Greetings from the Cacarica group!

We realize that many of you have been surprised not to get prompt updates from the Cacarica part of the Colombia delegation as you did from the San José group. While in the community, we had no access to e-mail, and after we got back to Bogotá there was a serious glitch with getting our messages out to you. We are glad to be able to fill in the gap now and send you our report, which is in three sections.

On Sunday, July 25, we flew from Medell’n to Apartadó, where we said goodbye to the San José group.  We then took a taxi to Turbo.  In Turbo we climbed into the PBI speedboat with some members of PBI (Peace Brigades International).  PBI regularly accompanies the communities in the Cacarica River Basin as well as organizations and human rights defenders elsewhere in Colombia.  The speedboat took us across the Gulf of Urabá and into the mouth of the Atrato River, up the Atrato, then into the Cacarica River, then the Perancho River, to a meeting place called La Tapa.  At La Tapa we switched to a motorized dugout canoe, which took us to Nueva Vida, one of the two settlements of the CAVIDA community.

CAVIDA = Comunidad de Autodeterminacion, Vida, y Dignidad (Community of Self-Determination, Life, and Dignity)

As we approached the community, a large sign on the riverbank proclaimed (see the translation immediately following):

TERRITORIO DE VIDA TERRITORIO COLECTIVO DE COMUNIDADES NEGRAS

GOZAMOS LA PROTECCION ESPECIAL PORQUE: EJERCEMOS DERECHOS ANCESTRALES: LEY 70

ASUMIMOS LIBREMENTE EL PROYECTO DE VIDA

NO PARTICIPAMOS DE LAS HOSTILIDADES

NO PRESTAMOS APOYO A OPERACIONES MILITARES

NO PORTAMOS ARMAS

NO BRINDAMOS INFORMACION A LAS PARTES

CREEMOS EN LA VERDAD, LA LIBERTAD, LA JUSTICIA, LA SOLIDARIDAD, LA FRATERNIDAD.

COMUNIDADES DEL CACARICA AUTODETERMINACION, VIDA, Y DIGNIDAD

Rough translation:

TERRITORY OF LIFE COLLECTIVE TERRITORY OF BLACK COMMUNITIES

WE ENJOY SPECIAL PROTECTION BECAUSE WE EXERCISE ANCESTRAL RIGHTS ACCORDING TO LAW 70.

WE FREELY ASSUME THE PROJECT OF LIFE.

WE DO NOT PARTICIPATE IN HOSTILITIES.

WE DO NOT PROVIDE SUPPORT TO MILITARY OPERATIONS.

WE DO NOT CARRY WEAPONS.

WE DO NOT GIVE INFORMATION TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE CONFLICT.

WE BELIEVE IN TRUTH, LIBERTY, JUSTICE, SOLIDARITY, AND BROTHERHOOD.

COMMUNITIES OF CACARICA SELF-DETERMINATION, LIFE, AND DIGNITY

After spending three days in Nueva Vida, we took another trip in a dugout canoe to Esperanza en Dios, the other CAVIDA settlement, where we spent the remainder of our nine days in the Cacarica River Basin. They were rich days of long talks with community leaders, reading with children (a young woman who couldn't participate in the delegation had sent along a whole box of easy-reader books in Spanish as a donation), drawing (Ruth brought her chalk pastels and drawing pad to continue her project of individual portraits), washing clothes in river or well water, attending an evening church service in the midst of a deafening rainstorm, visiting grade-school classes (JJ gave the children an English lesson), swimming in the river, walking in the jungle, marveling at the lush rainforest plants, pausing in awe as brilliant butterflies circled around us. Our reports will not be a day-by-day chronicle of events but will summarize a series of themes which came up during our visit to the two settlements.

First, a bit of history: The Cacarica River Basin lies in Chocó province in northwest Colombia, and as in the rest of the Chocó its population is historically black, descended from Africans brought as slaves in the 16th-18th centuries. The people in the region lived in scattered farms among the winding rivers that feed into the broad Atrato River. In February 1997, they were invaded by paramilitaries together from soldiers from Colombia's 17th Brigade, carrying out Operation Genesis which was intended to clear out leftist guerrilla presence from the region. Men dressed in camouflage, carrying guns and machetes, accused the subsistence farmers in the area of collaborating with the guerrillas. Helicopters dropped bombs, and houses were burned. More than 85 people were killed or disappeared.

The most horrifying murder was of Marino López, a young man who was ordered to climb a palm to retrieve coconuts. After he did so, he was rewarded with machete blows, so he jumped into the river to try to escape. Hauling him out, the armed men continued hacking at him--and cut off his head, which they proceeded to use as a soccer ball, insisting that community members, including children, stay and watch. "Now you see what we are capable of," they sneered.

The people of all the Cacarica communities fled in terror; they call this "el desplazamiento," the displacement. (Colombia currently has one of the largest internally displaced populations in the world, around three millionn people.)  A number of families were separated, some permanently. Some fled across the nearby Panama border, but most ended up in Turbo, where they were given refugee housing in a dilapidated athletic structure in a public park. Some had to continue to live in "el coliseo" for four years, in unsanitary conditions. But they were befriended by members of a human rights group, the Interchurch Commission for Justice and Peace (JyP), who began encouraging them to claim their rights and organize themselves according to their community values. They filed claim to collective title to their lands under Law 70, which gives special rights to Afro-Colombian communities.  They worked hard on defining their values and identity as CAVIDA and made plans to return. "El retorno" was complete in early 2001. For safety, they have the permanent accompaniment of PBI international observers; there is also the multidimensional accompaniment--legal, educational, psychological and communicative--of JyP. As you will see, such presence continues to be needed. Again and again they thanked us for our presence as well.

Art and photos from the community, along with translated accounts of their history and ongoing struggles, are available at www.chicagoans.net/cacarica/

PRESSING ISSUES
The coordinators are elected community leaders.  There are 26 coordinators, both men and women.  Groups of them met with us in both Nueva Vida and Esperanza en Dios and expressed deep gratitude for our arrival at a difficult moment of the community's struggle to survive.  A paramilitary-protected lumber company has been clearcutting large swaths of the collective territory.  People displaced from other parts of Colombia ("repobladores") have been brought in to serve as tenant farmers on oil palm plantations on the cleared land.  Under a court order, the CAVIDA community and other scattered residents are supposed to come to an agreement about lumber exploitation, whether to allow the clearcutting or, as CAVIDA advocates, to permit only selective, sustainable logging.  The issue has divded the community of Esperanza en Dios.  Because of the army presence and harassment in the past year, leaders of Esperanza en Dios are pioneering the settlement«s move upriver.

The Panamerican Highway is slated for completion in the next few years and will run just an hour«s walk from CAVIDA's territory.  They foresee its attachment to further logging, oil palm cultivation and livestock ranching, all of which are devastating to this richly biodiverse environment.  They ask for our support and advocacy as they struggle to protect the land.

WOMEN OF POWER
Since the displacement, the CAVIDA community has experienced a shift in traditional gender roles due to the volatile political climate.  When the paramilitaries are too close to the settlements, the men do not go out to fetch water or work in the fields due to the threat of harassment.  They are the main targets of the armed groups.  As a result, the women have become the machinery that serves to keep the community running smoothly.  They often assume responsibility for tasks that had traditionally been done by men.  In a reciprocal manner, the men of the community will stay within the settlements and perform household chores such as cooking, cleaning and childcare on occasions in which the women are required to work the fields or carry river water.

Sadly, many of the women are not sure the war will ever end.  They are continually bracing for the possibility that the men may be forced to flee at some point and they will be left alone to do the work that will ensure the survival of the community.

As part of their organizational tactics, the women have formed "combos" or work groups to address specific needs of the community.  Each woman has some responsibility that reflects her training and expertise.   Some women have been trained as health coordinators, while others are responsible for daycare for preschoolers.  Other combos sew clothing or cook special treats that are sold within the community to raise money for various projects.  The women help support the schoolteachers by tending to their plantings or household chores while school is in session.  This organization among the women has served to reinforce the sense of solidarity that is essential to the survival and success of the communities.

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A personal note from Ruth: The delegates proved remarkably adaptable and good-humored in the midst of bug bites, heat and rainstorms.  But I have to give a special prize to Pat Bonner.  One night I dropped a contact lens and four of us spent a fruitless half-hour searching for it with flashlights. Early in the morning, Pat went ouside, foraged a bit and found it on the ground under the house!  It had fallen between two floorboards.  It was a bit muddy but easy to clean.  Thank God!

Warmly, The Cacarica Delegates

Chicagoans for a Peaceful Colombia www.chicagoans.net