Official media echo the lies of the military in Colombia

It is in this way that the government plans to justify its affront on the indigenous communities and to undermine the legitimacy of our struggle for the defense of our territory. “Who would permit an entrenchment set up at the door of one’s house? Cerro Berlin is our house.”

This Tuesday, July 17, 2012, from very early in the morning the roads of Northern Cauca were flooded with chivas that were transporting hundreds of indigenous people toward the municipality of Toribio. All strengthened by the staffs that represent for them autonomy.

While the mass media published the response of the Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon to the petition of the indigenous communities to withdraw troops from Cauca: “To the indigenous people we have to say that we respect them, that dialogue is the will of the government, but in no way will the military withdraw from [Cauca],” more than two thousand indigenous people advanced toward one of the hills that rises over the mountains of the central Andean range of northeastern Cauca, to join four hundred indigenous community members who had been keeping watch on Cerro Berlin since July 11, the day that President Juan Manuel Santos visited Toribio. It is in this mountain where there is located one of the military bases that keep watch over two cell phone company towers.

The indigenous governor of Toribio made known to the military the letter addressing the different armed actors in the area, that reads: “We are not going to stand still with arms crossed looking on how they kill us, how they destroy our territories, communities, life plans, and our organizational processes; and for that, rooted in word, reason, respect, and dignity, we begin to walk together in groups until the place where the armed groups are entrenched, to tell them face to face, that with the character of autonomy that accompanies us, we demand that they LEAVE, THAT WE DON’T WANT THEM HERE, THAT WE ARE TIRED OF DEATH, THAT THEY ARE WRONG, THAT THEY LET US LIVE IN PEACE.”

In response to this message, the military argued that they are there to protect the population because it is a great risk to leave them without the public forces. The community does not believe this discourse, as they have had to suffer the abuses which have confirmed all to the contrary, since they have been the target of attacks by both groups. “They always say the same thing!” shouted one elder woman as the multitude proceeded to collect the belongings of the soldiers. “We ask the spirits to protect us, in this struggle that is just,” said one of the authorities of theAssociation of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca – ACIN, from Cerro Berlin in Toribio, Cauca.

Upon seeing the response of the citizens, the commander charged with the cell tower, respecting the decision for the people, gave the order to leave. However, six soldiers resisted the order and fired into the ground, so the indigenous guard proceeded to carry them off site. At the same time, other community members set upon carrying off foodstuffs and other belongings of the military, to facilitate the withdrawal. “The indigenous guard accompanied the soldiers until a determined site [by the community],” affirmed a journalist from Radio Nasa.

However, the agents of the military forces affirmed the contrary through the media. Jorge Humberto Jerez , commander of the Task Force Aggregate Apollo; “They burned our foodstuffs in the same place, it is a joint effort of the FARC and the indigenous people because they have blocked the drug trafficking corridors, the crystallizing labs, we have judicial consultants to soon prosecute these indigenous people with the Prosecutor and the sectors of the state…”

The declaration of Commander Jerez are irresponsible and extremely risky for our community, it was the soldiers who burned a mattress so that before the press they could attribute the supposed attack to the indigenous people. To the contrary of what the media said over the burning of the foodstuffs, it was the indigenous guard that transported the goods toward the lower part of the hill where the public forces would quarter themselves.
It would only occur to Commander Jerez compare pushes and shouts at the soldiers to bullets, the death of our loved ones, the occupation of our homes, accusations and false positives against our communities. However it appears that not only the commander uses the strategy of lies and manipulation because to this instant all media have echoes these maligned declarations.

It is in this way that the government plans to justify its affront on the indigenous communities and to undermine the legitimacy of our struggle for the defense of our territory. “Who would permit an entrenchment set up at the door of one’s house? Cerro Berlin is our house.”

**It is life that is at risk**

Cerro Berlin is a sacred site for the Nasa community. It is a hill that part of the Yat Wala (big house). It is place with a spiritual owner. For that reason each time that they assail him, he protests. After every combat, the clouds dress in gray and begin to weep. The elders (lightning) express themselves in force. Their shouts cry for justice because they cannot take any more assault on life. Similarly, today, thousands of men and women protest that they are tired of being victims of armed groups and of the government who each time opens the way for extractive projects, drain the lifeblood of Mama Kiwe (Mother Earth).

Yes. It is true that in front of this problem for war, here is pacific resistance, there are fertile lands for agriculture as well as mineral riches.

The community of Toribio learned by force to live amidst conflict. They have supported the attacks of the guerrilla and the army. Their children have to travel amidst police check points, and in schools they must take classes “protected” by the entrenchments that surround the schools, their houses destroyed and families mourning their dead. It is a community, semi-destroyed, that suffers the disgrace of war for power.

For that reason this ancient community cries out to the whole that they thirst for justice and that neither armed group protects their territory. What is necessary that they know is that here in Northern Cauca, in Toribio, the people are ready to protect life, as the government and its military never has.