Continent-Wide Reports FOR TRNN

By Oscar Leon, November 5, 2019 for TRNN

California’s fire season isn’t over yet, but megafire events have  already taken a major toll on the state and its inhabitants, forcing the  evacuation of tens of thousands of people. Warm, dry climate change  conditions have made housing in LA’s “Wildland-Urban Interface”  dangerous.

Climate change is making California’s wildfire season worse and more  frequent, turning the City of Angels into a landscape of hellfire. For  Jon Christensen, things got way too close for comfort when one of those  wildfires encroached upon the University of California-Los Angeles in  late October.

Jon Christensen
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA
“In the middle of the night, around 3 AM, my phone started going off  with alerts that there was a major fire just a couple of miles from here  along the highway.

And when the alarm went off, you know, at 6:00 in the morning, we got  up and turned on the radio and they were talking about closing down the  highway. And we soon got notice after that, that the university would  also be closed down for the day.

A journalist-in-residence from the UCLA Institute of the Environment  and Sustainability, Christensen pointed to the fires as the norm now in  the area, not the exception.

Jon Christensen
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA
You know, as it is a very dramatic close reminder of you know, what some  are calling the new abnormal that we’re experiencing now with  increasingly dramatic and erratic weather, increasing droughts and  increasing fires.”

According to California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection,  as of November 22, 2019, 198,392 acres have burned in the state as a  result of wildfires. This year alone, wildfires have sparked 6,190  wildfire related incidents, leading to three fatalities and the  destruction of 732 structures. The wildfires have also forced tens of  thousands of people to evacuate.

According to the department:

“The length of fire season is estimated to have increased by 75 days,  and seems to correspond with an increase in the extent of forest fires  across the state.”

They also list the 2017 and 2018 wildfire seasons as the most destructive in state history.
The greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second largest in the  country after New York, is at the epicenter of wildfire country. We  spoke to Jessica Kellogg from the Emergency Management Department of the  City of Los Angeles.

Jessica Kellogg, MPP
P.I.O. Emergency Management Department, City of L.A.
“Based on our city’s location, we’re in between two mountain ranges, the  Santa Monica Mountains and the San Gabriel Mountains. So we have a lot  of homes that meet that urban wildfire interface. So we have to be  concerned with clearing brush landscapes and also educating people about  what they can do to prepare for wildfires.”

Dry conditions have prompted the National Weather Service to create  an entirely new alert level, issuing an “extreme red-flag warning” for  fire danger in Los Angeles County and nextdoor Ventura County.

VO: To deal with the threat of wildfires in the region, the City of  Los Angeles created a situation room, a communications center in  which—during emergency situations—40 specialists from different branches  of the city’s emergency bureaucracy coordinate operations with teams on  the ground and other government agencies.

Jessica Kellogg, MPP
P.I.O. Emergency Management Department, City of Los Angeles
“We always take into account what happened in the last evacuation, like  with the Getty Fire. we’re constantly making changes and reviewing our  after-action procedures, to improve the emergency operation plan for the  next event.”

The human toll of these new mega-fire events on emergency responders is immense.

In a simple but solemn ceremony held at the Ventura County Government  Center on November 15, the name of CALFIRE firefighter Cory Iverson was  the 47th added to a memorial wall of those who have fallen in the line  of duty. It was added by his widow and daughter.

Iverson became a local symbol. He was 32 when he died battling the  Thomas Fire on December 14, 2017, and his wife Ashley was pregnant with  their second daughter.

The Thomas Fire scorched Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties.  According to CALFIRE, it “destroyed at least 1,063 structures, while  damaging 280 others, and the fire caused over $2.2 billion in damages,  the local agriculture industry suffered at least $171 million in losses,  and 27.000 people were evacuated.”

Luis Oreana
Los Padres National Forest USFS, Engine 53
“This is the second time I participated in this memorial. I’ve also  participated in a few other firefighter memorials, specifically to their  final, their final call, and it’s very sad. It really drives it home  when you see family members, their children, and it really makes you  think about the people that matter most to you.

The danger factor on the job is something that we do consider. It’s  on our mind all the time. But I wouldn’t say that I’m caught in a  constant state of fear, though, because that’s why we train”

After the ceremony, The Real News visited the area that had burned  just days earlier from the Maria Fire, another megafire, which burned  more than 6,500 acres of land. There, we spoke to Brian McGrath, a  public information officer for the Ventura County Fire Department.

Brian McGrath
Ventura County Fire Department
“So we’re we’re just leaving the Ventura County fallen firefighter  memorial today. We’ve had 47 firefighters that have gone on that  Memorial Wall. I had one personal friend, Ryan Osler, who passed away in  2016 from a water generator rollover …and that hit me very hard because  it just really brings home that it truly is whenever we go out, we may  never come home.”

Christensen emphasized that there is scientific consensus tying the  increased intensity and length of California’s fire season to the  impacts of climate change.

Jon Christensen
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA
“Scientists are, you know, climate scientists will debate you know,  whether you can attribute any particular fires or set of fires to  climate change, but there does seem to be an emerging consensus that you  know, the increasing heat, increasing dryness does contribute to the  flammability of the landscape.

This year, we are coming off of a very wet winter. So, there was a  lot of production of vegetation of grass of shrub leaves and you know,  and then we had a very, dry hot summer and it all dried up so there’s a  lot of fuel.”

“So, the winds that come in the fall, the dry winds, the Santa Ana  winds that that really fuel and push these fires, was pushing the fires  West into the neighborhoods of Bel Air and Pacific Palisades and burn  and burn houses there and many people were evacuated there.”

One of those scientists is Henry Lin.

He is a postdoctoral Scholar from UCLA’s Center for Climate Science.  Lin specializes in the impacts of global warming on regional climate  extremes, particularly in the California area.

Yen-Heng (Henry) Lin
Postdoctoral Scholar, Center for Climate Science
“Climate change actually enhances wildfire, but climate change isn’t  causing the fire, because it is human and lightning causing the fire. “

Lin is part of a team of scientists working on a project called  “California Ecosystem Futures: The Future of California Drought, Fire,  and Forest Dieback.”

They use high-resolution computer models of climate, vegetation and  fire behavior to answer questions about the future of forests and fire  in California. The research project began in 2018 and will extend  through the year 2021.

Yen-Heng (Henry) Lin
Postdoctoral Scholar, Center for Climate Science
“So, from our research we found, actually, that due to global warming in  California, it can get much dryer and much warmer, which can enhance  the risk of wildfire and make larger wildfires.

Another key factor is that people build their houses in areas prone to fire, so it is a high risk for people.”

Christensen said that while scientists are worried about the impacts  of climate change in fueling more intense and more frequent wildfires,  he believes it is better to move the narrative from problems to  solutions.

Jon Christensen
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA
“I think seeing every fire or series of fires or other natural disasters  as the apocalypse that it is a sign of the end times really prevents us  from understanding that longer narrative that we need to focus on,  which is that around the world, countries, cities, states, other  jurisdictions are working to reduce carbon emissions.

Are they doing it fast enough? No, we need to do it faster and the  path envisioned in the Paris Accords is to continually do it faster, get  better at it, ramp it up so that by 2050 we get to carbon neutrality  and climate stability.

One of those solutions proposed by climate advocates: putting a halt  to sprawl-style housing development. It’s a real estate planning  paradigm currently reigning supreme in LA County. But it’s also one  currently subject to ongoing political struggle in the region.

By Oscar Leon, October 25, 2019.

Massive protests forced President Moreno into a negotiation with  indigenous opposition movements, which was broadcast on live TV. The  leaders seemed to school the president and his ministers, and he  eventually canceled the IMF-required austerity decree. We spoke to some  of those leaders.

OSCAR LEON: In October 2019, a massive strike forced  the Ecuadorian government to cancel a decree that imposed austerity  measures. The international Monetary Fund, the IMF, had required these  measures in return for a $4.2 billion loan. The protests eventually  forced President Lenin Moreno to the negotiation table after state  security forces failed to repress the growing number of people who took  to the streets. The  negotiations were broadcast on live TV, and  Ecuadorians could see indigenous leaders schooling the president and his  ministers. Eventually, Ecuador’s president gave in and cancelled decree  number 883 live on air. This unleashed a wave of celebration among the  very same people that had previously been angrily protesting and banging  pots and pans on the streets.

The Real News Network spoke with two of the indigenous leaders who  debated president Moreno. This is Leonidas Iza, President of the Farmers  and Indigenous Movement from Cotopaxi.

LEONIDAS IZA: On October the 13, after the talks  with the government, CONAIE’s President called for calm and for the  indigenous communities’ return home and it all went back to normal. If  we had political pretensions or wanted to take down the government, then  that wouldn’t matter, and protests would have continued. So we believe  that an alleged coup is the Moreno’s government attempt to cover its  terrible handling of the situation. They are looking for political  manipulators where there are none. They even had agent  provocateurs causing fires and damage to government buildings, sending  agent provocateurs to be able to back their conspiracy theory.

OSCAR LEON: Jaime Vargas is president of the largest  indigenous organization, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities  of Ecuador, or CONAIE, which is an umbrella organization for all other  indigenous groups. He is Ecuador indigenous’ highest ranking leader.

JAIME VARGAS: So now we delivered the IMF a defeat,  and because of that, the IMF ordered the killing of the Ecuadorian  people. I want to emphasize that. The IMF is a murderous international  corporation. Murderous.

OSCAR LEON: The violence had a serious toll on protesters, and on public and private property.

ANDRES TAPIA: There was unmeasured violence; 1200  injured and 1200 detained, 8 deaths–although today we learned of yet  another fatality, so 9 deaths.

OSCAR LEON: Andres Tapia is the Communications  Director of CONFENAIE, short for Confederation of Indigenous  Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon, which is a member of CONAIE.

ANDRES TAPIA: They supported us through hard times,  like when martial law was declared and they took to the streets making  theirs pots and pans sound, which made us feel their support, it was  very important to us.

OSCAR LEON: Leonidas Iza emphasized the discipline  of the movement that mobilized an estimated 20.000 members. Many of  them, according to him, joined in response to the unprecedented violence  that the Moreno government had unleashed on protesters. Mainstream  media reinforced the government’s perspective, portraying the protests  as foreign-financed acts of vandalism, by Venezuela’s President Maduro,  and the violence as an unprovoked action on the part of strike  supporters. Recently the Ecuadorian Army changed its military doctrine  from one of guarding the border to counterinsurgency as its main task.  Defense Minister Oswaldo Jarrin from the School of the Americas  announced that the government is applying anti-terrorism tactics to  persecute those behind the uprising, which he sees as an attack on the  state.

LEONIDAS IZA: We had control over those within the  structure of the indigenous organization, representing all three regions  of our country. However, we need to point out that the violence and  plunder were a reaction by regular citizens against unprecedented state  violence unleashed by Moreno’s government. So over that wes had no  control, which needs to be understood.

OSCAR LEON: CONAIE President Vargas is now being investigated for rebellion.

JAIME VARGAS: We cannot dialogue with the government  if they are indicting our leaders for rebellion. So if we have to take  measures, we are ready to do that.

OSCAR LEON: At the heart of the Ecuadorian  government’s accusations is that there is a conspiracy to overthrow the  government, according to President Moreno.

LEONIDAS IZA: If the government threw such amount of  violence at the protesters, it is no surprise that now they are so  publicly indicting our leaders. There are also deaths threats against  us.

JAIME VARGAS: I completely reject those stories,  saying that the strike was orchestrated by Correa, we have nothing to do  with him, the mobilization was organized by our movement. Our stance is  stronger than ever, with the support of the different social groups, we  are stronger than ever.

OSCAR LEON: Follow The Real News for more on the issue.

By Oscar Leon, August 28, 2019 for TRNN

In the first part of this series we looked into how heatwaves place  outdoor workers at extreme risk, in temperatures for which the human  body is not prepared. Part two takes a closer look at a group that is  most affected by heatwaves: homeless people

Homeless in the Heat Wave / PhoenixOn  the first chapter of this series we looked into how heat waves affect  workers who perform outdoors, and the potential dangers for those  working under extreme temperatures, for which the human body is not  prepared. In chapter two, we will look into the group that is most  affected by heat waves, homeless people.By Oscar LeonDuring  the second week of August 2019, temperatures broke records worldwide,  with forest fires raging from the Amazon to Siberia. Also, ice melted at  a record pace in Greenland, and there were intense heat waves in the  U.S., Europe, and Asia.July was the hottest month ever recorded.Cities  such as Phoenix, Arizona, account for hundreds of heat related deaths  every year. Last year 182 people lost their lives in heat-related  incidents. This summer, (2019) by the end of June, with 2 more months to  go, (according to Maricopa County) there have been 160 heat related  deaths, and the count is still open.However, most heat-related deaths, around 40% of the total, are of homeless people, the group most at risk.Cpt. Danny GilePhoenix Fire Department“The  homeless are a big issue, in Phoenix we have a large population, and  like I said if you have no place to go, no place to live, and you are  out in the hot asphalt, the hot concrete all day, it just expands on the  problems we talked about, so it makes heat very difficult to deal with,  as a homeless person here in Arizona.They struggle.”On  August 21st, I visited downtown Phoenix. As I approached the city,  temperatures went from 104 fahrenheit at 9:45am, to 108 at 10:30am, to  114 at 3pm.In cities around the world, when heatwave alerts are declared, they warn of temperatures often in the 90’s.The  human body is designed to work at an internal temperature of 99 degrees  fahrenheit. If the body reaches over 100 degrees, it should be  considered Hyperthermia, which can lead to a number of consequences, including heat stroke, and should be treated as a medical emergency, to prevent disability or even death.SamHomeless, 50 years old“If  you stay here you have to be kind of used to, but if you are not used  to and you come here, it will just drop you. One day is ok, the next  day, you just feel like, I don’t know like all the water has been taken  out of you. You drink water all day and you don’t go to the bathroom,  you just sweat.”“Sam”, asked for us to protect his privacy, He told us how hard and cruel life in the streets can be.SamHomeless, 50 years old“I  have a friend, he was… everybody thought he was going crazy, but it was  the heat. And next thing you know, they said he died of cancer, I  thought there was something wrong with him, next day he couldn’t wake up  and he was dead. A lot of people die out here because of the heat, they  can’t get no water.”To think that human beings, designed to  work at internal temperature of 99 degrees, have to endure 110+  fahrenheit degrees of temperature, for weeks at a time, it is  mind-boggling, especially because it feels unbearable, even for a few  minutes.Oscar LeonTRNN“I  was doing a number of interviews in there, at 11am, at 109 fahrenheit,  my camera overheated and stopped working, and that just goes to show how  extreme the conditions are here.”VO: On 11th Avenue in  downtown Phoenix, there are two shelters across the street from each  other, providing relief to many people in need. Both shelters provide  cool environments and showers, as well as hot meals, for those seeking  refuge from the heat wave. Ash UssAdvocacy & Partnerships Cord. Andre House of Hospitality“In  one of our more recent surveys, we found out that 50% of people that  come here for dinner every night, leave here to go and sleep on the  street.”We visited Andre House of Hospitality, and spoke to Ash Uss, media representative and Advocacy & Partnerships Coordinator.Ash UssAdvocacy & Partnerships Cord. Andre House of Hospitality“There  are a lot of ways that the heat manifests, we see people being  extremely irritable, with very short fuses, people who are normally so  kind and patient, who are just exhausted by the heat.”“Unfortunately we have seen a fair share of people that we know and love, who have passed away, directly due to the heat.”Outside  the shelter we met Joseph Johnson, a native american from the Phoenix  rural area. He has been on the streets for more than 5 years and despite  being accustomed to the heat, he let us know how much it still affects  him every day.JosephHomeless, 50 years old“The  effects are so very bad, the heat, some people are so exhausted, they  want to get a shade, there is not enough shade around, yet they survive,  they have to handle the heat with no shade, but we survive. But it does  affect a lot … we have to go through these heat waves.”We  spoke to Darlene, originally from Chicago; she came to Phoenix with a  boyfriend that spent all of her money and then disappeared, leaving her  desperately searching for him but also living on the streets.DarleneHomeless, 53 years old“It  affects you a lot, I mean the heat exhaustion, you need to drink a lot  of water … you have to make sure you get your supplies, it is hard work,  it is a constant thing all day long, just to stay cool.It is  important to get a shower, you know, keep your skin clean, and stay  healthy, eat right, good food, you know … Andre House, we wouldn’t  survive without this place out here, they give us our toiletries, our  showers a place to stay cool during the day.I know that when I get back on my feet, I’ll get back here to help, because they really need it.”According  to Darlene, heat fatalities deeply affect the morale of surviving  homeless people. She said that the worst part for her, is to meet fellow  homeless who had given up, because after that is almost impossible to  help them survive.Ash UssAdvocacy & Partnerships Cord. Andre House of Hospitality“The  average person does not know that there have been 20 people in this  immediate area that have passed away from the heat. Simply because they  were experiencing homelesness. Since July, July 1, so it has been a  little over a month, that is 20 lives that are gone forever, you know,  because of the heat.”DarleneHomeless, 53 years old“We  get to have a lot of deaths this time of the year, I mean we had 6 in  one weekend, from heat exhaustion, from [absence of] water, from  dehydration. It is crazy, when there is so much water around us.So  people, if they don’t deliver [water], I mean look across the street,  there is handicap people, they can’t move around, so if they don’t get  to medical services, they end up dying out here, we had a lot of young  people, we had a 31 year old lady, who just died of heat exhaustion.”Joseph JohnsonHomeless, 50 years old“You  try to sleep, you toss and turn, it is hot, but morning comes quick  though, and it is still kind of hot in the morning, and it is going to  be another hot day, and you know in your head it is going to be another  hot day, and people know it and they realize what the next day it is  going to be.”Beyond the tragedy of death, there is the  tragedy of dehumanization. According to several sources, despite the  fact that access to water is mandated by state law, homeless people are  denied water all the time.DarleneHomeless, 53 years old“When  you do go out in public, people tend to look at you like you are a  contagious disease, carry a backpack and walk downtown for an evening,  and people won’t give you service, they won’t give you water, by law  they are supposed to in the state, but in restaurants, or in hotels, you  know, they won’t give it to you, because you are homeless.”Stay with The Real News for more on the issue.

By Oscar Leon, February 2, 2014 for TRNN

Mexico’s anti-drug cartel and corruption vigilante groups are growing  in  power and influence, but whose interests do they serve?

OSCAR LEÓN, TRNN PRODUCER: In Michoacán, Mexico, local community militias called autodefensas, or self defenses,  have been liberating towns and cleaning from the powerful drug cartels  that for four years also extorted the citizens and took a cut of every  aspect of the economy. On January 27, they accepted a deal with the  Mexican federal government to work together controlling the powerful  local criminal rings.

However, there is little trust in the Mexican government, and mainly  in the integrity of their elected officials. Many still wonder why. The  governor Fernando Vallejo sent the army to disarm the autodefensas,  causing four civilian deaths and preventing the seizing of the city of  Apatzingan by the Militias. Vallejo has been accused of being elected  under threats to the population made by the local cartels’ bosses to  vote for PRI, the ruling party.

This explosive announce of official corruption was made by both the  autodefensas as well as the narco bosses, who posted a video talking  about the deal with PRI.

After the governor Fernando Vallejo called for federal help, Enrique  Peña Nieto implemented by presidential decree an initiative creating a  czar for security and development in Michoacán, a post for which he  invested his close ally Alfredo Castillo Cervantes, who will now be in  charge of both federal forces and civil servants.

In all the cities that the militias have liberated, one of the main  steps taken so far is to capture the local policeman, and in some cases  even elected officials, and expel them out of the city. Father Javier  Cortez confirmed that in Apatzingan the federal troops also sent the  municipal police away in an effort to reach a settlement with the  autodefensas.

The Mexican government announced that 1,209 police agents have been disarmed and demobilized.

The autodefensa militias are skeptical of the federal effort and have  declared they will not disarm until all the criminal gangs, and  especially their main leaders, are captured or killed. Initially they  consulted their ranks and rejected a petition from the government to  disarm, and this represented a political embarrassment to the Peña Nieto  administration, which in a very tactical move eventually accepted this  and went a step further, not only accepting the militias’ will to stay  mobilized, but incorporating them in the fight against the Caballeros  Templarios.

ESTANISLAO BELTRAN, BUENAVISTA, TOMATLAN’S MILITIA SPOKESPERSON  (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): We will disarm only when Michoacán State is cleaned  of the Templar Knights and their main bosses, Nazario Moreno (aka El  Chayo), La Tuta, Enrique Plancarte, El Tibo, and all of their  lieutenants are captured, setting our state free of fear. Then we will  disarm. Not before.

LEÓN: People like Estanislao Beltran make a daring bet not only by  embarrassing the Mexican authorities, but also by defying the powerful  international cartels, for which Michoacán plays a small but important  part in the international criminal trade.

Evidence exists that implicates large international banks, like  Wachovia and Wells Fargo, in laundering billions of dollars from cartels  back into the economy. How can you challenge such power?

In the past there have been documented ties between federal  government officials and narco cartels, like General Jesús Gutiérrez  Rebollo, who, while being Mexico’s antidrug czar, was actively  protecting the Juárez Cartel until 1997, when he was detained; also,  more recently, the ties between Genaro García Luna, former main boss in  the federal police in the payroll of El Golfo, Los Zetas, and Beltran  Leiva cartels, as DEA and even La Barbie, a narco boss himself, had  recently revealed.

BELTRAN: Initially the people wouldn’t respond because they knew that  the criminals had threatened to not only kill us, but all of our  families and even the house dogs—they had said so.

LEÓN: But who are these militias? Who finances them? Do they have  political view? For an informed social and political analysis of this  social conflict, we contacted Salvador Diaz Sanchez, an experienced  journalist and professor of social and political sciences in Chapingo  University.

Diaz is well acquainted with the Mexican social movements over the  last decades. He even worked documenting the Zapatista rebellion in  Chiapas from the inside 20 years ago. He has produced since many other  documentary films about the Mexican social struggle.

SALVADOR DIAZ SANCHEZ, JOURNALIST AND PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL AND  POLITICAL SCIENCES (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): The autodefensas are inspired by  what happened in Cherán. This is the first town that while under attack  like everyone else, had the audacity to organize, and eventually  overcame their fear by organizing themselves.

They not only cleared the area of criminals and gave everyone else an  example that you can fight and win. They went a step beyond that. They  called the local and international [human rights institutions and  international courts] and said that in popular and neighborhood  assemblies, “we have identified our enemies and we will expel the  political parties from our towns, because they divide our people and are  colluding with the criminals”.

LEÓN: Diaz refers to the local community uprising that started on  April 15, 2011, when illegal loggers where arrested by the community.  They then instituted a popular assembly and “community police rounds” to  keep its forest safe from illegal loggers. 

In Cherán, the communities also decided to expel the political parties.

Cherán immediately began a judicial and political fight to not  recognize the municipal and state’s elections. After litigating in many  instances, Michoacán State Congress granted the community council  municipal authority. They had effectively defeated the Mexican political  system and started their own traditional governance process based on  their indigenous roots, which is now recognized by the Mexican  government.

DIAZ: [In Cherán] they defeated the main structure of the political  system. This is such a remarkable triumph, one that has not been widely  promoted in the news.

LEÓN: Contrasting with Cherán’s “Community Rounds” and its primitive  weapons, it is clear that in the last year it has been the wealthy  owners of the lemon, avocado, and cattle farms of Michoacán who helped  initiate the militias. They drive expensive trucks and use advanced  communication systems and weapons. There have been reports that many  people who have been deported or have even come back voluntarily from  the U.S. are now involved with the autodefensas.

The autodefensas’ leaders have so far indicated that their only  objective is not a political one but the safety and security of the  citizenry. However, Diaz warns there could be more to it.

DIAZ: We must differentiate and not believe that this is a civil war.  However, this [social conflict] can explode and become [a civil war],  because new actors are being dragged in as time goes by, like more  educated people and even leftists, liberal, and progressive people.

So that is the reason why the government wants to disarm them, and  that is why they are losing control. It is because they remember that in  Chiapas, the farmers were the ones [that fought the government], and  now in Michoacán, there are not only farmers but also other groups of  citizenry up in arms.

LEÓN: While Diaz recognizes that the rich owners of the farms are  behind the autodefensas, he also points out that there are tens of  thousands, or perhaps hundreds of thousands of people in arms in the  militia ranks, some of which could eventually promote their own  self-interested agenda.

Diaz: Obviously not all of them are rich. I think that the great  majority of them are poor. In their ranks you can even find that the  workers of the cattle, lemon, and avocado farms are fighting alongside  their employers. So it is complicated to predict where this movement is  going. But have no doubt that this is a social movement.

LEÓN: Diaz also points out that the government has twice changed its  approach. Initially, a year ago, the federal authorities had supported  the disarming of the militias, but after realizing that they cannot  control the criminal gangs, they looked away and let the militias carry  on with their intended purpose of cleaning up the towns of criminal  gangs, all this, of course, until January 13, when the federal army  impeded the seizing of Apatzingan by the autodefensas and ordered them  to disarm before changing its mind again to save face and avoid a wider  conflict after the autodefensas refused to lay down their arms.

Diaz believes that the militias have now twice proven its strength  while the government looks weak. This puts the Mexican government in a  predicament, which according to him is based on real political concerns.

DIAZ: What if Mireles [the militia leader] says that the fight is no  longer only about security? What if the militia leaders gather and  decide to claim other issues? What if they eventually install real  community assemblies to reign over the prices of food and other issues  like wages and a real improvement in their lives?

LEÓN: Now we must wait to see if the Mexican federal government is  capable of reining in the violence of the criminal gangs and if it can  disarm and demobilize a large group of people that have had a taste of  armed popular resistance and community power.

Reporting for The Real News, this is Oscar León.

By Oscar Leon, December 11, 2013 for TRNN

In San Jose de Intag, indigenous communities face an ill-matched  battle to  defend their environment against mega mining projects

OSCAR LEÓN, TRNN PRODUCER: Indigenous communities and the affected  local communities have opposed this mining initiative for many years now  and have protested against it all around the country. This has led to a  split between Correa, ecologists, some student groups, and the  indigenous confederations, all of which were his former allies. Correa  has inherited a long-standing challenge to regulate artisanal mining,  and in many cases he has assumed the unpopular task of imposing mega  mining projects to some local communities, like this one in San Jose de  Intag, Imbabura Province, in the north of Ecuador. The local population  is also worried about the consequences of an open pit mine.

CECILIA, LOCAL FARMER (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): I visited Cerro de Pasco,  where they extract copper from an open pit mine. Every day, houses fall  into the hole, which keeps getting bigger and bigger. 

LEÓN: We contacted Jaime Guaman Guevara, an environmental consultant  for mining projects from the south of the country with wide experience  in the area. He supports the proposed mining projects and responded to  our questions in writing.

JAIME R. GUAMAN, ENGINEER AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT (TEXT ON  SCREEN): Currently in Ecuador 95% of the mining is done by unregulated,  untaxed and unsafe artisanal projects. While a new Mining Law has been  approved, the regulations to apply such law have not been written yet.  This is an inefficient activity.

As an environmental sciences professional, I can’t deny that an open  pit mine will have an impact. I believe that in some cases such damage  can be justified by the gains it returns to society.

LEÓN: Intag is a valley on a semi-tropical mountain range, about  1,800 meters above sea level on the Pacific coast of South America. It  is located on a subtropical area full of mountains, rivers, and valleys.

Gold and copper have been found in the area, but until 1994 it was  not possible to exploit these minerals, because Ecuadorian law didn’t  allow exploitation in an ecological reserve at the time. In 1994, the  World Bank loaned money to Ecuador under the condition that the country  open its natural and ecological parks and reserves to mining and oil  drilling. Conservative president Sixto Durán Ballén accepted such terms.

For 20 years now, Intag’s life has been a fight to defend its territory.

In 1994, Bishimetal, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi, was sampling and  studying the zone. They were accused of contaminating the rivers and  forced out in 1997 by an organized local community that wanted to keep  its environment free from contamination.

Copper Mesa, now Ascendant Copper, a Canadian company, had a  concession in the area, but its operations were being delayed. In this  video from December 2, 2006 we can see how a paramilitary force breaks a  roadblock, meeting the unarmed community with force.

While President Correa had won its first election only a few days  before the attack, on November 26 of the same year, he only assumed  power on January 15, 2007. By September 2007, under Correa’s orders, the  Ecuadorian Government ordered Ascendant Cooper to stop all operations.  Just a few months after that, Rafael Correa definitely canceled its  mining license by January 2008.

In March 2009, a lawsuit was filed on Toronto’s Stock Exchange  accusing Copper Mesa of organizing the attack. The mining company was  subsequently expelled from TSX on January 19, 2010.

In all these instances, the community was victorious through organizing and effective peaceful action. 

UNIDENTIFIED (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): We don’t want to let the mining  companies inside our communities. Water is our life. Our children depend  on it. And beyond the gold in those mountains water [is our real  treasure].

LEÓN: However, they now face a new battle to defend their water and natural environment, one that may prove that much harder.

On Saturday, September 14, 2013, el Universo reported:

EL UNIVERSO NEWSPAPER, 2013-09-14 (TEXT ON SCREEN): A hundred  military and police tried to enter the zone, with them, 20 technicians  from ENAMI EP, the state mining company, and CODELCO, the Chilean mining  transnational, determined to start preliminary studies of the Toisan  Mountains, in the Intag zone, Imbabura, Ecuador.

LEÓN: A group of people from the community was there to impede their  passage. They closed the road. And eventually, despite police presence,  the technicians left to avoid confrontations.

It has been widely reported how Ecuador has a “Green Constitution”.  In this document, on Chapter Four, referring to “Communities and  Nationalities”, Article 57 point 7 says:

“A free and informed consultation shall take place about any plan for  evaluation, exploitation and commercialization of non-renewable  resources inside the boundaries of their lands, which could affect their  environment and culture. They are also entitled to participate on the  earnings of such projects and to be compensated if any social, cultural  and/or environmental damage is made. . . .

“The state shall preserve and promote an adequate management of  biodiversity and the natural surroundings, the state shall include the  local communities to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of  biodiversity.”

LEÓN: However, in Ecuador’s Mining Law passed on January 29, 2009, on  Chapter 2, Article 4 it lays on the hands of the president to decide  mining policy. Also, Chapter 3, Article 16 declares that the state holds  total jurisdiction over all underground resources independently of what  is in the surface.

In 2009, an unconstitutionality lawsuit was filed by indigenous  confederations on Ecuador’s Constitutional Court regarding the Mining  Law. However, a few months after, while the Court recognized that the  mining law approving process had been irregular because the indigenous  nationalities were not consulted about it as the Constitution mandates,  it did not declared the mining law unconstitutional.

This was a very controversial verdict, because it declined to rule  over the issue of preeminence of constitutional indigenous and nature  rights over the mining law, a mining law that the indigenous movement, a  former Korea ally, have so strongly opposed.

To understand this apparent contradiction, we spoke with Alik Pinos  from Acosta Law Firm. He has wide experience in Ecuadorian Law, courts,  and civil disputes.

Pinos believes that while the 2008 Constitution says that Nature and  Local Communities have fundamental rights, its interpretation and  enforcement are competence of the government.

ALIK PINOS ACOSTA, ACOSTA LAW FIRM (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): Many point at  the fact that the Constitution can be interpreted as saying that  communities and individuals must be consulted. Truth being said … is not  like that. In that respect the constitution is rather ambiguous.

Many of my colleagues and some constitutionalists may say that it is  clearly stipulated like that, but the truth of the matter is that the  state holds the authority to decide how to administrate all of our  resources.

LEÓN: This administration, according to the law, is done in “good  faith” and aiming to preserve nature and the communities. Pinos Acosta  argues that now the Constitution does provide better tools in case  social or environmental damage happens.

ACOSTA: The moment damage or contamination takes place, then the  affected communities will have the means to sue any given subject. But  for the communities to be able to have a say before any of this happens,  they must file a petition for a national referendum.

LEÓN: Jose Cueva is a local organic farmer who is a member of an  association of small producers packing and exporting coffee. He was part  of Correa’s 2006 local campaign effort. While, he is not a lawyer, Jose  Cueva reflects the opinion of many critics who claim that the  constitutional mandate has not been kept.

JOSE CUEVA, SMALL FARMER: The first law that the government approved  after the new constitution was the mining laws. And the mining law was  totally opposed to what the constitution says about nature rights and  community rights, because mining is an activity that will change the  lives and the culture of the people. And they had to make a consultation  first, before they approve this law. They never do that.

LEÓN: According to Cueva, the population of Junin or the Intag valley  has not been properly informed and consulted about the mining project  as the constitution demands. He claims that using the argument of  winning the elections, the government denies that right to the people of  the valley.

RAFAEL CORREA, ECUADORIAN PRESIDENT (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): We won by  seven to one in the area. Enough, my friends! Well, actually six to one,  to be accurate, Enough of just a few sabotaging democracy and the  popular will by doing whatever they want.
No more! People believe in us.

LEÓN: Pocho Alvarez, an Ecuadorian documentary filmmaker, had a  documentary about Intag censored from the web by a private firm  allegedly contracted by the government.

POCHO ALVAREZ, DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): President  Correa made a number of disparaging and qualifying remarks about the  farmers resisting mining. However, that resistance is not new and is not  a personal issue against Rafael Correa or this government. It comes  from a culture of more than 15 years resisting and defending its  territory from mining.

ACOSTA: The main problem about all these political and social  disputes is that we are opposing something which we don’t know the end  results. We don’t always analyze the whole and tend to assume  negatively. But that is because here in Ecuador we have very bad  experiences with the exploitation of natural resources.

LEÓN: It seems that for the people in Intag and the indigenous  communities, this time the fight can prove more difficult to win. Unlike  the Japanese, Chilean, and Canadian firms, President Correa has a  majority of popular support. To impede the open pit mine in their  territory, they need to gather national support, force a referendum, and  win it.

While it is hard to deny the needs of the majority, the question  still stands: how can we balance the rights of indigenous and local  communities with economic development for the rest of society?

Reporting for The Real News this is Oscar León.

By Oscar Leon, November 3, 2013 for TRNN

Social justice activists face grave risks in Colombia, considered to  have one of the worst human rights record in the Western Hemisphere

OSCAR LEÓN, TRNN PRODUCER: In Colombia, the 21-days national strike,  which enjoyed broad support, was a victory for the farmers’ movement.  After 12 deaths, four disappearances, and 485 injured, they got a law to  control seeds suspended, along with subsidies to gas and supplies, to  compensate the farmers for their losses, competing with international  multinationals brought in the country by free-market treaties.

The government and the strike board are currently negotiating new  farming and mining laws, along with a revision of ten free market  treaties, trying to compensate or reduce the losses of farmers and  miners. In the cities, while the solidarity with the farmers were the  spark for the protests, the privatization of health care and education  brought even more people to the streets.

Facing police repression, and despite the threat of paramilitary  violence, they got a political victory, paralyzing the country while  President Santos saw his popularity fall to an all-time low of  24 percent.

But even after such demonstration for farmers to oppose mining and  oil projects can be a very dangerous activity, “Julio”, farmer and human  rights defender from Guayabero, has received death threats. He believes  not only him but everyone else in town is also in danger:

“JULIO”, FARMER AND HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER FROM GUAYABERO (SUBTITLED  TRANSL.): There are about 20,000 farmers near the Guayabero River, and  now all we’ve got is the fight for our rights as Colombians. All these  people are suffering the scourge of war; we have been living that for 30  years, being systematically attacked by the Colombian state, by the  police and the army, which almost every day they bully us and call us  insurgents or guerrilla members. We are honest and humble farmers who  want to keep our lands, but all we can do is hope things will get  better.

LEÓN: Adelinda Gomez Gaviria was gunned down, reportedly, by two  right-wing paramilitaries on September 30 when she was returning home  from an activists meeting accompanied with her 16-year-old son, who was  injured but survived.

Adelinda Gomez was a vocal environment advocate. She was a leader of  the group called Proceso de Mujeres del Macizo Colombiano del CIMA, a  farmers women group that had organized an Environmental and Mining  Forum, to which 1,500 indigenous and farmers participated. Adelinda  received threatening phone calls warning her to stay off mining or she  would get killed. And she’s not the only one. Genaro Graciano from  Movimiento Rios Vivos, which means movement for living rivers, had a bomb thrown outside his house at 10:30 pm on October 17. There where no casualties.

Precisely in the town of Las Acacias, where The Real News recently  reported on a local effort against an oil company in the defense of  their water resources; a crime occurred on October 10, one that sent a  ripple of fear across the villagers from all the area. Ricardo Rodriguez  Cajamarca, a local human rights monitor, was murdered by two hit men,  who gunned him down around noon, opening fire from a motorcycle while he  was driving his car. Rodriguez was well known for defending farmers and  indigenous from state abuse.

Amnesty International has long reported how an unknown number of  farmers and indigenous leaders have been murdered because of their  opposition to mega mining and oil drilling, choosing to preserve natural  resources instead of supporting industrial development.

Rural communities, students, and intellectuals had lost their voice  amid extreme violence by both sides of a conflict that lasts over 60  years now and very often kept the communities paralyzed with gruesome  crimes. On December 2012, Telesur reported 600 farmers leaders murdered  since 2005.

ABILIO PEÑA, CHURCH PEACE AND JUSTICE COMMISSION (SUBTITLED TRANSL.):  All these crimes against farmer leaders are related to specific claims  made by farming communities against businessmen who took over their  lands.

LEÓN: Under Álvaro Uribe’s government on 2007, 31,671 members of  Autodefensas Unidas Colombianas (AUC), a paramilitary Group that,  according to Semana magazine, “in the early 2000s grew to be the  most powerful armed force in the country and is responsible for a great  number of crimes” were demobilized. Fourteen of their leaders have been  extradited to U.S. under drug trafficking charges.

But the paramilitaries didn’t go away. Nowadays there are four  right-wing paramilitary armies: ERPAC, for Anti Communist Popular Army;  Los Rastrojos; Los Urabeños; and the main one, Agulas Negras, or Black  Eagles.

A video emerged on the news and on YouTube on which we see the last  moments of a group of farmers whose lands where stolen by alleged  paramilitary men. They where filming with their phone before they got  shot dead by the armed men.

UNIDENTIFIED (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): Call the police! They are shooting at us! The have automatic guns and they are shooting it us.

LEÓN: Speaking for HispanTV, “Caliche”, a paramilitary member, describes their mindset: 

“CALICHE”, PARAMILITARY COMMANDER (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): If we must respect someone’s life, we will; but if not, we will kill him,
because we do not share many leftist ideals, which are to blame for the way things are in Colombia now.

Two or three guys invented some leftist crap, and that is how a  gunmen war started. That is why we hunt down union leaders, because they  are pimps for a lot of bad people here in our town. They are pimps for  all those farmers who are guerrilla fighters who then turn around and  say they that are farmers displaced by war, helping NGO’s collect money  from international governments so they can then live the good life.

LEÓN: Farmers’ protest movements are closely linked with victims of  forced land displacement and war violence, also organizations of people  defending their land from contamination or appropriation by private  interest.

Teofilo Acuña, a farmers leader, was also threaten by paramilitary  men. In behalf, he believes of a transnational corporation called  Pacific Rubiales Energy:

TEOFILO ACUÑA, FARMER’S MOVEMENT LEADER AND HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER: In  my case, the threats came as an internet pamphlet and a note saying  they will kill me.

LEÓN: He describes a relation between state and private interest:

ACUÑA: We know the state is involved with private interest on this,  because the state had a project to bring transnational corporations to  the region. And we mention the state because we have observed that where  there are mining interest is precisely where there have been more human  rights violations. How else can you understand that in a region so  militarized and controlled, threats, murders, and disappearances can  happen so easily?

On the south of the Bolivar regions, we know that between 2003 and  2007 there have been around 700 disappeared and murdered people. So we  believe the multinationals are fully supported by the state.

LEÓN: While covering the March for Peace on 2012, I spoke to many  farmers displaced from their lands. “Yupanqui”, one of them, describes  how does it feel being trapped on a crossfire.

“YUPANQUI”, FARMER, WAR REFUGEE (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): If the army gets  to the village, they claim we are all infiltrated guerrillas. If the  guerrilla gets there, they claim we work for the army. Any armed faction  that gets to the village, we don’t know what to do or what to say. Many  times they made direct threats to our life.

LEÓN: It is important to remember that the paramilitary armies were  created as a counterpart for the FARC and ELN, leftist guerrillas that  have also committed atrocities against civilians. In everyone’s memory  are the hundreds of kidnapped and the “collar bombs”, a terrifying  device to used to ask for ransom. The guerrillas have also been accused  by the state of acting as security forces for narco cartels.

The army has also been involved in a case called “False Positives”,  where many officials have been formally accused of murdering people and  then claim that they were guerrilla fighters fallen in combat, not only  remaining immune of prosecution for those crimes, but also buffing up  the count of dead enemies.

This video was allegedly shot by a farmer using his phone camera in  2008 and recently resurfaced from a criminal case being filed by the  farmers, accusing the soldiers to not only murder the farmers, but also  trying to steal the bodies to later claim them as dead “enemy  combatants” or “falsos positivos”.

According to a well-known human rights defender, winner of 2007’s  Roger Baldwin Freedom Medal and Representative for Bogotá district, Ivan  Cepeda, this association of state and paramilitary violence reached its  climax under Álvaro Uribe’s presidency.

IVAN CEPEDA, REPRESENTATIVE FOR BOGOTÁ DISTRICT (SUBTITLED TRANSL.):  Uribe’s eight years in power were fatal for Colombia. The paramilitary  got their people elected for Congress. All kinds of crimes were  perpetrated, like the infamous “falsos positivos” cases–young people  were assassinated by the army to be presented before TV cameras as if  they were terrorist. Also, there was espionage on the political  opposition, using the executive power’s secret police. So there is a  very long list of human rights violations committed during Álvaro  Uribe’s administration.

LEÓN: Defying fear and possible retaliations, on October 11 many  students protested Álvaro Uribe’s visit to Santo Tomas University.

STUDENT WEARING A URIBE MASK (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): I am here before you to declare that I am involved on crimes against humanity.

LEÓN: “Diego” says that they are here to make a statement against a political project of state violence:

“DIEGO”, STUDENT: We are against the “paramilitary political project”  that Álvaro Uribe represents, one which continues under the current  government by making military targets of human rights defenders and  student movement leaders.

We are a bit afraid to do this, yet here we are to denounce him for  what he is and to defend our right to protest, which is the only way to  get change, as it has been proven this year by the farmers’ and  student’s strike.

LEÓN: Both Uribe and Juan Manuel Santos, current president of  Colombia, have accused the farmers’ movement of being manipulated by  Marcha Patriotica, a leftist political organization whom they both  accuse of having ties with the FARC, the leftist guerrilla.

Ivan Cepeda remembers what happened to the last leftist social movement that was accused of similar charges back in the ’80s:

CEPEDA: In Colombia were committed an untold number of war crimes,  one of which was precisely the destruction of a whole political  movement, a real genocide against the Patriotic Union movement. Today we  are here in the rise of a new movement, the Patriotic March. I hope the  future of this movement is full of light and not a blood bath like the  one that ended Patriotic Union.

LEÓN: Nancy Vargas and Milciades Cano, two survivors of the  extermination of Union Patriotica, were murdered on October 6 at 5pm  when they where returning home precisely from a meeting of Marcha  Patriotica the movement that wants to bring the left back to Colombia  and was founded in memory of Union Patriotica, the original movement.

Among all this violence, there are still people willing to stand up  to mining and oil projects to defend the water, their lands, labor and  human rights. However, they do so knowing they don’t have the support of  the Colombian state. As “Tomas”, from Farmers’ Union from Cauca,  explains:

“TOMAS”, FARMERS’ UNION FROM CAUCA: These regimes have always been  about defending their own personal interest and those of the  multinational corporations.

We worry when the president goes to Europe and offers supposed  “opportunities for investment in Colombia.” He then surrenders for cheap  our farming lands, those of the indigenous communities and our national  parks.

LEÓN: While neoliberal policies and income inequality will continue  putting pressure in the social struggle, Colombia’s polarization and  long history of violence makes it that much harder for social movements  and farmers to vindicate their grievances.

Reporting for The Real News, this is Oscar León.

By Oscar Leon, November 3, 2013 for TRNN

Social justice activists face grave risks in Colombia, considered to  have one of the worst human rights record in the Western Hemisphere

OSCAR LEÓN, TRNN PRODUCER: In Colombia, the 21-days national strike,  which enjoyed broad support, was a victory for the farmers’ movement.  After 12 deaths, four disappearances, and 485 injured, they got a law to  control seeds suspended, along with subsidies to gas and supplies, to  compensate the farmers for their losses, competing with international  multinationals brought in the country by free-market treaties.

The government and the strike board are currently negotiating new  farming and mining laws, along with a revision of ten free market  treaties, trying to compensate or reduce the losses of farmers and  miners. In the cities, while the solidarity with the farmers were the  spark for the protests, the privatization of health care and education  brought even more people to the streets.

Facing police repression, and despite the threat of paramilitary  violence, they got a political victory, paralyzing the country while  President Santos saw his popularity fall to an all-time low of  24 percent.

But even after such demonstration for farmers to oppose mining and  oil projects can be a very dangerous activity, “Julio”, farmer and human  rights defender from Guayabero, has received death threats. He believes  not only him but everyone else in town is also in danger:

“JULIO”, FARMER AND HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER FROM GUAYABERO (SUBTITLED  TRANSL.): There are about 20,000 farmers near the Guayabero River, and  now all we’ve got is the fight for our rights as Colombians. All these  people are suffering the scourge of war; we have been living that for 30  years, being systematically attacked by the Colombian state, by the  police and the army, which almost every day they bully us and call us  insurgents or guerrilla members. We are honest and humble farmers who  want to keep our lands, but all we can do is hope things will get  better.

LEÓN: Adelinda Gomez Gaviria was gunned down, reportedly, by two  right-wing paramilitaries on September 30 when she was returning home  from an activists meeting accompanied with her 16-year-old son, who was  injured but survived.

Adelinda Gomez was a vocal environment advocate. She was a leader of  the group called Proceso de Mujeres del Macizo Colombiano del CIMA, a  farmers women group that had organized an Environmental and Mining  Forum, to which 1,500 indigenous and farmers participated. Adelinda  received threatening phone calls warning her to stay off mining or she  would get killed. And she’s not the only one. Genaro Graciano from  Movimiento Rios Vivos, which means movement for living rivers, had a bomb thrown outside his house at 10:30 pm on October 17. There where no casualties.

Precisely in the town of Las Acacias, where The Real News recently  reported on a local effort against an oil company in the defense of  their water resources; a crime occurred on October 10, one that sent a  ripple of fear across the villagers from all the area. Ricardo Rodriguez  Cajamarca, a local human rights monitor, was murdered by two hit men,  who gunned him down around noon, opening fire from a motorcycle while he  was driving his car. Rodriguez was well known for defending farmers and  indigenous from state abuse.

Amnesty International has long reported how an unknown number of  farmers and indigenous leaders have been murdered because of their  opposition to mega mining and oil drilling, choosing to preserve natural  resources instead of supporting industrial development.

Rural communities, students, and intellectuals had lost their voice  amid extreme violence by both sides of a conflict that lasts over 60  years now and very often kept the communities paralyzed with gruesome  crimes. On December 2012, Telesur reported 600 farmers leaders murdered  since 2005.

ABILIO PEÑA, CHURCH PEACE AND JUSTICE COMMISSION (SUBTITLED TRANSL.):  All these crimes against farmer leaders are related to specific claims  made by farming communities against businessmen who took over their  lands.

LEÓN: Under Álvaro Uribe’s government on 2007, 31,671 members of  Autodefensas Unidas Colombianas (AUC), a paramilitary Group that,  according to Semana magazine, “in the early 2000s grew to be the  most powerful armed force in the country and is responsible for a great  number of crimes” were demobilized. Fourteen of their leaders have been  extradited to U.S. under drug trafficking charges.

But the paramilitaries didn’t go away. Nowadays there are four  right-wing paramilitary armies: ERPAC, for Anti Communist Popular Army;  Los Rastrojos; Los Urabeños; and the main one, Agulas Negras, or Black  Eagles.

A video emerged on the news and on YouTube on which we see the last  moments of a group of farmers whose lands where stolen by alleged  paramilitary men. They where filming with their phone before they got  shot dead by the armed men.

UNIDENTIFIED (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): Call the police! They are shooting at us! The have automatic guns and they are shooting it us.

LEÓN: Speaking for HispanTV, “Caliche”, a paramilitary member, describes their mindset: 

“CALICHE”, PARAMILITARY COMMANDER (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): If we must respect someone’s life, we will; but if not, we will kill him,
because we do not share many leftist ideals, which are to blame for the way things are in Colombia now.

Two or three guys invented some leftist crap, and that is how a  gunmen war started. That is why we hunt down union leaders, because they  are pimps for a lot of bad people here in our town. They are pimps for  all those farmers who are guerrilla fighters who then turn around and  say they that are farmers displaced by war, helping NGO’s collect money  from international governments so they can then live the good life.

LEÓN: Farmers’ protest movements are closely linked with victims of  forced land displacement and war violence, also organizations of people  defending their land from contamination or appropriation by private  interest.

Teofilo Acuña, a farmers leader, was also threaten by paramilitary  men. In behalf, he believes of a transnational corporation called  Pacific Rubiales Energy:

TEOFILO ACUÑA, FARMER’S MOVEMENT LEADER AND HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER: In  my case, the threats came as an internet pamphlet and a note saying  they will kill me.

LEÓN: He describes a relation between state and private interest:

ACUÑA: We know the state is involved with private interest on this,  because the state had a project to bring transnational corporations to  the region. And we mention the state because we have observed that where  there are mining interest is precisely where there have been more human  rights violations. How else can you understand that in a region so  militarized and controlled, threats, murders, and disappearances can  happen so easily?

On the south of the Bolivar regions, we know that between 2003 and  2007 there have been around 700 disappeared and murdered people. So we  believe the multinationals are fully supported by the state.

LEÓN: While covering the March for Peace on 2012, I spoke to many  farmers displaced from their lands. “Yupanqui”, one of them, describes  how does it feel being trapped on a crossfire.

“YUPANQUI”, FARMER, WAR REFUGEE (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): If the army gets  to the village, they claim we are all infiltrated guerrillas. If the  guerrilla gets there, they claim we work for the army. Any armed faction  that gets to the village, we don’t know what to do or what to say. Many  times they made direct threats to our life.

LEÓN: It is important to remember that the paramilitary armies were  created as a counterpart for the FARC and ELN, leftist guerrillas that  have also committed atrocities against civilians. In everyone’s memory  are the hundreds of kidnapped and the “collar bombs”, a terrifying  device to used to ask for ransom. The guerrillas have also been accused  by the state of acting as security forces for narco cartels.

The army has also been involved in a case called “False Positives”,  where many officials have been formally accused of murdering people and  then claim that they were guerrilla fighters fallen in combat, not only  remaining immune of prosecution for those crimes, but also buffing up  the count of dead enemies.

This video was allegedly shot by a farmer using his phone camera in  2008 and recently resurfaced from a criminal case being filed by the  farmers, accusing the soldiers to not only murder the farmers, but also  trying to steal the bodies to later claim them as dead “enemy  combatants” or “falsos positivos”.

According to a well-known human rights defender, winner of 2007’s  Roger Baldwin Freedom Medal and Representative for Bogotá district, Ivan  Cepeda, this association of state and paramilitary violence reached its  climax under Álvaro Uribe’s presidency.

IVAN CEPEDA, REPRESENTATIVE FOR BOGOTÁ DISTRICT (SUBTITLED TRANSL.):  Uribe’s eight years in power were fatal for Colombia. The paramilitary  got their people elected for Congress. All kinds of crimes were  perpetrated, like the infamous “falsos positivos” cases–young people  were assassinated by the army to be presented before TV cameras as if  they were terrorist. Also, there was espionage on the political  opposition, using the executive power’s secret police. So there is a  very long list of human rights violations committed during Álvaro  Uribe’s administration.

LEÓN: Defying fear and possible retaliations, on October 11 many  students protested Álvaro Uribe’s visit to Santo Tomas University.

STUDENT WEARING A URIBE MASK (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): I am here before you to declare that I am involved on crimes against humanity.

LEÓN: “Diego” says that they are here to make a statement against a political project of state violence:

“DIEGO”, STUDENT: We are against the “paramilitary political project”  that Álvaro Uribe represents, one which continues under the current  government by making military targets of human rights defenders and  student movement leaders.

We are a bit afraid to do this, yet here we are to denounce him for  what he is and to defend our right to protest, which is the only way to  get change, as it has been proven this year by the farmers’ and  student’s strike.

LEÓN: Both Uribe and Juan Manuel Santos, current president of  Colombia, have accused the farmers’ movement of being manipulated by  Marcha Patriotica, a leftist political organization whom they both  accuse of having ties with the FARC, the leftist guerrilla.

Ivan Cepeda remembers what happened to the last leftist social movement that was accused of similar charges back in the ’80s:

CEPEDA: In Colombia were committed an untold number of war crimes,  one of which was precisely the destruction of a whole political  movement, a real genocide against the Patriotic Union movement. Today we  are here in the rise of a new movement, the Patriotic March. I hope the  future of this movement is full of light and not a blood bath like the  one that ended Patriotic Union.

LEÓN: Nancy Vargas and Milciades Cano, two survivors of the  extermination of Union Patriotica, were murdered on October 6 at 5pm  when they where returning home precisely from a meeting of Marcha  Patriotica the movement that wants to bring the left back to Colombia  and was founded in memory of Union Patriotica, the original movement.

Among all this violence, there are still people willing to stand up  to mining and oil projects to defend the water, their lands, labor and  human rights. However, they do so knowing they don’t have the support of  the Colombian state. As “Tomas”, from Farmers’ Union from Cauca,  explains:

“TOMAS”, FARMERS’ UNION FROM CAUCA: These regimes have always been  about defending their own personal interest and those of the  multinational corporations.

We worry when the president goes to Europe and offers supposed  “opportunities for investment in Colombia.” He then surrenders for cheap  our farming lands, those of the indigenous communities and our national  parks.

LEÓN: While neoliberal policies and income inequality will continue  putting pressure in the social struggle, Colombia’s polarization and  long history of violence makes it that much harder for social movements  and farmers to vindicate their grievances.

Reporting for The Real News, this is Oscar León.

By Oscar Leon, September 22, 2013 for TRNN

Through harassment, arbitrary detention and violence, Mexico sweeps  teachers and students

OSCAR LEÓN, TRNN PRODUCER: On Friday the 13th at 4 p.m. local time,  3,600 riot cops, backed up by military units on standby, evicted  thousands of teachers from all over the country who were protesting what  they consider an attack on their labor rights. They have been occupying  el Zócalo Plaza in the heart of the capital for 5 months now.

And while the great majority of teachers retreated to observe  Mexico’s “cry of independence” day on September 15 and 16, 29 of them  where arrested that day. Now they are charged with injuring 11 police  agents while fighting back the eviction of their encampment.

During the aftermath of the eviction, a post came out in social media  claiming the detention of an American citizen, Wesley Marshal, who had  been riding his bicycle near el Zócalo. The Real News contacted Wesley  to set it on record.

WESLEY MARSHALL, LECTURER AT UNAM, MEXICO DF: I’ve been in Mexico for  about 11 years. I came here to do my master’s, and I stayed on to do my  doctorate, post-doctorate. And now I’m working as a professor. 

On Friday the 13th, I was at home working. I saw some very worrying  images on the internet about what was happening in the Zócalo when they  were about to force all the teachers out. I heard and saw the Blackhawks  overhead. And I was very worried about my girlfriend, who’s [miEri]. So  I went over to get her on my bicycle. 

I did manage to find her right outside of where the area of conflict  was. And as soon as I picked her up, that’s when we saw a confrontation  about 50 meters in front of us of some supposed archivists throwing  objects, bottles, rocks at the police. The police then bum rushed us  from the north and from the south, kettled us all in, threw rocks at us,  beat some people in front, and then detained the rest of us. They  allowed the injured to leave, then the women to leave, and then the  striking teachers with their credential to leave. And then the rest of  us who were left were basically people like me, in the wrong place at  the wrong time, some people who had been supporting the teachers. And we  were all taken to the command center and we were all eventually charged  with mutiny. And I am still charged with mutiny. 

And the reforms being pushed through are very anti-popular, and the  populace in general is aware of how they will negatively impact on them.  And the only way of any sort of political communication here is through  peaceful protest on the street. Once we eliminate that, we’ve really  cut off all dialog and all opportunity for people to have some sort of  voice in the political system.

LEÓN: Since assuming presidency, Enrique Peña Nieto has faced protest  and opposition of diverse social groups, like the students of  #yosoy132, the farmers, the teachers, and a great numbers of citizens  who oppose the president’s plan to open Pemex, Mexico oil company, to  the market.

Not only the teachers have been treated with a heavy hand. The young  students protesting with the movement #yosoy132 not only faced police  brutality, but also persecution, intimidation, and arbitrary detention,  like in this video where students are detained for having a political  conversation in a public place, in Mexico’s capital city’s subway  system.

PEOPLE IN THE SUBWAY: They haven’t done nothing wrong.

Leave them alone. They were just talking.

PEOPLE ADDRESSING THE POLICE: Hurry up. We need to keep moving.

Leave then alone. They were doing nothing wrong.

They were just talking. Let them go.

No. 

No, don’t take them. Hey!

They were just talking. Don’t take them.

LEÓN: You can see how they are taken away for merely speaking in public.

The neoliberal policies are hurting Mexican society, and protest has  been heavily repressed. We asked John Ackerman, professor at the  Institute of Legal Research of the UNAM, Universidad Nacional Autónoma  de México.

PROF. JOHN MILL ACKERMAN, INSTITUTE OF LEGAL RESEARCH, UNAM: Mexico  is not a democracy. Our elections are rigged in Mexico. The last two  presidential elections have been very unclear who the real winner is and  who was actually playing by the rules. If democracy is a system in  which political actors play by the rules and there is fair competition,  Mexico is not a democracy. The last two presidential elections, 2006 and  2012, have been elections in which the oligarchy has imposed its  candidates through fraud, through overspending, through vote buying. The  Mexican people do not feel reflected, represented by their president,  by their political class. 

Today, Mexico is in a situation very similar to how Venezuela was  before Hugo Chávez, how Ecuador was before Rafael Correa, how Bolivia  was before Evo Morales, of total discredit of the political class and of  public institutions, and of–actually, kind of worse, because in those  countries there was still faith in the electoral process. All three of  those presidents came to power and have been reelected through  democratic means, elections. In Mexico, after these last two  presidential elections, society is disenchanted, to say the least, with  the electoral process. 

And so they’ve taken to the streets to protest these neoliberal  reforms, which have not let up for the last 30 years. And this protest  is met with, once again, authoritarian repression, arbitrary detentions.  And what’s–most puts the fear of God into this political class is  precisely the union, the synthesis between different social movements,  students, teachers, peasants. And that’s what’s started to happen. And  that’s why the police have responded in this way: in order to stop  society from organizing and demonstrating to this corrupt political  class that democracy is possible in Mexico, but it’s a democracy that  has to come from below.

ENRIQUE PEÑA NIETO, MEXICAN PRESIDENT: Fellow Mexicans, long live the heroes that gave us liberty!

LEÓN: Enrique Peña Nieto celebrated the “cry of independence” at el  Zócalo, in front of a friendly crowd and a lot of security. Now el  Zócalo has been sealed to prevent any return by the teachers, who are  now camping on the Monument to the Revolution. On Wednesday, many  marches where reported all around the country, in Mexico City,  Guadalajara, Xalapa, and other regions.

On Sunday, September 22, the National Teachers Union will join forces  with MORENA, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s political movement, runner  up in the last three elections, which some claim he actually won. This  cohesion by many social groups and movements as an articulated  opposition has replaced the classical political party dynamics, since  most of the political parties are acting as Peña Nieto’s allies.

It remains to be seen what impact the protests will have on the implementation of Enrique Peña Nieto’s political agenda.

Reporting for The Real News, this is Oscar León.