Ed at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters alerted me to this, after he received a number of emails from fair trade co-ops in Columbia — enough to know fair trade farmers are involved and affected.
My knowledge of Colombian history and politics is rudimentary at best — something I want to work on. But what I’ve gathered so far:
Beginning May 15, campesinos (small farmers) and indigenous people organized at a number of locations in Colombia. Closing off parts of the Pan American Highway, the demonstrators protested the “free trade” agreement negotiated between the current Columbian and US govts.
The problem? “Campesino groups are afraid that the competition resulting from the lifting of trade barriers with the United States will hurt farmers, and drive more of them into raising coca….” (via IPS)
[image from CPJ] On May 16, the Colombian govt. sent in the army to crack down on the demonstrations, using rubber bullets, tear gas, and gasoline, destroying media outlets and hospitals. Some of the leaders were arrested. The attacks were most brutal in the indigenous regions of Cauca and Nariño, as well as the departments of Putumayo (on the Ecuadorian border) and Meta (south of Bogotá).
Why such a violent response? “The government claims the protests were sponsored and organised by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country’s main rebel group.”
Demonstrators, however, deny any link to FARC, and say they just want dialogue on the trade agreement. Spokesperson German Cassama for Colombia’s National Indigenous Organization (ONIC) said “This mobilization was to demand that the government hold a popular referendum about the Free Trade Agreement. The government can’t negotiate the Free Trade Agreement with the United States without the consent of the people.” (via Free Speech Radio News)
But the Colombian govt. (Prez: Uribe) refuses to discuss details of the agreement — still under negotiation — until after the May 28 presidential elections, in which Uribe’s up for reelection. [image of Uribe from the BBC]
The damage: Details are scant, and murky. It appears that at least 1 person has been killed, some are missing, and many more are wounded. The AP and Committee to Protect Journalists report that 4 journalists were detained — and possibly beaten — by the police; the journalists were “accused of helping flame an indigenous protest against a free trade pact with the United States.” Amnesty International’s public statement also states that 3 security forces are said to be held by demonstrators, although this hasn’t been verified.
What can we do? The American Friends Service Committee, a quaker org that carries out service, development, social justice, and peace programs, has put together a letter to Uribe that they’re hoping to have industry professionals sign — I’ve asked for permission to post it here.
In the meantime, if you happen to know more about what’s going on in Colombia, or if you know about other efforts to address the situation, please share it with the rest of us —
Update, 5/29/06: Uribe overwhelmingly wins a 2nd term. The LA Times report notes that “Uribe ran on a promise to continue the fight against guerrilla armies, the largest of which, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has opposed the government in a four-decade-old civil war” — with no mention of the campesino demonstrations.
Dear Green Deal,
Ed Canty forwarded your ‘blog-site’ to me. We are a supplier/developer/importer of organic and fair trade coffees out of Cauca and Popayan. This is really another tragic affair and is further damaging an already damaged and risky area.
We gave orders today to the small producers we work with to ‘ship coffee’! Get the coffee to the Port and ship as many of hte contracts as possible. This way we can begin turning money back to the families, that need to continue their economic cycle.
I used to be an ‘LA Guy’ myself, many years ago!
garth/optco
Comment by GARTH SMITH — May 26, 2006 @ 11:42 am
Wow…that’s horrible…it reminds me a lot of my country’s politics, Indonesia :-| We have still a very long way to go…to peace, fair trade and sustainability.
Comment by Maya — May 27, 2006 @ 1:29 am
Hey Garth — Thanks for dropping by — but what made ya abandon SoCal? ;P
Maya — I’m tots ignorant about Indonesian history too :( I really wish they taught this stuff in schools, if for no other reason than to stymie the “ignorant american” stereotype –
Comment by Siel — May 29, 2006 @ 10:20 pm
Hi Garth, Siel and Maya, I just wanted to give you some facts about the region where this happened: it is around 62,000 square kilometers (Fairly large). Cauca and Valle have approximately 118,000 coffee farms which 80% are small (less than 5 hectares), but not even 5% are Fair Trade certified. The Colombian production of Fair Trade Coffee is near 200,000 bags of 60kg out of 11.5 million bags, and of those only about one fourth can be exported as Fair Trade because there is not enough demand in developed countries (150k surplus of FT coffee). The rest goes out as mainstream, “specialty” or whatver that the farmer coop. can sell it for at a premium. Still a lot of coffee comes out of that region, infraestructure is pretty good, so I don’t think that you should worry about the supply due to a clash between the group of protesters and the police. The rainy weather is a different story.
BTW, Colombia is the oldest democracy in Latin America, and even in the most anachycal moments of the recent history, troubled by drug trade, guerrillas and paramilitaries, it has conserved its democratic institutions. The president of Colombia is not a dictator (like the now ill Suharto from Indonesia). Uribe was democratically re-elected this weekend with 62% of the votes, one of the largest turnovers in Colombian history and almost a 40 point margin over the second candidate
…and yes he is fighting the Guerrillas, but unfortunately the social equality ideals that these groups had 3 decades ago have been long lost to drug trafficking, extortion and terrorism.
Why don’t you look up who the biggest drug exporters are? who the biggest child combatant recruiters are? kidnappers? massacres? atrocious attacks to civilians? .. this is why the major cities in Colombia are packed with displaced campesinos… and North America and Europe packed with Colombians.
Comment by Waybe Campbell — May 30, 2006 @ 12:19 pm
Hello webmaster…. i was searching for ft campbell and i came across your post and it is definitely the most sensible thing i have seen in a long time, and in my opinion you got something good going here, i have to get my friends to subscribe to your post about agreement met with harsh military response.
Comment by Naomi Campbell — March 5, 2008 @ 8:29 pm