Colombia

In the large town
Vitonico
the son of the star
Juan Tama
studied the coca leaves
and fortold:
even more terrible times will come
times of war and
bloodshed
where every voice that rises
shall be silenced.
They will destroy
the earth
and flesh;
they will strive to erase
eternally
our language.
But
from the embers,
from the rubble,
from the despoiled land,
from the condemned people,
from oblivion,
will arise new beings.
New hands will seize arms
and injustice will be driven out
forever.
The martial tunes
from reeds
announced the hour had arrived
for Juan Tama.
The elders say
he became lost in the mountains
on the road which travels
to the Patalo lagoon
to take his place
in the heavens.
A poem based on the Paez myth of Juan Tama
38
A Paez woman stoops over the
cook fire in her mud hut and says,
“The Indians have always fought
alone. We fight for our land, our
language, our customs. Now the
government wants to destroy us.
And if we survive, we’ll know we
did it alone!”
The woman speaking with so
much pride is a members of the In-
dian defense organization CRIC
(Regional Council of the Cauca In-
dians). Her husband is on the ex-
ecutive committee of CRIC. He
and thirty other Indian leaders
have been hiding in the mountains
from government troops since ear-
ly March. Six other Indian leaders
and four white sympathizers have
been in prison since mid-February.
They are suspected, according to
the government, of belonging to
the recently discovered urban
guerrilla group named M-19.
According to an Amnesty Inter-
national report on the situation,
they have all been subjected to
tortures including electric shocks,
beatings, starvation, near-
drowning in mud, and lighted
matches applied to their testicles.
The entire Cauca province is now
under official military state of
seige. What is the cause of such
heavy repression? The author
spent a week travelling through
the region, interviewing the In-
dians, anthropologists, church-
men, lawyers and police officers.
LIFE IN CAUCA
The Cauca region is one of the
most important Indian centers in
all of Colombia. The province con-
tains 58% of all the Indian reser-
vations officially recognized by the
Colombian government. It is also
one of the poorest regions in all of
Colombia.
NACLA Reportupdate * update . update * update
According to the study of the In-
dian town Tierradentro done by
the Colombian anthropologist Elias
Sevilla Casas, only 10% of the
population lives in towns. The rest
live in mud huts scattered through-
out the mountains and connected
to the outside world only by
treacherous horse paths. It is not
uncommon for the few dirt roads
to be a week’s walk from each
other.
Sevilla Casas estimates that the
infant mortality rate is 20% and
that the literacy rate may be as
low as 8% in some areas. The diet
consists mainly of rice, potatoes,
yucca root, and an occasional
egg. Says a local schoolteacher,
“They’re starving. You see it just
by looking at them. The Indians are
also plagued by endemic tubercu-
losis, parasites and malnutrition.
Despite their poverty and isola-
tion-or perhaps because of it-
the Indians of the Cauca, and
especially the Paez, have been
famous for their long history of
resistance to outside “invaders”.
Around their cook fires they still tell
their children about their legen-
dary warrior protector, Juan Tama,
son of the rivers. Using the power
of the thunder, he slew thousands
of invading Pijao Indians (Indians
contracted to fight for the Spanish
Conquistadors) in one terrible bat-
tle. Indeed, so fiercely did the Paez
resist the Conquista that the Span-
iards termed them Indians of
“mala paz” (ill-peace), and were
forced to withdraw their one settle-
ment from within the reservation.
Throughout history they have
remained marginalized in Colom-
bia, and on occasion they have
rebelled violently. The one con-
stant in their history has been their
passive, and sometimes active,
resistance to outside influences
and threats to the sovereignty of
their land.
An anthropologist who works in
the area, and who asked not to be
identified, explained the recent
conflicts. “There has been a more
or less constant conflict over land
ownership between the Indians
and the large landholders since
the time of the Spaniards. Lately,
however, the struggles have
sharpened.
“Since the undeclared civil war
called the ‘Violencia’ of the 1950’s
the whites have been taking ad-
vantage of new roads and mar-
kets, consolidating their control
over their large landholdings and
also absorbing Indian lands. When
the Indians organized themselves
by forming CRIC, of course the
situation became graver. Another
factor is the growing population
pressures and unequal land-
holdings in large parts of the
Benjamin Dindicud, ex-vice president of CRIC and governor of the Paez community of Belalcazar, was killed
February 4, 1979. (Alternativa)
39 JulylAugust 1979update * ate update updt update
Cauca region, which make conflict
almost inevitable.”
Sevilla Casas points out that in
the Indian stronghold of Tierraden-
tro alone, the Indians have lost
25% of their lands since 1954. He
adds, “From the Indian point of
view, the most pitiful situation is
that of reservations which suffer
population pressures because part
of their lands have been seized by
white landlords. Paradoxically,
these landlords do not take advan-
tage of the lands, but simply ‘have
them.’ ”
THE ORGANIZATION CRIC
Since its foundation in 1971,
CRIC has had strong support
among the Paez, the Coconuco,
and the Guanaca Indians, and a
lesser support among the Guam-
bianos of the region. “The purpose
of CRIC,” says one of its spokes-
men, “has been to recover lands,
protect out languages and cus-
toms, strengthen the Indian reser-
vations, and fight for the rights of
the poor.”
The group has fought openly for
these ends, principally using court
battles and non-violent “land
recuperations” (moving onto and
planting unused lands) as its tac-
tics. They have also engaged in
literacy programs for their mem-
bers and have established a series
of co-operative stores in the Indian
communities. “Given the charges
against our leaders,” says the
spokesman, “it is important to
point out that we always worked in
the open, we have never ad-
vocated violence and we have
always been independent of all
political parties.” A Catholic priest
in the area confirms, “Any
violence in this area has been
directed at CRIC, not by it.”
In the eight years since its foun-
dation CRIC has seen more than
40
45 of its leaders assassinated, ac-
cording to group spokesmen.
Groups of armed thugs (parjaros)
roam the mountains at night. “We
know they are paid by the land-
lords,” says the spokesman. “We
know they have a death list. But
the government has never pro-
secuted a single case for the
murder of an Indian.” The latest
victim was Benjamin Dindicue, a
member of CRIC’s executive com-
mittee, who was murdered in his
home by fifteen pajaros on
February 4th.
The most recent group of ar-
rests of Indian leaders began with
the robbery of a large number of
arms by the urban guerrilla group
M-19 on January 1st. This gave the
newly-elected liberal government
of President Julio Turbay Ayala a
perfect opportunity to use its
recently approved “Statute of
Security,” a statute which passes
all crimes “against the integrity
and security of the State” to the
military tribunals. A roundup of
more than 200 leftists, union
leaders, Indian leaders and other
progressives was begun and still
continues. Accusations of torture
have been made by churchmen,
lawyers and international human
rights organizations. All of the ar-
rested are accused of being
members of the M-19. Under mili-
tary “justice” they face up to four-
teen years in jail.
“It’s a witchhunt,” says CRIC
lawyer Alvaro Velasco Alvarez. But
the repression isn’t intended just
to destroy CRIC or stop the
popular movement, but rather to
begin a new model of develop-
ment like the famous ‘peace’ of
Pinochet.” Although the govern-
ment continues to deny its use of
torture, Velasco Alvarez says, “I,
as a lawyer, swear that my clients,
the Indians, have been tortured.”
His observation is confirmed by a
member of the Carabineros (mili-
tary police) stationed in Tierraden-
tro. The officer remarked to this
author, “Of course they’re tortur-
ing them. They wouldn’t talk if they
didn’t torture them.”
While the resolution of the
events in Cauca and in the rest of
Colombia remains unclear, what is
clear is that the government has
not succeeded in its efforts to
destroy or intimidate CRIC. Says
WRITE!
Amnesty International urges
concerned people to send let-
ters or telegrams to support
CRIC and its imprisoned
leaders:
Marcos Avirama, CR1C
president
Taurino lZluscuk, CRIC
secretary
Edgar Avirama, CRIC ex-
secretary
Miguel Nuscue
Mario Escu6
Laurentino Apusta
Communications should be
sent to:
Sr. Julio Casar Turbay Ayala
Presidente de la Republica
Bogota, D.E., Colombia
Sr. Gilberto Cruz Villegas
Gobernador del Cauca
Popaydn, Cauca, Colombia
CRIC
Apartado Aereo 516
Popaydn, Cauca, Colombia
NACLA Reportupdate * update * update * update
the Paez woman in her hut, “The
government doesn’t understand,
but we are not just an organization
or an office or an executive com-
mittee. We are a movement!”
She then explains, “Juan Tama
did not die after fighting the Span-
iards. When he saw that the
Paeces were free he left, leaving
his titles and his possessions and
he disappeared into the Lagoon of
Juan Tama. For years he has been
resting and some even forgot him.
But we are going to ask his help,
and as long as there is a single In-
dian there will be a CRIC!”