This steamy week in Barranca: Political Persecution and Fumigations

Andrés Gil

It's been a long steamy week here in the Oil Capital of Colombia, as Barranca is also known. This week, we have been accompanying local Barranca social organizations who are demanding the release of two leaders of the Farmers' Association of the Cimitarra River Valley (ACVC). The authorities arrested the leaders, Andrés Gil and Miguel Gonzaléz Huepa, in August of 2008, and had held them without charge since then. Only yesterday did they finally bring charges and give them a hearing. As far as I can tell, the charges against them are very vague, something like "associating with the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) guerrilla organization." The leaders of the social organizations regard such accusations as extremely suspicious, in part because the majority of them have received similar accusations as well, and in part because they had held them so long without charge. They believe that there is a concerted effort among government forces to silence such groups by detaining them or bogging them down in legal proceedings. Many leaders have also been threatened by paramilitary groups. Before a year a go or so, I would guess that these leaders would have been killed by paramilitaries instead. I surmise that there has been pressure recently from the Colombian government to keep the number of political assassinations down in order to look good as Colombia negotiates a free trade agreement with the US. So this is their alternative form of repression.

We've also been hearing and seeing helicopters above our house recently, which generally means one thing...fumigations. Yes, planes made in the USA with support from helicopters have been spraying herbicides all over the area. They supposedly are trying to kill coca plants, but they're definitely killing a lot of other things too. ACVC actually has a water buffalo project that is financed in part by the European Union. The farm was heavily fumigated on Tuesday and they're afraid the buffalo will get sick or even die.

Do you think President Obama would reconsider Plan Colombia (the US-funded fumigations program)? It's lots of money, doesn't really work, and has been devastating for Colombian small farmers. What do you say? Who's with me? Let's get organized!