CALOTO, Colombia (AP) – Hundreds of Indian protesters seized three more farming estates as part of a campaign to reclaim what they say are their ancestral lands, officials said, bringing to 14 the number of farms occupied by Indians in southwest Colombia.
Indian leaders vowed Saturday to occupy the farms for as long as it takes for the government to provide them with more cultivable lands and implement a nationwide agrarian reform program to make more lands available to poor farmers.
Sporadic clashes between Indian activists and riot police have already left one dead and dozens wounded in the past week at the flash point Jaibo farm in Caloto, about 310 kilometers southwest of Colombia’s capital, Bogotá.
Indian leaders said they are prepared for further violence to accomplish their aims. “We have strengthened ourselves ... our people have rested and if there new clashes with police we will take them on and won’t run,” said Albeiro Calambas, a Caloto tribal leader.
But hardline President Alvaro Uribe’s administration rejected talks unless the Indians leave the farms – setting the stage for a potential showdown.
“We are committed to sitting down at the negotiating table ... but only when there are no invaded lands,” Interior and Justice Minister Sabas Pretelt said in a statement late Friday. “The (Indian) policy of invading lands to push negotiations is unacceptable.”
While Pretelt has threatened to forcibly remove the Indians, police have not moved in amid hopes that a compromise can still be reached.
About 600 Indians invaded three more farms in Cauca state in the past 48 hours, Cauca state Gov. Juan José Chaux told reporters Saturday, raising pressure on the government.
“We have more people up north and in other reservations across Colombia who are supporting us and we can bring more people here,” Calambas said. In Caloto, men, women and children as young as 12 have armed themselves with ma-chetes, sticks and slingshots.
Calambas denied that the Indians have received support from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a ruthless leftist rebel group that has been battling the government since the early 1960s.
Indigenous groups successfully used forced occupations in the 1980s and 1990s to increase their land holdings, especially in southern Colombia where they argued more land was needed to feed their growing populations. But in recent years the government has opposed these efforts, saying that if Indians believe they have a right to the land, they should seek it through proper legal channels.
There are 94 legally recognized indigenous tribes in Colombia, totaling 800,000 people or about 2 percent of the population. Hundreds of thousands of hectares (acres) have been designated as Indian reservations.
|
