lutheran world relief sep2012_still a dream

7/29/2019 Lutheran World Relief Sep2012_Still a Dream

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Still a Dream:Land Restitution on

Colombias Caribbean Coast

Latin America

Working Group

Education Fund

SEPTEMBER 2

A joint publication of

Lutheran World Relief and

the Latin America Working

Group Education Fund

By Lisa Haugaard, Latin America Working Group Education Fund (LAWGEF), andZoraida Castillo and Annalise Romoser, Lutheran World Relief (LWR)

In June 2012, staff from Lutheran World Relief,the Latin America Working Group Education Fund,and Agenda Caribe toured the Caribbean Coast ofColombia, the provinces of Sucre, Crdoba and

Bolvar, to investigate whether displaced communitiesare starting to be able to return to their land andwhether the Colombian governments landmarkinitiative, the Victims and Land Restitution Law, hasgotten off the ground. This was a return trip for us. Wehad visited many of the same communities in April2011 to evaluate the obstacles for land restitution inan area that had been infamous for massacres anddisplacement and paramilitary control of local politicsand economic life. Our report in April 2011 wasentitled, No Relief in Sight.1 Relief from human rightsviolations is still hard to find.

Despite the shining promises of the Victims Law, wefound in our June 2012 trip that land restitution has not

begun on the Caribbean coast, except for cases in whichbrave and organized displaced communities decidedto return on their own. Worse still, there is a ferociousreverse land reform that is occurring right now, today:mining, cement, lumber, teak and palm companies,large-scale farmers and ranchers, hotels, and otherland purchasers are continuing to buy up or take overland, using means both legal and illegal, includingthe use of illegal armed groups to threaten, abuseand kill community leaders. This report will providerecommendations about how to improve the still veryweak implementation of the Victims Law. However,

it is equally urgent for the Colombian government toincrease its efforts to provide secure titles and protection

to campesinos and members of indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities who are not currently displacedand who have lived on land for decades or centurieswithout title, and to provide protection for communitieswith title that are still under assault, to prevent thereverse land reform that is ripping like a tropical stormthrough the Caribbean coast.

The Victims Law: In Theory, a Law for Good

The Santos Administration and champions in theColombian Congress, including Senator Juan FernandoCristo, dedicated enormous efforts to achieve passagein June 2011 of the Victims and Land Restitution Law(Ley de Vctimas y Restitucin de Tierras), Law 1448.The law promises to provide reparations to victims ofthe conflict since January 1, 1985. Land restitutionor compensation would be provided for those who lost

land due to violence after January 1, 1991.

Victims have to register in the Unified VictimsRegistry (Registro nico de Vctimas) within fouryears after the law entered into effect. A SpecialUnit for Attention and Reparation administers theVictims Law nationally. At a local level, TransitionalJustice Committees (Comits Territoriales de JusticiaTransicional) are charged with drawing up actionplans to achieve reparations and assistance to victims.Circuit judges specialized in land restitution will resolvethe cases. One very positive aspect of the law is that

the burden of proof is on the current occupier of theland, rather than the victim.


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2 Still a Dream

Executive Summary

Lutheran World Relief, the Latin America Working Group Education Fund, and Agenda Caribetoured the Caribbean coast of Colombia, the provinces of Sucre, Bolvar and Crdoba, in June

2012 to investigate whether displaced communities are starting to be able to return to their landand whether the Colombian governments landmark initiative, the Victims and Land RestitutionLaw, has gotten off the ground. This law aims to provide reparations to victims of the conflict andland restitution or compensation for some of the more than 5 million people who were displacedby violence. It has generated enthusiasm in the international community and raised hopes amongsurvivors of violence in Colombias brutal, decades-old conflict.

Despite the shining promises of the Victims Law, we found that land restitution has not begunon the Caribbean coast, except for cases in which brave and organized displaced communitiesdecided to return on their own. As of June 2012, a year after the laws passage, no land has yetbeen restituted via the Victims Law, according to USAID. Although the Colombian governmentestimates 360,000 families were forced off their lands, a figure much lower than nongovernmental

estimates, only 15,208 land claims nationwide have been filed so far under the Victims Law,and none have yet been ruled upon by a judge. The first rulings are expected in September 2012.It is important to recognize that the Colombian government has made some progress in the lastyear in titling land for campesinos and Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities that arenot currently displaced. As we learned in our investigation, this is a critical step to help preventfurther displacement. But the harder task of removing illegal occupiers and supporting returningcommunities is yet to come.

In interviews with local government officials, human rights groups, displaced communitiesand campesino associations, we found that land restitution faces enormous obstacles. It wasencouraging to see that some local officials view the Victims Law as a tool for addressinginjustices and are grappling with how best to use it for that purpose. However, we found that:

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implement the Victims Law;

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institutions serving the displaced. This means that a system barely beginning to function isbeing scrapped and replaced with yet another; and that underresourced programs for internallydisplaced persons now have to be broadened to serve additional kinds of victims withoutnecessarily having greater resources;

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stack Transitional Justice Committees and Victims Roundtables to avoid authentic victimsrepresentation and thus fail to address the needs of the full range of victims;

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acts of reparation in ways that are neither meaningful to victims nor do much to address thebroad community of victims; and

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access restitution and reparations.

The most serious obstacle, however, is that victims are not being provided with the protectionnecessary to be able to reclaim lands. More than 25 land rights leaders have been killed sincethe Santos Administration took office in August 2010. Without real protection, even the very


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Executive Summary 3

institutions intended to return land to victims can become generators of new dangers and newdisplacements. For example, we heard concerns that victims who presented information or requeststo Transitional Justice Committees then received new threats.

We also found that displacement is hardly a problem of the past. On the Caribbean Coast, thereis still a ferocious reverse land reform that is occurring right now, today: mining, cement, lumber,teak and palm companies, large-scale farmers and ranchers, hotels, and other land purchasers arecontinuing to buy up or take over land, using means both legal and illegal, including the use of illegalarmed groups to threaten, abuse and kill community leaders. This report provides recommendationsabout how to improve the still very weak implementation of the Victims Law. However, it is equallyurgent for the Colombian government to increase its efforts to provide secure titles and protection tocampesinos and indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities who are not currently displaced andhave lived on land for decades or centuries without title, and to provide protection for communitieswith title that are still under assault, to prevent the reverse land reform that is ripping like a tropicalstorm through the Caribbean coastand many other areas of Colombia.

The U.S. government is funding and promoting the Victims Law. This is a positive choice.However, it is essential to fund this initiative with open eyes, close monitoring and, especially,careful consultations with victims associations, humanitarian agencies and human rights groups.Otherwise, U.S. funding can end up financing symbolic actions that are more publicity stunts thanreal reparations, line the pockets of corrupt officials, or create islands of land restitution whiledisplacement continues to grow.

Recommendations:

To the Colombian government:

I Provide substantial orientations to municipal governments regarding the implementation of theVictims Law, including how to ensure broad participation of victims organizations.

I Provide adequate resources to municipal governments and victims attention centers to applythe Victims Law, above and beyond the resources already available to attend to internallydisplaced persons.

I Ramp up provision of legal advice to victims for land restitution and reparations via theOmbudsmans Office and local personeros.

I Pay particular attention to the needs of women in obtaining land restitution, titling, andreparations.

I Greatly expand the titling of land occupied by campesino families and Afro-Colombian andindigenous communities, which have been on land for decades, but do not have title.

I Monitor land restitution units, judges, notaries and Transitional Justice Committees to ensurethat they are not being coopted by those who benefitted from stolen land, and sanction corruptofficials. Enforce sanctions on landowners and companies that are using coercive or other illegalmeans to expand landholdings.

I Provide protection to communities at risk of displacement, designing local protection plans inclose consultation with communities.


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4 Still a Dream

The law has generated enthusiasm in theinternational community. Internally, althoughultra-conservative sectors attack it as a wasteof money, even civil society sectors generallycritical of the government acknowledge itsgood intentions. The expectations surroundingthis law are vast. If it fails to accomplish itsobjectives, Colombias millions of victims of

violence will feel once again betrayed.

There are real fears that the law cannot besafely implemented, as the government has notprovided for the safety of those communitiesthat have already returned. At least 25land rights leaders have been killed sincePresident Santos came to office in August2010.2 A number of those killed were fromCrdoba, Sucre and Montes de Mara. In June2012, Jairo Martnez, a leader of displaced

communities in Montes de Mara, was gunneddown outside of Montera.

Another concern regards the specific treatmentof Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities.The law granted the executive branch authorityto separately negotiate with indigenous andAfro-Colombian communities regarding

reparations and land restitution, as moreextensive consultation was required. Progresson implementing these accords needs to becarefully monitored.

Another particularly controversial aspect of thelaw is that it provides for landowners that haveinvested in development projects, like Africanpalm, on land stolen by violence, if they actedin good faith, to be able to continue benefitingfrom those investments.

I Promptly investigate and prosecute assassinations of land rights leaders and other humanrights defenders, as well threats and attacks against them.

To the U.S. government:

I Condition assistance for the Victims Law on greatly improved actions to protect returnedand returning communities and land rights leaders, with protection plans created with fullparticipation of the affected communities.

I Provide assistance for protection programs for communities and land titling as part ofsupport for the Victims Law. Provide increased legal accompaniment for victims viathe Ombudsmans Office andpersoneros. Carefully monitor these programs with inputfrom victims associations and human rights groups to ensure they benefit the intendedpopulation. Fund and work with existing campesino and victims organizations rather thancreating new ones, and ensure funding unites, not divides, social movements.

I Withhold certification on human rights conditions if the Colombian government moves toapprove legislation that would result in human rights violations by military members beinginvestigated by the military justice system.

I Actively monitor the implementation of the Labor Action Plan, pressing for fullimplementation, particularly elimination of all forms of illegal subcontracting, protection ofthe right to organize, protection of union leaders, and prosecution of threats and attacksagainst union members.

I Urge the Colombian government to take a much more vigorous approach to capturing anddismantling paramilitary successor groups. Urge careful monitoring of the situation onthe Caribbean coast as paramilitary leadership is released from jail, including increased

protection for victims and human rights defenders.

Executive Summary (continued)


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The Victims Law: In Practice, No Restitution So Far 5

Otherwise, U.S. funding can end up financing

symbolic actions that are more publicity stunts

than real reparations, line the pockets of corrupt

officials . . . or create islands of land restitution

while displacement continues to grow.

The Victims Law: In Practice,

No Restitution So Far

As of June 2012, a year after the lawspassage, no land has yet been restituted via theVictims Law, according to USAID.3 Although

the Colombian government estimates 360,000families were forced off their lands, a figuremuch lower than nongovernmental estimates,only 15,208 land claims have been filed so farunder the Victims Law, and none have yet beenruled upon by a judge.4 The first rulings areexpected in September 2012.

What has been progressing is titling of land forcampesinos who are not displaced. BetweenAugust 2012 and April 2012, according to theColombian government, 38,917 families have

received title to 903,599 hectares of land.5Colombias Agriculture Ministry has sensiblyrecognized that titling land for campesinos whoare not currently displaced is also important, andhas developed with USAIDs support a High-Impact Plan (Plan de Choque) to title state-owned lands, indigenous and Afro-Colombianterritories, and other lands without clear title.The land that is portrayed in the press as landreturned under the Victims Law is in fact landthat is simply being titled, rather than landrestituted to returning communities. The hardertask of removing illegal occupiers and supportingreturning communities is yet to come.

Rather than attempting restitution immediatelythroughout the countryside, the governmenthas identified 17 areas where restitution willbe prioritized, and land restitution offices havebeen opened in those areas. Yet under the lawvictims in all areas have the right to file claims;what happens if these filed claims are ignoredin nonprioritized areas has not been adequately

thought out.Colombias Inspector General issued a reportin August 2012 that sharply criticized otheraspects of the laws implementation.6 It notedthat no victims had yet received administrativereparations from the Victims Law; that fewervictims than expected had registered and thatthere appeared to be roadblocks in includingin the official registry those who had applied;and that the national government had failed to

include victims representatives in monitoringthe laws application. Finally, the report assertedthat the security of victims leaders and landrights leaders has been the most difficultissue in all of this process.7 The InspectorGeneral urged all relevant state agencies to

redouble their efforts to ensure that the lawis fully implemented and the rights of victimsprotected.

The U.S. government is funding and promotingthe Victims Law. Indeed, the Deputy Secretaryof State, William Burns, announced anadditional $50 million from the United Statesfor application of the Victims Law when hevisited Colombia for the U.S.-Colombia HighLevel Partnership Dialogue in July 2012.

This is a positive choice for U.S. funding.However, it is essential to provide this supportwith open eyes, close monitoring and carefulconsultations with victims associations andhuman rights groups. Otherwise, U.S. fundingcan end up financing symbolic actions that aremore publicity stunts than real reparations, linethe pockets of corrupt officials, fund programsthat do not benefit the intended beneficiariesor create islands of land restitution whiledisplacement continues to grow.

Decades of Violence

Crdoba, Sucre and Bolvar were the epicenterof the paramilitary movement (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, AUC). They werethe site of many of the most horrific paramilitarycrimes, such as the 2001 Chengue massacre.Prior to the expansion of paramilitary control in1997, guerrilla groups exercised control overmany areas, and still are present in some zones.


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The Victims Law to Me Is Mampujn:Anatomy of an Empty Show

We asked Mennonite pastor Ricardo Esquivia, who has devoted his life to promoting peace,especially in his beloved Caribbean coast, what he thought of the Victims Law. Ricardo isby constitution an optimist, so what we heard him say was sobering.

The Victims Law to me is Mampujn, he said. An entire town was displaced byparamilitaries on March 10, 2000. The paramilitaries then carried out massacres inneighboring villages. According to the paramilitary leaders testimony in the Justice andPeace hearings, they coordinated their movements with military officials. As it was thefirst and one of only four judgments successfully issued under the Justice and Peace law,the Santos Administration promised to make Mampujn an example of reparations, with aspecial symbolic event for the victims, back in the ghost town of old Mampujn.

The community wanted to hold the event on the weekend, but the government said ifit was held on a Monday, President Santos would show up, so they agreed. The day (inMarch 2012) neared, but there was no funding for the event.

According to a volunteer with Mennonite Central Committee based in the community,On Sunday, a week before the event, the government in Bogot finally responded to saythat they would provide the funding, along with contributions from the United NationsDevelopment Program. However, they refused to provide us with any sort of cash. Instead,they sent two operators from Bogot... It was a disaster... The food arrived, but most ofthe meat was missing and there only enough for one day of everything else. The soundequipment didnt arrive. Half the people waiting for lunch on the first day didnt get fed...The president decided that he really couldnt show up after all... The event turned outnot to be about the community at all. Instead, it appeared to be a place where all of theso-called important people from Bogot and Cartagena, including officials from both theCanadian and U.S. embassies, could arrive in their helicopters, listen to speeches, receiveflowers from the kids, and go home feeling like peace in Colombia is moving along nicely...Its frustrating that nobody saw the disappointed and angry community members behindthe scenes who were not being remembered in any dignified way.8

The NGOs ended up paying for much of the transportation for the victims, as thegovernment had not thought to cover that.

And the worst thing was, said Ricardo Esquivia, the government didnt bring the

reparations. The government announced that reparations would come later, and instead ofproviding the amount decided by the Justice and Peace Law, it would follow the VictimsLaw, which provides a much lower amount of reparations. And if they do this withMampujan? What will the rest be like?

In April 2010, Colombias Deputy Attorney General Fernando Pareja said proudly aboutMampujn, I dare to say that this experience of collective reparations like those we areabout to begin in Colombia are among the very few in the world.9 As of the date of thisreport, victims are finally beginning to receive reparations in Mampujn. But it has been along and difficult road.


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The Victims Law Is Barely off the Ground 7

These areas were also home to a dynamiccampesino movement, which was brutallytargeted by the paramilitary armiesbut someremnants of that dynamic peasant movementremain today.

These provinces are areas of growing landconcentration, where large landowners areconstantly trying to expand their land holdingsand peasant farmers are attempting to keepcontrol of their small plots, which lack of cleartitling and violence makes precarious. Theyare also corridors for arms and drug trafficking.Although drug trafficking fuels the violence,community leaders maintain that The conflictis not really about drugs. Its about control,control of land, large-scale economic projects,mining, hydroelectric dams, political control.

The Caribbean coast includes one of theConsolidation zones, in Montes de Mara,where the U.S. government is massivelyfunding joint military-civilian operations thatattempt to extend government control overconflict areas.10

The Victims Law Is

Barely off the Ground

Three officials from mayors offices in Sucre andthe Sucre governors office were interviewed toassess how the implementation of the VictimsLaw was proceeding. These mayors werechosen because of their expressed interest inapplying the Victims Lawso they may bebest case examples.

Weve received almost no orientation from thenational government about how to apply theVictims Law, these three municipal leaders

concur. They have given us a form to fill out toreport our activities, but thats about it. Theyexplain that there are no separate resourcesfrom the national government to implementthe law; they have to draw from their existinglimited municipal resources. The financingfrom the national government specificallyfor the Victims Law is zero. Because theseareas have suffered such high displacement,they have lost some of the financing theirmunicipality received for general operations

from the national government, because it isbased on population size.

One of the mayors officials was visibly shaken.This morning, this morning they [a paramilitarysuccessor group] killed a 16-year-old boy. They

have established a curfew, no one is allowedout between 6 PM and 6AM. He was goingto a doctors appointment, had left his houseat 5:45 AM. She explains that the municipalgovernment workers have decided to leavetheir jobs at 4 every day so they can be sureto comply with the illegal groups curfew. Wehad started to implement the Victims Law. Butif security is like this, what is going to happenwith what we are trying to do? The fear that Iam talking about... theres no way the work cancontinue at the same pace, with the fear.

An official from the Sucre governors officeappeared either disinterested or unaware of the

Candelario lvarez de la Barrera, a member of ASOPROCIGs leadership team.The organization promotes diverse food crops, small-scale fishing initiatives,

and community engagement.

PHOTOCOURTESYOFANNALISEROMOSER,LUTHERANWORLDRELIEF


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As the Victims Law Is off to a Slow Start, Reverse Land Reform Marches Ahead 9

to participate, that local officials did notunderstand their responsibilities for registeringthe victims organizations, had confusionover what constituted a victims organization,had almost no accompaniment from theOmbudsmans Office (Defensora del Pueblo),

and in these very poor municipalities, lacked theresources to carry it out.11

The Victims Law is creating institutionsthat substitute for the existing programsserving the displaced. According to a lawyerfor Barranquilla community organizationFundacin Infancia Feliz, The nationalgovernment is leaving local authorities helplessin implementing this law. There is somepolitical will in some localities, but they havecomplete lack of knowledge about how to

do this. The Constitutional Court rulings ondisplacement obliged the government to attendto the displaced, and led to the creation of13 programs to attend to their needs. But thegovernment never completed this. And nowthe Victims Law is a whole new adventureto create yet another structure to attend tovictims. Now local areas think that what wasthere before doesnt work and they are stillwaiting to apply the new law...so right now,nothing applies.

Elkin Rocha, a government worker in a VictimsAttention Center in Cartagena, thoughtfullyexplained the difficulties in implementing the law.Bogot designed this [the Victims Law] withouteven understanding the services we offeredbefore. Were coming from a system that didntwork and now we have more responsibilitieswith the same resources, he said, explainingthat now the victims centers had to attendother kinds of victims as well as the displaced.Programs need to be adapted to each region.

Yet, he does note, It is good at least that thegovernment is talking about victims.

The Victims Attention Center in Cartagena offerspsychosocial attention, refers people to shelters,and makes some attempt at connecting people tojobs or other income-generating activities. Butwe dont provide legal advice to victims. TheOmbudsmans Office and the local ombudsmen,personeros, are supposed to do this, but theresan enormous bottleneck. The most important

thing in this whole process is to organize thevictims, to encourage them to understand thatthey are not coming here to ask us for a favor,but to reclaim their rights. The OmbudsmansOffice is completely overloaded. There are 1200land claims in Cartagenawho is providing

this legal advice? He concludes, This wholeprocess is just starting. If there is not an advancein restituting land, people will feel betrayed.

In July, the National Assembly ofpersoneroscalled for increased resources forpersoneros toimplement the Victims Law. They recognizethat we are the entry way and the start forregistering victims, but we find ourselveswithout the minimal conditions and technicalsupport, said Andrs Santamara, thepersonero of Cali.12

One young woman campesino leader laughs,bitterly. If there arent any resources, why dothey have a law like this? Why are they puttingus [the victims] is the middle of this? Let themreally comply with the law, so its not someuseless law.

As the Victims Law Is off to a

Slow Start, Reverse Land Reform

Marches Ahead

We feel they are closing in on us, Wefeel surrounded. When we first heard thecampesinos from some dozen communities inMontes de Mara and Crdoba explain this tous, we did not completely understand. It soonbecame vividly clear.

The next day we took a rickety wooden ferryover the river to get to the small community ofEl Playn, in Lorica, Crdoba. Since the Urr

Were coming from a system that didnt work

and now we have more responsibilities with the

same resources. . . . Yet, it is good at least that

the government is talking about victims.


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10 Still a Dream

dam was built in the mid-1990s, the river risesand falls dramatically, increasing erosion onone side of El Playn. Several houses look likethey will be washed away soon. Campesinoand indigenous leaders had mounted aconcerted but failed opposition to the Urrdam. The dam is destroying their fishinglivelihoods in the marshlands which onceprovided plentiful fish and seasonal farming.Salt water now penetrates deeper inland,affecting farming, and the native bocachicafish was destroyed by the dam. The building

of the dam, according to a campesino leader,changed our lives, harmed our collectivework, broke our connection to nature. We usedto say each day, How did the river wake today?Life was linked to the river.

On another side of the settlement, communitymembers once had access to extensivemarshland that they both fished and farmed.Now they only have a narrow strip where theylet their pigs run as well as some fields they

received as compensation for the damagecaused by the Urr dam. The fields to the leftof the strip two years ago were taken over by amysterious owner who planted acres and acresof genetically engineered corn.

Along with the community leaders in their rubberboots, we walk out on the narrow strip of land.The corn is surrounded by electrified barbedwire. If our pigs cross it, they kill them. Thewire is very high voltage, dangerous. We cansee a pump that is spewing water, taking excesswater from the corn fields and dumping it, withall its chemicals, onto the communitys narrowstrip of land.

No individuals should own the protected,state-owned marshlands for large-scale

farming. Yet throughout this area, largelandowners are taking over marshlandand filling it in, pumping out water, oftenspilling it on to public roads and areas wherecampesinos have farmed and fished fordecades. The campesino leaders appealedto the Constitutional Court about the dryingout of the marshlands, and the ConstitutionalCourt issued an injunction (tutela) that forbidsconstruction of dikes. Yet the ConstitutionalCourt order is not enforced.

Then we drove to visit the community of SanPablo, in Cotorra, Crdoba, where we met withseasoned campesino activists, many of whomhad spent time in jail due to their organizingfor land and against the Urr dam. Along theway we were told, You are going to see theBerlin Wall. Down a beautiful country lane,we come to a bridge across a river. The bridgeis completely sealed off with a 10-foot-highcement wall across it. A large landowner whohad planted a thousand hectares of genetically-

modified corn sealed off the bridge in order toprevent community members from crossing togo to market. Other campesino leaders describehow communities where lumber companieshave cut off traditional right-of-ways, leavingthe campesinos completely unable to bringtheir produce to market, or where companieshave taken over municipal sources of water andrefuse to allow communities access. We arestruck by the contrast in that these campesinosspent months in jail for organizing to obtain

An ASOPROCIG leader stands next to the Berlin Wall. A landowner walled offthe bridge so campesinos could not cross.

PHOTOCOURTESYOFANNALISERO

MOSER,LUTHERANWORLDRELIEF


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12 Still a Dream

then arrested members of a group identified asLey de Monte. According to a nongovernmentalreport, authorities prioritized the robberies anddid not properly investigate the sexual violence;portrayed the abuses as common crimes, whenaccording to the nongovernmental groups,

they are in the context of the continued armedconflict; and failed to inform the victims of thestate of their cases or provide legal assistance tothe victims.

The Ombudmans Offices risk report forseveral communities in this area notes thatthe illegal armed groups that emerged afterthe paramilitary demobilization continue tomaintain functions of preserving authoritariansocial structures, using methods of violencelearned in the old paramilitary structure and

broadening the scope of people and objectivesagainst which they exert their violence. Thepost-demobilization armed groups can end upfavoring the interest of powerful sectors. Inparticular, this action can be oriented to inhibitor obstruct the processes aimed at denouncingland takeovers or demanding restitution ordefending campesino farming. The illegalgroups known as the Paisas and Rastrojos arealso competing in Mara La Baja to control thelocal market in illegal drugs which connectsthis municipality to Sucre province and the cityof Cartagena. The use of organized violence asa way of regulating this competition has created

a source of threat for two groups in particular:young people and socially stigmatized peoplein urban zones. The SAT [early warningsystem] monitoring has identified continuedrisks in terms of selective assassinations,threats, recruitment...forced displacement,forced disappearance, restrictions on freedomof movement, and the use of methods andmeans to generate terror.13 A June 2012Ombudsmans Office risk report for Ovejas,Sucre explains: These illegal groups are

formed to support the interests of third partiesin conserving the lands that are the product ofdisplacement or the massive buying of land inthe municipality.

As well as the paramilitary successor groups,

guerrilla groups still maintain a limited presencein these zones. The Revolutionary Armed Forces(FARC), the brutal left-wing guerrilla group,continues to commit crimes against civilianssuch as extortion, laying of anti-personnelmines, forced recruitment, assassinations, andconfinement and displacement of communities.As in many areas of Colombia, the FARCcontinues to take a heavy toll on indigenouscommunities that resist the presence of allarmed groups in their territory.

The illegal groups have an extensive presencein the cities as well. In Barranquilla, competingparamilitary successor groups and gangsoften linked to those groups control differentneighborhoods and run drugs and prostitutionrings. They host street parties which they useto recruit young people. They use girls andboys to run drugs. They killed a pregnant girl,shot her in the stomach, we heard. Localhuman rights groups say the police are indenial about the existence of the paramilitarysuccessor groups.

Human rights defenders on the Caribbean coast,including many in Barranquilla, are receivingdeath threats that appear to come fromparamilitary successor groups, as well as frompolice and military. In December 2011 a deaththreat circulated to many defenders proclaimed,You will celebrate Human Rights Day in thegrave. There appears to be some improvementin protection measures for some LWR partnersover the past year. But local governments like

Barranquilla which are supposed to be ourfirst recourse, wont even meet with defenders.And there is little progress on investigatingand prosecuting the threats and attacksagainst defenders. The Attorney Generalsoffice actually tells us we are filing too manycomplaints, explained a local human rightslawyer. They say they are collapsing under theweight of cases, and that we have to give upsome of the earlier complaints so that they canfocus on more recent ones.

A death threat circulated to many human

rights defenders proclaimed, You will celebrate

Human Rights Day in the grave.


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Impact of the Free Trade Agreement on the Caribbean Coast: Trouble Ahead 13

Many of the paramilitary leadership who werejailed following the demobilization are in prisonsin Barranquilla. As they are serving a maximumof eight years in jail according to the Justice andPeace Law, they are going to start coming outof jail in 2013. This is a terrifying prospect for

victims as well as human rights defenders onthe Caribbean coast. They see no efforts by thenational or regional governments to prepare forthis and provide protection. These leaders stilldirect criminal operations from their jail cells.Can you imagine what will happen once theyare out of jail?

Impact of the Free Trade Agreement on

the Caribbean Coast: Trouble AheadIt is too early to evaluate the impact of theimplementation of the Free Trade Agreementwith the United States. However, it doesappear that theprospect of the FTA hasaccelerated investment here on the Caribbeancoast, where access to well-developed portsmakes agriculture, cattle ranching and miningparticularly profitable. This acceleration ofinvestment in an area where the rule of law doesnot apply, where companies and landowners useforce or other illegal means to take over property,contributes to the continuing human rights crisis.The companies have guarantees. We dont,said one campesino leader.

We asked a group of some 25 campesinoleaders if they were receiving help from anykind of government fund to protect campesinoagriculture from the impact of the FTA. What?No, we havent heard of that. How can wecompete with the United States? How can wesurvive with imports that are subsidized in

other countries? Chicken wings and chickenbreasts are going to rain down on us, onefarmer said, fatalistically.

We visited the Port Workers Union inBarranquilla, sitting on plastic chairs in front oftheir tiny office in a poor barrio right across fromthe huge, well-developed Port Society complex.Port workers are one of the priority sectors ofthe Labor Action Plan signed by the U.S. andColombian governments as a concession to

the concerns of the labor and human rightsorganizations that opposed the FTA. A majorproblem for port workers is the high degreeof indirect employment through so-calledcooperatives or other arrangements whichallows the Port Society and other companies to

evade application of labor law, as they can saythat they do not actually employ the workers. Asecond, related problem is the difficulty of freelyorganizing unions in the ports.

President Obama declared the Labor ActionPlan fulfilled and gave the green light for FTAimplementation while he was in the nearby portcity of Cartagena for the April 2012 Summit ofthe Americas. The Labor Action Plan requiredthat Colombia ban the indirect employmentmechanisms known as cooperatives. However,three months later, when we asked the portworkers in Barranquilla how many peoplewere employed directly, just one man out ofsome 20 gathered there raised his hand. Thesubcontractors no longer called themselvescooperatives, but the same subcontractors,managed by the same people and using thesame practices, now called themselves byanother name.

Subcontracting is the worst problem, saidthe head of the National Port Workers union,Javier Marrugo. The government has not yettaken steps to sanction port companies inBarranquilla, although it has begun to do so inother areas of the country in some other sectors

like palm.I have been working in this business some 27years, said one man, a crane operator, but Ido not have a pension, social security, as I worksome days here and there, with no job security,for subcontractors.

And the Port Society says to the subcontractor,I cant pay you right now. So the subcontractorsays to us, you can work for us but we cant

The companies have guarantees. We dont,

said one campesino leader.


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14 Still a Dream

Despite Obamas Visit, Afro-Colombian CommunitiesSurrounding Cartagena Lack Titles

In old city Cartagena, Colombia, elegant colonial buildings with verandas and woodenshutters contain trendy restaurants, a Benetton store and expensive shoe shops.14 But theAfro-Colombians selling strands of pearls on the sidewalks, who add life to this tropical touristhaven, may have come from Urab, Carmen de Bolivar, Mara la Baja or other areas wherethreats and clashes between all the armed actors, paramilitaries, guerrillas and the armedforces forced them to flee the violence.

El Salado. Chengue. Montes de Mara, said the victims attention center official in abasement office in downtown Cartagena, rattling off the chilling names of places known formassacres, explaining why there are so many displaced persons in Cartagena. Thirty-twopercent of displacement happened in the Caribbean region. And it is still happening.

And the pressures that force people off their land are right here in gleaming Cartagena.We drive five minutes past Boquilla, an Afro-Colombian community which received titles ina post- Summit of the Americas ceremony presided by President Barack Obama, ColombianPresident Juan Manuel Santos and the rock star Shakira. There we visit the village of PuntoCanoa, and take a walk with its residents along its dirty beach.

This was my land, my grandfathers land, my uncles land, said a rather fierce woman whospeaks a mile a minute. Everyone respected each others land. But the hotel just took it fromus. And then they built a canal to cut off access from our village to our land.

The community had been living on this land over a hundred years. We see the sprinkler

system watering the golf course that is now sprawled on what had been her land.

Stacked on the beach by thispoor community are hugepipes. They are for a projectto pump the sewage fromCartagena into the ocean rightby Punta Canoa.

They are not even going totreat the water. And we livefrom fishing. This is a way of

trying to take the land awayfrom us...

Earlier that day, we had piledinto a wooden boat calledThanks Be to God, andvisited the island of TierraBomba, right across fromthe stretch of beach with

A young boy playing in the surf where a waste treatment pipe is being built.Communities nearby are concerned that this will dump into the sea.

PHOTOCOURTESYOFANNALISEROMOSE

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Despite Obamas Visit, Afro-Colombian Communities Surrounding Cartagena Lack Titles 15

one soaring hotel after another,as well as the port society and anaval base.

Four Afro-Colombian communitieslive on Tierra Bomba. Thesecommunities were resettled herefrom where they had lived bythe Cartagena harbor when theoil company wanted to use theland eighty years ago. Theytold us we could have theseislands, no one wanted them,they were full of mosquitoes. Yettheir communities found it is aprivilege to live here... we want to

continue to live here, deliciously.

Eighty years later, the islandsare prime real estate for therapidly expanding tourist trade ofCartagena. And the Navy plans to expand, put a new naval base on Tierra Bomba island.

Whats going to happen to us? No one will tell us. They say, dont worry, the naval basewill be a good neighbor. The vice president came and told us, there will be a previousconsultation with you before the base is developed... But the communities havent heardabout any such consultation yet. They have their doubts.

There are 49 large-scale development projects coming our way, its a tsunamai. Thecompanies all come with their studies, saying, dont worry, nothing will happen to you.They come buying up land at the price of a skinny chicken.

We dont object to tourism, development. It will bring some jobs. We know we cant stopit.... Count on us to support development that does not displace us.

Most of the Afro-Colombian communities like those on Tierra Bomba and nearby islands,and Punto Canoa in the north of Cartagena, dont have proper titles to their land, despitethe decades and even centuries of living in one place, and despite the right they have totheir collective titles as Afro-Colombian communities through the 1993 legislation known

as Law 70.When Presidents Obama and Santos and rockstar Shakira handed out the titles for Boquillaand Palenque, it was a joyous day for those two communities. But they gave title to only toa tiny fraction of the Afro-Colombian lands that should immediately be titled right in andaround Cartagena, not to mention the rest of the country.

Write this down in your notebook, one island community leader said to me. Unless weget title, we have nothing. We have nothing.

Members of Afro-Colombian community councils, and communitymembers, gather near the waterfront of Tierra Bomba.

PHOTOCOURTESYOFANNALISEROMOSER,LUTHERANWOR

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16 Still a Dream

pay you now. If you want to get paid, I have totake out a loan, so Ill pay you now but Ill takeinterest on the loan out of your pay.

In these high-risk jobs, there are manyaccidents. Theres no ambulance, no help

if theres an accident. One day a man inBuenaventura port fell and they just left himthere, didnt call the ambulance, because hedidnt have a Port Society uniform. They just lefthim there on the ground. He died.

And as to freedom to organize in the ports?We are a union, but we are afraid that thesubcontractors wont hire union members. Sowe treat this gently.

Campesino Visions: A Path to Follow

The visionary peasant coalition ASOPROCIGand the many small fishermen and campesinoassociations that make it up offer a path tofollow in the midst of the harrowing risks thatsmall farmers face on the Caribbean coast. AtEl Playn, the Association of Fishermen of ElPlayn members take us to the ten-hectareplot they received as compensation for thedamage done to their livelihoods by the Urrdam. Youre always bothering us, what exactlydo you want? the government told them,and asked them for a list of projects, and

this was one of the few that the governmentactually delivered. As we step over the fenceinto the collective land, we enter paradise.Four large ponds contain fish; canoes forfishing are tethered to the banks. Narrowstrips of land are intensively planted with atangle of bananas, cassava, papaya, mangoes,guanabana, limes, medicinal herbs. A thatchedroof community meeting place is blessed bya carabanga tree, with white trumpet flowers,believed to confer protection.

We focus on agroecology, they explain. Tolive at peace with nature, thats what wewant. They conserve seeds, have an organicproduce cooperative store, and throughASOPROCIG teach each other traditionalartisanal farming and fishing practices. The

farm plots are individual, but the fishing iscollective, and the fish is used first to feedthe community and then what is left is soldat market, with ten percent of profits plowedback into the association. They also intensivelyfarm their small gardens where they live in thevillage of El Playn, but those flood, so thatthese plots offer food security when floodinghappens. With all of this, we have survived.We still have to do other jobs. It isnt enoughto pay for electricity, schooling. We are still justliving at subsistence.

ASOPROCIG has succeeded in obtaining aConstitutional Court order and a resolution fromthe Ombudmans Office for the governmentto fulfill its promises for land and productiveprojects. These remain only partially fulfilled.One problem is that we cant rely on locallawyers, and our lawyers [from national humanrights groups] have been threatened and cantalways travel here. Yet despite all obstacles,ASOPROCIG members retain their vision ofcommunal solidarity and small-scale farmingand fishing in harmony with nature.

We want reservas campesinas,a geographicarea where lands that are protected for usefor peasant farming, to be able to plan ourown economy, a campesino leader from thecoalition of Organizations of Displaced Personsfrom Montes de Mara explains. This areahad a great economy that provided food formuch of the country without even access tocreditjust with our sweat. Even without state

inputscredit, agricultural extension servicescampesinos in this area reached a level ofefficiency. If it werent for the war we wouldbe much better off and our children would beprofessionals, says one campesino.

At Finca La Alemania in San Onofre, life isstill very hard, but this brave Afro-Colombiancommunity is an example of tremendouspersistence to obtain their dream: to create asuccessful cattle ranch on the lands from which

Yet despite all obstacles, ASOPROCIG

members retain their vision of communal

solidarity and small-scale farming and fishing

in harmony with nature.


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Campesino Visions: A Path to Follow 17

they were once brutally displaced. A year afterthe Colombian government provided land toan organized group of landless campesinos,who took out a loan for 30 percent of thepropertys cost and for cattle, paramilitarywarlord Rodrigo Cadena arrived, and set upa base with a hundred troops in the middleof the farm. The paramilitaries killed fivecooperative members and disappeared one,killed four of their children, and forced some

of the families to work for them. In 200001,the community displaced. The farm is the siteof several mass graves, as the paramilitarieskilled and buried some of their victims right onthe farm. Local politicians came to celebrateparties with the paramilitaries on the farm. Afterthe demobilization, some community membersdecided to return. But then their leader RogelioMartnez was slain in May 2010, in a high-profile crime that exposed the lack of protectionfor returning land leaders countrywide.15

Community members are still liable for the loansthey took out for the land and cattle, before theywere displaced and lost everything.

Life is a little better this year for Finca LaAlemania than when we visited the yearbefore. The army continues to post somesoldiers near the farm for protection from theparamilitary successor groups who allegedlykilled Rogelio Martnez, though they still dont

patrol around the perimeter of the farm as thecommunity would like. We are happy to hearthat Finca La Alemania won a court case thatforced the banks to eliminate the interest onthe loan that had accumulated while familieswere displacedthough they still owe theprincipal for this loan, which they had used toacquire the land and 600 head of cattle. Andmost important, they now have cattle again,although its just 38 head of cattle. The menand women of Finca La Alemania get this

Members of ASOPROCIG gather with LWR, LAWGEF, and Agenda Caribe to discuss their fishing and farming projects, and theirvisions for protecting the marshland in which they live.

PHOTOCOURTESYOFANNALISEROMOSER

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18 Still a Dream

dreamy expression on their faces when they talkabout the cattle, which were amused to hearthey call Luteranos, as Lutheran World Reliefhelped them with the purchase as part of alarger investment to advance the communitysfarming and small business plans.

Given how much they have lost, we are struckby how little these determined campesinogroups are actually asking from the state: notmuch in the way of credit and assistance, butmainly for the state to enforce its own laws, sothat companies dont illegally take over theirland or plant palm or start mining on theirland, and so that paramilitary successor groupsdont return to threaten or displace them onceagain. What they ask for is so minimalist:Give us secure title to the land, eliminate debt

accumulated while we were forcibly displaced,and enforce actions against groups who try onceagain to take the land away from us.

Recommendations

For the Colombian government:To implement the Victims Law and to

ensure that reverse land reform does not

accelerate:

I Provide substantial orientations to municipalgovernments regarding the implementationof the Victims Law. This orientation shouldemphasize, among other things, theimportance of outreach to victims; of ensuringbroad participation of victims organizations

We Want Justice, We Want the Bodies of Our Children

Martha Diaz wears a T-shirt that says,IM NOT THINKING OF (keeping quiet). Shes theleader of Families United Under a Single Sorrow (AFUSODO). This group of family members

of victims of 58 extrajudicial executions and 40 forced disappearances in the Caribbean coastregion is determined to find justice.

Many of their young sons were lured with promises of brick-laying jobs by recruiterswho handed them over to soldiers who killed them in fake battles in order to jack up theirbody counts. The ASOFUDO cases sound just like the notorious Soacha cases that brokeopen the false positive scandal, but they are much less widely known. According to theUnited Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, there are more than 3000 victimsof extrajudicial executions by government security forces in Colombia, most of the crimescommitted between 2004 and 2008. Some, though far fewer, extrajudicial executions takeplace today. But there has been little justice for these crimes, and the Santos Administrationand the Colombian Congress have been debating constitutional reforms and legislativechanges that will result in more of these cases remaining in military courts, where they arealmost never successfully prosecuted.

Of 58 extrajudicial execution cases, only one has a sentence, and one other is close. Elevencases are still in the military courts, explains Martha. Human rights lawyers covering thesecases say that many extrajudicial execution cases on the Caribbean coast are still mired in themilitary justice system, against Colombian constitutional law. Just in Valledupar, for example,there are 90 alleged extrajudicial execution cases still in the military courts.

We want justice, we want the cases to be tried in the civilian justice system. We mothersalso want to have the bodies of our children. The Attorney Generals office says that they have

so many cadavers to deliver, there isnt money for exhumations. What has anyone done forus? There is much talk and little action.


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Recommendations 19

that are representative of victims found inthe area, as well as of Afro-Colombian andindigenous communities, in the TransitionalJustice Committees, the Victims Roundtablesand in the full application of the VictimsLaw. The orientation should also encourage

municipalities to include implementation ofthe Victims Law in regional and municipaldevelopment plans.

I Provide adequate resources to municipalgovernments and victims attention centersin order to apply the Victims Law, aboveand beyond the resources already availableto attend to internally displaced persons.

I Ramp up provision of legal advice to victimsfor land restitution and reparations via theOmbudsmans Office and local personeros.

I Pay particular attention to the needs ofwomen in obtaining land restitution, titling,and reparations.16

I Greatly expand the titling of land which iscurrently occupied by Afro-Colombian andindigenous communities, including collectivetitles as appropriate, as well as of campesinoswho have been on land for decades butdo not have title. Conduct due diligence toensure that those who have obtained landthrough violence are not benefitted.

I Monitor land restitution units, landrestitution judges, notaries and TransitionalJustice Committees to ensure that they arenot being coopted by those who benefittedfrom stolen land. Investigate, discipline,prosecute and dismiss corrupt land judges,notaries and local officials. Enforce sanctionson landowners and companies that are usingcoercive or other illegal means to expandlandholdings.

I Implement Constitutional Court orders and

Ombudsmans Office resolutions regardingprotecting the land rights of small farmers,indigenous and Afro-Colombian communitiesin Cordba, Sucre and Montes de Mara.

To increase the protection of returning and

returned communities:

I Provide protection to communities at riskof displacement, designing local protectionplans in close consultation with communities.

Protection plans may identify a mix of needsand solutions, including investigations intothreats and attacks, army patrolling aroundthe perimeters of the community in a mannerwhich does not place the community atrisk, investing in community-based rural

development projects, a fixed bridge or roadto provide easier access, electrification,greater presence of a local ombudsman,removing a corrupt local official, and properlylegalizing land titles.

I As part of these protection plans, theMinistry of Interior should establish and localauthorities should implement an emergencyreaction protocol in order to engage civiliangovernment authorities, police and militaryauthorities and hold them accountable

for their obligations to provide 24-hour,urgent protection to returned and returningcommunities and land rights leaders.

I Strengthen the existing Early WarningSystem by allowing the Ombudsmans officeor Ministry of the Interior to issue an earlywarning directly, rather than waiting forapproval from the Ministry of Defense; byensuring that the systems risk reports aremade public and that disciplinary sanctionsare issued when warnings are disregarded bylocal authorities or military officials. Greatly

expand the presence ofpersoneros and thesupport for their work.

I Promptly investigate and prosecuteassassinations of land rights leaders andother human rights defenders, as wellthreats and attacks against them. Onlyprompt investigations and punishment candissuade new attacks.

Regarding the implementation of the Free

Trade Agreement:

I Fully enforce the Labor Action Plan,including improving investigation andprosecution of threats and attacks againsttrade unionists; improving protection of tradeunionists; and eliminating all forms of illegalsubcontracting.

I Create an adequately-financed fund toprovide credit and technical assistance tosmall farmers whose livelihoods are likely tobe harmed by the Free Trade Agreement.


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20 Still a Dream

To the U.S. government:

I Condition assistance for the Victims Law ongreatly improved actions to protect returnedand returning communities and land rightsleaders. Protection plans must be created

and implemented with full participation ofthe affected communities.

I Provide assistance for protection programsfor communities and land titling as partof support for the Victims Law. Provideincreased legal accompaniment for victimsvia the Ombudsmans Office andpersoneros.Carefully monitor these programs withinput from victims associations and humanrights groups to ensure they effectivelybenefit the intended population. Fund andwork with existing campesino and victimsorganizations rather than creating new ones,and ensure funding unites, not divides,social movements.

Latin America Working Group Education Fund

424 C Street NEWashington, DC 20002

202.546.7010www.lawg.org

2012 by Latin America Working Group Education Fund and Lutheran World Relief

This publication was funded by Lutheran World Relief and the Foundation to Promote Open Society.

I Withhold certification on human rightsconditions on the law if the Colombiangovernment approves legislation that resultsin major human rights violations by militarymembers being investigated by the militaryjustice system.

I Actively monitor the implementation ofthe Labor Action Plan, pressing for fullimplementation, particularly elimination ofall forms of illegal subcontracting, protectionof the right to organize, protection of unionleaders, and investigation and prosecution ofthreats and attacks against union members.

I Urge the Colombian government to take amuch more vigorous approach to capturingand dismantling paramilitary successorgroups. Urge careful monitoring of situation

on Caribbean coast as paramilitaryleadership is released from jail, includingincreased protection for victims and humanrights defenders.

Endnotes1 Lisa Haugaard and Annalise Romoser, No Relief in Sight: Land and

Violence on the Caribbean Coast of Colombia, Latin America WorkingGroup Education Fund and Lutheran World Relief, May 2011, http://www.lawg.org/storage/documents/Colombia/no%20relief%20in%20sight.pdf

2 See Diana Arango, US Office on Colombia,Against All Odds; TheDeadly Struggle of Land Rights Leaders in Colombia, October2011, http://www.usofficeoncolombia.org/uploads/application-pdf/

againstalloddsfinal.pdf3 USAID, 2012 Public Policy Mid-Year Review, Public Policy Update#70, June 25, 2012.

4 Ibid.5 Ibid.6 Procuradura General de la Nacin, Dr. Alejandro Ordez Maldonado,

ante el Congreso de la Republica, Informe de Seguimiento yCumplimiento de la Ley de Vctimas y Restitucin de Tierras en elMarco de la Justicia Transicional a favor de las Vctimas del ConflictoArmado, 23 de agosto, 2012, http://www.procuraduria.gov.co/portal/Procuraduria-General_de_la_Nacion_present__ante_el_Congreso_de_la_Republica_informe_sobre_el_primer_ano_de_seguimiento_a_la_Ley_de_reparaci_n_integral_a_v_ctimas.news

7 Ibid, p. 14.8 Anna Vogt, Mennonite Central Committee SEED volunteer, When a

Commemoration is Not a Commemoration, The Llama Diaries blog,March 20, 2012, http://thellamadiaries.wordpress.com/page/2/ .

9 Juicio Historico en Mampujn, Semana, April 24, 2010, http://www.semana.com/nacion/juicio-historico-mampujan/138041-3.aspx

10 For an analysis of the consolidation strategy in Montes de Maria,see Abigail Poe, Adam Isacson, Yamile Salinas and Nancy Snchez,Waiting for Consolidation, February 1, 2012, Center for InternationalPolicy, Washington Office on Latin America, Asociacin Minga,and INDEPAZ, http://www.ciponline.org/research/entry/waiting-for-consolidation .

11 ILSA, Movimiento por la Paz, Colectivo de Comunicaciones Montesde Mara, et al, Reporte Estado de los Municipios y Organizaciones

Departamento de Bolvar, Inscripcin Mesa de Vctimas, abril 2012.12 Personeros piden recursos y apoyo para atender vctimas, ElTiempo, el 12 de julio 2012, http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/cali/ARTICULO-WEB-NEW_NOTA_INTERIOR-12026155.html

13 Informe de Riesgo No. 007, Carmen de Bolvar, Mara la Baja y lascomunidades de San Cayetano y Mapumjn.

14 This was published as a LAWG blog and reprinted in the ChristianScience Monitor.

15 Una nueva vctima que reclama por sus tierras, Verdad Abierta,May 5, 2011, http://verdadabierta.com/component/content/article/199-nunca-mas/3238-una-nueva-victima-que-reclamabapor-sus-tierras.

16 See recommendations in CIASE, Casa de la Mujer, Colectivo Mujeresal Derecho, et al, El enfoque diferencial de los Derechos de lasMujeres en material de restitucin, recomendaciones y observacionesa la reglamentacin de la Ley 1448 de 2011, and Colectivo Mujeresal Derecho, Aportes a la Audiencia Pblica del 13 de junio de 2012de Seguimiento a la Ley 1448, Barranquilla, 13 de junio, 2012.

Lutheran World Relief

700 Light StreetBaltimore, MD 21230

[email protected]

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