August 12, 2002

Colombian Official Speaks Out Against Rebel Threats and Plan Colombia

by Garry Leech

On the day that Alvaro Uribe was being sworn in as the new president of Colombia, I met with one of the many local officials who have been forced to flee for their lives as a result of rebel threats. Lizet (who requested that her real name not be used for security reasons) is the 25-year-old president of a local council in the southern department of Putumayo. Like hundreds of other local officials in Colombia, she has recently received an ultimatum from the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to quit her post or be killed. At first she ignored the threat, but eventually had to flee the region. In the following interview, Lizet discusses the rebel threats and the devastating consequences of Plan Colombia from a hiding place far removed from her community.

Q: What is your official position in Putumayo?

A: I am the president of the local council for the community where I live in the Sibundoy Valley in upper Putumayo. I work with the community and organizations, and I work with a foundation that has 40 groups throughout Putumayo. I also work with the campesino organization, ANUC.

Q: Why did you leave Putumayo?

A: I left Putumayo on July 28 because I have been persecuted and threatened by the FARC. First of all, because of the work that I have been doing. Secondly, because of the situation in the country. The FARC is pressuring the government by threatening us through letters and other things. They lost the zona de despeje and didn't reach a negotiated settlement with the government, so the war continues.

Q: Couldn't the army or the police protect you in Putumayo?

A: No, because they don't have enough men. There were only 26 police to protect our threatened communities. When I was first threatened I thought that I didn't need protection because I didn't think they would kill me. But in the last threat, a man came to see me and I didn't know he was a guerrilla because he looked like any other person in town. He asked me, "What are you going to do? Are you going to leave or are you going to stay? Did you resign?" I asked why he was asking all these questions, what does he know and are the guerrillas near here? He asked if I thought that guerrillas only came with arms, because he doesn't have arms but could still be a guerrilla. "The guerrillas come with arms when they are going to execute people," he said. "Your life has been respected because of the people." He was there and the police were close by, but I couldn't denounce him to them because if I did, I knew the guerrillas would kill me. He said the guerrillas are like any person you see on the corner. Anybody could be a guerrilla. This makes the situation more difficult because you can't trust anybody. Sometimes your best friends are guerrillas or informers. It is very complicated.

Q: What are you doing while you are in hiding?

A: After I was threatened, I met with local councils from four other towns to try and find a solution to this problem. The guerrillas were forcing us to resign in order to save our lives or become military targets. But the national government refused to accept our resignations; they won't let us resign because the government will lose its ability to govern if we do. We needed to find alternatives and get guarantees from a government that has abandoned the region. The government spends money in the highlands where poppies are cultivated, but not throughout the region. But we are also affected by the fumigation. More than 150 families, mainly coca growers, that have been displaced from lower Putumayo have moved to the Sibundoy Valley. A lot of people moving to upper Putumayo are growing coca. We are trying to propose alternatives for the people, and initially the government paid attention to us, but they haven't done anything. At the moment everything is paralyzed because local officials have been forced to leave. We proposed to the government that the local councils work from outside the region for a while so we can search for a solution without risking our lives.

Q: Have you been threatened by the FARC since you went into hiding?

A: It has been better here. I had a little problem when I was in another place because information of my whereabouts leaked out. But now I am very careful and I am in a place where no one would expect to find me. I only talk to the people who are close to me.

Q: Has the FARC installed new forms of government in the communities that no longer have local officials?

A: The FARC think they are attacking the institution, but they are attacking the people. It appears that the FARC has a proposal, but I don't know the details yet, I have only heard rumors. They have proposed that southern Colombia be separated from the rest of the country. The FARC want to destroy the governmental structure so that they can have a territory to control. They have tried to implement their proposal in a small town, creating administrative councils as a form of government. They have proposed that there be a president of the administrative council, not a mayor, and that half of the council consist of citizens and the other half of guerrillas. The council will decide how things will work. The guerrillas propose that in the small towns these Juntas de Accion Comunal (Community Action Councils) act as leaders of the communities. But the councils are not elected by popular vote, the FARC appoint the committee leaders in every town. The guerrillas have proposed this as an alternative solution, but they only want power. They are trying to do this in the weakest places that have been abandoned by the national government, where there is no army. In those places they can do what they want and some of the people have received the guerrillas happily because they are the only ones who bring justice.

Q: What do you want the government to do in Putumayo?

A: On August 2, the government met with threatened mayors, presidents of councils and governors to seek alternatives to the current situation. But the government insists on investing more money into fighting the war. But I don't think the government has the capacity to fight a war. There are two actors: the FARC and the paramilitaries. The FARC don't want the paramilitaries to exist and they are not going to disappear while the paramilitaries exist. And the paramilitaries are not going to disappear while the guerrillas exist. We propose negotiations to find a solution because we civilians can't attack the guerrillas with arms, because we don't have arms, so we attack them with proposals. We want the guerrillas to talk with us, and the government to talk with the guerrillas to look for an alternative solution. But we don't want the guerrillas to ask for a zona de despeje like before, because we tried that and it didn't work.

There are many different ways to communicate, like the Internet, and we want them to negotiate a solution where they stop the kidnappings, make the humanitarian prisoner exchange, stop the attacks against children, stop the bombs, don't kill more people, and don't declare us military targets. They gave us 24 hours to leave and we will give them 24 hours to talk and tell us exactly what they want. We also don't know exactly what the position of the government is, but we as people, and as a part of the government, ask that the president begin a dialogue with the FARC instead of making war. We have asked this of the government many times and we have also sent a letter to the FARC saying we want negotiations and not war.

For many people war is the solution and the government buys more planes and more arms to defeat the guerrillas because they think the guerrillas are their biggest problem. The government doesn't invest a lot of money in education, health, public services and housing--only money for war. It is impossible for us. If the government stops investing in employment, health and education it is like the government is sacrificing our lives. If they escalate the war then we will have three choices: we can go with the guerrillas, we can go with the paramilitaries, or we can die of hunger with the government. A lot of young people will join the guerrillas.

Q: Does your community have problems with the paramilitaries?

A: There are rumors that they have arrived in the area, but there haven't been any attacks yet. But when the paramilitaries came to lower Putumayo four years ago there was a lot of violence. Everyone in the world knows they are the most violent. When they came to Putumayo there were massacres and massacres and massacres. They would castrate the men and cut the lips and arms off the women. They would cut off the heads of young men and give them to their mothers. The paramilitaries and the army are the same, they work together. The army will leave a village so that the paramilitaries can come in and massacre the people.

Q: What do you think is going to happen under President Alvaro Uribe?

A: He has not really said what he intends to do. He has proposed reducing the size of the Congress and dismissing lots of government workers, but he doesn't see that he will increase the unemployment by a high percentage. Thousands of government workers will be unemployed and he doesn't have a solution for that, other than jobs in the armed forces. The guerrillas are also waiting to see if the government wants war or negotiations.

Q: What is the current situation in Putumayo regarding Plan Colombia?

A: The agreements that have been made under Plan Colombia have been experiments. The government said they were going to invest a lot of money in Putumayo. They then proposed that campesinos who make a living from growing four or five hectares change to palm hearts, bananas and yucca. But we need the means to produce and sell these products and the government didn't think about that. So for Putumayo, Plan Colombia wasn't good. In fact, Plan Colombia was the worst thing that could have happened to us. There was a lot of corruption as NGOs from Bogotá invaded Putumayo. We know how to work with the people in Putumayo, but with Plan Colombia came a lot of people from Bogotá and other places to manage the projects. The government only gives the money to these organizations. The people who understand Putumayo don't have any money to implement projects.

In some places they made good changes, but there were a lot of bad experiences, like with palm production for example. Palm takes two years to grow and the people aren´t going to stop producing coca while they wait two years for the palm to grow. The people take advantage of the alternative programs, but they are not going to change permanently because the new crops take one or two years to grow while coca only takes six months. Only a few people can afford to switch from earning a million pesos (US$400) for coca to 300,000 pesos (US$150) from alternative crops.

Q: What problems have people experienced from the fumigation?

A: Nobody wanted the fumigation because of the biological consequences to their health and the escalation of the conflict. It damaged the land and the people. There are many photos of the damage that has resulted from the fumigation. We have a lot of photos of children with rashes on their faces that we have used in a protest against Plan Colombia. We think it is necessary to solve the problem of coca cultivation, but fumigation is not the right way.

If the government only implemented fumigation against farmers cultivating coca it might be all right, but they attack other farmers too. They don't see that the people who buy the coca are the problem. The fumigation isn't attacking the narcotraffickers who buy the coca. The cultivators are farmers just trying to survive. There are a lot of narcotraffickers and they are now creating a second Putumayo. Because of the situation, they are transferring coca cultivation to Barbacoas and Llorente in Nariño and now there are fumigation campaigns in those areas that have caused much damage. The departments of Caquetá, Putumayo and Nariño have joined together to protest against Plan Colombia because the medicine is worse than the disease.

Q: Do you have family in Putumayo at this time?

A: Yes, it is very difficult for them because, initially, I was threatened because of the work I do and I didn't want to quit because it is my job. I did not want to leave two and a half years behind. I have invested money, time and my life to do it. A lot of farmers and indigenous people who have contact with the guerrillas told them they didn't think it was fair to kill me. So I thought that, because of the actions of local farmers and indigenous people, I wasn't going to be killed. But when the guerrillas threatened me and I didn't leave, they decided to threaten my family. They thought that threatening to kill my family was a way to make me leave. I thought that we could talk and I wanted to know why they were threatening me and why I had to leave Putumayo, because we had done a lot of good things and created work for the people. We have developed strong organizations that have done good things. But people who have contact with the guerrillas say that is why I had to leave, because if I am not there then the people will be forced to ask the government for assistance as there will be no local officials to do things for them. I didn't want to risk my life or the lives of other people. I know that if they threaten to kill my family that they can do it. It is better that I get out and try to work and protect myself from here or another country.

Q: What is the possibility of you and your family obtaining asylum in another country?

A: There are some possibilities in other countries. There is a program in Canada and another in Costa Rica, and I can go with my family. But I don't want to leave the country. I want to stay here because I can't leave everything I have done here. The government said that I have to decide, because if I stay here they cannot protect me and my family. We will see. If I leave, I hope that I can find a country where I can still work for Colombia.

This article originally appeared in Colombia Report, an online journal that was published by the Information Network of the Americas (INOTA).

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