Peasants in Cesar Show the Popular Path in the Struggle for Land in Colombia
Nueva Democracia reports that on May 5, dozens of peasant families seized unproductive lands from the Latifundium in the Cesar province of Colombia. Nueva Democracia emphasizes that “the seizure of land is the only path to conquer the land, basing ourselves on our own forces, organizing and preparing the struggle independently”.
Nueva Democracia reports on many other cases where the peasants demand their lands, where the Latifundium and the Colombian State ignores their demands and necessities. In Jamundí, Cauca Valley, the peasantry demand around 1,500 hectares, historically owned by the drug-trafficker Chepe Santacruz. The pro-latifundium media criminalize the struggle by the peasants and their voices are silenced.
In the Atlantic Coast, in the towns of Magdalena and Sucre, there have been seizures of land in El Delirio and Marchenita. The local media and former government officials criminalize them as “invasions”. In some cases the peasantry has decided to seize lands that are handled by the Land National Agency (ANT) which is not redistributing the land as it promised.
In Nariño, southern Colombia, peasant and indigenous peasants have also mobilized to reclaim their land. Some properties are still under negotiations with the government to be assigned to poor and landless peasants. That is also the case in the Cauca Valley.
Nueva Democracia reports that currently the ruling classes are trying to mobilize and deceive the people for the elections that will take place this month. But these past 4 years of the Petro government have been nothing else than triumphant speeches and deceptions. Petro promised 3 million hectares for the peasants, but so far he said that “with great effort we could reach 500,000 at the end of the government”, and the lands given have so far been bought paying big amounts of money to the big landlords. Moreover, the latter decide which lands they are selling, which leaves only the worst lands in the hands of the peasants.
The repression and brutal violence by goons of the latifundium have also played an important role in the struggle for land in Colombia, and driven many of the peasants through ‘pacifist’ illusions. The Cesar department was one of the places were terror was unleashed, and therefore the seizure of Aguas Blancas is an important milestone, explains Nueva Democracia. The peasant families carried out combative actions such as the seizure and the blockade of the highway called “Route of the Sun”, they are in the camp erected in the recovered land and have forced the institutions “to legally acknowledge the property of the land conquered with organization and struggle”. Therefore Nueva Democracia concludes that “the example that the peasants of Aguas Blancas leave, shows the path that the popular movement, and in particular the peasant movement, must follow, rising the banner of the seizure of land as the only path to recover the land”.
