TORONTO, March 14, 2001 – Leaders of six Colombian community and union groups on a speaking tour of Canada will visit York University on Tuesday, March 20 to discuss the escalation of violence and forced displacement of families attributed to Plan Colombia -- the US-sponsored war on drugs.
The leaders say the US-funded military buildup in Colombia, ties between paramilitary killers and state security, and the chemical defoliation of coca and poppy plantations are effecting a military and environmental genocide in their communities, which are fighting for survival. The group says Plan Colombia undermines the peace process and threatens to destabilize the entire Latin American region. Their Invisible Struggles Speaking Tour is organized by the the Canadian Coalition Lazos Visibles, the Canadian Colombian Association, and the Caribbean Latin American Solidarity group.
"Plan Colombia is using terror and war against the Colombian people to gain control over territory and resources for multinational oil and mining interests," says Emmanuel Rozental, visiting research fellow at York University’s Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC). "This delegation represents those in Colombia who endorse a negotiated solution to the longstanding political conflict, and this requires a profound social transformation and the recognition of un-armed social actors to represent themselves in the peace process."
Rozental is a Colombian Canadian and former director of a United Nations research institute in Cali on violence prevention. He notes that CODHES, the Colombian non-government organization tracking displaced populations reports an average of eight families are displaced every day, mostly due to paramilitary terrorism, for a total of two million displaced people over the past 10 years and more than 370,000 last year alone. "That’s three times as many as the displacement in Kosovo, and one Colombian on average is murdered every 15 to 20 minutes," says Rozental, quoting United Nations and other sources.
Among the Colombian group touring Canada is indigenous leader Ezequiel Vitonás Talanga of Proyecto Nasa in Cauca whose community has voluntarily broken its links with the drug trade, destroyed its coca plantations and dismantled its cocaine processing laboratories.
Also on the tour is trade union leader Patricia Buriticia of the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores; feminist and peace activist Maria del Pilar Cordoba of Ruta Pacifica de Mujeres; Dora Arboleda of the Organización Feminina Popluar; Afro Colombian leader Carlos Rosero of Proceso de Comunidades Negras; campesino leader Agustin Reyes of the Comunidades y Territorios de Paz (Communities and Territories for Peace). Interpreters will accompany the group.
The Invisible Struggles Speaking Tour will visit Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. In Ottawa they will meet with the foreign affairs subcommittee on human rights and international development in the Canadian parliament. The visit to Toronto begins with a public event at Holy Trinity church at 6 p.m. Saturday, Mar. 17. At York University, the group will take part in a panel discussion sponsored by CERLAC, and the York Centre for Refugee Studies, on Tuesday, March 20, 1-4 p.m. in the Assembly Hall, 152 Founders College, York University, Keele Campus, 4700 Keele St.
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For more information, please contact:
Emmanuel Rozental
CERLAC
York University
(416) 980-1591 (pager)
(416) 533-8305 (home)
Sheila Gruner
Master Candidate
Faculty of Environmental Studies
(416) 534-9615 (home)
Susan Bigelow
Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22091
sbigelow@yorku.ca
YU/027/01
