Alejandra Miller Restrepo, Cauca regional coordinator of Ruta Pacifica de las Mujeres, talks about this thirteen-year-old movement of Colombian women against violence. The group is famous for groundbreaking direct actions joining campesino, black, indigenous and urban women in massive mobilizations or "rutas," often held in locations controlled by armed groups who target women. […]
Sugar cane cutters in Colombia, most of them Afro-Colombian and indigenous, won a major victory with the end of a strike on December 4 which awarded them concessions including pay increases, 15 days of paid vacation per year, some job stability in the face of a mechanizing industry and Sundays off. […]
Social conflict has overtaken the center of the political stage, displacing President Alvaro Uribe, who merely repeats the script that brought him so much success in the war: the Indians, sugarcane workers, teachers, government workers, truckers, and anyone else who protests and mobilizes is being manipulated by the FARC guerrillas. […]
On November 26th, seven people were kidnapped on the road leading out of Jambaló’s town center, in the village of Pioyá. Five were liberated later that night, and the other two in the early hours of the next day. […]
President Bush is using his final days in office to push through a free trade agreement with Colombia that would reward one of the hemisphere’s worst human rights abusers. […]
There was a bit of nostalgia running through the voice of Aida Quilqué. "The Minga has constructed community in Bogotá," she said as indigenous leaders wrapped up six weeks of mobilization and pledged to continue their resistance campaign in their territories.
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From the streets in the center of the city, to the Plaza del Ché at the National University where an international forum was held on Saturday, from the media centers of the indigenous movement to the dozens of meetings taking place around the city where "Mingueros" are discussing the five point agenda with all the sectors that are interested to listen, the enthusiasm and energy of the popular movement can be felt.
Bogotá, Colombia-As up to 6,000 indigenous protesters participating in the ongoing "Minga Popular" approached the city limits of Ibagué, in the department of Tolima, they were met by a squadron of mounted and special forces police known as ESMAD, as well as the Army, who were given explicit orders by President Alvaro Uribe not to let them into the main highway of the city.
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Three weeks ago yesterday, the Indigenous and Popular Mobilization began with a five point agenda of action directed towards the government and the entire nation. Now, after dramatic protests that included the blockade of the Pan American Highway, clashes with heavily armed state security forcesresulting in one indigenous activist killed and over 120 wounded, and a long, arduous march to the city of Cali, the Minga Popular continues, one day after the highly anticipated debate with President Alvaro Uribe. […]
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