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Afro-Colombian community creates Community Council

Published: February 2013
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In January 2013 PBI accompanied members of the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission to Lower-Calima (Valle del Cauca, Pacific Coast). The Commission accompanies the Afro-Colombian community from the hamlet El Crucero in this area since 2010. Laura Chaparro (left) and Maria Eugenia Mosquera (pink blouse) have come in order to explain to the community how they can gain titles for the land on which they have been living for generations.
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In January 2013 PBI accompanied members of the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission to Lower-Calima (Valle del Cauca, Pacific Coast). The Commission accompanies the Afro-Colombian community from the hamlet El Crucero in this area since 2010. Laura Chaparro (left) and Maria Eugenia Mosquera (pink blouse) have come in order to explain to the community how they can gain titles for the land on which they have been living for generations.

PBIPeace Brigades InternationalColombiaInterChurch Justice and Peace CommissionValle del CaucaPacific Coastinternational accompanimentland titlesafrocolombian communitieshuman rights

  • In January 2013 PBI accompanied members of the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission to Lower-Calima (Valle del Cauca, Pacific Coast). The Commission accompanies the Afro-Colombian community from the hamlet El Crucero in this area since 2010. Laura Chaparro (left) and Maria Eugenia Mosquera (pink blouse) have come in order to explain to the community how they can gain titles for the land on which they have been living for generations.
  • Our trip began in Buenaventura. In order to evidence our presence in the region, PBI places a flag on the vehicle that is transporting us, as well as informing all the authorities of our presence (police, army, mayor’s office) before the trip begins.
  • Laura Chaparro, lawyer for the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission explained that between 2010 and 2011 military units set fire to ranches in the community, burning their produce. For a period of over a year, the people from the community did not dare to go and cultivate their land. In order to survive they looked for work in the big port city of Buenaventura, just a few kilometres away.
  • The search has been difficult for them since Buenaventura is one of the cities with highest socioeconomic contrasts in Colombia. Its maritime terminals move 14 million tons of cargo, but 80.6% of the urban population, who live only a short distance from these same ports, live in poverty. And the worst thing is that unemployment hangs at an extraordinary 63.4%, according to the Colombian press.
  • Last year people decided to return to cultivate their land, and together with the Commission, they’re looking for a long-term solution. Even though the people from El Crucero have lived and worked here for more than 70 years, they have no legal documentation to show that this is their land. Furthermore, this land, which is theirs, has been granted to other Afro-Colombian communities.
  • In February 2013, the community decided to create its own Community Council, “The Future” (El Porvenir), a requirement in order for the community to be able to request ownership titles for the land on which they have been living on for generations. Laura Chaparro explains that once the Council is created, a judicial process to acknowledge these ancestral lands can begin. “The expectations look good”, explains Laura.
  • We sleep in the house of Grandmother Chú. After a breakfast of hojaldres (cornbread with yeast and cheese) with coffee, we head for the street. The women are taking advantage of the fresh morning air by burning rubbish. Even though we are close to Buenaventura, there is no rubbish collection service.
  • Neither does the community have any way of obtaining drinkable water. It hasn’t rained in a month and the women wash clothes in a ravine with stagnant and contaminated waters.
  • The more fortunate have tanks that allow them to collect water in the rainy season.
  • To reach the community it is necessary to drive 9km over unpaved roads. Here the chiva is taking passengers to Buenaventura.
  • 108 families live in the hamlet of El Crucero. Territorial rights are covered in the 1991 Colombian Constitution and Law 70 from 1993, which recognize the right to collective land ownership.
  • Up to 2010, more than five million hectares of land have been granted to 157 Community Councils. The collective lands of the Afro-Colombian communities are inalienable, immune from prescription and cannot be revoked.
  • PBI accompanies the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission since 1994. Support us in our accompaniment of human right defenders. Please make a donation. Your support is very valuable to us in order to enable us to continue our accompaniment of human rights defenders in Colombia. <a href="http://www.pbi-colombia.org/los-proyectos/pbi-colombia/haz-tu-aporte/?L=1">http://www.pbi-colombia.org/los-proyectos/pbi-colombia/haz-tu-aporte/?L=1</a>
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