Tag Archives: Latin America

Peace in Colombia Is Impossible Without Us, Women Declare

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article from Telesur TV

Colombian women, under the banner of “One Million Women for Peace,” are demanding a greater role in the peace talks between FARC insurgents and the government as negotiations wrap up.

Colombia women
Click on photo to enlarge and to read legend

The group has been growing its ranks in an effort to promote the signing of the peace deal and prepare for post-conflict stability, sociologist and human rights activist Gloria Florez told Prensa Latina on Wednesday.

According to the activist, the newly-formed bloc aimes to create a community movement to provide popular backing for the talks, which began in 2012, and promote implementation of the deal.

The movement brings together farmers, artists, journalists, youth and political representatives of indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities. On Tuesday, women at the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues insisted they be included in peace processes around the world because “women are pushing the culture of peace and not the culture of war.”

The decades-long conflict in Colombia has killed about 300,000 people, while six million remain displaced from their homes and another 45,000 remain missing. The “One Million Women for Peace” campaign argues that women are essential in building alternatives once the militarization is negotiated, said a former cabinet member of the Bogota municipality.

Question for this article

Do women have a special role to play in the peace movement?

The 40 articles in CPNN linked to this question make it clear that women indeed have a special role to play in the peace movement. See the following for an historical explanation of why this is true.

Latin America, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

For the first time, a Peace Plan for Cali, Colombia

. . DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION . .

An article from El Pueblo (translated by CPNN)

Establishing policies and guidelines in Cali and Valle for strategic and educational activities that promote a culture of peace, peaceful coexistence and reconciliation in southwestern Colombia: that is the purpose of the “Plan for Peace and Peaceful Coexistence”, a city project led by the Peace Advisory Council of Cali, under the administration of mayor Maurice Armitage.

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Counselor Rocio Gutierrez Cely
Click on photo to enlarge

According to Counselor, Rocio Gutierrez Cely, the “Plan for Peace and Peaceful Coexistence” is a guide prepared by the Peace Advisory Council, in consultation with different social actors such as the High Council for Peace and Human Rights of the Government of Valle, the Archdiocese, universities along with staff of the mayor’s office in Cali and agencies such as the Post-Conflict Advisory Council. The purpose is to engage the competencies of each organization in order to strengthen support, alliances and joint proposals that may be pursued by and with the population of Cali and Valle. ”

Advances of the “Peace Plan Agenda”

Counselor Rocio Gutierrez Cely presented the “Plan for Peace and Peaceful Coexistence” to the Mayor of Cali and his cabinet, which is working on several components, one of which has been called “Cali , city of peace promoters”. In making the presentation, he said “we have already made progress to strengthen actions to train leaders and community organizations, as promoters of peace through justice and reconciliation.”

Other joint strategies will be developed to reinforce the actions of the Peace Advisory Council of Cali. They already have the support of the High Commissioner for Peace and Human Rights, Fabio Cardozo Montealegre, for community reintegration and restorative justice, which is conceived as a means of alternative dispute resolution.

In conclusion, the Peace Counselor said that “peace is an attitude, a lifestyle that leads us to forgive, reconcile and to realize that as we prevent conflict and empower people, especially those living in vulnerable circumstances, we are building peace. We can do this by workshops and conferences. We need everyone to be involved regardless of their socioeconomic status or whether they are in the public or private sector. ”

(Click here for a Spanish version of this article)

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DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Latin America

Colombia celebrates agreement to legally bind the peace accord

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An article from Prensa Latina

Parliamentarians, political parties and platforms like the Patriotic March celebrated today [12 May] the agreement signed by the Colombian government and the FARC-EP to legally ensure the agreements that have been reached in the Havana.

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Video about the agreement on HispanTV

Through his Twitter account, the legislator Iván Cepeda, co-chairman of the peace committee of the Senate, lauded the decision of the belligerents to “shield” or protect the agreements.

According to the attorney Humberto de la Calle, the chief government spokespersons in these discussions, the final document will have the category of Special Agreement under the terms of Article III common to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the cornerstone of international humanitarian law. It will then be incorporated into national law following its approval in Congress, followed by presidential approval, he said.

Since 2012 representatives of the Colombia executive and the Revolutionary Armed People’s Forces (FARC-EP) in Cuba have engaged in a dialogue to find a political solution to the civil war, an initiative that is expected to be concluded soon.

The Patriotic Union party said in a statement that this is one of the best news the Colombian people could receive in the face of the media and political campaign promoted by the extreme right against the peace process. In their view, it will facilitate compliance with the principles of sustainability and the stability of the accords.

The agreement will be binding and no one can change it one iota, according to the platform Patriotic March, led by former congressman Piedad Cordoba.

Referring to the development of the meetings with the FARC-EP, Humberto de la Calle said that the two delegations are working hard to define the terms of the bilateral and definitive ceasefire, the surrender of weapons and disarmament of the insurgents, areas of temporary location for the guerrillas and guarantees for the future of the demobilized.

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Civil society has a critical role to play in ensuring lasting peace in Latin America: Tunisian Nobel Peace prize winner Ali Zeddini, speaking in Colombia

. . DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION . .

An article by Civicus

BOGOTA, 25th April: Speaking at a press briefing to mark the opening of International Civil Society Week 2016, Nobel Prize winning Tunisian activist Ali Zeddini highlighted the role that civil society must play if there is to be sustainable peace in Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and other Latin American countries.

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Ali Zeddini
Click on photo to enlarge

‘From the political crises in Venezuela and Brazil to the Colombian peace negotiations, civil society must have a role in the whole peace process, before, during and after’, said Zeddini, who played a critical role in the peaceful revolution and democratic transition in Tunisia.

‘Civil society is the conscience of a people and as such must participate in the defence of the people’s interests,’ added Zeddini. “Tunisia’s example shows that organised civil society can provide education and support to move away from violence and this can inspire other countries.’

Liliana Patricia Rodriguez Burgos, Executive Director of Confederación Colombiana de ONG (CCONG), the Colombian host organisation for ICSW 2016 welcomed Zeddini and civil society leaders, including Danny Sriskandarajah, Secretary General of CIVICUS, the co-organisers of the conference.

#ICSW2016 is the largest and most diverse gathering of its kind with over 900 leading activists, thinkers and media from 109 countries meeting this week to celebrate the power of people and movements to fight human rights, democracy and development struggles.

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Question related to this article:

How can we develop the institutional framework for a culture of peace?

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Venezuelan constitutional legal expert and LGBTI activist Tamara Adrián praised the role that civil society plays saying, ‘In Venezuela there are no government numbers on violence, teenage pregnancy, access to medicine, and how many people go hungry. NGOs and academics provide research and raise awareness on these key issues’.

The gathering happens against the backdrop of a global repressive trend of increased attacks on the people and organisations that defend our basic human rights.

‘Civil society is facing a global crisis’, said Sriskandarajah, ‘CIVICUS is tracking serious human rights violations in 101 countries, from dictatorships to democracies. Politicians fear dissenting voices. Anti-terrorism measures and the notion of insecurity are being used to shut down citizen action. Political and economic inequality are on the rise. From activists to social movements, lawyers to media, now more than ever we need civil society to stand together in solidarity against a global tide of government repression.’

Amongst the most brutal examples of repressive acts are the harassment, physical violence and targeted killings of human rights defenders, human rights lawyers and journalists, which continue to increase. In 2015 alone, 156 human rights defenders lost their lives and the murders of Berta Cáceres and her fellow activist Nelson García in Honduras in March highlighted again the on-going crisis.

In Latin America land, environmental, and indigenous rights activists are being specifically targeted as mines, agribusiness and megaprojects such as dams are being pushed through in countries including Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru.

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Latin America

Building peace from Colombian universities

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An article from Fundacion Escuelas de Paz, reprinted by the Global Campaign for Peace Education

“Peacebuilders” is a program that seeks the integral formation of 1,200 university students in Colombia, involved in the scholarship program “Dreams of Peace” of Bancolombia Foundation, in knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes conducive to building Cultures of Peace.

Colombia
Click on the photo to enlarge

Peacebuilders is carried out by Escuelas de Paz (Schools of Peace) Foundation based on the six components proposed by UNESCO in the 2000 manifesto for a culture of peace and non-violence. Also it works on the six pillars raised by the methodology of education for peace, known as “The Flower for the Culture of Peace”. Finally, as a transversal axis the Guiding Principles of UN Secretary General on the Participation of Youth in Peace Building were taken.

These participants will implement impact actions on their university communities through collective nonviolent actions that enable a more just society. Due to the national situation of peace talks between the government and the FARC guerrilla in Havana, Cuba, it was formed a group of 70 students leaders in building and advocacy of cultures of peace, historical memory and reconciliation, with capabilities for replication in the next semesters and to design and implement new actions for peace within the institutions in which they were formed.

In a first stage, 320 students have been trained in three cities in the country: Bogotá D.C, Cartagena y Manizales since July 2015. The scholarship program of Bancolombia Foundation is an initiative developed from the line of social management of Bancolombia, who have an interest in developing a program of high social impact, which aims to provide resources and conditions that allow students with specific characteristics as vulnerable conditions, to access to higher education in technical, technological and university programs nationwide.

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Mexico City: A system of mediation to be applied in all 16 delegations

. . DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION . .

An article by Lemic Madrid, Azteca Noticias

In Mexico City a system of mediation will be applied as an alternative means to resolve conflicts in the communities of the 16 delegations; With this action, citizens in the capital city will be able to reach agreement with authorities to resolve issues of security, services and urban infrastructure.

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City Prosecutor Rodolfo Ríos Garza

The Superior Court of Justice and the Attorney General of the capital will promote the training of mediators who will work to ensure access to justice and the rights of all parties in conflict, seeking a satisfactory solution for the benefit of the community.

“The major objective of community mediation is to consider all people as citizens with rational capacity to voluntarily settle their conflicts, so that they do not need to reach the courts … They will be supported by a community mediator who legitimizes the process,” according to the President of the Capital City Court of Justice, Edgar Elias Azar.

During his participation in the signing of the agreement to implement the system in the 16 delegations of the capital, he said that in criminal matters, this strategy has generated savings of resources and time by establishing a dialogue between the conflicting parties.

As for the city prosecutor, Rodolfo Rios Garza, he said the mediation system has generated dividends by ensuring compensation for damage and by shortening the time required for the settlement of a conflict by means of a dialogue between the two sides.

“This can be seen through the activity carried out by mediation units in law enforcement, which, from January 2015 to February 2016, recorded 7,326 processes, leading to the signing of 1,871 agreements and 860 agreements with reparations, thus achieving the proper settlement of disputes between the parties involved in a conflict of criminal content,” said the city prosecutor, Rodolfo Rios Garza. He indicated that these results led to the decision to extend mediation to other areas of public life.

(Click here for a Spanish version of this article)

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DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Latin America

Colombia: National Meeting on Education for Peace

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Presentation of the final report

Thinking about Education for Peace is the fruit of the National Conference on Education for Peace, held in Colombia on 1 and 2 October 2015. In this gathering there emerged ways of building and living life, led by youth, women, men weaving their daily lives amid resilient and creative practices that challenge and redefine the imaginary and cultural references that have sustained various types of violence.

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The National Meeting on Education for Peace, was undertaken with the following objectives: 1) to articulate experiences and facilitate exchange of knowledge on education for peace among different actors and sectors of society from the perspectives of education for peace and building cultures of peace; 2) Generate a reflection with a broad spectrum on the challenges that the current situation presents to education for peace, in both social organizations and educational institutions at all levels, and 3 ) Promote a consensus to generate public policies in education for peace.

We have considered it essential to collect the experience of the National Meeting on Education for Peace. Therefore, we set out to investigate the question: What is the agenda of peace education that was proposed at the national meeting? Of course it is ambitious goal to record all the wealth, conversations, practices, concerns, desires and diversity of this meeting. However, this report, Thinking about Peace Education, aims to highlight the main commitments emerging from the many conversations that took place on 1 and 2 October at the National Meeting on Education for Peace. Therefore, we have structured this publication as follows:

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(Click here for the original Spanish of this aricle.)

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What is happening in Colombia, Is peace possible?

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CROSSROADS, to account for the genesis of this meeting and its coordinates in the processes of peace building, which for more than two decades have been promoting different actors in Colombia, in the context of education for peace, from the convergence of diverse, new synergies, dynamics and actors scenarios evidence.

METHOD, to account for the methodological proposal for the meeting, which involved 652 assistants, from twenty departments, representatives of two hundred eighty organizations that take actions for peace education.

COMMITMENTS for peace education, to account for the hopes and commitments that emerged at the National Meeting on Education for Peace, from a reading exercise of the conversations were in the meeting and can guide actions and processes different scenarios.

SOME PROPOSALS to account for proposals for concrete actions that emerged in several of the workshops. The actions are grouped into several areas: social mobilization, generation and strengthening of public policy, university chairs for peace, human rights education and administrative and institutional framework.

OTHER PERSPECTIVES, to account for reflections and perspectives by the foreign and domestic guests at the National Meeting on Education for Peace: The professors Alicia Cabezudo, Rosa Ludy Arias Campos, Marina Caireta Sampero, Janet Gerson, David Adams, and Carlos Eduardo Martinez Hincapie, wanted to bring some elements from what they felt and observed in relation to their own experiences and studies on education for peace.
This publication was edited by a group of people from several of the founding organizations of the National Conference on Education for Peace, who collected the agreements and proposals from the table convenors in order to guide the methodological and systematic processes.

We hope this publication Thinking about Peace Education will be a contribution to building cultures of peace in Colombia, as an effort to contribute to the many initiatives and processes that are interwoven in the search for a country reconciled and peaceful.

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Book review: Hilary Klein’s Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

A book review by Alicia Swords, North American Congress on Latin America

Hilary Klein (2015) Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories. New York: Seven Stories Press.

When poor, indigenous people and peasants took over land and municipal governments in Chiapas, Mexico on January 1, 1994 just as the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect, the uprising shook the world. Through individual interviews and collective interviews at women’s assemblies, Hilary Klein’s book, Compañeras, charts the changes in women’s roles, leadership, rights, and power in intimate relationships, families, and communities that the Zapatista movement brought.

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Zapatista collectve bakery, Olga Isabel, Chiapas, Mexico. (Hilary Klein)

The title Compañeras captures the core of Klein’s project, which both describes her subject, Zapatista women and their political relationships, as well as her approach of being a compañera herself by building relationships of trust and mutual support. From 1997 to 2003, Klein worked in collaboration with women’s collectives in Zapatista communities in Chiapas. She co-developed a project called Mujer y Colectivismo, which supported Zapatista women’s cooperatives with leadership development, popular education materials, regional gatherings, and rotating loan funds. Regional authorities asked her to teach basic mathematics to women who needed these skills to run their cooperatives. In times of heavy state repression, she joined human rights delegations to interview women after military attacks on their communities. In the process Klein developed a high degree of trust with women leaders; she “slept in their homes, worked in their cornfields with them, and played with their children” (p. xxii). The richness of the interviews and collective testimony through group interviews is based on thattrust.

Other sympathetic outsiders-with-inside-perspectives and engaged scholar-activists in Chiapas have written about the Zapatistas, including June Nash, Rich Stahler-Sholk, Leandro Vergara-Camus, Mariana Mora, and Shannon Speed, to name a few. Klein’s work in Compañeras reflects this sort of committed engagement at its best.

With so much outside interest, Zapatista authorities developed criteria for engagement and meaningful involvement for scholars. In 2001, Zapatista women authorities in Morelia and La Garrucha asked Klein to conduct a set of interviews in more than two dozen communities to document and teach about the movement’s history from women’s perspectives. It is significant that Compañeras grew out of these interviews, driven by the movement participants’ own desire to teach the history of their organizing. Unlike descriptions of movements intended solely to inform outsiders, Compañeras addresses questions that clearly matter to the Zapatista women themselves, along with questions that matter to outsiders hoping to bring lessons from the Zapatista movement to their own spheres.

Each chapter uses both individual and collective interviews. The first three chapters outline the history and emergence of the Zapatista movement. We learn the history of injustices in Chiapas through interviews with mothers and grandmothers of Zapatista insurgents. Women military commanders describe their experiences of the 1994 uprising, and insurgents discuss the challenges of clandestine organizing. Participants explain the complex relationship between the liberation theology and the Zapatista movement, women’s struggles to rid communities of alcohol, the first above-ground organizing, the 1994 uprising, and the passage of the Women’s Revolutionary Law.

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Question for this article

Do women have a special role to play in the peace movement?

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Chapters four and five address how women have changed power dynamics in Chiapas through struggles over land and militarization. Building on historical struggles for land, we see how women participated in the Zapatista land takeovers and current struggles against neoliberal land privatization policies. We learn of the militarization, the failed San Andrés dialogues, and of confrontations with the military in their communities in 1998.

The remaining chapters, six through nine, reveal women’s experiences within the process and structures of the Zapatista movement. “Women who give birth to new worlds” chronicles the evolution of women’s participation and leadership in the Zapatistas’ political structure, economic cooperatives, and regional gatherings, along with changes in the Zapatistas’ own gender analysis. “Zapatista Autonomy” describes a range of women’s experiences in the emerging autonomous systems: Good Government Councils, the community justice system, health care and education. “Transformation and Evolution,”depicts the unevenness of changes in women’s rights and their ability to exercise those rights, acknowledging challenges and gaps between rhetoric and reality. It also highlights new strategies, such as consciousness-raising with men, shifting expectations for men’s involvement in domestic work, and raising children with new gender ideas. “Beyond Chiapas” shows efforts by Zapatista women to connect with women beyond Chiapas to build a broader movement for justice and dignity.

Maps, a timeline, glossary, and a list of suggested readings make this book an accessible introductory resource on the Zapatistas for students, organizers, and scholars. Throughout, Klein’s account reflects deep respect, comprehension, complexity, and nuance. She combines systematic research, a genuine desire for the movement to achieve its goals, and the honesty to carefully examine its shortcomings.

Latin America, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

The peace process in Colombia: A Chronology

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Taken from Deutsche Welle (translated by CPNN)

The following is a chronology of the highlights of the peace process begun three years ago and culminating in March. The countdown starts from the expected date for the final signing.

Colombia
Juan Manuel Santos shakes hands with Timochenko in Havana during the peace dialogus. Photo by Reuters

The Government of Colombia and the FARC negotiated in Havana, Cuba an accord to end the armed conflict after more than half a century that has cost the lives of 220,000 people, has left about 7 million victims, 62% of its territory affected by landmines and incalculable damage to the environment due to massive clearing for coca cultivation, illegal mining and attacks on the national pipeline.

Five points are on the table: agrarian reform, abandoning arms, political participation of the ex-insurgents, drug trafficking and reparation for victims. Additional agreements concern implementation, verification and countersignature of the accords.

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March 23: Expected date for final signing of the peace process

January 13: The negotiating teams of the Government of Colombia and the FARC began the last stage of the peace talks, which will work in permanent session to accelerate the process and meet deadlines.

2 0 1 5

December 15: Agreement about victims including a comprehensive system for reparation, justice, truth and guarantees of non-repetition. This step was, according to President Juan Manuel Santos, “the most important advance in the negotiating agenda.”

November 22: The Colombian government announced pardon of 30 FARC prisoners in different jails for the crime of rebellion.

November 10: “Timoshenko”, spokesman of the FARC, announced that on September 30 he ordered all structures of the guerrillas to suspend arms purchases in order to reduce the intensity of the armed conflict.

October 28: President Santos said the government and the FARC can reach an agreement to start a bilateral ceasefire before January 1, 2016, to which the FARC suggest to start before Christmas.

October 23: The High Commissioner for Peace of Colombia, Sergio Jaramillo said the FARC promised to deliver remains of people who died when they were in their possession for which they have the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC ).

October 17: The government and the FARC announced an agreement to jointly seek more than 25,000 people who have been reported missing by various sources as a result of the armed conflict.

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(click here for the Spanish version of this article.)

Question for this article:

What is happening in Colombia, Is peace possible?

See the CPNN bulletin for September 1, 2015, concerning the Colombia Peace Process.

(article continued from the left side of the page)

October 10: FARC spokesman Timoshenko stated that the FARC must suspend recruitment in order to facilitate the peace process.

September 23: President Santos met in Havana with the FARC leader, Rodrigo Londoño, alias “Timoshenko”. They made an historic handshake and agreed that peace will be signed no later than March 23, 2016, after presentation of the basic agreement on justice.

September 15: The government presented to Congress a legislative bill to facilitate rapid implementation of peace agreements.

July 10: The negotiators announced a plan to reduce the intensity of the conflict and accelerate the achievement of agreements that allow reaching a bilateral and definitive cease-fire.

June 4: The parties agreed to the creation of a Truth Commission that will be launched when peace is signed.

March 7: The government and the FARC announced an agreement for joint humanitarian de-mining.

2014

December 17: The FARC announced an indefinite cease unilateral ceasefire starting on December 20.

August 16: A first group of twelve victims of armed conflict met with the negotiators, followed by another four groups totalling 60 people.

June 7: The government and the FARC announced that five delegations of victims would attending hearings with negotiators in Cuba over the coming months.

May 16: The Government and FARC reached an agreement on drug trafficking and illegal crops, the third item on the agenda.

2 0 1 3

May 26: The government and the FARC announced the first agreement of the negotiating agenda at the point of land and rural development.

August 20: The FARC acknowledged for the first time their “share of responsibility” for the casualties caused by the armed conflict.

November 6: The parties announced the second agreement of the five items on the agenda, political participation of the guerrillas.

2 0 1 2

October 17: Government negotiators and the FARC established in Oslo that the roundtable would begin in Havana the following month.

August 26: Start of negotiations for the final signing of the peace process. Government delegates and the FARC decided that Havana would be the host for negotiations towards a “General Agreement ending the conflict and building a stable and lasting peace” with the support of Cuba and Norway as guarantors.

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President Creates Ministry of Indigenous People in Chile

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

An article from Prensa Latina

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet signed today at La Moneda Palace the laws that create the Ministry of Indigenous People, the National Council and the Indigenous People”s Councils.

Chile
Photo from Latercera

In a simple ceremony, Bachelet congratulated herself on benefiting, at last, the original Chilean indigenous people, who include new ethnic groups recognized by the State, with a ministry devoted to them.

We have the duty of making our nation a country where its multiculturalism and plurality, the president asserted.

She said the ides was generating more spaces for the cultural richness of our identities to be expressed and to guarantee respect and equal treatment to all men and women, something that all people and beliefs deserve.

According to an official press release, to create these authorities, representatives of the ethic groups Aymara, Quechua, Atacameños, Diaguitas, Kollas, Rapa Nui, Kawesqar, Yaganes and Mapuche were consulted.

The president explained that the new ministry would collaborate with the presidency of the Republic to design, coordinate and assess policies, plans and programs aimed at encouraging and strengthen the rights of the original people.

The new institution would also work in favor of their socioeconomic, political and cultural development, as well as to seek elimination of all forms of arbitrary discrimination.

In Chile, there is a conflict with the indigenous people, especially with the Mapuche, who demand the return of their lands, seized by transnational companies.

( Click here for the original version in Spanish.)

Question for discussion
Latin America, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY