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Humanitarian Caravan Advances In Colombia

Above photo: Caravan for Life, Peace and Permanence in the Territory joined by over 100 social organizations.

More than 100 social organizations lead humanitarian caravan in five regions of Colombia

The Caravan for Life, Peace and Permanence in the Territory is an act of solidarity with the people living in the regions most affected by violence in Colombia. It is made up of multiple national and international social organizations that, from July 23 to August 23, will travel through five regions of the South American country (Antioquia, Sur de Bolívar, Arauca, Chocó, Cauca and Valle del Cauca), in order to record denunciations associated with the violation of Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, as well as the alternatives that the population is building to live in dignity.

Currently, caravan members are in the south of Bolivar, a region that for three years has been experiencing a humanitarian crisis due to the presence of paramilitarism. The Caravan recorded a paramilitary attack of the Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (AGC) in the municipality of Micoahumado on April 18, in which 2 young people were killed and more than 450 were displaced.

In this northern region of the country, communities expressed concern about increased militarization and fighting near populated areas. This, together with land mines, affects the agricultural and livestock production of the communities, which, nevertheless, resist and remain in the territory because they consider it their own.

Loss Of Peasant Identity

On July 27, the first of the five tours of the Humanitarian Caravan for Life, Peace and Permanence in the Territory ended in Antioquia. In this region, the testimonies focused around denunciations against de-peasantization, extractivism, armed conflict, as well as the proposals for agroecology (markets and peasant fairs), citizen participation (oversight of environmental licensing processes), and memory and culture were systematized by the caravan members and will be part of the final report to be presented next October to the Congress of the Republic of Colombia, international institutions such as the United Nations (UN), and public opinion in general.

The “de-peasantization“ is a process of loss of recognition of the rights of the peasantry by the state and the uprooting of families from their territories, a dynamic imposed by violence that has caused displacement and abandonment of the land. However, the community in San Francisco has proposals to recover its identity through markets and peasant fairs that promote food sovereignty and agri-food territorialities that ensure a dignified life in the countryside.

Santiago Gómez, a farmer who for years and together with the Antioquia Peasant Association (ACA) has been working in San Francisco to promote food sovereignty and agrifood territorialities that ensure a dignified life in the countryside.

Gómez explained that the Antioquia Campesino Association accompanies “the campesino communities on issues of food sovereignty and organization, given that in the territory we have many pressures derived from some projects such as hydroelectric plants, as well as from agro-toxins.”

Memory And Culture For A Dignified Life

In the rural zone of Antioquia, memory and the reencounter with the territory mark the history of the communities that have been trampled by extractivism and the violation of human rights, extrajudicial crimes committed by the Colombian State.

In municipalities such as Granada, there are the “Nunca Más” (Never Again) exhibitions, a show of reconciliation in the context of violence between armed groups. There, photographs are the means for the community to defend its memory and struggle to improve the living conditions of its youth. There are also proposals such as the representation and dignification of craft traditions such as the Chicha Festival, a fermented drink very common among the peasant population.

This article was written by the Communications Commission of the Caravan for Life, Peace and Permanence in the Territory.

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