COLOMBIA: Small Farmers, CPT join Workers Day demonstration in Antioquia; international delegation planned

CPTnet

31 May 2011

COLOMBIA: Small Farmers, CPT join Workers
Day demonstration in Antioquia; international delegation planned

The
organization Corporation for Coexistence and Peace in Northeast of Antioquia
(CAHUCOPANA) organized a demonstration for the International Workers’ Day, 1
May, 2011 in Segovia,
Antioquia. Founded in 2004, CAHUCOPANA is an organization of small farmers.
They recognize the need to unite to ensure the respect for their human rights.

CPT took part in the demonstration and is planning an
international delegation with CAHUCOPANA 14-27 July, 2011. (For more information on the delegation contact
delegations@cpt.org.)

During the speech at Segovia’s
central park, the police were filming the event from the police station’s roof.
CPT and IAP (International Action for Peace) shared their concerns with the
officers, but the police kept on filming.

On the same night, recognized paramilitaries entered the
place where the demonstrators were sleeping, generating fear.

The
following is part of the main speech at the event:

MEMORIAL, DEMONSTRATION AND
CELEBRATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE WORKING CLASS, SEGOVIA FIRST OF MAY
2011

The situation of rural workers is particularly serious.
Firstly, farmers have been the main victims of the armed conflict in our
country and secondly, they are ones who suffer
the worst consequences of the implementation of the neoliberal economic model.

Recent trade agreements and the adoption of the new National
Development Plan only heighten the damaging effects of this exclusionary
economic model that will only benefit a small sector of society while
undermining the rights of the majority at the expense of their own subsistence.

That is why we demand the search for peace include social
justice. We have always demanded: the government recognize its social
responsibilities, a reduction in military spending to the minimum, a stop
to the implementation of mining and agricultural mega projects, limits on the
excavating of our resources, respect for the rural economies, guarantees
of the right to unionize in order to improve job security, and direct
social investment that will benefit the poorest sectors of the population.

Access to land and the protection of land rights and the
environmental protection of territory must
ensured.

The right of the rural population affected by the conflict
and displacement to
return to their land must
also be ensured through the creation of cultural, social, environmental and
economic infrastructure that is respectful
of their culture of solidarity and cooperation, their traditions and that will enable them to safely remain
in their territory, .

The state must guarantee the protection of water in all its
forms, as essential to the life of all species for this and future generations.
Water must be recognized as a human right.

The design and implementation of a national public policy
for human rights and International Humanitarian Law must be developed with the
active participation of the communities and social sectors in accordance with
their particular realities.

Social, cultural, and community organizations that work to rebuild the economic system of rural community must be strengthened.

The necessary guarantees for human rights defenders and
social leaders, unions, students and small farmers must be ensured.

Finally, we reaffirm our will to organize, mobilize and
struggle towards making these demands a reality.