The interesting democratic exercise, convened and led by Senator Julián Gallo Cubillos, in which the dispossessed, peasant associations and lawyers for the victims were heard, became a beacon of hope for these troubled communities that for decades, according to convincing denouncements and supported by evidence, “they have suffered the rigors and persecution of criminal mafias that have acted with the complicity of the State.”
By Nancy Piedad Sanchez Perez
Bogotá DC, November 23, 2022 (Senate press).- In the city of Cartagena – Bolívar, in an auditorium packed with heirs and locals in general, a Public Hearing was held on the conflict between black communities and businessmen for land on the Barú islands, a democratic exercise led by the senator Julian Gallo Cubillos, Partido Comunes, which was attended by the Representative of the Palenquera Chamber, Dorina Hernandez PalominoHistorical Pact, lawyers for the victims, and the president of the Montes de Dios Peasant Association, of the Cachenche farm, Enaldo Tovar, among other people.
The senator Julian Gallo Cubillos When opening the public hearing, he expressed: “It is very satisfying to see the response to this type of democratic exercises, and he called the attention of the control bodies in the sense that it is one more case of the families of the Barú islands, because This hearing takes place at a historic moment, in a government that has committed to change, to justice in Colombia for the dispossessed, the Afro communities, the indigenous, and the peasants, who have traditionally been deprived of Earth”.
In his emotional speech, given the response of the community present, which finally sees a light of hope for their claims, the congressman from the Comunes Party emphasized: “Colombia is one of the countries with the highest level of concentration of ownership of the land, and that has determined not only an injustice due to the theft of it, but also the configuration of a corrupt and criminal political system that has not stopped, to the point of murdering for the dispossession of the land. This exercise is one more step of struggle, resistance, denunciation; that until now has not found an echo, because the entire State was co-opted, in tens of years, by criminal mafias that took over the state, to put it at the service of their own interests”.
The senator was forceful Julian Gallo Cubillos by affirming that “this hearing will serve to give continuity to the complaints process, with the consensus of the benches of Comunes and the Historical Pact, to do justice to the communities that were dispossessed of the land and condemned to survive.”
For her part, the Representative Dorina Hernandez PalominoIn his speech, he recalled his roots, and reaffirmed: “These spaces serve to empower us from our origins and stop us in line; That resistance is what has shaken the colonial system, Spain and its entire empire… We set an example to Latin America and Colombia that we could be free; We black peoples are politically and geographically located in the best strategic places in Cartagena, and that is the product of that struggle that we refer to today; the territory is also our culture. Our grandparents said that slavery will return when we sell the last bit of land.”
The representative ratified Hernandez Palominothat hand in hand with the Common bench, the Historical Pact, Congress, and the national agreement, will work to change the legal system and legislate in favor of the true owners of the territory, and finished off with a metaphor: “The lions, as soon as they understand that they are their own leaders, they will no longer be able to be hunted by their predators, who are the private capital that represents them, also sponsored by the public sector”.
In the same sense, in her speech, The heiress of the Santana Hacienda, Libya Esther Soap Martinez, president of the Valledupar committee of Isla de Barú, called for “Justice! That a great conciliation of peace be generated… There have been many compromises and legal tricks, sometimes violent, that have been used against those dispossessed of the lands, with possession of ancestral properties, 94 settlers, with the complicity of the state. aberrational things; Like the fact that the Public Instruments Registry office delivered certifications in the ownership processes, where it said that no real rights had been written on these properties, when the reality was different, ”she sentenced indignantly.
In turn, he intervened Lawyer John Cadena, which advises several families that live in Barú, has recovered more or less 15 hectares, out of the 200 that it has as a goal (the property of the Santana hacienda is 3,500 hectares), “but the State and the Obregón and Echavarrías converted a private territory in a fiscal asset; and fiscal assets are not prescriptible… Then they send the police and the army. It is an order!, and they have to remove them… There is a lot of material to prove the damage they have done to these families”, he stated.
The jurist also expressed: “It is important to highlight that the 3,500 hectares of Hacienda Santana (Tierra Blanca, La Puntilla, El Decameron) is the most valuable land in the country; One hectare is worth three million dollars, it is a private good and it is subject to sale; There are people who have acquired rights that cannot be violated either, so it is urgent to clarify the title and make a tourism project, and involve all the Raizales”.
According to lawyer Cadena, “there are hundreds of irregularities, some prescribed, others shelved by the Prosecutor’s Office, by the Cartagena Ombudsman. The real bottleneck that exists is justice; For example, a property in Barcasnegras, they forged the signature and made a deed, and Pablo Obregón and others seized the property. Later, they sold it to FONADE, and 83 billion pesos were stolen; Apart from that, they set up prison guards that are paid for by the state itself… Billions of pesos are stolen; So, the Prosecutors who have preceded Dr. Barbosa order that they do absolutely nothing, what’s more, they withdrew the anti-corruption prosecutors, there is only one, and if there is no prosecutor to investigate, there will be no opportunity, ”he said.
To finish, he narrated a typical case, the lawyer in question: “Recently, I denounced the personera from Cartagena for a serious act of corruption… There is no prosecutor; there is merit, but there they shelved the process… So, they wait for it to prescribe, and when it is about to prescribe, they call the official, but six or eight years have already passed, and the immediacy of the legal process will no longer exist.
The proposal suggested by lawyer Cadena is that the registry office classify each of these records, with which they dispossessed those 94 natives, “because I am sure that 80% are fraudulent, irregular records, which were made with many legal aberrations in that page of real estate registration that is the Santana farm, “he concluded.
On the other hand, Enaldo Tovar, president of the Montes de Dios Peasant Association, of the Cachenche farm, in the municipality of Turbana – Bolívar, said that they have 280 hectares to cultivate, and he expresses his solidarity with the displaced families on the Barú islands, “the bet is to mitigate hunger, and that the Colombian Caribbean coast becomes the great agrarian pantry and environmental sustainability of this country; the peasants are the referents of peace and development”, he expressed.
The president of this group also stated: “The function of the Association is to train the peasantry to produce on a large scale, and avoid food shortages on the north coast of the department of Bolívar; In addition, it seeks that the national government, and the departmental government, pay attention to and support the peasantry. A decade ago an FTA was signed, but the Colombian peasantry was turned away; Today, the peasantry does not have the land to cultivate, nor does it have a subsidy for fertilizers and fertilizers to prepare the land… Nor does it have credit to promote the development of its cultivation. What we are looking for with our Association is that the State, Banco Agrario, the departmental and municipal Secretariats of Agriculture, begin to organize their communities, and the peasantry of a result, and thus the high cost of the family basket is lowered”.
Finally, the community leader emphasized that the dispossession of land generates displacement, breaks up family nuclei, generates a lot of inequality and that this is the great social problem: “It is a time bomb that this country has, that is why we aim to the recovery of our properties, reaching our fields to cultivate and guarantee our own food. Social decomposition is the product of these massive displacements of the peasants, they do not have opportunities when they arrive in the capital cities”.
Finally, the senator Julian Gallo Cubillos concluded that he was not mistaken in calling for this democratic exercise, to hear out loud the problems that these displaced families from the Barú islands are experiencing: “Here, what has been said is extremely serious, it is the documentation of several heir families and lawyers who have waged an unequal war against some mafias that have taken over the State, to dispossess the real owners of the land; the native, raizal, communities are right… This is not an isolated case, but the repetition of a process with greater accumulation, of a true criminal association of dispossessed lands, which is used by all state entities; here are involved, mayors, governors, notaries and control bodies.
The congressman of the Comunes Party promised, on behalf of his bench, and that of the Historical Pact, to assume the commitment not only to denounce, but also to accompany them to determine that this series of irregularities is not continued, which have allowed consume that waste.
At the end of the day, the congressman made a serious commitment to the community, which consists of taking the complaint, through a certificate, to Congress, to make known in plenary sessions of the Senate and Chamber, the complaints made, in the framework of a debate on political control, “so that the country finds out who is responsible for the dispossession, for leading these families to misery, abandonment and persecution by the State itself, which has been used to perpetuate these crimes against native communities. Today, with the renewal of Congress, there is a bench committed to change, to defending the interests of the popular sectors, of the dispossessed, that we are not going to rest until justice is done with all of you, we will continue to await these processes ; and know that our seats are at the service of the peasant, black and indigenous communities. Our voice in Congress is that of those who have not had a voice for more than 200 years, ”he concluded convincingly.