. All territory east of the line of demarcation was to be Portuguese, and all territory to the west was to be the sole domain of Spain. The punishment for violating the papal proclamation was excommunication.

…Occasionally, decisions and events that appear unimportant in their time have a profound and unintended influence on the course of world history. This was the case for the Treaty of Tordesillas. Despite the involvement of famous kings, princes and the pope, the origins of the treaty were a prosaic set of events entirely at odds with its impact on global political, geographical, commercial and legal history. The story that spans centuries begins with the striving ambition, greed and tribal-like alliances between Christopher Columbus, his two sets of rival patrons—King João II of Portugal and the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile and Aragon—and the Spanish Pope Alexander VI. Pride, passion, enmity and petty quarrels between this privileged and powerful clique, stimulated and enflamed by Columbus’s hubris, led to a simmering, centuries-long global conflict that stemmed from the pope dividing the world in half in 1494…”

…After the moral and spiritual foundation of the Treaty of Tordesillas was eroded by the Protestant Reformation, its intellectual foundation was increasingly challenged in the sophisticated legal and philosophical treatises of the seventeenth century. It would not be long before even the Spanish and Portuguese admitted their defeat. During the intervening decades Spain’s and Portugal’s ability to monopolize global travel and trade was in serious decline. It died a slow death, however. Only military power remained; but it was hard to seize the moral high ground without the convictions or righteousness to justify the use of force when blatant self-interest was the only motive. Source: http://www.thehistoryreader.com/medieval-history/treaty-tordesillas-1494-decision-still-influencing-todays-world/


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What if nations like England, France and the Dutch Republic had accepted the pope’s authority to manipulate the rights over the territories of America and the rest of the world just benefiting Spain and Portugal? Even some years passed before they reacted, they didn’t remain submissive, but they also entered into America and the Caribbean from the 1500s and 1600s,, and by 1800s (300 years after the Treaty of Tordesillas) they had colonized much of the Caribbean and

Source: www.roebuckclasses.com/maps/placemap/camerica/colonialcarib1800.jpg

Notice on the map of 1800s, that the Caribbean Archipelago of San Andres, Old Providence and Santa Catalina (including Corn Island and the Miskito Coast) appear as British domains. And indeed, the First People of the Archipelago, have being British that went mixed up with aborigines from the Miskito Coast (mainly Miskito Indians) and with Africans. Today they are called the Raizal People; from their British root, they conserve their language (English and Creole English), their


http://www.roebuckclasses.com/maps/placemap/camerica/colonialcarib1800.jpg

religion (Baptists and Adventists), values and principles, some cultural expressions in dance & music, surnames, etc.

Many consider that the possession of places in the Caribbean by British, French and Dutch, is ‘illegal’ because they want continue to believe that Spain should forever be the owner of the lands proclaimed by the pope, in theory, in a blindly and submissively presumption of a false ‘legitimacy’ and ‘legality’ of the Treaty of Tordesillas (and successive treaties that are based on it). They are victims of mental slavery, of lies and manipulations that continues for centuries. Thanks in part to the Protestant Reformation that challenged the lies and manipulations of the empires of those time; whoever refused to obey and believe anything from the empires single story were stigmatizes: as puritans, protestants, separatists, radicals, pirates, maroons, uncivilized, etc.

ENGLISH PURITANS IN AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN

“First came the Pilgrims

in the 1620s (to North

America). They were

followed by thousands

of Puritans in the 1630s,

and these Puritans left

their mark on their new

land becoming the most

dynamic Christian force

i n t h e A m e r i c a n

c o l o n i e s . B a c k i n

England, the Puritans had been people of means and political influence,

but King Charles would not tolerate their attempts to reform the Church

of England. Persecution mounted. To many there seemed no hope but

to leave England. Perhaps in America they could establish a colony

whose government, society, and church were all based upon the

Bible”.


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ENGLISH PURITANS, DUTCH AND SCOTISH SETTLERS IN the ARCHIPELAGO OF SAN ANDRES AND OLD PROVIDENCE

In 1631, English puritans on the Seaflower boat arrived to the Archipelago of San Andres and Old Providence, and established the “Providence colony” on Old Providence Island. They led to the islands the first enslaved Africans. They intended to be a model puritan colony.Before the arrival of the Puritans, were some Dutch people in the island.

The Puritans didn´t find any aboriginal people permanently living in the island. The Miskito Indians (from the Atlantic Coast of Central America, where is today Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, etc.) used the islands of the Archipelago as resting place while they come around to fishing. They were no problem between the Puritans and the Miskito, but a good


In 1641, the Spanish overran and destroyed the colony, as they claimed an ‘illegitimate’ right that they considered they have from the Pope. This made the English and Scottish puritan settlers to disperse by other Caribbean islands and the Mosquito Coast (where they settled in small British colonies, between the city of Colon and Belize). By 1655, the British (in part, considered by some, as revenge to the abrupt destruction of the Providence Colony -the first English colony in the Western Caribbean) took away Jamaica from the Spaniards, and made it their new center of operation in the Caribbean. By 1660, pirate Edward Mansvelt took the Archipelago of San Andres and Old Providence from the Spaniard. In 1664, the Spaniard briefly occupied the Archipelago, followed by its recapture in 1665 by British pirate Henry Morgan. After some years, puritans from the former Providence Colony (or their descendants) migrated back to the Archipelago, and so other British, Scottish, Irish, etc.


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MISKITO KINGDOM: The Miskito, a mixture of aborigines, Africans and English, during the colonial era, hindered all the intents of the Spaniard to conquer them, and they made a strong alliance with the English. The Miskito Kingdom was formed, and further on England established a protectorate there, for over two centuries, up to 1860. The Kingdom prevailed up to 1894 when their Territory was militarily incorporated to Nicaragua, supported by the new born empire, the United States of North-America (they had interest in Nicaragua, and was decided to take out the British totally from America).

SOVEREIGNY OVER THE MISKITO COAST: Notice that from 1494, with the ‘invention’ of the Treaty of Tordesillas, the Miskito Coast has never belonged to Spain, up to their expulsion from Central America in the 1820s; it was never yet effectively possessed by them, but just on papers that they invented. But still, in 1894 Nicaragua militarily invaded it, claiming it as an inheritance from Spain! After that, in more than one occasions the Miskito entered into war, until Nicaragua recognized the Miskito’s ‘autonomy’ in 1978.

THE “PIRATES” IN THE CARIBBEAN: The Pirates was around the Caribbean even before the establishment of the Puritans, and in a very influential way after the attack and disintegration of the Providence Colony, “during the following 200 years the island changed hands between famous privateers (such as Francis Drake, Edward Mansvelt, Henry Morgan and his Port Royal Privateers, the latter of which made it their base for the famous and victorious attack on the city of Panama in 1671)”.


You are able to find amongst the ancestors of the Raizal People, men from some of the (wrongly called by the empires) ‘pirates’ boats, that remained in the islands of the Archipelago of San Andres, Old providence and Santa Catalina.

The dominion of the ‘pirates’ as well as the Miskito Indians in the region of the Caribbean next to Central-America played a key role in keeping off the Spaniard from the Miskito Coast, who were forced to stay away to the interior and pacific side of Central-America. That permitted the establishment and development of English settlements along the Miskito Coast that remain until today, from Belize down to Colon (Panama), and in the Sea, in the whole Archipelago of San Andres and Old Providence.

“…Like a modern patent, the strength of the papal proclamation was only as valuable as the beneficiaries’ willingness and ability to defend it, and with the decline of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires the treaty lost its champions while gaining many enemies.…”(Stephen R. Brown).


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THE LIBERATION OF THE ARCHIPELAGO

At the time when the colonies in America started to fight the European powers for independence, as well the people of the Archipelago of San Andres and Old Providence (that were all the time occupied by British settlers) were looking to get rid of the reiterative claims of Spain; as related by Raizal elders, the people of the Archipelago found the way to

make some contacts seeking for help, and finally on March 26, 1806, Captain John Bligh, on orders of the

British Crown, and attending the petition of the settlers, occupied the islands and took out the Spaniard government. The leader of the people

in San Andres Island was Mr. Sam Wright, who leaded the group that guided the British fleet safely into Cove Seaside (San Andres Island).

Bligh had to leave the islands for a new direction and port, and they fell into the hands of Spanish again, until 1818 when the settlers contacted French corsair admiral Luis M. Aury that was roaming the Caribbean Sea by the time.

With the help of Aury, the settlers (Raizal People) obtained freedom from Spain (one year ahead of Colombia, 1818 vs 1819). Admiral Luis Aury was not working for the South-American Liberator, Simon Bolivar! Admiral Aury died in the island of Santa Catalina in 1821 (supposedly he dropped off his horse), and the following year it is said that the Raizal People of the Archipelago made a “free” adhesion to the alliance of recent new born free countries in South-America, called the “Gran Colombia”.

1806 - 1818Mr. Sam Wright

Movement

British AdmiralJOHN BLIGH1770 - 1831

1806French corsairAdmiralLUIS M. AURY1788 - 1821

1818


DISPUETES FOR THE DOMINATIONOF THE ARCHIPELAGO OF SAN ANDRES AND OLD PROVIDENCE

ĈĎĈĎ First Dutch colony

1631 - 1641 First British Putitans established Providence Colony

1641 Spain occupation by Francisco Diaz Pimienta

1660 British occupation by Dutcha piarate Edward Manseveldt

1664 Spain occupation by Juan Pérez Guzman

1665 British occupation by Mansveldt and pirate Morgan

1667 Spain occupation by Andrés Ojeda

1671 British occupation by pirate Sir. Henry Morgan

1783 Treaties of Versailles; Real Order of king of Spain 1803

1806 British occupation by Captain John Bligh

1810 Spanish embraced the abscence of british militaries

1818 INDEPENDENCE form Spain by Corsair Luis M. Aury

1822 "Free" ashesion to the Gran Colombia

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Engl

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FIRST 200 YEARS (1620s - 1820s)

THE HERITAGE OF THE TREATY OF TORDESILLAS

In the twentieth century, countries like Chile and Argentine made claims for lands using as justification for sovereignty the Treaty of Tordesillas, arguing that is because those territories fall in the Spanish half of the world; they reclaimed the Antarctica and the Falkland Islands, respectively. “Both nations made the unprecedented assertion that they had inherited from Spain the benefits and rights of the treaty after their wars of independence” (Stephen R. Brown). The nations that warred against Spain for their independence resulted just as their former colonizer. Colombia claims of sovereignty over the Archipelago of San Andres and Old Providence might haven´t directly took as justification the Treaty of Tordesillas, but in an indirect way they do so when they argued at the International Court of Justice ICJ (2001-2012) that a Royal Order of the King of Spain of November 20 of 1803 gives them the Archipelago, the sea around it and the Miskito Coast, prior to the independence of Colombia (1819). ¡The Court didn´t accept!

Nicaragua rejected Colombia’s claim based on the Royal Order of the thKing of Spain of November 20 1803 because it did not imply a transfer

of territorial jurisdiction of title of the Mosquito Coast to the Viceroyalty


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of Santa Fe. But as well, Nicaragua also made its claims of sovereignty over the Archipelago using as justification a next colonial argument (inheritance of the Treaty of Tordesillas): they claimed that another

thRoyal Order of Spain of November 13 1806 passed the administration of the Archipelago and the Miskito Coast (Province of Providence) back to the Captain General of Guatemala (where Nicaragua took Independence from in 1821), and so give them rights to the Archipelago, after their independence.

It is a wrong assumption of Colombia and Nicaragua to claim sovereignty over the Archipelago, basing in theory on some treaties and royal orders of Spain (that somehow derived from the ‘illegitimate’ Treaty of Tordesillas), and far distant from the reality that Spain never yet populated or colonized the Archipelago of San Andres and Old Providence, nor the Miskito Coast, with Spanish subjects.

The ICJ rejected the colonialist arguments of both countries; whatever was recognized to Nicaragua was bases on the International Law (or Convention) of the Sea, and what was recognized to Colombia was merely due to its decades of ‘peaceful’ possession of the lands and keys; in that international dispute, the Raizal People are hidden,… they are ignored, and consequently their rights of sovereignty and self-determination are not recognized; for some reason they are called the “Hidden Colony in the Caribbean”.

THE TRUE LEGITIMATE SOVEREIGN PEOPLE OF THE ARCHIPELAGO

The Indigenous Raizal People are the descendants of the First People (indigenous people), that established and conserved together until today as the true legitimate sovereign people of the Caribbean Archipelago of San Andres, Old Providence and Santa Catalina, completed almost 400 years (from 1620s) on the Archipelago, in spite under national legislation of Colombia their sovereignty are not respected, and they are maintained invisible internationally, denied of


their rights over their ancestral territory (This has no other name but colonialism!).

“… The Court finds that neither Nicaragua nor Colombia has established that it had title to the disputed maritime features…” (ICJ, 2012) Just notice the ruling of the United Nations International Court of Justice

th(ICJ), on November 19 , 2012, over the Territorial and Maritime Dispute between Nicaragua and Colombia, where the ICJ manifested that none of the two countries have (historical or legal) title over the disputed maritime features of the Archipelago. But still the ICJ recognizes (or gives?) sovereignty to Colombia over the three main islands of the Archipelago (2007) and the islets, cays and other maritime features (2012), and shared the sea between the two nations. Why neither Colombia’s arguments nor the ruling of the ICJ do doesn’t even mention the legitimate sovereign Raizal People of the Archipelago? (See further ahead).

“… The Court finds that neither Nicaragua nor Colombia has

established that it had title to the disputed maritime features…” (ICJ, 2012)

INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICERuling over the Territorial and Maritime Dispute

(Nicaragua v. Colombia)19-November-2012

“…1.Sovereignty…The Court finds that neither Nicaragua nor Colombia has established that it had title to the disputed maritime features by virtue of uti possidetis juris (a principle according to which, upon independence, new States inherit territories and boundaries of former colonial provinces), because nothing clearly indicates whether these features were attributed to the colonial provinces of Nicaragua or of Colombia. The Court therefore turns to the question whether sovereignty can be


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established on the basis of a State’s acts manifesting a display of authority on a given territory (effectivités). The Court finds that for many decades Colombia continuously and consistently acted à titre de souverain in respect of the maritime features in dispute. This exercise of sovereign authority was public and there is no evidence that it met with any protest from Nicaragua prior to 1969, when the dispute crystallized...”Source: http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/124/17162.pdf

INTRODUCTION OF SELF-DETERMINATION

This is showing how the argument that Colombia used for more than a century (Royal Order of the King of Spain of

t hNovember 20 1803) to claims sovereignty over the Archipelago was refused by the ICJ (2007/2012). The Court recognized Colombia’s many decades of ‘peaceful’ occupation of the Archipelago, but never mentioned the Raizal People’s 400 years of sovereignty.

All peoples have the right to be themselves.The Raizal People have the right to be themselves. They are not to permit to be homogenized, or to be imposed by foreign cultures; it is not legal or right that others make difficult the practice of their customs or hinder the pursuing of their development. And the Territory that they have is needed to be conserve for them, where they will able to be!The indigenous Raizal People have the right to govern themselves, to elect and name their own authorities.

“All peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development”.


The indigenous Raizal People as the sovereign people of the Caribbean Archipelago of San Andrés, Old Providence and Santa Catalina, have the right to have the control of their own life and destiny, the control of their ancestral Territory.

“All peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their

economic, social and cultural development”.Figure No. 3. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Article 1. (1966)


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The Raizal People in behalf of the lack of effective recognition of their right to self-determination, they should have clear the following questions and answers:

RAIZAL PEOPLE QUESTIONS ANSWERS

1 ARE WE A PEOPLE? YES

2 DO WE HAVE AN ANCESTRAL TERRITORY? YES

3 DO WE HAVE RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION? YES

If the above three answers are “YES”, then…

4WHY WE ARE NOT HAVING SELF-DETERMINATION? COLONIALISM

The answers to the above questions, lead to the conclusion that the Raizal Territory was made a Non-Self-Governing Territory (NSGT), … a colony. About this violation of rights, of peoples not governing their own territory, but managed by others, the United Nations has say a lot.

Raizal People demonstration against colonialism,stSan Andres Island, June 1 , 2007


THE RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION

The importance of the right to self-determination amongst the whole system of human rights is highly demonstrated in two international covenants issued by the United Natinos, the one on civil and political rights, and the one on economic, social and cultural rights. The first article of both covenant stated the definition of the Right to Self-determination.

RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966)

& International Covenant on

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) stArticle 1

“All peoples have the right to self-determination.By virtue of that right they may freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development”.

The right to self-determination should be seeing like part of the recognition of human dignity; and as a collective right it reflects the sovereignty of peoples over their territory, their belongings, life and destiny.

The Raizal People continue looking for the enjoyment of their right to self-determination, having more than a century confronted with the colonialism policies controlling their life.

Self-determination is a prerequisite to the realization of all fundamental human rights.United nations General Assembly, Resolution 637 (VII), December


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SELF-DETERMINATION AND DECOLONIZATION The creation of the United Nations was conceived to seek, amongst other things, the conservation of world peace, where all nations must respect the right of self-determination of peoples, and the right to sovereignty of each people. The violations of those rights have proven over and over to be the cause of wars; wars that the world surely wouldn’t like to repeat. Since the creation of the United Nations in 1945, the world has advanced much with the decolonization of territories, but they are people still deprived from the right to govern their own life. The United Nations Charter has the “Committee of 24” (or Special Committee on Decolonization) that is exclusively devoted to the issue of decolonization, and was established in 1961 by the General Assembly with the purpose of monitoring the implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence of Colonial Countries and Peoples (General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960).

UNITED NATIONS CHARTER (1946)CHAPTER XI

DECLARATION REGARDING NON-SELF-GOVERNING TERRITORIESARTICLE 73

Members of the United Nations which have or assume responsibilities for the administration of territories whose peoples have not yet attained a full measure of self-government recognize the principle that the interests of the inhabitants of these territories are paramount, and accept as a sacred trust the obligation to promote to the utmost, within the system of international peace and security established by the present Charter, the well-being of the inhabitants of these territories and, to this end: …


UNITED NATIONS LIST OF NSGT

The UN Special Committee annually reviews the list of Territories to which the Declaration is applicable and makes recommendations as to its implementation. Actually (2015) they are 17 territories on the List.

The Special Committee also hears statements from NSGTs representatives, dispatches visiting missions, and organizes seminars on the political, social and economic situation in the Territories process, and observes the Week of Solidarity with the Peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories.


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MENTAL COLONIZATION

The independent nations of the world know of the right to self-determination, and its reaches. Who usually don´t know of their rights are the people who rights are being violated. In the case of Colombia, it is interested to know of some their national legislations around this topic.

DERECHO A LA LIBRE DETERMINACION O A LA AUTONOMÍA DE LAS COMUNIDADES ETNICAS

SENTENCIA DE LA CORTE CONSTITUCIONALC-88 (2011)

… Así con fundamento en los articulos 1, 7, 9, 70, 171, 176, 246, 329 y 330 de la carta, el convenio 169 de la OIT “Sobre pueblos indígenas y tribales en paises independientes” y otros instrumentos del derecho internacional de los derechos humanos como la declaración de las

Naciones Unidas sobre los derechos de los pueblos indígenas,

La corte ha reconocido la existencia de este derecho en la Constitución y señalado que comprende la facultad de las comunidades étnicas de determinar sus propias instituciones y autoridades de gobierno, darse o conservar sus normas, costumbres, visión del mundo y opción de desarrollo o proyecto de vida: y adoptar las decisiones internas o locales que estimen más adecuadas para la conservación o protección de esos fines.

Jairo Rodríguez Davis


Sometimes the chains that prevent us from being free are more mental than physical


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borrador raizal determination

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