Indigenous in Cauca Struggle to Regain Lost Land

Tinto (Moderator) (Trustee board) says on Nov 13, 2005, 18:51:

Riot Police Some of those guys, dressed in black and covered with pads, look rather menacing. Reminds me of Darth Vader.

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Miguel says on Nov 13, 2005, 23:15:

Indians I think they are the Paez tribe.

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juancegomez says on Nov 14, 2005, 08:53:

... Similar equipment is used by Police in Ecuador and Venezuela, IIRC, even if with a slightly different shade of color.

As for the protests, the participating indigenous have all the right in the world to reclaim their land, yes, but through strictly legal means. Saying that, since the entire land of Colombia belonged to them before the Spanish arrived, that is reason enough to forcefully occupy this or that territory, is hardly something legal.

Occupying and invading land is not going to give them any additional advantage other than to simply provoke the government, which may then react with similar measures of force whether to contain or to repulse the invasions.

Logically, that doesn't excuse the fact that some of the police may have overstepped their bounds as well, in doing so, but the rules should be respected by both sides at all times.

Btw, according to estimates drawn up over the years (which may be inaccurate, perhaps, but they are better than nothing), the indigenous as a whole would have already received a total of around 30% of the land in Colombia since the end of the 1980's, and about 60-70% of the land in the Cauca areas in question.

Does that mean that the indigenous, especially those with higher necessities, don't have a right to earn more or, more importantly, better land (since admittedly they don't have the best land)? Of course not.

In fact, there's still a large amount of land left to be legally redistributed to them as a result of existing agreements between past and present administrations. It's being done, but slowly. So the indigenous can definitely lobby and protest, within the limits of legality, in order to speed up the completition of the agreements.

But again, things have to be done without the use of violence on either side, unless we want to make this another shouting or pushing contest that may simply lead to more bloodshed. More dead indigenous or police aren't going to resolve anything.

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MatteoCapogreco says on Nov 14, 2005, 20:15:

article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3657058.stm

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/09112005/46/photo/paez-indian-hurls-rocks-anti-riot-police-truck-hapio-ranch.html

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/09112005/46/photo/police-arrest-paez-indian-inside-hapio-ranch-caloto-colombia-southern.html

More Background

http://web.idrc.ca/en/ev-30200-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

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