TITLE: Black Colombians Seek Peace and Freedom: The Other Side of the Colombian Anti-Drug Policy

AUTHOR: Playthell Benjamin

ORG: Black World Today

DATE: February 27, 2001

On Saturday afternoon February 24, three black Colombian exiles -- Oscar Gamboa, Carlos Rosero and Luis Gilberto Murillo, the ex-governor of the state of del Choco -- spoke to a group of Colombians residing in the US, along with Americans who support a just policy for the South American nation of Colombia. It was the most frank and enlightening talk that most in the audience -- this writer included -- had ever heard about the Colombian situation. And the Afro-Colombians pulled no punches in their criticisms of US policy toward their country, which they view as misguided and driven by military imperatives rooted in their desire to prop up the present corrupt and racist regime. Sponsored by the Colombia Media Project and the Patrice Lumumba Coalition, the meeting was held at The House of The Lord on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, the pastorate of activist/preacher Herbert Daughtry. It must have been quite a pleasant surprise for the visiting Afro-Colombians to look about them and see the huge paintings of the biblical characters that adorn the church's walls portrayed as black people. Especially since, as they reiterated throughout the afternoon, the existence of black people is barely acknowledged in their country. A point underscored in remarks by Afro-Americans during the question and answer period, who pointed out that they didn't even know that Colombia had a black population. The Afro-Colombians were not surprised by American ignorance of their existence, although they are almost half the population and are visible everywhere on the streets of Colombian towns and throughout the countryside. Located on the northernmost tip of South America, Colombia is mainly known in the US as the premier source of the cocaine that floods the streets of this country. But, as we learned on Saturday, Colombia is a country of 40 million people -- 40% of whom are black according to Oscar Gamboa -- bordered by the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea that is rich in oil, natural gas, coal, nickel, emeralds, many species of flowers, and what many would swear is the world's best coffee. The country also has an abundance of forest and rivers. Hence, as the speakers constantly pointed out, there is much more to Colombia than cocaine. The present crisis of Afro-Colombians must be viewed within the context of the generalized crisis in that country, which includes a civil war, mass fumigation of crops, and the worst economic depression since the 1930s. With unemployment rates ranging from 20%, which is the official rate, to the 50% that many observers say is the actual rate, a majority of Colombians live below the poverty line. With such widespread poverty it is not surprising that there is a flourishing cocaine trade. However as Oscar Gamboa, who was the first of the Colombians to speak, pointed out in arguing against the US inspired crop fumigation policy of the Colombian government, "The coca plant is not the problem. The peasants have long used it for medicine. The problem is cocaine, the sale and consumption of cocaine. And there are millions of dollars surrounding the cocaine business!" Gamboa also pointed out that most of the people arrested for drug dealing in Colombia are the same type of small fry dealers that are generally locked up in the US, and the big money laundering traffickers at the top go untouched. Furthermore, Gamboa told the attentive audience, "The spraying of coca crops hurts other crops more. It is contaminating rivers and lakes and destroying food crops that the peasants need to survive. We must find an alternative to this or the peasants will starve." He also informed the crowd that Afro-Colombians were heavily concentrated in the areas where the fighting and fumigations were taking place and portends a major disaster. He warned that, "If you destroy the countryside blacks will be forced to go to the cities. And because of racial discrimination they will not find work. Then in order to survive they will either turn to crime or make their way to the US by whatever means." But it is not only the crop damage due to fumigations that is forcing many black Colombians to leave the countryside. Violence from the Colombian army and the right-wing paramilitary groups who -- as abundant evidence demonstrates are the unofficial terrorist arm of the Colombian government - also wreak havoc on the black and Indian peasantry. "In Colombia, killing people is almost an exercise. And we who attempt to organize to better our condition are risking our lives because we are labeled as guerrillas," says Gamboa. But he argues that, "We as blacks in Colombia can't just sit with our arms folded and do nothing because we have children and we must leave them a country that they can live in. What we need in Colombia is peace so that our children can play and adults can work in peace knowing their children will not be killed in the war." Gamboa went on to describe the killings, kidnappings and bombings that are taking place in his country and pleaded with right thinking Americans to "Help us create a new reality because we don't want drugs or war." The murders in far away Colombia became all too real when a black Colombian expatriate dramatically arose from the audience and told of the murder of her brother. "That's why we are here," said Gamboa, "I heard about your brother's murder in Colombia. The media reported it but one death quickly follows another.That is why the people who are still in Colombia, still doing the work are the real heroes." While Oscar Gamboa delivered the longest speech of the evening, Carlos Rosero, who followed him to the podium, also made a powerful statement on the plight of Afro-Colombians. "We are located all across Colombia, on the Caribbean and Pacific coasts," says Rosero, who is very dark complexioned with long dreadlocks and looked like he was from the neighborhood, in fact all three of them looked like round-the-way boys. He summed up the Afro-Colombian contribution to the national economy this way: "Everything that leaves Colombia, including products of the mines, has been largely produced by black hands." But he quickly pointed out, "still we have nothing. Slavery has been over for 150 years, but they compensated the slaveholders. We have yet to receive reparations." Along with the war against the two major guerilla force -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-peoples Army, or FARC, and the National Liberation Army, or ELN -- and the crop fumigations, Rosero offered an additional reason why the black population is forced to move from their land. "It is only recently, after 500 years, that we have land rights. Yet we, along with the indigenous people, are being displaced at a rate of 36%. At first our lands were considered worthless, but now that they have been found to be valuable we are being dispossessed. Every time they build a bridge it seems as if it is to remove black people. That's because our lands are rich with biodiversity and other products, including oil!" "We must develop a strategy to halt these dispossessions," argues Rosero. "Without territory we cannot build a community power base. A great part of the problem of Afro-Colombians in recent years is the absence of autonomy for our community. Colombia is ethnically diverse, but there is no official recognition that blacks have a right to develop as a people, as a community. That is the central problem of development." Rosero said. He then pointed out the similarity in the situation of Africans and Indians in Colombia. "The problems of the UWA Indians and the big US oil companies is based on this lack of recognition of their right to autonomous development by the Colombian government. The blacks and Indians should be consulted on any plans for national development." After presenting some statistics on the thousands of animals killed and the vast acreage of farmlands destroyed, Rosero pleaded with the audience for their active support in changing US policy towards his country. "We must deescalate the war because it is being fought in our regions and we are most of the dead and displaced," he said, "so we want all parties to negotiate a peaceful solution to this conflict." Rosero's statement echoed Gamboa's earlier observation that, "We cannot continue the strategy of trying to seek peace through violence. We must seek peace through peace." With guerrilla armies controlling almost half of the national territory and the US sending new arms to the Conservative Party's Andres Pastrana, who presently occupies the President's office, there seems little hope that peace will be given a chance. Among the weapons provided the Pastrana government by the $1.3 billion military aid package are 42 Huey helicopters -- an aircraft that wrought much death and destruction in Vietnam -- 18 Black Hawk copters and funding to train more special forces units to combat the insurgents. With these kinds of preparations only more warfare is visible on the horizon. Luis Gilberto Murillo, the former governor of the state of Choco, was the last to speak. Driven from office and into US exile by white Colombian paramilitary death squads, Murillo said the situation in Colombia is so dangerous he wondered after arriving in the US whether he should "speak out or remain silent." He told the astonished gathering that: "Some of my friends advised me to keep quiet because blacks have enough problems in Colombia." But Luis Murillo is glad that he decided to speak out because by doing so he "discovered that most African Americans were surprised that there were blacks in Colombia, and especially so many!" Murillo said "I want to show how a misguided US policy is affecting blacks and others in Colombia. So we decided to use Afro-American history month to begin a dialogue with our Afro-American brothers. We want to open a dialogue with other races in Colombia, but that attempt will only exacerbate other problems." This statement brings to mind the situation of Afro-Brazilians, who risk being indicted for "disturbing the racial tranquility of Brazil" for accusing a white Brazilian of racism. Such is the strange Barnum and Bailey world of many blacks living in Latin America. Hence they have a long and complex struggle ahead in countries where simply speaking out for basic human rights can result in imprisonment or death. But for the moment says Murillo, "We want to change American policy so that it is not so warlike. We would like to see a peaceful US policy, and in that respect we could use a lot of help from American citizens!" The Afro-Colombian delegation plans to travel around the country telling their troubling story. The high point of their American odyssey will be a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus, a body that has no counterpart in their native Colombia. And, obviously, there is no black person as powerful as Colin Powell either. Yet it remains to be seen whether Powell's tenure as Secretary Of State in the richest and most powerful nation in the world will have any positive benefit for oppressed and impoverished black peoples struggling for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness around the world. The Colombians are wise to concentrate their efforts among African Americans because as Mario Murillo, WBAI producer and member of the Colombia Media Project, pointed out at the meeting, even the progressive white left often overlooks the Afro-Colombian problem. Mario, a light skinned native Colombian who has resided in the US for many years, referred to a flyer put out by white leftists that was distributed at the meeting yet failed to even mention black Colombians. Anyone who would like to get involved in supporting the Afro-Colombian struggle to change a destructive American policy that is killing them, to one that is constructive and life sustaining, should contact the Colombia Media Project at 212-802-7209. The struggle continues! END top