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Returning to the countryside

Published on 18 June 2013
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"The challenge we must face is to work our land so that we may restore our plantations. House construction will come later", explains Gustavo Guerra, craftsman and vallenato singer. Pitalito is located in the department of Cesar, which is the birthplace of accordions and vallenato folk music.
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"The challenge we must face is to work our land so that we may restore our plantations. House construction will come later", explains Gustavo Guerra, craftsman and vallenato singer. Pitalito is located in the department of Cesar, which is the birthplace of accordions and vallenato folk music.

  • The day finally came. Everyone was up before dawn. They had packed the few belongings they had during their three years of forced displacement, when they lived in a dusty slum called Curumaní (Cesar).
  • A truck carries some furniture, a goat, chickens, mattresses and, of course, hope; hope for a new beginning. The truck moves slowly on a dirt road but, due to its poor condition, will not reach its destination. Families will have to carry their belongings on their shoulders during the last stretch of the journey to the camp.
  • Their final destination, located behind the Perijá mountains on the border with Venezuela, stands in contrast to their refuge of the last three years. Before their forced displacement in 2010, the families lived here in their farms, planting cassava, corn and coffee.
  • Now their homes are full of weeds, but a few hours after their return we can already see the fruits of the tireless work of these men, women and children. They spend many hours cutting weeds with machetes. At the end of the first afternoon they have set up camp with plastic sheets and sleeping mats. But there are no mosquito nets and the mosquitoes do not let the returnees sleep.
  • For now, there is little to eat. Every day the community elects a group of people in charge of cooking cassava, rice and potatoes; sometimes there are also cheese and eggs. Within a week of their arrival they have cultivated some land near the camp, but until harvest the community will depend on food donations.
  • "The challenge we must face is to work our land so that we may restore our plantations. House construction will come later", explains Gustavo Guerra, craftsman and vallenato singer. Pitalito is located in the department of Cesar, which is the birthplace of accordions and vallenato folk music.
  • Most of the families have been the victims of two, or even three, forced displacements. In 2000 they were displaced by paramilitary groups and, as denounced by the Committee for Solidarity with Political Prisoners (Fundación Comité de Solidaridad con los Presos Políticos - FCSPP), in 2010 the community was illegally evicted by the Army.
  • Sixteen families returned to the hamlet of Pitalito on 21 May, despite the risk from illegal armed actors who have remained in the area. This small community, then, has decided to put an end to fear and apprehension, confront a weak security situation and mount resistance in their own land.
  • The community members were among the more than 5.7 million people displaced by violence between 1985 and 2012, according to the Consultancy on Human Rights and Displacement (Consultoría para los Derechos Humanos y el Desplazamiento, CODHES). A total of 6.5 million hectares of land has been taken from their owners due to displacements between 1980 and 2012.
  • The FCSPP and the People's Legal Committee have accompanied and provided legal advice for these families since March 2011. Leonardo Jaimes Marín is one of the lawyers who belongs to the two organizations. Like the returnee families, several attorneys have pitched their tents in Pitalito and are supporting the families in the setup and organization of the camp. "Pitalito is a special case because the conditions that led to the community's forced displacement have not changed. The perpetrators have not been prosecuted. That is to say, such a serious an act as forced displacement is being carried out with complete impunity," explains the lawyer.
  • Peace Brigades International continues to support the lawyers because there is still a very high risk to members of the FCSPP and the community. "Just to travel in a region like central Cesar—where threatening flyers are constantly being distributed by paramilitary groups—requires accompaniment and visibility to enable us to perform our work," says Leonardo Jaimes Marín.
  • PBI also works with the community from a psycho-social perspective, including with the children. Through various workshops, they have learned how to manage their fears, despair and concerns, have studied different scenarios for their return to the land, and how to react to the different phases of risk. Now the community feels better prepared to return and each person knows what role to play in the case of an attack.
  • The return of the families is being filmed by a documentary crew. This is a new experience for these children, who are for the first time seeing their community on video.
  • One of the great challenges is education. For thirty years children studied in this school. Now only ruins remain. The school has been a symbol of resistance.
  • Before their forced displacement in 2010, several families sought refuge here and resisted for a while longer in these lands despite threats and harassment. One of the community's dreams is to see the school open its doors once again.
  • Land-restitution leaders remain one of the most vulnerable groups in Colombia. Since 2011 the government has tried to implement the Land Restitution Act, which aims to return by 2014 about two million hectares to some 400,000 families displaced by violence. However, barriers continue to emerge in the form of threats and assassinations of the leaders of the land claimants.
  • According to figures from the Human Rights Ombudsman, at least 71 leaders of land restitution processes were murdered between 2006 and 2011. Eight land claimants were assassinated between late March and May 2013 alone. Pitalito leaders also fear for their safety.
  • Having returned to Pitalito is the first step to victory for these families. They imagine a community different community from what they now have: a school, a health clinic, farms planted with cassava and corn. A different Pitalito—one with a future, full of life, full of hope. This is the Pitalito that the community wants.
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