Atentan contra la vida de Comunicador de la ACIN

Latest Communique from ACIN on Threats Against Gustavo Ulcue:

Atentan contra la vida de Comunicador de la ACIN

02/07/2009
Autor: Tejido de Comunicación y Relaciones Externas

Hoy 7 de febrero de 2009, siendo cerca de las 3:00 pm llegaron dos hombres en una motocicleta a la casa de Gustavo Adolfo Ulcué, quién maneja todo lo técnico de la página web de la ACIN. Preguntaron por Gustavo y cuando el hermano abrió la puerta, enseguida los hombres lo encañonaron y se entraron a la casa. Buscaron por todas partes, entraron a la habitación de Gustavo y se llevaron su computador portátil. Cuando salían le dijeron al hermano “Agradezca que no estaba Gustavo, porque si lo encontramos le hubiéramos hecho la vuelta completa”.

Este hecho se presenta en un contexto de agresión integral a los pueblos indígenas y de violación a la libre expresión. Gustavo Ulcué hace parte del Tejido de Comunicación y Relaciones Externas para la Verdad y la Vida, que es la estrategia de comunicación para la resistencia desde donde no sólo se denuncia la agresión, sino que también se visibilizan las alternativas de vida que adelantan las comunidades indígenas y los procesos sociales y populares del país y de América Latina, y además se dan las bases mínimas de información para que la comunidad reflexione, tome decisiones y actúe en consecuencia para la defensa de la vida y el territorio.

Por esto, una vez más nos amenazan y nos sabotean, así como lo hicieron a finales del 2008, durante la Minga Social y Comunitaria, cuando bloquearon nuestra página web (www.nasaacin.org) y cuando nos dejaron sin emisora comunitaria, puesto que a mediados de diciembre a través de un acto de sabotaje premeditado, arrancaron los cables de protección de los equipos de transmisión, provocando así la quema de todos los equipos. Como consecuencia de esta acción, desde esa fecha la voz del pueblo Nasa está silenciada, estamos vulnerables y en cualquier momento pueden cometer agresiones contra nuestro pueblo y no tenemos un medio efectivo como la radio para movilizar a la comunidad.

El ataque a Gustavo Ulcué, y el robo del computador, evidencian una agresión contra el Tejido de Comunicación y Relaciones Externas de la ACIN. No nos sorprende que hayan ido a buscar a Gustavo ya que estamos atravesando por un período particularmente crítico en el que pretenden silenciarnos. Todas y todos los que hacemos parte de este Tejido de Comunicación nos sentimos en riesgo inminente, no porque hayamos cometido algún delito, simplemente porque decimos la verdad y defendemos la vida. Entonces, hemos sido amenazados y atacados porque no nos sometemos a intereses privados ni particulares, sino que hacemos reflexiones con la comunidad para que se tomen decisiones coherentes y consecuentes con el proceso político organizativo. Afortunadamente Gustavo está bien. Nos declaramos en alerta máxima y denunciamos de manera vehemente la persecución de que somos objeto por haber defendido abiertamente el proceso indígena y popular desde la ACIN y por ser voceros de la Minga Social y Comunitaria y de su agenda por la vida y la dignidad.

No haremos silencio porque la Libertad de la Palabra señala el Camino y la Vida.

Tejido de Comunicación y Relaciones Externas
Santander de Quilichao, febrero 7 de 2009.

THREAT AGAINST INDIGENOUS COMMUNICATOR IN CAUCA, COLOMBIA

Hello folks,

This is an urgent message that I received over the weekend from friends in Cauca, Colombia. The threats and attacks against the ASSOCIATION OF INDIGENOUS COUNCILS OF NORTHERN CAUCA, ACIN, continue, and in particular, their media/communication team. I want to share this English translation of the urgent action put out by ACIN over the weekend, put together by the Civa Collective in Canada.

The person targeted, Gustavo Ulcue, is a key member of the ACIN Tejido de Comunicacion, and a good friend. These threats must be denounced! I'll have more in the coming days.

Peace,

MAMA

We will not be silenced!

THREAT AGAINST INDIGENOUS COMMUNICATOR IN CAUCA, COLOMBIA

Today, they tried to get Gustavo.

With fear, outrage and relief, we denounce the latest attack against the Tejido de Comunicación (Communications Network) of the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca (ACIN). As their translated words below this message demonstrate, this attack, which was fortunately only successful enough to instill fear and nothing more, is part of a series of recent aggressions against the indigenous movement in Cauca, Colombia. In the words of the Tejido:

The members of the Tejido feel at imminent risk, not because we have committed a crime, but simply because we speak the truth and defend life.

The intended victim of this attempted attack, Gustavo Ulcué, is a dear friend of La Chiva and instrumental in the publication of the ACIN's profoundly effective website (www.nasaacin.org). It is Gustavín that manages the technical end of the website and keeps it regularly updated. The NASA-ACIN website is the primary means through which the indigenous movement in Northern Cauca has brought the messages of their communities, the 'life plans' as they so appropriately describe them, to the broader national and international community. They provide a source of information and inspiration not only for Colombia's social movements but also for those of us in other places who seek to weave together our struggles for another possible and necessary world.

We call on the appropriate Colombian authorities to seriously investigate the series of aggressions made against the Tejido. More importantly, we call on all of those with an eye on Colombia to rally in support and defense of the communities in Cauca and their Tejido de Comunicación, which has ceaselessly brought their messages to us, threatening the viability of the transnational 'death project' in every corner of the world that it lingers.

NO ESTÁN SOL@S!
THEY ARE NOT ALONE!

CAMINEMOS LA PALABRA CON EL TEJIDO DE COMUNICACIÓN!
LET US WALK THE WORD WITH THE TEJIDO!

Pai,
La Chiva Collective -- Canada

See the original Spanish text here: http://www.nasaacin.org/noticias.htm?x=9510

--

ATTEMPT ON THE LIFE OF ACIN COMMUNICATOR

At around 3pm on February 7, 2009, two men on a motorcycle arrived at the home of Gustavo Adolfo Ulcué, a member of the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca's (ACIN's) Tejido de Comunicación [Communications Network]. Gustavo's brother was at home alone when the two men came looking for him. Stating that Gustavo was not present, the men broke in while aiming a gun at him. They then searched the entire house before entering Gustavo's bedroom and stealing his laptop computer. As the men were leaving, they left his brother with the following threat: "Be thankful that Gustavo wasn't here, because if he was we would have finished him off."

This act occurred in the context of an integral campaign of aggression directed against the indigenous communities of Northern Cauca and, at the very least, represents a violation of freedom of speech. Gustavo Ulcué is a member of the Communications Network [Tejido de Comunicación y Relaciones Externas para la Verdad y la Vida], for which he helps run the website, www.nasaacin.org. The Tejido is part of a communications strategy designed to denounce aggressive attacks like those which it currently faces. Moreover, it works to make visible possible alternatives for life in support of indigenous communities and social and popular processes in Colombia and Latin America. At the local level, the Tejido provides fundamental information to the community so that it may reflect, decide, and act in the defense of life and territory.

Once again, our strategy is the root cause of why we have been threatened and attacked. Towards the end of 2008, we were threatened during the Minga of Resistance, a national mobilization organized by the community, by having our web page (www.nasaacin.org) blocked and leaving us without access to our community radio station. In a concerted attack in mid-December, the cables for the transmission equipment of Radio Pa'Yumat were ripped out, completely destroying our equipment. As a consequence, the voice of the Nasa indigenous community has been silenced. We are in a vulnerable state, one in which at any moment our community can be threatened or attacked. Without access to an effective means of communication, the response can only be silence, and the ability of our communities to mobilize effectively against future attacks will be seriously hindered.

The theft of Gustavo's computer and the threat against his life are evidence of an aggressive campaign being waged against the ACIN's Communications and External Relations Network. Their hunt for Gustavo does not surprise us, especially now that we are entering a particularly critical period where silence is the goal of the aggressor. The members of the Tejido feel at imminent risk, not because we have committed a crime, but simply because we speak the truth and defend life. We have been threatened and attacked because we have not given into private interests. Instead, we reflect alongside the community in an effort to make decisions that are coherent and consistent with our organized community process.

Fortunately, Gustavo is fine. In the meantime, we remain on high alert and strongly denounce our persecution for having openly defended the ACIN's popular indigenous process and for being voices of the Minga of Resistance and its agenda to defend life and dignity.

We will not be silenced! The freedom of the word reveals the path and life!

Tejido de Comunicación y Relaciones Externas
Santander de Quilichao, 7 February, 2009.

Tejido de Comunicación y Relaciones Externas para la Verdad y la Vida
Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas del Norte del Cauca - ACIN
Telefax: 0928 - 290958 - 293999
Email: acincauca@yahoo.es
Web: www.nasaacin.org/index.htm
Santander de Quilichao Cauca -Colombia



La Chiva is a collective of people working in solidarity with Colombian and Canadian social movements and communities.

http://www.canadacolombiaproject.blogspot.com

lachivacollective@gmail.com

World Social Forum, Bolivia, Colombia and the Gaza Crisis Highlighted Today's Wake Up Call

Greetings Folks,

Just to call your attention to some of the stories we dealt with today on the Friday Edition of Wake Up Call on WBAI Pacifica Radio in New York.

This morning, we covered a number of stories related to social movements in Latin America, including the Bolivian referendum last week and the ongoing World Social Forum. We also addressed the horrific conditions facing the people in Gaza in the wake of Israel’s three-week attack on the Palestinian people, and took a look at the growing lies being spread by the right-wing propaganda machine against the new Administration of Barack Obama.

In the first hour of the program, we started off by discussing the 9th World Social Forum, currently being held in Belem, Brazil, in the heart of the Amazonian region. This year’s World Social Forum has particular significance, given that it takes place amidst the global financial crisis which is shining a bright light on the contradictions and the failures of the Neo-liberal economic model and rampant corporate globalization. On Thursday, a number of world leaders attended the forum, saluted by the over 100,000 participants from around the world. We spoke with Maria Luisa Mendonca, a veteran human rights activist, and member of the organizing committee of the World Social Forum, who is attending the event in Belem, Brazil.

Then we discussed the Republican media attack dogs, who are on the offensive less than two weeks into the Obama Presidency. In response to media coverage of President Obama's economic recovery plan, the media watch group Media Matters for America released a comprehensive list of "myths and falsehoods" surrounding the issue. Media Matters has documented these falsehoods, including, most recently, media figures falsely suggesting a partial Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis examined the entire bill and falsely claiming that community organization ACORN would receive $4.19 billion as part of the stimulus. We were joined by Karl Frisch, the Communications Director and a Senior Fellow for Media Matters for America.


In the second hour of the show, we looked at the effect of war on Gaza's children. Israeli warplanes attacked what they called a suspected Hamas militant in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, who Israel claims is responsible for the explosion that killed an Israeli soldier on the border Tuesday.

This was happening as the international community was focusing on the devastation of the Israeli attack on Gaza. Speaking from the Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon urged more than $600-million in assistance to restore essential services to Gaza following Israel's recent three-week-long offensive. Ban toured Gaza last week and says the destruction there is "heartbreaking". The Palestinian Center for Human Rights counted 280 children among the nearly 1,300 dead – and adds that a quarter of the more than 5,000 wounded are children. Psychologists say that the trauma experienced by the 1.4 million residents of the Gaza Strip is something that will be felt for generations to come. We first heard a report from FSRN's Aya Batrawy, who reported from Gaza about the cycle of violence that has now reached an entirely new generation of Palestinians.

Then we spoke at length with Phyllis Bennis, a veteran analyst of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and author of several books on Mid East affairs. She is a senior fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.

And finally, in the third and final hour of Wake Up Call we took a close up look at Bolivia with Producer and blogger Karah Woodward, who hosts the blog Bolivia Transition Project through Digital Warrior Media. She recently spent two weeks in La Paz during the country’s historic referendum on Sunday, where over 60% of the population voted in favor of transforming Bolivia’s antiquated Constitution. It was the third electoral victory for Evo Morales, the indigenous leader and former coca grower. We discussed the significance of the vote, and the impact it will have on the indigenous population of Bolivia. We also examined how it might alter Bolivia-US relations. In our discussion, we were joined by Tiokasin Ghosthorse (see photo).

From there we made the transition to Colombia, to get an update on the state of the Indigenous and Popular Minga, which was launched last October in Cauca. We heard from Manuel Rozental, a veteran human rights activist and community organizer, who is a member of the Communication Team of the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca, ACIN. He made the links between developments in Bolivia with what was unfolding in Colombia, and described how the ACIN was openly discussing these historic events within their communities almost on a daily basis. We also discussed the problem facing the ACIN's Community Radio station, Radio Payumat, which has been off the air since December 13th.

Take a listen if you have some time by visiting the WBAI Homepage, and clicking onto the archives link; or click on the above links related to the first, second and third hours of the show.

Peace,

MAMA

Bolivia Looking Forward

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Bolivia: Looking Forward

Jan 27 - LA PAZ (digitalwarriormedia) - International observers are virtually unanimous on the conduct of Bolivia’s referendum vote on Sunday, which went smoothly and without any violence.

“We did not see any irregularities that could affect the outcome of the vote.” said Dr. Jennifer McCoy, Director of the Americas program at the Carter Center during a press conference on Tuesday. “This is a very important, democratic experiment for all of the Hemisphere to watch.”

As a special envoy for President Jimmy Carter, Dr. McCoy supervised a mission that sent observers into both rural and urban areas in the departments of La Paz, Santa Cruz and Tarija.

The Carter Center was one of several international agencies that arrived in Bolivia at the behest of the Bolivian government to observe and report on the referendum voting process.

Calls of fraud on the part of the opposition have been virtually quelled by reports issued from the Organization of American States (OAS), Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), the Carter Center, Southern Common Market (Mercosur) and the European Union.

About 300 observers attended the vote, which National Electoral Court President Jose Luis Exeni said was “the greatest presence of international observers in Bolivia’s democratic history.”

For the full article for to: http://boliviatransitionproject.blogspot.com/

Anatomy of an Investigation: The Colombian State’s War Against Civil Society

Here is the latest article from our friends at Colombia Journal. I thought I'd share it with you to draw attention once again to the profound contradictions of Colombia's Democratic Security Strategy.

Anatomy of an Investigation: The Colombian State’s War Against Civil Society

by Garry Leech

Aidee Moreno Ibagué recently learned that the Colombian government is investigating her for the crime of rebellion. But Moreno Ibagué has not taken up arms against the state. She does not plant bombs in Colombia’s cities. Nor does she carry an AK-47 assault rifle in the jungles of rural Colombia where leftist guerrillas have been fighting to overthrow the government for more than four decades. She is a lawyer who lives in the capital Bogotá. More specifically, she is a human rights lawyer for the country’s largest peasant union federation Fensuagro (The National Federation of Agricultural Farming Unions). She is also an outspoken critic of the government’s security and economic policies and the dirty war it is waging against those who struggle for social justice. According to Moreno Ibagué, it is her work and her political views that have made her a target of the state. “I will not be silent when there are so many atrocities,” she declares emphatically. “They have not been able to assassinate me, so now they want to put me in prison.”

Read the full article at: http://www.colombiajournal.org/colombia303.htm

Update on Bolivia: Evo Morales Starts Third Year

Friends,

Karah Woodward, our producer on WBAI's Wake Up Call, is currently in Bolivia, blogging about today's historic referendum on the new Constitution. Here is her latest post:

Digital Warrior Media reports on Bolivia Referendum

LA PAZ–(digitalwarriormedia) On the third-year anniversary of his inauguration as president of Bolivia, Evo Morales spent Thursday making a case for his administration and closing the national campaign for the constitutional referendum vote on January 25.

Morales began the day by launching a new state-run newspaper, Cambio (Change), before delivering a four-hour address in front of the National Congress.

Some of the highlights of his speech included the increase of Bolivia’s monetary reserves from $800 million upon his election in 2005 to more than $8 billion in 2008, due to the nationalization of Bolivia’s hydrocarbon sector (and also the fortune of record high commodity prices).

The increase in reserves has enabled Bolivia to finance a national literacy campaign, improve health services and provide entitlement payments to the elderly and school-aged children.
Outside the Congressional building, where Morales’ address was broadcast on loud speakers, Plaza Murillo was filled with supporters holding up compact copies of the new constitution and “Si” signs.

FOR THE FULL STORY, GO TO:

http://boliviatransitionproject.blogspot.com/

LI SOA Watch and the Cinema Arts Centre will hold a Benefit for Indigenous Community Radio in Colombia

From October 12 to November 24, 2008, Colombia's popular movement, led by the country's indigenous organizations, carried out an unprecedented six-week mobilization and march to protest against the government's economic development and military/security policies, as well as the ongoing violations of the rights of indigenous people. The Minga Popular was the beginning of a nation-wide, popular uprising designed to transform Colombian society through coordinated, non-violent mobilization.

One of the keys to the success of the 1-1/2 month mobilization was the indigenous community's strategic use of communication technology, which, combined with their traditional communication practices of grassroots assemblies and public consultations, was able to construct an alternative (people's) narrative about their broader struggle to the Colombian people.

The heart of this work was carried out on the community station Radio Payumat, the voice of the indigenous people of Northern Cauca. However, since December 13th, the station has been off the air after an act of ruthless sabotage severely damaged its transmitter, a deliberate attempt to silence the indigenous movement.

ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15th, 2009, the Long Island SOA WATCH, in conjunction with the Cinema Arts Centre of Huntington, Long Island, will hold a special benefit brunch and screening to raise funds for Radio Payumat to help get it back on the air!

The event will feature a screening of the Award-winning documentary "We Are Raised with the Staff of Authority in Hand," produced in 2006 by the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca, and presented in major film festivals around the world since then.

After the screening, there will be an open dialogue with:
Mario A. Murillo, host of WBAI's Wake Up Call and Associate Professor of Communication at Hofstra University, and Tiokasin Ghosthorse, (Lakota), host of First Voices/Indigenous Radio on WBAI.

Together, with videos and images of the recent mobilization, they will examine the trajectory of the Indigenous and Popular Minga from start to finish, with a focus on the multi-tiered communication practices of the indigenous movement, particularly of the ACIN, one of the leading organizations of the broader national movement.

Sunday, February 15th, 2009
Brunch at 11:00am, Film and Discussion at 12:30pm
Cinema Arts Centre
423 Park Avenue in Huntington, New York
For more information, email: marioradio@gmail.com or call (631)423-7611

$25.00 all tickets
For tickets, call 1(800) 838-3006 and ask for event 54041 or go to http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/54041