Colombia: national farmer strike continues

More than 2500 farmer and indigenous delegates rejected the proposal by President Santos, dubbing it of "more of the same" and clearly not enough. 

The popular mobilizations were expected to continue yesterday in Colombian cities as the government is obviously unwilling to meet the demands by the People of guaranteeing land rights to indigenous and Afro-Colombian groups and to make a proper land reform that dismantles the large properties and guarantees that the land belongs in essence to the farmers (workers).  The suppression of the FTA with North America is also among their demands, because it forces them to import food, what is plainly absurd when you can produce it.

In parallel there is a teacher strike whose participants are again not satisfied by the agreement reached between the Government and FECODE (a union).

Source: WG[es].

Colombia: police murders four, including a child

Four more Colombian citizens were murdered by the police forces in the context of the farmer strike that shatters the South American country. Other 35 people were injured. 

The massacre took place in the village of Mojarras, in the department of Cauca, SE of the country. 

The exact number of victims is yet provisional but it is known that a boy aged six was killed by inhalation of tear gas. Among the injured there is a human rights activist: Deivid de Jesús Hurtado. 

The latest informations said that the victims were arriving to the hospital San José of Popayán (departmental capital), where there was a growing concentration of people, mostly students. 

Besides tear gas police forces used live fire and even explosive devices. Many of the victims were caused by these.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Colombia: tens of thousands protest in the South-West

In spite of militarization, the popular uprising in Colombia is far from over. Yesterday a 10,000 strong march of Native Americans took over the city of Popayán (Cauca) blocking a major road in solidarity with the National Strike led by the small farmers.

Also it has been known that the government sent the infamous riot police squad (ESMAD) to the city of Florencia (Caquetá), also in the SW of the country, where more than 15,000 farmers have been protesting since August 19th.

Source: Webguerrillero[es] (link 1, link 2).

Colombia: protests and clashes reach the capital Bogotá

The National Strike initiated by farmers and miners in Colombia has finally reached that islet of relative calm that is the capital Bogotá, as well as Cali and Medellín. 

Thousands marched through the streets peacefully yesterday... until hell broke loose. Clashes left many injured, police shot live fire.

The reaction of President Santos has been to militarize the city. Curfews are already active in several towns but this really looks like a Turkish uprising more and more, particularly as the government has very little legitimacy in a country shattered by decades of civil war and when it is clearly guilty of massacring protesters and not respecting the most basic human rights. 

The seriousness of the popular uprising can be gauged by the fact that Santos had to acknowledge for the first time that the farm sector has been abandoned.  

However he and his ministers appealed to the ghost of the guerrilla, whom they call "terrorists", in order to demonize and divide the protesters. 

But the real issue, the real terrorism is the brutal reality of Capitalist accumulation:

"My purchase power is zero, it's only enough to survive," said Orlando Pamo, 50, an indigenous father of six from central Tolima province who earns less than the minimum wage farming citrus and other fruits. "The government wants us off the land so it can be given to big business. We don't get the benefits companies get."

Sources: Reuters, NBC (photo gallery), Euronews (video), BBC, Webguerrillero[es] (photo gallery and video). 


Update: nice synthetic and musicalized video of the protests (comments in Spanish only but mostly images from the demos and some of the repression):

Colombia: video-compilation of police brutality (national farmer strike)

Beatings, shootings, invasion of private homes, destruction of property and documents... not Attila but the Colombian riot police.

Many testimonies require understanding some Spanish but many other images are self-explainatory.

Colombia: police kills another farmer

Juan Camilo Acosta Acosta was killed by a gas canister thrown directly against his chest by the Colombian riot police (ESMAD) in the village of Fusagasugá (Boyacá department). 

When his comrades attempted to collect the body, the police impeded it, charging again with more tear gas and stunning bombs. The citizenry then concentrated in the local park but they were almost enclosed by the police. A massacre is feared. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Colombia: major protest in Tunja against repression

A pot-banging demonstration took the city of Tunja (Boyacá, Central Colombia) in protest for the disdain and brutal repression that President Santos is adopting against the General Strike, already a week long. 

They demand a comprehensive agrarian policy that takes in account the small farmers, as well as a stop to repression. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Colombia: generalized uprising and brutal police repression

The local (much less the international) media is not reporting on the farmer strike, much less the brutal repression taking place against this uprising, every day more generalized. However the information is leaking via the Internet, including many striking videos, for example:

They do not just repress but also steal food and other produce to farmers:

Source and more videos: Webguerrillero[es].

Colombia: two miners killed by police during strike

Police attacked miners in the district of Irra, epicenter of the indefinite mining strike in Colombia, murdering two with gases. At least 40 children are hospitalized for the same reason. 

Miners in all Colombia are blocking railroad routes as part of the sectoral strike in demand of legal protection for small-scale mining. 

The farmer uprising in Cataumbo continues as well, with some 16,000 people taking part in road blockades and demonstrations. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Colombia: repression against farmers and miners

I guess that writing "fascist Colombia" is oxymoron, so I skipped it. 

Miner protests in the district of Irra, which included a railroad blockade, were brutally repressed with tear gas and other violent means. The main effect of police violence has been to affect civilians in their homes, notably a baby which had to be hospitalized and many other children. The railroad blockade continues in spite of all. 

Colombian miners are striking in 18 of the 34 departments of the country. The strike has an indefinite schedule. Their demands include granting rights to small scale mining, which is the main resource of many peasants, including the derogation of decree 2235, which enables police to destroy machinery of unauthorized miners. 

In the district of Catatumbo, farmer protests, including road blockades, continue in spite of the four murders already perpetrated by the military.

Source: Webguerrillero[es] (link 1, link 2 - includes video).

Colombia: two more farmers murdered by the Army in Catatumbo

The Colombian Army murdered two more farmers today (other two were killed days ago) as they shoot with live fire against the marching crowd marching peacefully towards Ocaña de Santander. Some other 13 at least 30 people were injured.

A speaker of the farmer movement, Jhony Orril, denounced the merciless repression by the armed forces, stating that:

This government does not want peace, they want repression. We denounce and repudiate the military cupola and the government of José Manuel Santos.

Some 100 people demonstrated in Bogotá, before the Ministry of Agriculture, in solidarity with the farmers. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].


Update: video of the massacre:

Colombia: two farmers murdered by the Army in social uprising in Catatumbo

Two people were killed by the violent repression of the Colombian Army against farmer protests in the district of Catatumbo (Norte de Santander). The soldiers shoot with real fire against some 7000 farmers in Ocaña and Tibú, when these attempted to take the local airport as part of their protest. 

The victims are Leonel Jácome and Edilson Jaimes, whose injuries were caused by live fire. There are also many arrested, eight injured and one severely intoxicated by the inhalation of tear gas. 

The Catatumbo farmers have been protesting for the last seven days in demand of the declaration of their district as Agricultural Reservation Zone and a plan to gradually replace drug cultivation by sustainable crops. 

The ultra-reactionary President of Colombia, José Manuel Santos (a posh born in an oligarchic family) claimed with absolutely no evidence that the protests were "infiltrated" by the guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), what has been interpreted as an invitation to have the farmers massacred. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Colombia: farmer protests, violent repression

Some 8000 farmers marched in Ye (Catatumbo district, Norte de Santander) being violently repressed by the Army. Some 10 citizens were severely injured by the soldiers' violence.

Farmers state that they will not stop their protest until the reactionary government of President Santos listens to them. They demand the establishment of a Farmer Reservation Zone in the area and the gradual replacement of illegal crops by sustainable ones.

Preliminary negotiations were broken when Farmer representatives walked out in protest for the presence of Major Rodolfo Palomino, General Director of Police. 

Masked men with cameras, who emerged from the military lines, intimidated and harassed journalists when covering the conflict.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Venezuela: bourgeois opposition bought 18 war aircraft in USA

This is absolutely irregular and, if confirmed, it means a declaration of civil war.

According to José Vicente Rangel (former Vice-President of Venezuela and a journalist by profession, pictured), the bourgeois opposition of Venezuela purchased nothing less than 18 war aircraft in the USA, which are to be stationed in a Colombian base.

In his weekly TV program José Vicente Hoy, Rangel declared that the purchase was signed in San Antonio, Texas, in a meeting between opposition leaders and members of the US military-industrial complex. 

The new rebel 'air force' would be located at a Colombian air base with the coordinates P 11° 25′ 31”, M 72° 7′ 46”. P and M surely stand for parallel and meridian, in Colombia meaning N and W respectively, what means a location in the Guajira Peninsula, North of Maracaibo, just a few kilometers away from the Venezuelan border (→ map).

The rebellious purchase is meant to be effective by November this year and may signal the beginning of an armed rebellion of some sort.  

The veteran journalist did not reveal the source of his information but asked the security agencies to check the veracity of it.

Rangel also mentioned that the travels and expenses of the bourgeois opposition coalition MUD are financed by the US Congress via the National Democratic Foundation. 

Sources[es]: TeleSur, Tercera Información, El Diario.