Colombia: Integración Campesina del Cesar is Leading a Campaign for Peasants’ Rights and Against the Criminalization of the Struggle for Land
We hereby share an unofficial translation of an article published by Nueva Democracia on April 24th.
The organization Integración Campesina del Cesar is conducting a campaign to denounce efforts by agents of big landlords on Colombia’s Atlantic Coast to criminalize small peasants. The group is currently fighting for the right to access water services, sewer systems, and better road infrastructure—a right that is systematically denied by the Colombian government, which prioritizes infrastructure for exports. Historically, the Atlantic Coast has been the scene of significant peasant struggles, one of the high points being the creation and development of the ANUC—the National Association of Peasant Users, Sincelejo branch—which achieved important victories in the struggle for land democratization and land use consistent with the needs of national development.
For this reason, paramilitary groups and legal military forces act as the armed wing of the ruling classes, represented in this region by big landlords who use the land for extensive cattle ranching, cotton cultivation, mega-mining, and other activities that serve the needs of the imperialist market—activities from which these landlords derive significant profits. It is in the interest of overcoming this regressive social structure that Integración Campesina del Cesar dedicates its current political practice, building on the legacy of the most advanced land struggles in Colombia and carrying out agitation campaigns—such as the one currently underway—that enable poor and landless peasants, and society at large, to recognize large-scale latifundium as an obstacle to our country’s development.
Below, we share some of the images and graphics they have posted on social media, calling for the defense of land reclamations and the rejection of the criminalization of the peasant struggle, as well as images exposing the alliance between paramilitary groups and big landlords to seize land and crush the peasant movement.
Solidarity with the Integración Campesina del Cesar, which is fighting to reclaim the land stolen by centuries of latifundium and subservience to foreign interests!
May the people of all Colombia recognize the central importance of the peasants’ struggle!
May millions of young people take up the heroic legacy of the struggle against large-scale latifundium!
May the countryside and the city resound with solidarity for the struggle for land!
May the land belong to those who work it!
