Part 1: Northern Cauca, the Occupied Territory
Back to Photo Index
A battle between the Colombian social movements and the government is being played out in local spheres all over Colombia. One of the arenas of battle is Cauca, a highly strategic corridor in southwestern Colombia through which the Pan-American highway carries the commerce of the South American continent. The northern zone of Cauca, mountainous and neglected by the state, has long been a stronghold of the FARC. In the valleys and cities, the sugar barons, drug cartels, and ranchers continue to wield their traditional money power, trying to forge alliances with multinational capital for megaprojects to exploit the vast natural resources of the region (Cauca, for example, has tremendous water resources).
 |
 |
Colombia in the Americas, Cauca in Colombia, and the Northern Zone in Cauca.
Northern Cauca is also home to one of the most politically sophisticated and strong grassroots movements in Latin America: that of the Nasayuwe (or Nasa) indigenous, a population of around 110,000, organized into 'cabildos' or councils, with a parallel government and a political project they call indigenous autonomy. Because of their success at building this autonomy, they have been attacked by the traditional elites, the government, the paramilitaries, and at times, the FARC, which is unable to allow space for a political project that is not its own. Their organization, the CRIC (Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca), founded in 1971 under the banner of unity, land, and culture, has become the ethical and political guide of other movements in the country and a seed of the remarkable resistance there.
Part of the spirit of the Nasa's movement is expressed by the mayor of Toribio, the town that is the historic heartland of this movement. Arquimedes Vitonas in a speech in Cali in February 2004, told the assembled leaders of the indigenous movement in Northern Cauca: "With this war, they can kill many of us, but they cannot kill all of us. Those of us who live will continue with our work. Those of us who die, will have died defending our process."
If Vitonas's comments capture the Nasa's steadfastness in the face of the
attacks on them, the view from the central square in Toribio captures the
reality of occupation that the Nasa are living. On each corner of the square,
the national police have set up a guard post. Such posts dot the town, and
heavily armed police with their M-16s are ubiquitous.
One of Toribio's guard posts.