Strength of Wayuu Women- Sütsüin Jiyeyuu Wayuu (FMW-SJW) DENOUNCE Stigmatization, persecution and threats

DENOUNCE

Stigmatization, persecution and threats

This time the threats have been directed directly to our movement and to the people who are a part of it. We have completed 14 years of tireless work in which our only weapon has been The Word we raise in defense of what we consider just for the protection of Wounmainkat - Our Mother Earth, Our Rights, and the right to live in peace.

We denounce and repudiate the new strategies of threats that have been carried out this time by the "Águilas Negras - Bloque Capital DC" through the creation of false profiles on social media networks, on April 29 at 3:50 PM, they published a pamphlet in which we are persecuted, stigmatized and threatened.

We allow ourselves to mention the facts in detail that demonstrate a new collective threat against our movement, Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu - Sütsüin Jiyeyuu Wayuu (Strength of Wayuu Women), which specifically mentions the names of several people in our movement:

THE FACTS

1. Several of the people that make up our movement began to receive messages through social media from people close to us alerting us to the news that a pamphlet was circulating on social media in which we were threatened.

2. Approximately at 4 pm on April 29, 2019, through a profile of the social network Facebook with the name of "Pedro Lastra", two images were published and shared: one corresponded to threats of 2018 in which the logos of our organization appeared next to logos that represent the Wayuu Nation Movement, the Wayuu Araurayu Organization and the ONIC (National Indigenous organization of Colombia); the second image, specifically contained the logos of the Strength of Wayuu Women, as well as directly mentioning the names and surnames of 6 of its members: Karmen Ramirez, Miguel Ramirez, Jakeline Romero, Deris Paz, Luis Misael Socarras and Dulcy Cotes.

3. The publication of the profile "Pedro Lastra", is accompanied by a comment in which he mentions and tags two more people: Carlos Daniel Hernández and Rosa María Cano.

4. When looking over the social network site of Facebook to try to get more information about "Pedro Lastra" - around 9 PM the profile had already been deleted.

It is not the first time that misogynistic and hate-filled campaigns have targeted the Strength of Wayuu Women; we have also have had to face death threats and persecution which has even forced people of our movement to have to flee the territory. Despite the denouncements and accusations we have raised to the competent institutions, they have never given results that assure us that our work for the defense of peace, our rights, the rights of Wounmainkat and our own lives are not in danger.

In a determined way, we the people who make up el Movimiento de la Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu - Sütsüin Jiyeyuu Wayuu declare to us:

1. In permanent defense of the rights of Wounmainkat - Our Mother Earth.

2. In permanent defense of Peace that we have helped to build from our struggles.

3. In defense and permanent struggle for water, territory and life itself.

Desde las amenazas proferidas en nuestra contra el 10 de octubre de 2018, no ha habido resultado alguno a nuestras denuncias.  Responsabilizamos, una vez más, al Estado Colombiano, por cualquier hecho que atente contra nuestro trabajo o nuestras vidas y hacemos una vez más, las siguientes  

Since the threats made against us on October 10, 2018, there have been no results to our complaints. We once again hold the Colombian State, for any fact that threatens our work or our lives and we do once again, the following

DEMANDS

1. We request the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to grant precautionary measures to the Movement of the Strength of Wayuu Women- el Movimiento Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu - Sütsüin Jiyeyuu Wayuu, so that we can continue our work for the defense of Wounmainkat - Our Earth, Winkat - water, Kataa o'ui - life, and Anajirra A'in -Peace.

2. We ask the current government to initiate an immediate plan of action to guarantee compliance with the jurisprudence issued by the Constitutional Court in favor of indigenous peoples to prevent the extermination of our peoples because of the war. In addition, we ask that we be given priority due to our condition of serious risk in which we find ourselves in order to protect our lives.

3. We summon a Diplomatic Mission and Corps with accreditation in Colombia to monitor the delicate and vulnerable situation in which we find ourselves as defenders of the human rights in the Wayuu People. We also request that the current government be required to comply with the Peace Agreements, as well as with the internationally acquired commitments regarding human rights, especially those that have to do with the rights of indigenous peoples and human rights defenders.

4. We urge the National Protection Unit (UNP) to reevaluate the measures of the protection plan of the FMW-SJW as well as to reinforce protection strategies from a holistic vision, which contemplates spiritual protection as part of the program that allows us to guarantee not only work in our territory, but also the protection of life.

Wajira - Wounmaikat

April 30, 2019

La Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu – Sütsüin Jiyeyuu Wayuu (FMW-SJW) D E N U N C I A Estigmatización, persecución y amenazas

FUENTE ORIGINAL

D E N U N C I A

Estigmatización, persecución y amenazas

Esta vez las amenazas han sido dirigidas directamente a nuestro movimiento y a las personas que lo integramos.  Hemos completado 14 años de trabajo incansable en los cuales nuestra única arma ha sido La Palabra que levantamos en defensa de lo que consideramos justo para la protección de Wounmainkat - Nuestra Madre Tierra, Nuestros Derechos, y el derecho a vivir en paz.

Denunciamos y repudiamos las nuevas estrategias de amenazas que han sido esta vez efectuadas por las “Águilas Negras - Bloque Capital D.C.” a través de la creación de perfiles falsos en redes sociales que desde el día 29 de abril a las 3:50 de la tarde, publicaron un panfleto en el que se nos persigue, estigmatiza y amenaza.

Nos permitimos mencionar los hechos en detalle que evidencian una nueva amenaza colectiva en contra de nuestro movimiento Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu - Sütsüin Jiyeyuu Wayuu, la cual menciona de manera específica el nombre de varias de personas de nuestro movimiento:

L O S   H E C H O S

1. Varias de las personas que integran nuestro movimiento comenzamos a recibir a través de mensajes de alerta provenientes de personas cercanas, la noticia de que circulaba en redes sociales un panfleto en el cual se nos amenazaba.
2. Aproximadamente a las 4 de la tarde del 29 de abril de 2019, a través de un perfil de la red social Facebook con el nombre de "Pedro Lastra", fueron publicadas y compartidas,  dos imágenes: una correspondía a amenazas del 2018 en la que logotipos de nuestra organización aparecieron junto a logotipos que representan al Movimiento Nación Wayuu, La Organización Wayuu Araurayu y La ONIC; la segunda imagen, contenía de manera específica los logotipos de La Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu, así como también mencionaba de forma directa los nombres y apellidos de 6 de sus integrantes: Karmen Ramírez, Miguel Ramirez, Jakeline Romero, Deris Paz, Luis Misael Socarras, Dulcy Cotes.   
3. La publicación del perfil "Pedro Lastra", es acompañada por un  comentario en el que menciona y etiqueta a dos personas más: Carlos Daniel Hernández y Rosa María Cano.
4. Al revisar la red social Facebook, para tratar de obtener  información sobre "Pedro Lastra" - a eso de las 9 de la noche, el perfil ya había sido eliminado.

No es la primera vez que campañas misóginas y generadoras de odio, se han divulgado en contra de la Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu;  hemos también sido amenazadas de muerte y la persecución que hemos tenido que enfrentar incluso ha obligado a personas de nuestro movimiento a huir del territorio.  A pesar de las denuncias que hemos elevado a las instituciones competentes, nunca han revelado resultados que nos aseguren que nuestro trabajo por la defensa de la paz, de nuestros derechos,  de los derechos de Wounmainkat y nuestras vidas propias no corren peligro.

De manera decidida,  las personas que hacemos parte del Movimiento Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu - Sütsüin Jiyeyuu Wayuu nos declaramos:

1. En defensa permanente de los derechos de Wounmainkat - Nuestra Madre Tierra.
2. En defensa permanente de la Paz que hemos ayudado a construir desde nuestras luchas.  
3. En defensa y lucha permanente por el agua, el territorio y la vida misma.  

 S O L I C I T U D E S

1. Solicitamos a la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos otorgar medidas cautelares al movimiento Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu - Sütsüin Jiyeyuu Wayuu para que podamos continuar con nuestro trabajo por la defensa de Wounmainkat - Nuestra Tierra, Winkat - el agua,  Kataa o’ui  - la vida, y Anajirra A’in - La Paz.  
2. Pedimos al actual gobierno que inicie un plan de acción inmediata para garantizar el cumplimiento de la jurisprudencia emitida por la Corte Constitucional en favor de los pueblos indígenas para evitar el exterminio de nuestros pueblos a causa de la guerra.  Además, pedimos que se atienda de manera priorizada la grave condición de riesgo en que nos encontramos, a fin de proteger nuestras vidas. 
3. Convocamos a las Misiones y Cuerpos Diplomáticos acreditados en Colombia para monitorear la delicada y vulnerable situación en la que nos encontramos les defensores de derechos humanos en el Pueblo Wayuu.    Así mismo solicitamos que exijan al actual gobierno, dar cumplimiento a los Acuerdos de Paz, así como con a los compromisos adquiridos internacionalmente en materia de derechos humanos, especialmente los que tienen que ver con los derechos de los pueblos indígenas y defensores de derechos humanos.
4. Instamos a la Unidad Nacional de Protección (UNP) a reevaluar las medidas del plan de protección de la FMW-SJW  así como a reforzar las estrategias de protección desde una visión holística, que contemple la protección espiritual como parte del programa que nos permita garantizar no solo el trabajo en nuestro territorio, sino también la protección de la vida.  

Wajira - Wounmaikat

30 de abril de 2019

2da Jornada "Todas las manos a la siembra en el Socuy"

Estamos tod@s invitados al Encuentro Intercultural Por La Autonomía y 2da Jornada de Siembra y Reforestación en el Río Socuy, Zulia, Venezuela 20 al 23 de Julio 2017.

Asiste y convoca!!!

En esta actividad participarán estudiantes de la UBV del PNF Agroalimentaria y del PNF de Turismo, quienes intercambiarán saberes con los habitantes de la zona.

Igualmente, participará el grupo cultural indígena "Rostros Wayuu" dirigido por Ronald Palmar Urariyu, quienes presentarán bailes de yonna con sus distintas variantes.

Por otra parte, en la actividad también habrá elaboración y exposición de tejidos, artesanías y cerámicas wayuu, con el acompañamiento de la Fundación Indígena "Kottirrawa".

¡únete a la lucha por la tierra, el agua y la dignidad!.

MAS INFORMACIÓN

Wayuu Leader Jakeline Romero receives death threats

THREATS MADE TO A WAYUU LEADER FROM THE INDIGENOUS WAYUU RESERVE ZAHINO AND MEMBER OF THE STRENGTH OF WAYUU WOMEN. 

 

The Strength of Wayuu Women movement with the indigenous Wayuu reserve of Zahino denounces nationally and internationally to the institutions of the Colombian State, Public Ministries, Non-governmental organizations, and different social organizations, the recent human rights violations being made to different leaders and human rights defenders in times of peace.

Facts: At 18:49 on December 13^th, Ms. Jakeline Romero Epiayu, an indigenous Wayuu woman from the indigenous reserve of Zahino, received a death threat aimed at her and her family through a text message on her personal cell phone number.

“Do not get involved in things that are not your business, avoid problems, your daughters are very beautiful and think of them, *profanity* avoid problems because I will even make your mother disappear if you continue to talk…”

The harsh words from an unknown sender, just a cell phone number that sends the texts.

These acts occur during the victim´s participation in a working group for indigenous organizations, State entities and international cooperation in the city of Cartagena in a multi-sector dialogue regarding the right to prior consultation.

These acts have been notified to the Attorney General as well as all the other pertinent official entities in order to conduct an investigation. None the less it is very worrying these acts against indigenous women and human rights defenders in the south of the Guajira.

It is very worrying that in these times where indigenous peoples and especially women are making historical contributions in the construction of peace in different territories, that these heinous acts continue to occur and are increasing this year in the most vulnerable regions of the country.

It is worth recalling the prior systematic threats that the victim´s family has received since 2005 by paramilitary groups. In the year of 2012 direct threats were made to the victim and her sister and in 2014 the victim´s under age daughter Genesis Gutierrez, being the target of these threats. All of these situations have been denounced before all the competent entities and to date all of these acts remain in impunity. The Strength of Wayuu Women has continued to denounce these acts as well as the threats to other members before the competent state entities.

It is urgent to take necessary precautions regarding the vulnerable situation of the Wayuu women, leaders within their indigenous community, that have been targeted because of openly denouncing in public debates the different situations where the rights of the Wayuu People and Mother Earth have been violated, the situation of the Wayuu victims of the armed conflict, the conditions of impoverishment of the communities, the corruption that impacts Wayuu children and women, and other situations that have put people’s lives and wellbeing at risk.

Based on the above acts, the Strength of Wayuu Women and the indigenous Wayuu reserve of Zahino in the municipality of Barrancas in the South of La Guajira rejects these threats made against the life and wellbeing of the leader Jakeline Romero Epiayu and her family. We demand immediately that:

1: All the official, competent entities of control and investigation, such as the attorney General have been presented the denouncements regarding the acts. For these entities to conduct an immediate and urgent investigation of the origin of the threats made against Jakeline Romero Epiayu to find out the intellectual and material authors of the threats.

2: To the National Government of Colombia so that thought the Ministry of Interior and Justice and its program of protection, activate the necessary urgent measures for the collective protection of the members of the Strength of Wayuu Women, who have denounced threats in other moments yet continue to remain in imminent danger.

3: To International human rights organizations such as the High Commission of the United Nations for Human Rights in Colombia to follow its own mandate and demand that the Colombian State take the necessary measures to protect indigenous women and all human rights defenders.

4: We make a fraternal call to the National and international human rights organizations, the diplomatic missions and entities accredited in Colombia, to manifest themselves rejecting these acts and equally demanding that Colombian authorities for the immediate protection of the life of Jakeline Romero Epiayu and a permanent monitoring of the situation of Wayuu women who find themselves in a situation of imminent threat.

5: To the National Unity of Protection, to make effective as soon as possible all the necessary protection measures for the protection of Jakeline Romero Epiayu, taking in regards the Decree Law 4633 of 2011, the Decree 4912 of 2011 and the orders emitted by the Constitutional Court  in the Auto 004 of 2009 and all other related autos.

6: To the National Unity of Protection to analyze the levels of risk being faced by our organization, the Strength of Wayuu Women and the indigenous Wayuu reserve of Zahino in the municipality of Barrancas in the south of La Guajira in framework of the process of the defense of territorial rights and the violations made to human rights and international humanitarian rights that have impacted the Wayuu people and to examine the possibility of granting protective measures in the context of grave risk being present.

7: To the Unity of Attention and Integral Reparation to Victims, so that in frame of its competencies and in following with the Decree Law 4633 of 2011, at the municipal and departmental level  conduct all the necessary actions and the necessary measures to guarantee the rights and the personal integrity and wellbeing of Jakeline Romero Epiayu, that has been leading a process of inclusion for the indigenous Wayuu reserve of Zahino in the Register of Victims and recognition as collective subjects of reparations.

8: To the Public Ministries (Ombudsman’s Office, Public Defender, Attorney General and Municipal entities) to direct all the necessary efforts to guarantee that all corresponding entities and institutions direct the efforts to conduct with utmost diligence the necessary actions to protect the wellbeing and personal integrity of Jakeline Romero Epiayu and her family.

9: The Presidential Program for Human Rights to formulate a strategy and actions for the integral development of the indigenous peoples of Colombia, within the range of their functions so that competent entities in the present case address the impacted by the above mentioned actions.

10: The Constitutional Court to take the present report and examine it within the framework of Auto 004 of 2009, and recognizing the constant increase of victimization and clear violation of individual and collective rights of the Wayuu People.

11: To the international agencies and other social and civil society organizations that stand in solidarity with indigenous peoples facing these violations and attacks, to direct from their entities and organizations spaces and generate visibility, denouncement and solidarity regarding the present situation and demand that the Colombian State take the necessary actions to guarantee and protect the rights of those who have been threatened. 

Indigenous Peoples, especially women, birth humans for the creation of peace in the world. 

Amenazan de muerte a lideresa Wayuu Jakeline Romero

AMENAZAS CONTRA LIDERESA WAYUU DEL RESGUARDO INDIGENA WAYUU EL ZAHINO, MIEMBRO DEL MOVIMIENTO FUERZA DE MUJERES WAYUU – SUTSUIN JIYEYU WAYUU.

El Movimiento Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu - Sutsuin Jiyeyu Wayuu, en conjunto con el Resguardo Indígena Wayuu El Zahino, nos pronunciamos ante la opinión pública Nacional e internacional, instituciones del Estado Colombiano, Ministerios Publicos, ONG´s y diferentes Organizaciones Sociales, frente al recrudecimiento de violaciones de derechos humanos  en contra de líderes, lideresas, defensores de Derechos  Humanos en Colombia en tiempo de Paz.

Fuente Original: NotiWayuu

 

Hechos:

A las 18: 49Hr del día 13 de diciembre la Señora JAKELINE ROMERO EPIAYU, mujer wayuu del Resguardo Indígena El Zahino, recibe mediante mensaje de texto a su número celular personal, una amenaza de muerte en contra suya y la de su familia: “…NO SE META EN LO QUE NO LE INCUMBE EVITE PROBLEMAS , SUS HIJAS ESTAN MUY LINDAS Y PIENSE EN ELLAS, GRAN MALPARIDA PERJUDICIAL EVITE PROBLEMA POR QUE HASTA SU MADRE SE LA DESAPAREZCO PARA QUE SIGA DE SAPA…”, - las duras palabras de parte de un remitente indeterminado solo un numero de celular quien envía los mensajes de texto.

El hecho ocurre durante la participación de la víctima en un grupo de trabajo con organizaciones indígenas, entidades del estado y la cooperación internacional en la ciudad de Cartagena en un dialogo Multisectorial sobre  el derecho de la Consulta Previa.

Los hechos, han sido puestos en conocimiento de la Fiscalía General de la Nación como entidad  oficiales competente para adelantar las investigaciones pertinentes, sin embargo resulta preocupante el aumento de estos hechos hacia mujeres indígenas y líderes defensores de derechos humanos en el Sur de la Guajira.

Es muy preocupante que para épocas donde los pueblos indígenas y en especial las mujeres hacemos  históricamente aportes en la construcción de paz desde los territorios, resulta determinante mente nefasto que estos hechos continúen dándose y de manera creciente en este año en las regiones más vulnerables.

Cabe destacar como antecedente las amenazas sistemáticas  anteriores de las cuales viene siendo víctima la familia de la lideresa desde el año 2005 por parte de grupos paramilitares, sumándose amenazas directas en el 2012 a una de sus hermanas, como lo es la también reconocida lidereza Jazmín Romero Epiayu; posteriormente en el 2014 a su hija menor de edad Génesis Gutiérrez, siendo estas situaciones denunciadas ante las entidades competentes y hasta el momento siguen en la total impunidad, así  mismo el movimiento Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu hemos venido denunciando estos actos hacia otros miembros de la organización y se han elevado las respectivas denuncias antes los entes del estado competentes.

Es urgente tomar medidas frente a la vulnerabilidad a la que se encuentran expuestas las mujeres Wayuu, líderes y lideresas de nuestro pueblo Indígena, por denunciar abiertamente en debates públicos, situaciones de vulneración de derechos que afectan al Pueblo Wayuu y a la madre tierra, la situación de las víctimas Wayuu del conflicto armado, las condiciones de empobrecimiento de las comunidades y la corrupción  que afecta  la niñez y las mujeres indígenas, situaciones que ponen en riesgo la vida y la integridad.

Con fundamento en los hechos previamente relacionados, Fuerza de Mujeres wayuu y El Resguardo Indígena Wayuu El Zahino del Municipio de Barrancas en el Sur de La Guajira rechaza las amenazas proferidas en contra de la vida e integridad personal de la lideresa JAKELINE ROMERO EPIAYU , motivo de la cual solicitamos:

1.  A las entidades oficiales de control y de investigación competentes como la Fiscalía General de la Nación, a donde han sido presentadas las denuncias de los hechos, para que se adelanten de manera inmediata y urgente las investigaciones sobre el origen de los mensajes  amenazantes en contra de la lideresa Jakeline Romero Epiayu para dar con sus actores materiales e intelectuales, perpetradores de las amenazas.

3. Al Gobierno Nacional de Colombia, para que a través del Ministerio del Interior y de Justicia y su programa de protección, se activen las medidas urgentes de protección colectiva a las y los integrantes de la Organización Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu, quienes a pesar de las denuncias proferidas en otras oportunidades por hechos similares que atentan contra sus vidas, siguen en condiciones de riesgo inminente.

4. A los organismos internacionales veedores de la protección de los derechos humanos como la Oficina del Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos (OACNUDH) en Colombia, para que en cumplimiento de su mandato, inste al estado Colombiano a cumplir con las acciones de protección de las mujeres indígenas, así como de todos los defensores y las defensoras

5. Hacemos un llamado fraternal a las Organizaciones Nacionales e Internacionales de DDHH, a las Misiones y Cuerpos Diplomáticos acreditados en Colombia, para que manifiesten su abierto rechazo ante los hechos ocurridos y para que igualmente exijan a las autoridades colombianas, la protección inmediata de la vida de la lideresa wayuu Jakeline Romero Epiayu  y se monitoree de manera permanente la situación de las mujeres Wayuu que se encuentran en riesgo inminente”.

6. A la Unidad Nacional de Protección (UNP), para que se efectúen a la mayor brevedad posible todas las gestiones pertinentes en aras de que se otorguen con carácter URGENTE, medidas de protección a la lideresa wayuu Jakeline Romero Epiayu  teniendo en cuenta los parámetros establecidos al respecto en el Decreto Ley 4633 de 2011, el Decreto 4912 de 2011 y las órdenes emitidas por la Corte Constitucional en el Auto 004 de 2009 y demás autos relacionados.

7. A la Unidad Nacional de Protección (UNP), para que se analicen los niveles de riesgo que a la fecha afronta nuestra  organización Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu – Sütsüin Jiyeyu Wayuú y el Resguardo Indigena wayuu El zahino en el Municipio de Barrancas, Sur de la Guajira, en el marco de procesos de defensa de derechos, en especial territoriales y denuncias de vulneraciones a los Derechos Humanos e infracciones al Derecho Internacional Humanitario que afectan al Pueblo Wayuú y se estudie la posibilidad de otorgar medidas de protección según la gravedad del riesgo identificado.

9.  A la Unidad para la Atención y Reparación Integral a las Víctimas (UARIV), para que en el marco de sus competencias, en el marco del Decreto Ley 4633 de 2011, a nivel departamental y municipal se realicen las acciones que sean pertinentes para generar todas las garantías que en derecho son necesarias para salvaguardar la vida en integridad personal de la lideresa wayuu Jakeline Romero Epiayu, quien viene liderando el proceso de Inclusión del Resguardo de El Zahino en el Registro Único de Victimas y reconocimiento como Sujetos Colectivos de Reparación.

10. Al Ministerio Público (Procuraduría General de la Nación, Defensoría del Pueblo y Personería Municipal competente) para que direccione todos los esfuerzos necesarios en aras de garantizar que las entidades e instituciones direccionen los esfuerzos necesarios cumpliendo con la debida diligencia para que se generen las garantías necesarias para salvaguardar los derechos de  Jakeline Romero Epiayu y su familia.

11. Al Programa Presidencial  para los Derechos Humanos para la formulación de estrategias y acciones para el desarrollo integral de los Pueblos Indígenas de Colombia, para que dentro del resorte de sus funciones direcciones todoslos esfuerzos necesarios para que las entidades competentes en el que se presenta el caso, atiendan de forma integral a la  afectada por los hechos descritos.

12.  A la Corte Constitucional para que se tome el presente reporte como un hecho a estudiar en el marco del Auto 004 de 2009, dando cuenta de la constancia e incremento de hechos victimizantes que claramente vulneran  los derechos individuales y colectivos del Pueblo Wayúu.

13. A las agencias internacionales y demás organizaciones de la sociedad civil solidarias con las problemáticas y vulneraciones de derechos afrontadas por los Pueblos Indígenas, para que direccionen, desde sus funciones misionales, generen escenarios de visibilización, denuncia y coadyuvancia frente a la situación puesta de presente y exijan al Estado Colombiano las acciones necesarias para garantizar y proteger los derechos vulnerados.

Los Pueblos Indígenas y en especial Las Mujeres, parimos seres humanos para La construcción de paz del Mundo.

Polinizaciones: Cross-Pollinating Experiences in Communications and Culture in Defense of Mother Earth

Original Source: Upside Down World

Polinizaciones started simply in 2007, as an initiative of an autonomous pollinator of the Beehive Collective to distribute Plan Colombia posters to communities engaged in land defense and directly impacted by the USA´s military intervention in the region as part of the “War on Drugs.” Since then, Polinizaciones has evolved and metamorphosed into a grassroots network of cultural workers and communicators that use Beehive Collective graphics, street theater, photo & video, murals, social cartography and other arts-based strategies in the promoting a culture of resistance, struggle and liberation in the defense of Mother Earth and the self-determination of indigenous, afro-descendent, peasant and marginalized urban communities impacted by resource extraction industries.




Origins


On April 16^th, 2004, right-wing paramilitaries of the Auto-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), under the command of Jorge 40, massacred 13 indigenous Wayuu women and children in the community of Bahia Portete, in La Guajira Peninsula in northern Colombia and displacing over 600 to Venezuela. While at first many believed that the massacre was connected to the Cerrejon coal mine, whose port of export remains near Bahia Portete, last year Colombian President Jose Manuel Santos announced the creation of the latest National Natural Park exactly in the place of the massacre.  The new “National Park of Bahia Portete” confirms that tourism and green economy interests in the region have benefited from the violent displacement of the local Wayuu people.


In November 2006, a survivor of the massacre was on the first of numerous speaking tours in the USA these heinous acts and demanding justice and the right of a safe return for the displaced. One stop of this tour was at the School of the Americas Watch (SOAW) Vigil, held at the entrance of Fort Benning, Georgia. At this vigil the survivor interacted with the Beehive Design Collective invited an autonomous pollinator of Colombian origin, Entre Aguas, to accompany the Yanama (communal-collective work in the Wayuunaiki language) held every April in Bahia Portete since the massacre occurred.  The following year that Bee would move to Colombia and participated in organizing the 3^rd and 4^th Yanamas, which brought together delegates from across Colombia and the world to accompany the survivors so they could return to mourn their dead in the Clan burial ground, and to verify the continued danger of the situation in La Guajira, which to this day does not allow the displaced to return.


A Socio-ecological niche in need of filling


Apart from assisting the process of the Yanama, Entre Aguas found themselves with a lot of free time while living in the Colombian capitol of Bogotá, and started networking with different local processes. The first story-telling was held at the Centro Cultural Libertario (CCL).  The incorrect assumption that Colombian activists would already know more than a sort-of foreigner about the realities of the US intervention in the region, meant that instead of the traditional story-telling, Entre Aguas just explained the origins, process and history of the Beehive Collective. Quickly it became apparent that actually most people, even those involved in social movements, knew very little about these policies and the Plan Colombia graphic campaign as an educational tool was in great need.


Little by little word of mouth started to spread about free workshops explaining US intervention in Colombia and requests started coming in from all over Bogota.  Different community spaces like the CCL,  CreAcción Espacios, the Vivo Arte Festival and the main campus of the National University became main stays of the buzzings of Entre Aguas as well as new Colombian pollinators, who were so taken aback by the politically-charged graphics that a single Plan Colombia cloth banner was shared and moved all over the place within community spaces, schools, and universities, and many paper poster versions of the graphic were distributed wherever these pollinations took place.




Over time, the limited scope of presenting the graphic and leaving posters became one-sided and the pollinators began to diversify the approach.  The first exercise was in south Bogota, in infamous district of the city, Ciudad Bolivar. Within the neighborhood of Juan Pablo II, the child survivors of the “social cleansing” killings of the AUC of the late 1990s and early 2000s created a youth community space called Semillas Creativas (Creative Seeds), which houses a two classroom preschool, a community kitchen, community library, recording studio for local musicians, silk screen and photo lab.


During a series of workshops, the bees presented both the Plan Colombia and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) graphics, followed by a drawing session where the children drew the images that they liked the most from the graphics, which were later transferred onto silk screens and printed on clothes. The final day was spent silk-screening all of the children´s and neighbor´s clothes, followed in the evening by a community stew that was shared with everyone, performances from local hip-hop and dance groups and a screening of the animated films, Vampires in Havana I & II.  Just as the pollinators were beginning to grasp the potential for how Beehive graphics and art projects would serve as educational tools for communities in resistance within the city, word started to spread and the requests for sharing started to come in from all over Colombia.


The First Polinizaciones Tours


Around the end of 2007 the pollinators in Colombia began accumulating many pictures of the different spaces they visited, and decided to create a blog to share short briefs and pictures of their experiences in these different spaces.  The blog helped propel this available resource to many more interested communities as well as keep our North American pollinator cousins informed of how far the Beehive graphics were traveling.


In the first couple of months of 2008 the first regional tour was held in the southwest departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca.  It was the first of many times that the graphics would make rounds through the indigenous Nasa and Misak communities in Cauca, community spaces in the cities of Cali and Popayan as well as the University of Cauca and the University of Valle. In Cauca the Polinizaciones tour connected with the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca´s (CRIC) Education program and worked alongside the teachers at both campuses of the Center of Bilingual and Intercultural Education and Formation (CEFIC), as well as the education and communication programs of the Misak Nation, to discuss how a graphic based resource could be easily appropriated as part of the schools´ curriculum and be used entirely in indigenous languages such as Nasa Yuwe of Namrik.


Meanwhile the blog started to grow in content as the articles began to deepen and widen the information, not only about the workshops but also give more contexts of the territories and communities, as well as local conflicts occurring. Soon after completing the first tour the requests began to pour in and the planning of different tours started. The need for more cloth banners became apparent.


During this time, two members from the Take Back the Land Movement (TBTL) in Miami, FL, USA expressed interest in going to Colombia and meeting with leaders from Afro-Colombian land defense processes. Linking up with Process of Black Communities (PCN), a small tour visited both the Pacific-coast port city of Buenaventura and the Andean Palenque (Black Liberation community from colonial era origin) of La Toma in the municipality of Suarez in North Cauca. The tour consisted of Plan Colombia graphic storytellings and sharing between the leaders of TBTL and the different host communities.


In Buenaventura it was seen firsthand how the country´s largest wealthiest port is also the home to some of the most impoverished Black communities, also stricken by State and paramilitary violence.  It was also seen how the semi-rural marginal community of La Gloria struggles against losing an 80 Ha forest the community depends on do their subsistence from being razed for a proposed port expansion, as part of the continental development project known as the Regional South American Infrastructure Integration Initiative (IIRSA), serving a neoliberal resource extraction agenda.


In La Toma the pollinators and TBTL leaders experienced a +400 year old community founded on Black Liberation, threatened by the Hydroelectric Salvajina Dam, the GMO pine plantations of the company Cartones de Colombia and the solicitation of company Anglo-Gold Ashanti to create an open pit gold. Bees and TBTL were lowered by rope and pulley deep into a 30 ft deep make shift gold mine where artisanal miners (no use of mercury or cyanide) labored as they have for hundreds of years.


That year there was also a tour in Venezuela, which visited public universities, community and public spaces in communities within Caracas, Choroní and Maracaibo, as well as the first visit the indigenous Wayuu communities along the Socuy River in the Perijá mountains, organized within the Wayuu Organization Maikiralasalii (“Not for Sale” in the Wayuunaiki language). The Socuy River is located over the same massive bed of coal that is under the Guajira Peninsula and Perijá Mountains in both Colombia and Venezuela.  Maikiralasalii has able to unite anarchists, true eco-socialists (not Chavista bureaucrats that self-identify as eco-socialists) and other anti-capitalist environmentalists in a movement that pressured President Hugo Chavez to retract his plans for coal mining expansion and prohibit the creation of new or expansion of existing coal mines.


In 2008 Polinzaciones tours also visited Colombian communities in Bucaramanga, Pamplona, Manizales, Cali, participated in the Medellin Social Forum and repeated an extended SW Colombia tour. The second SW tour returned to the Misak and Nasa communities from the first tour as well as the Afro-descendent communities of La Toma and La Gloria, where in addition to the Beehive story-tellings, social cartography exercises helped youth map their territories, focusing on strengths and weaknesses in land defense processes. This time other Nasa communities in Tierradentro were visited as well as indigenous Kokonuko communities in Cauca and Pasto communities in the department of Nariño.




While on tour in September, over 40 community leaders were killed throughout Colombia, the majority of those being indigenous leaders in Cauca.  On the 12th of October the Indigenous and Popular Minga (communal-collective work in the Quechua language) initiated with the CRIC  blockading of the Pan-American Highway in La Maria, Piendamo, Cauca, that grew to a nationwide Indigenous -led popular uprising that culminated in over 100,000 indigenous people and allies in the main Bolivar Park of Bogota demanding an end to State violence and the right to self-determination of Indigenous Peoples from all over Colombia.


Recognizing our capacity: from touring to local processes


The capacity of pollinators to maintain tours was exhausting and the need to base our efforts in local processes became important to strengthen these local land defense and liberation. While Beehive pollinators in North America have always freely supplied the efforts of Polinizaciones with an endless supply of posters that are mostly given for free to the communities that Polinizaciones collaborates with, the need for large cloth banners was and is always needed to be able to supply communities in resistance with educational materials that support the efforts of territory defense. Through an Atlantic Coast North American tour in 2009, Polinizaciones was able to raise funds to print fourteen large cloth Plan Colombia banners that are currently located and used in different communities such as both campuses of the CEFIC, La Toma, La Gloria, the Pasto community of Potosí, and with Maikiralasalii.


Around the same time the main pollinators in Colombia start to commit themselves to regional processes, putting tours on the back burner to focus on developing local processes. A pair of pollinators that were active in Cauca formed the Colectivo Colibrí (Hummingbird Collective), which in addition to using Beehive graphics, use puppets, street theater and literacy promotion to work with children in indigenous Misak and Nasa communities that are all facing the challenges associated with foreign companies trying to steal land for mining, mono crops and water privatization.   They seek to further develop the understanding of these threats and create spaces were these children can participate and contribute to the defense of their territory.


Another pollinator, Tjesi, who had already been working in the Amazonian region of Putumayo (the territory that gave birth to the Plan Colombia graphic in 2002) using Beehive graphics and film screenings, along with the participation of communities from the indigenous Inga, Kamsá, Cofán, Siona and Nasa Nations, formed the Intercultural Communication School of Putumayo, which continues to develop communication strategies such as maps, photography and audiovisual production, but also traditional communication modes (song, dance, paint, traditional medicines, rituals and ceremonies) to combat the threats these communities face in the region such as oil exploitation, mining, aerial fumigations of glyphosate, and the presence of all armed actors of Colombia´s armed internal conflict.


Towards the end of 2008 then Colombia President Alvaro illegally handed over 9,500 Ha of land in the southwest department of Huila to the multinational company Endesa-Emgesa for the construction of the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project.  One village impacted by the 8,500 Ha reservoir is the community of La Jagua, where some of Entre Aguas' family is from. Since then the focus of Entre Aguas´ pollinations have been in their own region, impacted by the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project and the Emerald Energy oil-company through the local resistance of the Association of Affected Peoples of the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project (ASOQUIMBO). ASOQUIMBO is part of the Ríos Vivos (Living Rivers) Movement- Colombia, the social movements bring together Native, Afro-descendants, peasants, fisher and artisanal miner peoples in Colombia directly impacted by the construction of hydroelectric dams. None-the-less, even with personal priorities in Huila, the pollinations in Wayuu territory were and are still maintained.


In the past few years Polinizaciones has been focused in Huila, Putumayo, La Guajira, Cauca and Nariño.  Since the completion of The True Cost of Coal and Mesoamérica Resiste graphics the tool kit shared with communities has grown. In 2013 Polinizaciones was part of the Ríos Vivos delegation and coordination of the V Gathering of the Latin American Network Against Dams (REDLAR) which was held in Retalteco, Petén, Guatemala, where murals were painted with local Ladino and Mayan youth reflecting on creating collective visual expressions rejecting the construction of hydroelectric dams along the Usumacinta River.


In 2014 the Museum of Antioquia in Medellin invited Polinizaciones to an artist residency as part of the exposition called Contraexpediciones (Counterexpeditions), with peasant and indigenous Embera Chamí 8^th and 9^th graders of the school of San Bernardo of the Farallones of Citará.  The residency consisted of two weeks of territorial hikes and design workshops resulting in 8 murals within the community as part of the local struggle against gold mining.  Following the residency Polinizaciones was part of the opening panel of the exposition and the journey home to Huila was a Mesoamérica Resiste graphic campaign tour throughout different urban, peasant, and indigenous communities in the departments of Antioquia, Caldas, Valle del Cauca, North & Central Cauca and Huila.


Currently


An observation that Polinizaciones has had within our path and process is that many allies come to communities and work with communities to develop communications products that create awareness about regional conflicts, but rarely support these communities with the knowledge and tools to tell their own stories. An example is how numerous people have visited the region of the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project or Putumayo, created films, photographs or articles about these struggles, but always from their view-point as an outsider. In recent years Polinizaciones has developed its own role as facilitators in these communities so that locals appropriate these tools and are able to tell their own stories.


Since Chavez halted the coal extraction, the accompaniment of Polinizaciones with Maikiralasalii has been dedicated to reforestation and agro-ecology projects, audio-visual production and breeding and protection of local endangered species. Earlier this year Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced the expanding of existing and creating new coal mines and also agreements with the Chinese-state owned company Sinohydro to build a thermal coal plant, railways and a port forcing Maikiralasalii to renew their struggle in a now more polarized, unsustainable, consumerist, petroleum-addicted Venezuela.


On the Colombian side of La Guajira, Polinizaciones has just this year started to work closer with the Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu (the Strength of Wayuu Woman), a social movement bringing together Wayuu woman and men who are organizing to strengthen the role of Wayuu people to exercise their autonomy and self-determination in the their own territory, Wounmainkat.  Through our graphic story-tellings we have helped in consciousness-raising and emphasized the importance of land defense in the territory where Cerrejon continues to attempt to privatize different rivers such as the Rancheria River and the Bruno Arroyo, in order to get to beds of coal under these fluvial streams.




Different Wayuu organizers and communicators have proposed to create a graphic campaign about the history and situation of Wounmainkat, to which we pollinators have responded that Wayuu artists, investigators, educators and organizers must be the ones to create such a tool if it is really to be useful for raising consciousness for Wayuu communities in the Wayuunaiki language. The role of Polinizaciones as outsiders is to accompany and advise the process as well as to facilitate and coordinate the technical aspects of the graphic campaign process, as well as fund-raising to print the maximum amount of posters possible. To facilitate this process we are currently pollinating The True Cost of Coal and Mesoamérica Resiste graphics throughout the entirety of Wounmainkat.


For some years the pollinators of the Colectivo Colibrí have focused their work with the Misak communities near Silvia, Cauca on a variety of issues such as recuperating traditional agricultural techniques, literacy in Spanish, but also working with indigenous educators to develop methodologies and exercises to maintain the Namrik language. While maintaining the work with the Misak, the Colectivo Colibri has relocated to Nariño where they continue to develop the same type of work with indigenous Pasto, Quillacinga and peasant communities.


The Intercultural Communication School of Putumayo has helped local communications collectives like the Cacique Tamaobioy Collective, made up of Inga and Kamsá youth in the Sibundoy Valley. This accompaniment has supported the struggle against mining companies with regional interests like Anglo-American and Anglo Gold Ashanti. An ongoing struggle by the communities in the Sibundoy Valley is against the San Francisco-Mocoa Highway, which would traverse a sacred territory vital for the gathering of medicinal plants.


In 2012 the Intercultural Communications School played a vital role in the Putumayo Minga of Resistance that paralyzed the entire department as 14 Indigenous Nations, Afro-Colombians and peasants united to block the entrances roads connecting Putumayo with the rest of the country demanding greater respect for indigenous autonomy.


In the lower Amazonian Plains, Intercultural Communication School of Putumayo has accompanied the efforts of Nasa communities in forcibly expelling oil companies from their territories, in the process receiving threats and assassination attempts from right-wing paramilitaries. In the outskirts of the city of Puerto Asis, the School is accompanying a displaced Siona community originally from the Putumayo River, displaced due to violence. The killings and displacements happening along the Putumayo River leave no doubt that the IIRSA project to channelize the river so that shipping barges can reach Puerto Asis is simply clearing the region to facilitate this project.


In the Province of Sucumbios in Ecuador, the School is beginning to help specific Cofán communities along the San Miguel River to develop their own educational materials and curriculum who under Ecuadorian law must send their children to schools that are not guaranteeing teachers fluent in the A'ingae language or a curriculum relevant to their world view, resulting in an accelerated assimilation into mainstream, Spanish-speaking Amazonian-mestizo culture.


Finally in Huila in the community of La Jagua, Polinizaciones has helped foster a collective process led by youth and community mothers known as Decolonizing La Jagua. In addition to participating in the regional dam resistance as part of ASOQUIMBO, Polinizaciones has assisted in film screenings with discussions, territorial hikes, mural painting, invisible street theater, a community-led biodiversity photography census (through the online wildlife photography platform, Project Noah), and exchanges with other land defense movements in Colombia.


This process has developed a self-reflective and critical process that examines issues of identity and culture within a population Native to their territory but overwhelmingly Catholic and peasant, not indigenous self-identified. Through these constant efforts, Polinizaciones since 2011 has been an integral part of the communications team of ASOQUIMBO, participating in road blockades, land liberations, and most recently has become part of the national coordination of the Ríos Vivos Movement.


In 2013 Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced the agreement between the Colombian State entity CORMAGDALENA and the Chinese state-owned company HydroChina to completely privatize the Magdalena or Yuma River, for the purpose of hydroelectric energy generation (a total of 17 hydroelectric dams) and dredging to permit shipping barges to go upriver.


As a result of this extended threat, Polinizaciones with Decolonizing La Jagua as part of the Ríos Vivos Movement has expanded to begin work with youth in other communities in Huila such as el Pital and Oporapa, where other dams and fracking projects have been announced. In 2014 Decolonizing La Jagua, with support of artivist Carolina Caycedo, led a 5 month arts-education and public action process which offered classes in dance, theater, performance and puppetry in the communities of La Jagua, Oporapa, El Agrado, El Pital and Gigante, culminating in eight direct actions in rural and urban locales; including bridge take-overs, mural paintings, theater performances, and audio-visual productions, all focused on land defense.


Upcoming


This Fall Polinizaciones and the Ríos Vivos Movement will be returning to Turtle Island (North America) with the “Pollinating Rios Vivos” tour to build relations of mutual aid and exchange with other communities in land defense struggles as well as fund-raise for the upcoming processes of land defense. Between October 2015 and January 2016 Polinizaciones will be traveling down the Pacific Coast, later throughout Florida, and tentatively waiting to see the possibility of confirming a short mid-Atlantic tour as well. On this tour there are two main priorities.  The first is to meet, share and create relations of mutual aid and solidarity with Native and other land defense struggles against dams, oil, mining and other extraction interests. The second is to be able to share these experiences in community spaces such a universities, community centers, libraries and other spaces that are also interested in creating relations of solidarity, offering financial support for upcoming projects.


Starting in 2016 we will be continuing the “Pollinating Rios Vivos” tour but now within territories of Ríos Vivos Colombia. For two years we will be visiting all the river basins that are part of the movement; the Upper Yuma & Colombian Massif (Huila), the Upper Cauca (Cauca), the Sinú (Cordoba), the Cauca Canyon (Antioquia) and the Sogamoso and Fonce Rivers (Santander). This two-year territorial journey through dam-impacted communities that have organized and resisted has two purposes as well.


The first purpose of this journey is to help deepen understanding and analysis of local members of the movement through graphic campaign workshops and other education processes, developing community led biodiversity censuses, and supporting these land defenders in the development and use of different artistic direct actions as strategies of land defense. The second component is that this journey through the regional movements that make up the Rios Vivos Movement-Colombia will serve as the preliminary first-hand research for creation of a graphic campaign of the Ríos Vivos Movement.


The creation of this graphic campaign was collectively decided upon during the 3^rd Political School of the Ríos Vivos Movement earlier this year. Rios Vivos has decided that the story of our resistance, the destruction of our territories, and our struggle to remain in our regions as the true and only guardians and caretakers of our territories is a story that needs to be told graphically, to strengthen our movement as well as to tell our story to others. This process will be undertaken and led by the Ríos Vivos Movement and allies within Colombia who also are impacted, directly or indirectly, by the destruction of territories through the damming of our rivers.  We are giving ourselves a timeline of five years for the research and subsequent creation of this graphic campaign, which will be collectively reviewed twice a year by the Movement´s political school, in order to horizontally guide its creation as an educational tool by and for our communities in resistance and struggle for the liberation of our rivers and all of Mother Earth.


As if this is not enough, during this time we will not be abandoning the processes we accompany in Putumayo and Wounmainkat - they will be part of this initial two-year journey even though they will not be part of the Ríos Vivos Movement graphic campaign. Within Putumayo we will continue to accompany the educational processes and development of materials and curriculum in the Siona, Cofán and Nasa communities.


In the Wayuu territory (Colombia & Venezuela) will also partake in extended portions of the journey, with the slightly different aspect of assisting and fomenting of a Wayuu-created graphic campaign about Wounmainkat, and the added component of helping accompany processes of recuperation of traditional Wayuu dry lands agriculture. For this last portion we are searching for preferably Native dry land agriculturists who are interested in sharing knowledge and building relations of mutual aid with different Wayuu communities impacted by coal mining in the implementation and recuperation of traditional agriculture.


As in all corners of Mijina, Wounmainkat, Pachamama, Uma Kiwe, Mother Earth, the situation of communities who defend their land and territories is urgent and Polinizaciones and the Ríos Vivos Movement need your help. 

If you are interested here are concrete things you can do to help these communities and territories mentioned above:


-        Invite us to speak and share with your community.


-        Money: unfortunately capitalism has not ended and we need money for direct actions and research journey.


-        Visit with intention: Want to visit these territories? What tools or resources can you offer? Skills building? (some Spanish language proficiency is needed).

- Donate materials: Digital cameras, computers, external disc drives, audio recorders, and carrying cases.
 
- For more information about the Polinizaciones Process please contact: polinizaciones@gmail.com