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Indian social movements: A case study in Cauca, Colombia, from a Marxist perspective
Cortes, Pedro, Ph.D.
The Ohio State University, 1988
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UMI
INDIAN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS:
A CASE STUDY IN CAUCA, COLOMBIA,
FROM A MARXIST PERSPECTIVE
DISSERTATION
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate
School of The Ohio State University
By
Pedro Cortes, M.S.
* * * *
The Ohio State University
1988
Dissertatation Committee: Approved By
William L. FI inn
Linda Reif______AdvWof David 0. Hansen Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology Lawrence Brown To William FI inn
and in memory of A. Eugene Havens
and to
My wife, Teresa, and my children, Patricia, Javier, Ernesto & Rocio
11 AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I especially wish to acknowledge Professor William FI inn, who was my professor and advisor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and currently my advisor at The Ohio State University. I am deeply indebted to him for providing intellectual guidance, economic support and encouragement during my graduate studies. I would not have obtained a Ph.d. without his support. For his friendship and solidarity I am forever grateful.
In addition, I wish to thank the other members of my dissertation committee. Professors Linda Reif, David Hansen and Lawrence Brown, who provided valuable comments and support.
A special thanks is also necessary for the moral support and assistance of the MUCIA staff: Don, Mark, Marcie, Linda, Rita, Nancy, Wannaporn, Leslie and Mitch.
I am grateful to Carolyn Wenholz and Michael Sisson for the translation and editorial assistance of the dissertation.
Acknowledgement is gratefully extended to the Fundacion para la Promocion de la Investigacion, la Ciencia y la Tecnologia, of the Banco de la Republica de Colombia, which financed part of the research; to the Universidad del Cauca which granted a leave of absence for finishing my dissertation; to LASPAU and The Ford Foundation which awarded me scholarships to conduct my graduate studies in the United States.
Special thanks must also be given to my companeros and Indians of Cauca with whom I shared the most significant time of my life and from whom I learned so much and Teresa, my wife and companera.
m VITA
June 29, 1946 ...... Born - Bogota, Colombia
1973 ...... M.S., The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin
1986-1988 ...... Professor, School of Humanities, Universidad del Cauca, Popayan.
1984 - 1985 ...... Coordinator of a Research Project on Indian Education, Universidad del Cauca and Ministry of Goverment.
1983 ...... Researcher, Fundacion para Promocion de Investigacion, Ciencia y Tecnologia, Banco de la Republica, Bogota.
1981-1982 ...... Teaching Assistant, Department of Romance Languages, (Spanish), The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
1979 ...... Researcher, Center for Social Research and Education, CINEP, Bogota.
1974-1978 ...... Professor, School of Education, Universidad del Cauca, Popayan, Colombia
FIELDS OF STUDY
Major Field: Rural Sociology
Studies in: Indian Matters and Education
IV TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION...... ii
AKNONLEDGEMENTS...... ill
VITA...... IV
LIST OF TABLES...... x
LIST OF FIGURES...... xi
PREFACE...... XIi
CHAPTER
I. THE RISE OF INDIAN MOVEMENTS...... 1
Introduction...... 1 Peasants and Indian Survival ...... 4 Considerations for a definition of an Indian Movement ...... 9 Collective Reaction ...... 11 C ontext ...... 11 Social B ase...... 12 Organized Action for Attaining Objectives. . . . 15 Organization...... 15 Objectives ...... 21
II. THE PEASANTS AND THEIR STRUGGLES...... 23
Importance of the Peasants...... 23 The Peasants as a Social Class...... 25 Isolation...... 25 Hetergeneity ...... 25 Ambiguity ...... 27 Transitoriness ...... 28 Disintegration and Conservation ...... 31 The Peasant Struggles ...... 33 The Social Impact of the Peasant Struggles . . . 37 Peasants Dependency and Participation in Social Movements ...... 40 Dependent Peasants ...... 41 Independent Peasants ...... 44
III. THE INDIANS AND THEIR STRUGGLES...... 46
Introduction...... 46 Prevailing Approach to the Indian Question...... 47 Integrationism ...... 48 Class and Ethnicity...... 51 Ethnic and National Minorities ...... 53 The Indian Struggles...... 57 Social Impact of Indian Struggles...... 61
IV. GEOGRAPHIC SETTING AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF INDIANS IN CAUCA...... 66
The Region...... 66 Historical and Cultural Background ...... 72 Historical Events ...... 74 Early Armed Resistance ...... 76 Legitimacy of Indian Territorial Struggles . . . 85 Communal Character of Reservations ...... 92 Exploitation of Indians in Haciendas ...... 97 Recognition of Cabildo Authority ...... 99 Defense of Cultural Tradition ...... 103
V. THE CASE STUDY OF THE INDIAN MOVEMENT OF CAUCA...... 107
The Context in which the CRIC Emerged ...... 107 The Initial group of "Colaboradores...... 117 The Creation of the CRIC...... 123 The First Land Recoveries ...... 131
Expansion ofthe CRIC...... 133 The Indian Census...... 134 Political Education and Organizational Development...... 137 The Land Recovery S truggle ...... 144 Communal A ctivities ...... 149 Reinstatement of Cabildos ...... 152 Mobilizations ...... 155 Repression...... 160 Fourth Congress...... 164 Events between Fourth to the Fifth Congress of CRIC...... 171 The Communal Stores...... 172 Land Recovery and Repression...... 174 Literacy and Health ...... 176 Political Education...... 177
vi Contradictions and Political Juncture ...... 179 The Fifth Congress...... 182 Events between the Fifth to the Sixth Congress. . . .185 Schools for Political Education...... 185 1979: the Surge of Repression ...... 187 Present Programs...... 193 The Sixth Congress ...... 198 The National Indian Congress...... 202 Perspectives on CRIC...... 207 CRIC as a Social Movement ...... 213
VI. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE EMERGENCE OF INDIAN MOVEMENTS...... 221
Introduction...... 221 Structural Factors ...... 223 Land...... 224 Exploitation...... 227 Repression...... 229 Cultural Oppression...... 231 Secondary Factors ...... 234 Subjective Factors ...... 236 Conjunctural Factors ...... 243 Contributions to the Analysis of Social Movements . .247
VII. GLOSSARY...... 250
VIII. BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 253
vn LIST OF TABLES
TABLE PAGE
1. Property Distribution in Cauca ...... 109
2. Cabildos Reinstated ...... 153
3. Indian Arrests, August-December 1975 ...... 161
VI1 LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURES PAGE
1. Map of Colombia...... 67
2. Geographic Distribution of Population, Central Cordillera, Northeastern Cauca...... 71
IX PREFACE
The history of Indians in the Americas is one of systematic extermination. Not only has their physical existence been continually threatened but their cultural and ethnic identity have been under virtually unrelenting assault during the five hundred years that marks the migration of Europeans to America. Indians have not only survived, but many Indian communities are intensifying their struggles to regain, retain or intensify their culture and community identity.
The research problem for this dissertation is to explain whv Indian communitites survive and are becoming a greater force for social change despite theoretical prediction to the contrary. The purpose of this dissertation is to assess the importance of Indian social movements and explain their occurrence.
Many theorists o^ social change, including socialist theorists, regard Indian culture and community as doomed to disappear and; therefore, irrelevant to the process of societal transformation.
However, recent Indian struggles, coordinated at national, intercontinental, and even international levels, are oriented toward the preservation of Indian ethnic communities, and to the establishment of new social orders favorable to their ability to sustain and enhance their societal position. This social phenomenon is important, especially in Latin America, where Indian tradition, is underestimated in terms ofits importance as an element of the national identity of Latin American countries.
This social phenomenon is important for the social sciences as well. It raises questions about the interaction of modes of production under peripheral capitalism; the role of traditional culture in the processes of social change; the relationship between ethnic and class dimensions; the meaning of national unity; the political forms of participation and struggle; the impact of conscious efforts of marginal groups on the course of history; and, the suggestion of alternatives to prevalent models of society and civilization.
The Indian movements seem to form a part of a broader phenomenon which Bonfil Batalla (1977) calls "the minorities dissent": the dissent of ethnic, regional and national minorities against imposed homogeneity
— their struggle for the right to be themselves which is different from the majority.
The Indian movement in Cauca, created in 1971, has been one of the strongest grass-roots organizations in Colombia. It had substantial achievements, parti curl ally in obtaining land for the Indians, and it has become highly influential in the current events of the Department of
Cauca. My understanding of this movement stems from my participation in i t as an activist and from my interest in the Indian question.
Chapters 1, 2 and 3 present a discussion of the social struggles of
Indians and peasants, and the importance of these struggles. The Indian movement of Cauca is part of the larger peasant movement and their struggle for land. The Indian movement is, however, independent of the
XI peasant movement to acquire because of their specific historic and cultural background. Because of the interrelationaship between the
Indian and peasant movements, an analysis of the peasantry is necessary for in understanding Indian movements, provided that the differences between peasants and Indians are kept in mind. The Indian movement in conjunction with the peasant movement may be viewed as a good example of agrarian social conflict.
Chapter 4 and 5 present a detailed description of the organizational processes of the Regional Indian Council of Cauca (CRIC). The discussion covers the period from CRIC's founding in 1971 to 1982 which is when the National Indian Organization of Colombia CONIC), the first national level Indian organization, was created.
In Chapter 6, an explanatory framework for the rise of Indian movements is developed using CRIC as a case study and relying on the literature of Indian movements. It is argued that these movements are expressions of structural social conflicts. At a given moment, the social stability is broken by concrete circumstances (conjunctures) which promote the development of consciousness and organized collective action oriented toward social transformation.
xn CHAPTER I
THE RISE OF INDIAN MOVEMENTS
Introduction
The rising of Indian movements during the decade of the 1970's was a widespread sociological phenomenon in most countries throughout the world with Indian populations. Despite a 500-year history of physical and cultural extermination, Indians have not only survived, but are struggling to maintain and strengthen their cultural and social identity. Through these efforts, they are becoming increasingly linked to other revolutionary movements.
This most recent upsurge of Indian movements is characterized by increasing levels of organization. Local movements have given rise to national and international organizations. For example, in 1974 the firs t Indian American Parliament was held in Paraguay. In 1975, the World Council of Indian Peoples was founded. In 1977, the
Central American Regional Coordination of Indians was created.
Later in 1980 the South American Council (CISA) was formed.
Significant events in the Americas include the major Indian movements in the United States at Alcatraz (1970) and Wounded Knee
(1973). The continental mass response of Indians to organize at these
increasing levels in a social movement has deep sociological meanings for them. I t reminds the Indians that their problems have not been solved in five hundred years. It reaffirms the importance of their common ethnicity, as well as their ethnic diversity throughout Latin American societies. It tests the extent to which the collective determination of a marginal group can affect social change. It exemplifies a direct, massive and democratic form of political participation as a growing alternative to the political crises precipitated by traditional political parties and political-military organizations in some Latin American countries.
It suggests social organization alternatives based on
communitarianism and political autonomy that provides alternatives to civilization for understanding and dealing with the material and
spiritual idiosyncracy of the Latin American society. It reminds the society of the existence of an Indian civilization, embodied in the extent Indian communities, that has not been extinguished despite five centuries of oppression.
There are many reasons for the social sciences to be interested in the recent upsurge of Indian movements. The widespread character of the Indian movements, by itse lf, deserves the attention of the social sciences. After centuries of "civilization" Indians were supposed to have been totally eliminated or, at most, to survive as
"archaeological monuments" (Engels). Peasant and Indian communities were expected to be hopelessly disintegrated by capitalism (Marx). However, contrary to Marxist theory, peasants and Indians continue to exist and are becoming an intensifying social issue. Indian social movements express a determination not only to resist extermination, but to participate in the transformation of their respective countries in order to build a new social order favorable to their future.
Currently, Indian territories are the stage for some of the most radical revolutionary struggles: Ayacucho in Peru, Cauca in
Colombia, Quiche in Guatemala. Similar situations have occurred before in Bolivia, Peru and Mexico. Furthermore, the Indian movements provide grounds to challenge prevailing Marxist theoretical premises such as: 1) the rapid extinction, by capitalist expansion, of preexisting socioeconomic and cultural arrangements; 2) the role of traditional culture as a deterrent to social change; 3) the reduction of the ethnic groups to a problem of social class; 4) the concept of national unity as a process of cultural homogeneity; 5) the disregard for the political potential of marginal groups; and 5) the adoption of western values as the modernizing model for Latin American societies.
The Inspiration for this dissertation comes from my participation in the Indian movement of the Department (State) of
Cauca, Colombia during the decade of the 1970's and early 1980's.
This dissertation begins by reviewing the theoretical discussion on the survival of peasants and Indians, and discussing the importance of their struggles. Since the Indians share with peasants the characteristics of land cultivation similar social processes (decomposition) similar and adversaries (terratenientes), an analysis of the peasantry proves useful, for examining the similarities and differences between peasants and Indians. The explanatory framework for peasants may be partially applied to
Indian movements.
The Indian population in Colombia is estimated at about two per cent of the total population. Of that two percent nearly half
(approximately two hundred thousand) live in Cauca.
Popayan, the capital city of Cauca, was an extremely important colonial center. Since the middle of the sixteenth century, Indians were firs t forced to work for the Spaniards, and then for the local landed elite. Today, Indians remain in agricultural communities living on the territories (resguardos) which have been recognized as theirs since Spanish rule. Disputes over the resouardos have been the principal cause of unrest. Indians have traditionally mobilized against major attempts on the part of authorities to eliminate the resouardos.
Peasants and Indians Survival
Despite Marxist theoretical predictions regarding the disappearance of the peasants and Indians as a result of capitalist expansion, peasants continue to be a major social phenomenon and their disappearance does not appear to be imminent. While the number of peasants has decreased sharply in relation to the total population, in many countries, Indians have not decreased in absolute numbers. The deterioration of their social situation and due to this their potential for political instability increases their larger scale sociological relevance. State policies such as agrarian reforms and current programs of Rural Integrated
Development are aimed at lessening the crisis by, at least in purpose, providing some support for the peasants. The functional interaction between the capitalist mode of production and the peasant economy provides a material basis for conservation of the peasants by virtue of the need to maintain a pool of cheap labor.
Furthermore, the peasant movements are a conscious, organized effort based on a will to persist. The result is a complex paradoxical process of disintegration and conservation: the contradiction between a general tendency towards the dissolution of the peasantry
(by internal differentiation and/or by capitalist absorption) and a counter tendency to resist that same dissolution.
Peasants and Indians are not merely a social problem. They are also a significant force in social change. While, they have been considered by Marxists as a conservative and reactionary mass, and by functionalists as traditional and opposed to social change
("Dualist theories": McCleland, Hagen, Lerner, Rostow), The fact remains that peasants and Indians have participated in all the revolutions of this century (Wolf, 1982; Huizer, 1980; Alavi,
1972). Today, in many countries, the countryside is the stage for revolutionary struggles that count on peasant support. Peasant rebellions are the expression of a profound structural crisis and are likely to have revolutionary consequences because their resolution implies structural changes. Several authors (Page, 1975;
Batalla, 1980; Shannin, 1971; Wolf, 1982; Huizer, 1980) have pointed out that peasant traditionality may in fact be a source of political radicalism*. Others, Fanon (1971) and Cabral (1972) argue that in the context of anticolonial struggles, peasants are the truly revolutionary class as the bearers of the national cultural identity.
However, the real question is not whether peasants, by their nature, are or are not revolutionary, but under what conditions do they tend to become revolutionary (Alavi, 1972). The explanatory framework for the rise of peasant and Indian movements, developed in
Chapter 6, attempts to identify those conditions.
Indians have been subjected not only to the processes of socioeconomic disintegration common to all peasantry, but they have also been subjected to a constant policy of extermination since the arrival of the Europeans to the American continent. This policy has ranged from violent extermination to integration into the overall society by imposing conformity to "civilization" and suppression the
Indian culture.
* Social science' view of traditionalism as opposed to social change must be redefined, especially in relation to national and ethnic rebellions. Under a context of domination, traditionalism appears as a defense mechanism. But, under a realistic possibility of change, it seems to become a source of radicalism. Attention must be paid to cases such as the Basques in Spain, the muslims in Iran and other middle eastern countries, anti colonial wars in Africa and present Indian movements in Latin America. Indian survival is associated with circumstances such as their economic functionality for the hacienda system, the low intensity of capitalist penetration in their overall territories, and their relative isolation. It is also due to the Indian’s will to survive. Expression of the Indian will to survive ranges from passive resistance to change (when change is perceived as detrimental) to active resistance (including armed struggle at different times in history.
Today's Indian movements are an expression of the range of such resistance. Throughout history, Indian resistance efforts was defeated because the context and means of struggle were overwhelmingly unfavorable to the Indians. Society in general tolerated any acts against the Indians and no major social force came to their assistance. Today, even though abuses against Indians continue to occur, there is an increasing international awareness of and solidarity for, the rights of Indian peoples. The Indian problem is part of the agenda of most international forums on human rights. Indians are not alone. Currently, some of their territories are occupied by guerrilla organizations which they will often support. The Indian movements have become an important segment of popular social movements.
In the case of the Indians, collective resistance is based on interests and adversaries which are common to all the peasantry: the struggle to obtain land which pits them against the landlords. 8
In the case of Indians, this resistance is further strengthened by ethnicity: the sense of common historic identity, of belonging to the same human group; their sense of communitarianism which transcends personal, class and regional interests; their specific cultural identity which differentiate them from other cultural groups. Other factors exclusively associated with Indian ethnicity are useful in defending Indian interests. These factors include, laws, resauardos and cabildos (Indian authorities). For example, by law, the land compromising the resauardos belong to the Indian community and cannot be appropriated by outsiders. This has presented an obstacle for those who attempt to expropriate Indian lands. The resauardos have been the material base for the social and cultural perpetuation of the Indian communities. Indians struggle not just for a piece of physical land as a means of production but for a communal (social/cultural) territory inherited from their ancestors.
The mobilization of Indians in support of other Indians has become consnon. They struggle politically in collective search of autonomy (as ethnic minorities), for self-determination (as nationalities), and culturally for the right to be themselves and maintain their heritage.
In common with peasants, Indian survival is also the result of the contradiction between prevailing processes of elimination and complex processes of resistance. Indian movements are the political expression of that resistance. The relationship between Indian movements and revolutionary organizations increases their strength not only inability to resist, but inability to resist but to affect social transformation. A current tendency in Latin America is the increased radicalization and interaction of social movements.
The Indian struggles have also been underestimated; they have been associated with backwardness, racism and divisiveness. Among the Left, the prevailing approach considers that Indians must take a political stand as peasants or as proletarians and that the ethnic question is to be faced after solving the class problem.
However, Indian movements express the interest of Indians in a differentiated political participation addressing class as well as ethnic interests. For example, economic interests, such as land, are redefined in ethnic terms: the recovery and enlargement of
Indian territo ries. Other common demands raised in ethnic terms by the Indian movements are: defense of the communal property of their territories; reaffirmation of cultural identity; social and political equality. A constant theme of Indian movements is denunuciation of private and official repression as being especially prevalent and violent against Indians: illegal arrests, torture, murder, disappearances.
Considerations for a Definition of an Indian Movement.
The study of social movements deals with humans as both the cause and effect of history. Social movements are the result of 10 historical processes, at particular times, when specific circumstances come together. At the same time, they become social forces that influence history. A social movement is as complex as the situation that generates it; it is a synthesis of contextual social crises. To understand it, one must take into account global situations in which a seemingly inexhaustible multiplicity of factors intervene. "The rise of the current social movements in
Latin America is a complex phenomenon which synthesized in itse lf all the complex factors which take part in the processes of change that have occur in our societies during the most recent decades"
(Quijano, n.d.:84). Consequently, understanding is not just a matter of isolating explanatory variables of partial aspects of the phenomenon, but is more an attempt to achieve an accurate approximation of its global situation, indicating the most relevant factors and their interactions. It must be kept in mind that each movement is related to specific situations which give particular weight and dynamics to its explanation. "In the scientific context of the twentieth century, we can no longer speak of cause and effect in the sense of a mechanic relation of one to one between independent and dependent variables. Since I believe that the relationship between material processes and moral preferences is one more of probabilities and similarities than of certainties and identities, I have no difficulty in believing, at the same time, that history is determined and that human beings have the capacity of exercising moral preference and free will" (Harris, 1978:xiii). 11
Collective Reaction Against Injustice
A first step in defining a social movement is to interpret it as a collective reaction to a conflicting situation affecting the social whole. Two factors emerge: the "context" and the "social base" of the movement.
Context
The context refers to the structures of society, to its institutional arrangement. In this aspect, social movements are different from other movements in which attention is not directly focused on the social structure (religious movements, for instance).
The social conflict which a movement expresses can be approached from opposing theoretical perspectives.
The functionalist perspective for example, views conflicts as
"strains" or dysfunctions which affect the social equilibrium at a given moment. They are not permanent and do not affect the basis of social order. They disappear as the result of adaptation and gradual adjustment.
The Marxist perspective, however, takes the view that conflicts are an expression of the structural contradictions inherent in society: "the antagonisms between the social agents who take part in a movement express the structural contradictions which constitute the objective conditions of the existence of the conflict" (Saenz,
1985:8). From this perspective, social movements are oriented to the transformation of the social structures, taking on, moreover, a political meaning. 12
This study has adopted a Marxist theoretical perspective. The social movements in Latin America are an ever clearer expression of the social conflicts affecting the entire region.
There is also a difference between the sociological theories which look for the origin of the social movements in the social context and the social psychological theories—such as the theories of relative deprivation and authoritarian personalities—which emphasize the role of individuals, especially leaders. In the present work, the role of the individuals, the subjective factors and consciousness are not ignored, but are assumed to be the result rather than the cause of social processes.
Given these assumptions, the Indian movements (as well as peasant movements) are viewed as reactions against the structural processes that tend to decompose them. These movements focus their attention on the defense of their bases of existence: the land and the social and cultural arrangements associated with it.
Social Base
The second element that comes into play is the social base of the movement: the whole of the population is affected by the conflict. It is not just a quantitative matter or something related to a phenomenon of masses without its own identity. In fact, the participants in a social movement are united by common interests in contradiction to the interests of their adversaries. The social composition of a movement indicates the nature of the conflict. For 13 example, a movement of small landholders differs from a movement of wageworkers: in the former what is at stake is the land, in the latter it is the labor conditions.
The basic structural contradictions are class contradictions.
However, not every social movement is strictly the movement of a social class.
For example, a characteristic of urban social movements is its multiclass nature. A diversity of classes, of fractions of a single class and of social strata affected by urban problems participate in this type of movement. "Although the urban social movements certainly have a heterogeneous base, they are fundamentally the movements of lower or 'popular' classes." (Saenz, 1985:26).
The peasant and Indian movements also bring together different class sectors. The predominance of one of these sectors gives specific characteristics to the movement as a whole. In the case of the Indians—the great majority of whom are part of the poor peasantry—ethnic interests transcend class interests. However, not only do the poor Indians participate in the movement, but the middle sector Indians (in terms of social class) play an outstanding role in the movement due to the tactical mobility afforded by their relative independence.
The social base refers to the potential scope of the movement.
But not everyone belonging to the social base of the movement participates in it or has the same degree of participation. The effective level of participation constitutes, in part, the social 14 force of the movement. However, the strength of the movement is also measured by other factors such as the intensity of its actions, the methods of struggle used, the effectiveness of its organizational apparatus and the experience of its leaders. For the sake of political effectiveness, the leadership of the movements runs the risk of prioritizing mechanisms and leaders, and ignoring the social base. This often results in the formation of a vanguard and the adoption of radical means of struggle that, in the long run, isolate the movement from its social bases and leave i t vulnerable.
Not all Indians participate in an Indian movement. There are even some Indians opposed to such movements. Although there are few
Indians in opposition to Indian movements, they are very useful to the adversaries of the movements or to rival organizations that compete for the leadership of the movement. These internal contradictions can constitute one of the main weaknesses of a movement. They offer opportunities to its adversaries to divide the movement through exploitation of these weaknesses.
In the case of the Indian movement it is difficult to estimate the number of its adherents or even the percentage of participation. Level of participation varies from simple interest and sporadic participation in some cases to militancy in cadres of a temporal or permanent character.
The movement can express its force in mass mobilizations in the intensity of its actions and in the type of pressure mechanisms utilized at a given moment. The method of direct struggle (such as 1 5 land takeovers, for example) combined with insistence on legal procedures are characteristic of the Indian movements. Measurement of the growth of the social base of the Indian movement, must take into consideration size of the territory in which it exercises influence. In this aspect, the CRIC has attained not only regional but national influence.
Organized Action for Obtaining Objectives
Another approach to understanding social movements is to consider them as actions oriented towards social transformation; not just as forms of protest or reaction to a given conflict but as a transforming historic event. The objectives can run from demands for partial change within the existing social order to political objectives framed in terms of an effort to achieve a social reconstruction. In this perspective, two other characteristics of the social movements stand out: the organizational structure and the objectives of the movement.
Organization
The organization is the backbone of any movement. It is what permits a social base to become a real force: "The social groups affected by a set of problems achieve social strength only when they effectively organize and mobilize themselves. The social strength in the movement materializes in its organization, in its capacity to respond to the specific interests of the classes, factions and social strata who participate in the conflict" (Saenz, 1985:14). 1 6
A movement can be driven by one or more organizations which, although pursuing basic common interests, may differ in several aspects: in their approaches, strategies, methods of action and organizational criteria. In this case, there can be a real base for contradictions in the conflicting interests between rival political organizations and risk of internal division introduced from the outside. The contradictions may also stem from contradictory personal interests among the leaders. In examining the organization of the Indian movement in Latin America, it is also necessary to realize that parallel organizations exist with different approaches to the Indian question: e.g, ethnic minorities vs. Indian nationalities. There are also regional organizations coordinated at national and international levels.
In any case, an organization may be understood as a structure made up of three elements: the direction or leadership, the social base and the intermediate instances between these two.
The leadership can be fundamentally centered around a single person: a clear leader. This was the case with many earlier social movements, but loccurs less frequently in the present time.
Leadership may also be shared by a group of persons; a collective leadership. Or, it may be a combination of these two: a group of leaders around a principal leader.
The collective leadership may be rotating. This is the prevailing tendency of many social movements today.
Or collective leadership may tend to remain stable, to become a nucleus of permanent power within the movement. In this case, there 1 7 seem to be possibilities for internal democracy, more potential for renovation of cadres, more participation by the social base, more control of the social base over their leaders. Disagreement is more likely to be resolved by election of a new leadership. In this case, power is more concentrated in the leading group. This group selects the new leaders emerging from the grass roots. Although formal electoral processes may be established, the ruling group has the possibility of selecting, promoting, and causing their candidates to be elected. These organizations may be more prone to vertical ism and authoritarianism. It is more likely that their contradictions will give rise to parallel organizations. The broadening of internal democracy may depend more on the decision of the leadership group than on pressure from the social base.
The origin of the movement, and the role of the external agents, can influence the type of leadership that emerges. A movement promoted by the state or by outside political activists can be different from a movement that is generated autonomously at the social base.
In the case of contemporary social movements, outside political influence plays a very important role. Two types of outside influence are common: that of party organizations which seek to use the movements to broaden themselves, and that of independent activists which support the formation of autonomous organizations.
In the first case, one can expect vertical forms of organization and greater interest in control of the leadership. In the second case, the emergence of autonomous and independent movements does not 18
necessarily guarantee the contrary which is horizontal forms of participation and democracy. This is rather the product of the
approach to political work on the part of specific political
activists. This is beginning to happen in the contemporary social movements as Fais Borda, Luis Alberto Restrepo and other analysts
have observed in Colombia. (Restrepo, 1987:33).
In the situation of the Colombian Indians—relatively isolated,
severely uneducated, accustomed to dependence on the 'whites' for
their relationship to the rest of the society—it is more likely
that the outside activists will become very influential, not only in
the political orientation of the movement but in all aspects of
organizational activities. However, things may be somewhat
different for those Indian organizations which define themselves as
anti-Western.
Traditional political agitation in the Latin American
countryside has always been conducted by the ruling political
parties. Radical political organization began to take place in the
1930's with the creation of new revolutionary political parties which sought to spread their influence and recruit supporters from among the peasantry. They did not seek to create autonomous peasant organizations. Peasant leagues and unions dependent upon the
communist party were organized. An Indian, Eutiquio Timote, was nominated by the party as a symbolic presidential candidate. Jose
Gonzalo Sanchez, Indian leader and promoter of the Indian 1 9 organization of the 1930's and 1940's, was also a communist party militant. He tried to implement the party's line in the Indian organization of his time.
Anibal Quijano points out that since the 1950s a decisive change has occurred in the further development of the peasant movements:
"Organizational action is no longer the exclusive concern of groups or political parties formally organized. It is also carried out by groups or individuals with revolutionary or radical ideology who are not necessarily party militants. Or, it may be carried out by party militants, but acting independently" (Quijano, n.d.:48). In this case, the objective has been the support of peasant organizations.
In the case of the CRIC this has been crucial: the core of activists has been made up of independent individuals who are not members of party organizations. Throughout its whole process, the
CRIC has been zealously protecting its autonomy in relation to these organizations.
Still more important is the change in the global strategy of the revolutionary groups at the end of the decade of the I960's. The
"foquista model" (Che Guevara's theory), based on the military action of small groups, lost influence. Meanwhile, under the influence of Maoism and the Vietnamese revolution, the "line de masses" became very influential. This political revolutionary line seeks the massive involvement of all the oppressed classes, giving special importance to the peasantry. Linda Reif, in her analysis of women participation in guerrilla movements in Latin America, 20 indicates that this change, together with the growing influence of the feminist movement, promoted not only an increase but a change in the type of women participation: from support to combat and command positions (Reif, 1987).
The intermediate level between the leadership and the social base of the movement constitutes (together with the leadership) the organizational apparatus. It is responsible for conducting the activities of the movement according to a division of work by space and specialization. In the case of the CRIC,, there exists an
Executive Committee made up of regional Indian representatives. The members of the Executive Committee are responsible for the organizational work at the global level. Together with regional and local cadres, they respond on behalf of the organization in the region represented by the members of the committee.
In addition to the Excecutive Committee, there are committees for education, health, production, legal assistance, communications, cooperatives and for coordination of the Indian movement with other organizations. Because of the specific knowledge and training that these committees require, the participation of non-Indian persons (many of them professionals hired by the organization or volunteer activists) becomes indispensable.
A problem that may arise at this level is the relationship between the organizational apparatus of the movement and traditional community organizations. Since their interests do not necessarily coincide, conflicting parallel organizations may occur. 21
Objectives
Another important element in understanding a social movement, as a force of social change is the set of objectives of the movement.
The objectives are derived from in opposition to the situation which originate the movement. The explicit objective of the movement is a set of demands expressing the interests of the entire social base of the movement. The organizational apparatus must devise the means and actions to achieve them. Part of the success of a movement is the ability of its leadership to articulate a set of objectives expressing the real interest of the social base and to attain concrete results. "Without real achievements, the members of the organizations will tend to abandon them and the disintegration of the organizations will become inevitable." (Useems, 1982:23)
Another function of the organization is to define the role of the movement as a social force within the totality of forces disputing either the continuance or change of the existing social order. This understanding will link the social movements with the class struggle and will provide them with a long-range perspective.
It will also prevent the movement from dissolving after achieving its specific demands. A social movement acts against other forces which are also in contradiction with other social movements. It is the confrontation of two sides. All forces at one side have common interests but also internal contradictions which may weaken them and provide advantage for their adversaries. 22
Another important function of the leadership is to develop a political framework which allows them to take advantage of each
conjuncture by means of the appropriate methods and actions.
The Indian movements are driven by their own organizations; they
struggle for a society which guarantees their right to social
equality, and their right to ethnic differentiation, as the right to
preserve and develop themselves as ethnically and culturally
differentiated peoples. They struggle for a communal and pluralist
society. CHAPTER II
THE PEASANTS AND THEIR STRUGGLES
The Importance of the Peasants
In spite of urbanization and modernization, the peasantry remain a sociological phenomenon of great political significance. Peasants are most frequently thought of as residents of the so called "Third
World", but they also exist in some of the industrialized countries.
"It is worth remembering that—as in the past, also in the present—the peasants constitute the majority of humanity." (Shanin,
1971:17) Peasants are exposed to processes designed to eliminate them as a social force. Their history abounds with struggles to resist those processes—struggles that have contributed to peasant survival and that have become important forces of social change.
The peasants who are not bound by dependency to a landlord seemed to be the most active in the struggles for survival and social change.
The position of peasants in the social structure and the political importance of their struggles have been the object of intense theoretical debates, particularly within Marxism. Classic theorists (Marx, 1963, Lenin, 1964, Luxemburg, 1972, Mao, 1968) consider the peasantry as an ambiguous and transitory class.
2 3 2 4 produced by the dissolution of the feudal order and prone to disappear as a result of the processes of internal differentiation and absorption by capitalist expansion. In the context of the socialist revolution, all emphasis was placed on the proletariat as the class located at the center of capitalist dynamics. The peasant was considered as a conservative, even reactionary, remnant of the old feudal society. Nevertheless, in some of their later works,
Marx and Engels placed greater importance on the peasantry. Lenin heightened their role in the context of the democratic revolution.
But it was really Mao Tse-Tung who, through the Chinese Revolution, demonstrated the importance of the peasantry in a country of low capitalist development and high rural population.
After the Second World War, the theoretical debate over the peasantry intensified again, de Janvri (1981:90), speaks of the
"reopening of an active debate on peasants which has been of very much the same nature as the debate between the Russian Narodniks and
Bolsheviks and that within the German Social Democratic party in the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries." Also, in the words of Shannin (1981:11), "The last few years have seen a somewhat paradoxical rediscovery of peasants."
Some of the factors which have contributed to increased attention on the peasantry are the intensification of capitalist penetration in the countryside; the understanding of the function of peasants in dependent capitalism; the struggles against colonialism in Africa, which, in the course of a search for national identity, reaffirmed ethnic and peasant values (Fanon, 1971 and Cabral, 1972); 2 5 the social conflicts resulting from the rapid processes of urbanization (Shannin, 1971 and Huizer, 1980); and the rise of peasant and ethnic movements of a long lasting, radical, and extensive nature (Quijano, n.d.). With respeci to the peasantry,
Marxists take two opposing views: one, the affirmation of the transitory nature of the peasantry which denies their existence as a specific social class and minimizes their importance; and the contrary view arguing that peasants are a specific class of political significance.
The Peasants as a Social Class
Those who contend that peasants are not a social class and are not politically important in terms of social change stress the following in their arguments: their isolation, their heterogeneity, their ambiguous economic situation, their transitory nature. They also stress that they are politically conservative or reactionary and have minimal social impact. Each of these contentions will be critically examined. My argument is that peasants constitute at least a distinctive and important sociological category, if not a social class. Therefore, they cannot be analyzed as part of another class.
Isolation
Peasants are not a social class insofar as their way of life and production "isolates them from one another instead of promoting their mutual interaction" (Marx, 1963:124). This "isolation" 2 6 assumption has been challenged by modern anthropological research which has shown intensive interaction within the peasant community.
Indeed, one of the difficulties of political organizing among the peasantry is the complexity of interaction within their communities.
Isolation from the outside world, which previously characterized rural life, has been lessened by the development of an infrastructure of transportation and communications, by the penetration of the market economy, and by the intensification of migratory circles. These developments have lead some authors to speak of the "urbanization" of rural life.
Heterogeneity
It is also argued that the peasantry is made up of different social sectors with conflicting interests. Consequently, the peasantry is not sufficiently homogeneous to be considered as a specific social class. Nevertheless, peasants have common interests that constitute the bases for their social movements. Through politicalization, peasants are increasingly becoming a social class with clearly defined interests (class for itse lf in Marxist terms).
Indeed, social classes, as Quijano (n.d.) points out, are not a given class, but rather are in a process of "becoming" through increased politicalization. Marxism distinguishes between two aspects of a social class: the class in itself as objectively defined against other social classes, and the class fgr itself when i t develops a consciousness about its true interests. In this sense, peasant movements are contributing to the transition of the 2 7 peasant class into a class for itself. "It can be said that the peasantry in some of the Latin American countries are in the process of 'classification', that is, a process of differentiation and organization as one class among the others." (Quijano, n.d.:70)
Ambiguity
"The peasants in a capitalist society hold a contradictory position since they are, and at the same time, are not bourgeoisie and proletariat." (de Janvri, 1981:96) Such a contradictory or ambiguous position can be used as well to affirm the position of peasants as a differentiated social class. The fact that, simultaneously, they f i t and do not f it into those categories, demands its own conceptualization. That they are owners of means of production, but, at the same time, they work as direct producers differentiates them from other social classes.
Furthermore, in this analysis, it is necessary to keep in mind the dialectical relationship between quantitative and qualitative criteria: owning the means of production below a certain level impedes the use of those means as capital; and the fact thatpart of the production may be destined for the marketplace does not necessarily imply that i t is a capitalist production. Likewise, the peasants' sporadic or temporary participation in the labor market does not necessarily classify them as proletarians. It is clear that above a certain level of participation, their production becomes market production and the labor force is separated from the land to become wage labor. This is, in fact, the general tendency. 2 8
But the resistance of the peasants against it is also an objective and undeniable reality. Dodget questions the applicability of capitalist categories to non-capitalist social reality. In his opinion, Marx’ conceptualization of social classes outside a capitalist context like that of England at his time — bourgeoisie and proletariat — are inadequate to understand the peasantry.
Transi tori ness
"Marx saw the peasantry under capitalism as an outcome of the dissolution of feudalism and as a transitory form whose downfall originates in the development of large scale capitalist agriculture." (de de Janvri, 1981:97).
While, this transitory character can be understood as a tendency inherent in the interaction of peasants with capitalism, it should not be understood as a "temporary" category, likely to disappear in the short run, and therefore unable to account for the persistence of the peasantry.
The consequences of capitalist expansion for the peasants of the dependent countries have been very different from those of Europe and the United States, where peasants were indeed practically eliminated in the short run. Latin American peasants are not the result of the dissolution of feudalism, as in Europe. Their historical origin is different. Engels acknowledges the difference:
"By 1885 Engels suggested that the 'historical fatalism of this transformation (the elimination of the peasantry) must be restricted 2 9 to Western Europe. In other words, he opened the possibility for a revision and development of the theory: "That revision is more necessary today when the expansion of capitalism as a worldwide system has not precipitated the dissolution of the peasantry in the
■Third World'." (Foweraker, 1977:11).
In the U.S., the "farmer", who shares some features with the peasant, has not disappeared. Despite individualism and the reactionary ideology characteristic of American farmers, they have also attempted collective resistance. In 1977 they organized the
American Agriculture Movement. (Kohl and FI inn, 1979).
Theoreticians of the unequal development school (e.g., Baran,
(1954) Sweezy (1963), and Amin (1977) point out, that, contrary to what happened in the primary capitalist countries, peripheral capitalism — its structure weakened by its dependent status — fails to eliminate pre-existent modes of production and instead adapts them to its own advantage. Precapitalist modes of production contribute to capitalist accumulation. Three ways this contribution occurs are: lowering of the costs of reproducing the labor force, bringing cheap products to the marketplace, and providing high profits (Amin, 1977:352).
Foweraker (1977) points out that the relationship between the dominant capitalist production and subordinated modes of production in peripheral countries does not require the elimination of the peasantry for the reproduction of the system. By means of commercial capital, the capitalist mode of production manages to accumulate the economic surplus produced by the subordinated modes. 30
In some selected sections, it decomposes the peasantry, but in the rest, which is not of interest for industrial capital, it favors preservation of the peasantry.
The relative weakness of dependent capitalism facilitates the preservation of the characteristics which provide the mechanisms of
resistance typical of the peasant economy: diversified production,
family labor, market elasticity, and relations of cooperation.
Furthermore, when the peasants get organized, a social movement can
develop sufficient political strength to demand from the state measures favorable to their survival: agrarian reform, technical
assistance, credit, and protectionist legislation.
The classical theorists, (Marx, 1963, Lenin, 1964, Kautski,
1976, Mao Tse Tung, 1968) insisted that the temporary nature of the
peasantry was due to processes of internal differentiation and
external absorption by capitalist expansion. Nevertheless, peasants
today continue as a major social phenomenon whose end does not seem
imminent. In the long run they may disappear, as can any other matter of historical nature, i.e., as capitalism itself. For the time being, the peasantry must be analyzed as a specific
sociological category, and as a factor that necessarily counts in the transformation of our societies. If peasants could not count on having the mechanisms of social reproduction, how can their
centuries long persistence be explained? 3 1
Disintegration and Conservation
It is my contention that the survival of the peasantry today is the result of a complex process in which there is a dominant
tendency toward disintegration, and simultaneously a counter tendency toward preservation. Peasant movements are a factor in the preservation. However, there are other factors including the importance of peasant economy for peripheral capitalism and State
sponsored programs that make it desirable to keep peasants in the countryside and make them productive.
Within Marxism, the debate about the social nature of the peasantry has a long history and is based on the classic theorists.
It is a debate in which the theory, confronted with the specifics of peripheral capitalism, becomes problematic. This requires a
redefinition of some initial concepts. The persistence of the peasants and their growing role as social forces in the politics of
their respective countries, constitute a reality that challenges
those theories which minimize their importance.
It is true that, given the intense processes of modern development, the peasant population is declining relative to total population. However, the actual number of peasants has not
decreased, and may even have increased. In Colombia, for example,
"despite high migration rates, the density of rural population
increased from 80 persons per square mile in 1960 to 90 in 1970" (de
Janvri, 1981:135). Referring to eleven Latin American countries, de
Janvri (1981) indicates that between 1950 and 1970 the percentage of small farms—where most of the peasants live—changed from 58% to 3 2
62% of total number of land holdings- This indicates that the total volume of peasants has remained constant. This phenomenon appears to have occurred in most Latin American countries (de Janvri,
1981:122).
The deterioration of peasants' living conditions has become critical issue. Peasants are forced to remain in the countryside even at below subsistence levels. Capitalism has been unable to absorb those peasants left out as a result of the processes of decomposition. Only a small proportion of landless peasants becomes proletariat. The "jornaleros" or semi proletariat have become the typical product of decomposition.
Despite agrarian reforms and state programs of development (for example, the Rural Integrated Development, DRI), the peasants' road to development seems to offer fewer possibilities than capitalist development based on large property holdings (Cortes, 1983). The small sector of well-to-do peasants corresponds, if at all, to a complementarity to agrarian capitalism and is in a progressively disadvantageous position to compete with agrarian capitalism.
The arguments for and against the approach to peasants as a specific social class emphasize the intense dynamics of the processes of differentiation within the peasantry and their interaction among themselves and with the rest of society. Those arguments, also, call attention to the difficult necessity to modify theory taking into consideration the differences within the time and conditions of the peasantry as they were studied by the classic theorists. 33
Examination of the seemingly opposed views of the peasantry
(temporary vs. permanent) reveal a complex phenomenon in which both conditions occur simultaneously. Peasant movements must be viewed as collective, organized, and conscious reactions to the processes of decomposition. Under present conditions, there is a material base which supports the feasibility of that resistance, the functional interaction between the dominant capitalist mode of production and the economic forms subordinated by it. It is a situation which does not eliminate the general tendency toward decomposition, but it creates opportunities for addressing immediate interests and offers potential political participation in the processes transforming the social structures.
The Peasant Struggles
Contrary to prevailing Marxist disregard for peasant struggles, all the major revolutions in this century have counted on their participation. The traditional culture of the peasantry, which has always been viewed as a deterent to social change, can be in itse lf a powerful tool for mobilization of the peasantry. The middle or independent peasant (not bound to a landlord), usually considered the most conservative sector in the peasantry is, on the contrary, the most likely to participate in peasant rebellions. On the other hand, the peasant with no land is limited in his participation by his economic and political dependency on the landlord.
The debate over the social nature of the peasantry is intimately linked to the discussion about the meaning of their 34 struggles. The classic theorists viewed the peasantry as a conservative, even reactionary force because of its strong ties to private property and to tradition. These attitudes were reinforced by the dispersion of the peasantry and their perceived lack of homogeneity as a class, which resulted in contradictory interests atiKjng themselves. This initial position was later reconsidered when it became clear that, under an external political leadership, the peasants can play a supporting role for a proletarian revolution. A progressive role for the peasantry in the struggle against the feudal order was also recognized.
"Resistance to change" has also been emphasized as characteristic of the peasants by functionalist sociology. That view considers Latin American countries as dualistic societies in which development consists of transition from traditionality to modernity. Such theory has been challenged by recent sociological theories dealing with social movements. Huizer’s (1980) central thesis is that the "resistance to change" shown by peasants is a self-defense mechanism which can be transformed into active participation in social movements that offer reasonable possibilities of favorable social transformations. He also argues that it is not the peasants but the traditional elite who constitute the real opposition to change. "The 'peasants' distrust and resistance to change, as it happens throughout all of Latin America, is not an obstacle for the creation of peasant organizations truly representative of them. On the contrary, it is very useful as a 35 point of departure for the creation of strong interest groups of peasants geared to achieve transformations sufficiently radical to satisfy the basic demands of the peasantry." (Huizer, 1980:250).
As Wolf (1982), Huizer (1980), Shannin (1971), Alavi (1972),
Paige (1975) and other scholars observe, the peasants have been an important factor in the revolutions of Russia, Mexico, China, Cuba,
Algeria, and Vietnam. Particularly, because of Mao's influence, the political/revolutionary organizations in Latin America have recognized the importance of the peasant struggles. Therefore, the countryside has become the theater of most radical revolutionary struggle. The guerrilla wars in several Latin American countries may not be, strictly, peasant struggles, but they rely on peasants' participation. In contrast, the political praxis of the proletariat is far below the expectations of theoretical orthodoxy.
Paige (1975) notes that the peasants, in spite of their strong ties to traditionalism, often participate in revolutionary movements. "Paradoxically, the rural group considered by most anthropologists as the culturally conservative bearer of peasant tradition is also the major supporter of revolutionary change"
(Paige, 1975:8).
From another perspective. Fanon (1971) and Cabral (1972),
African theorists, argue for the revolutionary contributions of the peasantry and of ethnic groups in a context of anti colonial revolutions. The national affirmation against foreign oppression finds a source of identity in peasant tradition. The peasants 36 benefit little from colonial development and must frequently suffer its adverse consequences. Therefore, they are the social sector with the greatest potential radicalism. The struggles for national liberation find their most favorable grounds in its geography and its peoples. "It is clear that in colonial countries the peasants alone are revolutionary, for they have nothing to lose and everything to gain" (Fanon, 1971:372).
The debate over the conservative or revolutionary nature of the peasantry provides the basis for reconsidering the role of ideological traditionality in the processes of social change. The peasants, in comparative terms, are traditionalists. Nevertheless, history is full of peasant rebellions, many of which — especially those involving peasants with an ethnic-cultural identity — are interested in the réévaluation of their traditional culture. It seems reasonable to propose that, under structures of domination, tradition provides a defense mechanism against the insecurity of change. Distrust is a reasonable response to centuries of deceit and manipulation (Huizer, 1980) But given a context of radical change, with realistic possibilities of success, these traditional values contain a potential for rebellion (Wolf, 1982 and Huizer,
1980).
The transformation of the role of tradition from conservative to revolutionary is understood when it is realized that a rebellion is not only a reaction against economic exploitation, but is also a rediscovery of historical identities which are meaningful to the people. The anti colonial rebellions and the rebellions of the 37 ethnie minorities constitute the clearest cases of reaffirmation of an authentic identity. These cases are clearly struggles for the right of people to be themselves in the economic, social, political and cultural dimensions.
The theoretical debate over the revolutionary or conservative nature of the peasantry, as well as the existence or non-existence of the peasantry, is somewhat metaphysical. Alavi (1972) argues that i t is rather more important to question under which conditions the peasants become revolutionary. This question will be addressed in the final chapter in the context of the Indian movement in Cauca.
The Social Impact of the Peasant Struggles
Another topic of discussion is the extent of social transformation that peasant struggles imply.
I t is argued that, by themselves, peasant rebellions tend to by anarchistic. They focus on the ideal of the self-sufficient and self-administered village, resisting the state and other outside forces. "By their nature, peasants are anarchists" (Wolf,
1982:401).
It is also argued that the social transformation achieved by peasant rebellions is partial and, therefore, they have a reformist character. Unless they become involved in a victorious revolutionary process, peasant rebellions do not do away with the dynamics of land concentration inherent in capitalism. Great agrarian reforms achieved by the mobilization of the peasantry, as the Mexican revolution of 1910 and 1934 or the Bolivian reform of 38
1952, were partial, and, in the end, the process of land concentration began again. It is also argued that by weakening the traditional land tenure arrangement, peasant rebellions in fact contribute to the expansion of agrarian capitalism and, thereby, contribute to the strengthening of the system they oppose.
There is consensus that, in order for the peasant rebellions to achieve a significant political dimension, they must go beyond reform to the transformation of the social system and that to achieve this they require an outside direction that has traditionally been provided by urban intellectuals. Lenin himself considered peasant rebellions to be useful for the democratic revolution against the old feudal order — prior to the socialist revolution. He went so far as to propose the alliance of the bolsheviks and the kulaks (the rich peasants).
Referring to Latin American peasant political movements, Quijano
(n.d.:72) states that the "totality of peasant mobilizations have originated by the organization, action and agitation of urban groups". The political dimension implied by the association with urban groups is that the struggles transcend the local and peasant framework and to become part of the forces contending for power at the level of society in general.
Isolated and spontaneous social movements achieved only a prepolitical character as Quijano (n.d.) calls it. However, current
Latin American peasant movements are linked to revolutionary and political organizations, or are directly fostered by these organizations so are not prepolitical. They have become 3 9 increasingly radical, (Quijano, n.d.) even when originally promoted by the state. They tend to coordinate at the national level and to interact with other social movements.
The peasant problem is an expression of a deep crisis, not only of the agrarian structures but of society in general. Peasant movements that survive, often achieve changes in the power structure which transcend their initial objectives: "The injustices against which peasants rebel are local expressions of great social conflicts. Because of this, rebellions easily turn into revolutions and the mass movements manage to transform the social structure as a whole" (Wolf, 1982:409). That the social movements do not aim at, or end in a revolution does not deny their political and even revolutionary consequences. They are part of a process that undermines dominant power and increases the strength of the opposition. These movements are historically more meaningful than many theoretically motivated radical movements emanating from the small le ftis t groups which fail to achieve meaningful political strength.
The debate over the reformist or revolutionary character of the peasant movements does not stem from the inherent nature of the peasantry. "The increasing level of peasant demands, as a reaction to the stubbornness of the landlords demonstrates clearly that peasants are not born revolutionary; but also, that they will not accept to be the passive victims of several forms of traditional and modern forms of domination." (Huizer, 1980:314) 40
Rather than asking questions about the nature of the peasants, it seems more reasonable to examine the conditions that give a revolutionary meaning to peasant movements; that widen their outlooks, and that connect peasant movements to revolutionary efforts on a national scale — particularly those that take into account the specific demands of the peasants, and make them participants in the construction of the new society. Once again, as
Alavi points out, "What should be studied is not if peasants are or are not revolutionary. Rather, we should study under which conditions they become revolutionary and what roles do the different sectors of the peasantry play in revolutionary situations." (Alavi,
1972:21)
Peasants' Deoendencv and Participation in Social Movements
There has also been much discussion about the peasants as a single class or as a set of class sectors and more debate about their potential for participation in social movements. Paige
(1975:8), for example, points out that although there are differences between plantation wage workers, sharecroppers of traditional hacienda, and small landowners, all three have been considered by some authors as conservative and unconcerned and by others as revolutionary.
The peasantry is not a homogeneous social category. Different sectors can be identified according to the specific objectives of the particular analysis and classification criteria used. Commonly, they are classified as poor, middle, or rich peasants, or as 4 1 sharecroppers or landowners with small, medium, or large holdings.
The objective of the present study Is to Interpret the potential of peasants, and Indians In particular for participating In social movements. Marxist criteria for defining social classes (in relation to the means of production) are used to differentiate between the various sectors of the peasantry. The following sectors are defined: dependent peasants — those who, for lack of land, have to work for someone else (poor peasants); independent peasants: those peasants who neither sell nor buy labor (poor and middle peasants), and those peasants who own more land than they can work by themselves, and who purchase labor on a permanent basis (rich peasants). In this way, dependency Is used as a category linking class situation and political participation; that Is, as a political-economic category. Since socio-economic differences imply different Interests, It cannot be said that the peasantry is politically homogeneous. Significant differences should be expected in terms of their revolutionary potential and In their participation in social movements.
Dependent Peasants
The peasants who need to work for others In order to survive are bound by economic and extra-economic ties which can limit or make more risky their participation in any movement challenging the status-quo. The system of "patronazgo," Imposed on the peasants and
Indians Is characterized by a paternalistic elite who view the peasants and Indians as serfs over whom they exercise a client type 42 political control. This is compounded in some cases by
"compadrazgo" (godfather) relationships in which religion further tightens the bonds between peasants and their landlords. Loyalty to the patron is prized as a peasant virtue. If this loyalty is not forthcoming, landlords will resort to economic pressures to ensure the subordination of peasants. "Poor peasants and landless workers who depend on a landlord for their subsistence ... probably will not follow the path of rebellion, unless they can depend on some external power to defy the power who restrain them" (Wolf,
1982:394).
The premise of the isolation of the peasantry has more meaning in relation to peasants or indians subjected to the traditional hacienda. For many, the traditional hacienda constituted their only frame of reference, often for generations. For instance, in Cauca, the "terrajeros" of some large haciendas close to the capital city are so isolated from the external world that they maintained their
Indian language, even though no other Indians in the surrounding areas have maintained theirs (e.g., the Novirao and Jevala in the municipio of Popayan). Such isolation is deterrent to the development of the political awareness that a social movement requires. However, this does not mean that political consciousness cannot be raised. It requires, however, an approach that understands these factors.
Dependent peasants include sharecroppers, renters, terrajeros, jornaleros and similar categories of agricultural workers under non-capitalist production systems. There is discussion about the 43 classification of such relations of productions: as remnants of primitive communism or feudalism, a precapitalist or capitalist relationship. The interesting classification by Foweraker (1977) refers to them as subcapitalist modes of production, or as modes of production subordinated to capitalism. The fundamental interest of dependent peasants is land — land represents their primary hope for improving living conditions and regaining independence. Dependent peasants participation in a struggle for land is difficult and risky because of their dependence and vulnerability.
The agricultural proletariat is excluded from this category.
Since it is tied to capitalist production; it is totally cut off from agrarian property and does not have a peasant identity. Even though dependent peasants are not proprietors, they are in temporary possession of the land they cultivate. They have a certain autonomy in relation to decisions about production. Part of what is produced by dependent peasants will be paid, as rent, to the landlords: the sharecropper pays it in kind; the renter in cash; the terrajero, in labor.
The fundamental interest of the agricultural proletariate is not land but their labor situation. "Jornaleros" are an ambiguous category falling between peasants and proletarians. The seasonal jornalero tends to become a permanent wage earner, and therefore loses his ties to the land and his peasant identity. As was observed earlier, the jornalero is the typical product of the decomposition of the peasantry in peripheral capitalism. 4 4
Independent Peasants
Even though their independence is relative, independent peasants have more freedom to organize and more time and resources to devote to a social and political movement. They are less vulnerable than the landless peasant. Using Wolf's (1982) terms, independent peasants have a greater margin of tactical mobility. The majority of the independent peasants are poor peasants, small proprietors for whom it is increasingly difficult to retain their land and meet their basic needs. The middle peasants, and even some rich peasants, face similar hardships. It is also increasingly difficult for them to maintain their economic independence. Their fundamental concerns are obtaining land, credit, technical assistance, infrastructure, and services. These, they believe, will improve their production and improve their living conditions. It is, therefore, possible that the struggle for land and for better living conditions will attract the support of the independent peasants, especially the poor and middle peasants. And, it is likely, that because of their independence, they will face fewer obstacles to their organizing than dependent peasants. "It is not the poor peasant who initially constituted the principal and leader force of a peasant revolution, to whom the middle peasant joins when the success of the movement is out of doubt, but the opposite." (Alavi,
1972:68). It seems likely that independent peasants participate in social movements to a greater degree than dependent peasants.
The historical circumstances for each movement determine the role of each of the peasant sectors. Thus, Alavi (1972) says that 45 dependent peasants under special circumstances, demonstrating in practice the possibility of counteracting the power of the landlord, become a potentially revolutionary force. He argues that middle peasants' social outlook is limited by their class interests. "When the movement advances in the countryside to a revolutionary stage, the middle peasants abandon it." (Alavi, 1972:67). By the same token, it can be said that in a movement in which the interest is not only in land but in labor conditions, rich peasants are likely to oppose the rest of the peasantry.
Alavi (1972) is discussing a socialist revolution seeking the total elimination of private property, including the peasants' property. Therefore, it is likely that a different revolutionary approach which does not require the elimination of peasant property will enjoy their support. This is the present trend in socialist countries which incorporates acceptance of limited private property and small private enterprises. Those countries do not lose their socialist nature, however.
For these reasons, in Latin America, the models of social change must take the peasantry into consideration, both in the struggle to destroy the status-quo and in the construction of a new social order. CHAPTER III
THE INDIANS AND THEIR STRUGGLES
Introduction
Indians have been subjected not only to the processes of socioeconomic disintegration common to all peasantry but also to a constant policy of extermination from the time of the Conquest up to the present. Indians are considered to be the survivors of a primitive world and obstacles to the development and national unity of the countries in which they live. The Indian policies of the
Latin American states have been oriented toward the unilateral integration of the Indians into the overall society. The results of these policies have been an increasing disintegration of the Indian communities and a worsening of their social situation. Indian resistance to these attempts has been continuous and heroic throughout history.
Indians, as well as the peasantry, rely on their functionality to the haciendas and the low level of capitalist penetration in their territories for their material survival. Indians also have unique communal mechanisms (cultural, historical, and legal) which increase their ability to resist disintegration and extermination.
46 47
Indeed, their present situation is the result of the contradiction between the processes of decomposition and preservation. The Indian movements are the political expression of their resistance against attempts to destroy their cultural and social identity.
The Indian problem has been the object of a long debate within
Marxism, between those who define Indians in terms of social class
(as a part of the peasant class) and those who emphasize their
ethnic characteristics. The recent rise of the Indian movement to
the international level, and the proliferation of specifically
Indian organizations connected with revolutionary efforts, highlight
the importance of Indian struggles for the future of Latin America.
Prevailing Approach to the Indian Question.
The elimination of Indians by physical extermination or by cultural absorption into the mainstream of society has been the most prevalent approach to the Indian question. Indians have been considered as inferior in all respects. The Indian heritage of some
Latin American countries has been seen as a major cause of backwardness. Therefore, those who survive must be "civilized".
European conquest of the American continent was one of the worst holocausts in the history of humanity. For the Spaniards, wheter or not to categorize Indians as human beings was a matter of debate. In Colonial times, the Spanish crown favored the preservation of Indian communities, but, in practice, a program of extermination went forward, despite the wishes of the Crown. Upon gaining independence from colonial powers, the republics of the 48 nineteenth century strove to abolish Indian communities by introducing a system of private property in Indian territories.
This facilitated the expropriation of Indian lands. "Paradoxically, the 'decolonization' from Spain, on the part of the criollos, enhanced the process of colonization of the Indians."
(Barre,1983:29). By declaring formal equality between Indians and whites without providing the necessary means for real equality, liberalism instituted their inequality.
The Indian policies of the Latin American states in the present century have sought to integrate the Indians with the rest of society, causing them to lose their individual characteristics — their identity. In spite of considerable change in state policies, the Indians still do not participate in the formulation of such policies. However, as the Indian movements have become political forces with bargaining power, Indians, represented by their organizations, are increasing their participation in policy making.
Intearationism
Integrationist policies find support in the theory of
"dualism". According to this theory, two societies coexist in Latin
America: the traditional society inherited from the past and the modern society. Development consists of overcoming tradition by introducing capital, technology, and culture from the modern societies.
Indians today are viewed as a residual of a primitive, inferior tradition, that impedes the progress, development and the formation 49 of national unity of those countries in which they live. The
cultural achievements of some pre-Columbian Indians are discounted.
The dualist theory implies a centralized development which
spreads to the periphery. It Is seen as externally generated
development which expropriates the material and cultural resources
that communities could use for their autonomous and ethnic
development. Resistance arises as a defense against externally
imposed development: withdrawal into traditionalism and
communal ism; erection of socio-linguistic barriers; and appeal to
protectionist policies are symptomatic of this defense. These
values provide solidarity and constitute the basis for the Indian
movements in Latin America. These values are also the basis for the
successful ethno-development projects initiated by Indian
organizations.
Batalla (1980), Diaz-Polanco (n.d.), Barre (1983), and
Huizer (1980) all point cut that the integrationist theory is also
adhered to by the Latin American le ftists. They rigidly apply the
concept of class struggle and disregard Indian participation, with
their unique needs, in the revolutionary processes. "Because of the
lack of possibilities for expressing themselves inside non-Indian
organizations, the Indians tend to organize themselves apart from
those organizations" (Barre, 1983:197).
In attempting to explain the Indian problem, theories of
dualism were opposed by the theory of "internal colonialism,".
According to this theory, the Indian problem was created by European
colonialism that persisted even after independence from Europeans 50 was achieved. Indians are not only economically exploited, but politically oppressed, culturally denied and racially segregated.
That is to say, they are colonized. "The Indian problem is essentially a matter of colonialism. Indian communities are our internal colonies. They are colonies within the national borders.
The Indian community has the characteristics of a colonized society." (Gonzalez, 1955:104).
In the previous chapter it was argued that, besides the existence of an objective material base for the preservation of the peasantry, the peasant movements themselves constituted a subjective condition of resistance against the tendency toward their extinction. In the case of the Indians, such resistance is potentially greater because of their historic and cultural characteristics. Indians have an identity inherited from pre-colonial times which makes them different from the rest of society, but i t is not an unmodified identity. It has been redefined throughout history, but i t has retained its distinctiveness through language, tradition, custom, and territory.
All of these cultural elements have changed, however, they continue to be essentially Indian. This cultural legacy is an important basis for their solidarity. It constitutes a source of political strength. Historic fatalism regarding the inevitable extinction of all pre/capitalist phenomena is limited by the will of the people.
In other words, history offers a range of possibilities. The future has not yet been written. "If the spontaneity of the social processes cannot be overcome, at least i t can be directed"
(Varesse, n.d.:4). 51
Class and Ethnicity
Indian ethnic groups exist in the context of class societies and are commonly associated with the peasant class. They are referred to as "Indian peasants" in order to differentiate them from peasants of other ethnic groups (mestizos, whites, blacks).
Ethnicity is not a category pertaining exclusively to Indians: "Any constituted social group has its own ethnicity." (Batalla,
1980:1988).
Two variables, class and ethnicity, intersect here, and, here opposing theoretical perspectives arise: those which emphasize economic factors, the class nature, and denial of the importance of ethnic differences; and, those which emphasize historical and cultural factors, stressing the ethnic aspects as a phenomenon both outside of, and prior to, social class. The two aspects are closely related but are not identical. If one cannot reduce ethnicity to a question of social class, neither can one do the opposite. Latin
American countries are hierarchically stratified societies with sharp class differences and ethnic diversity. The Indians, because of their history of exploitation and oppression, tend to occupy the
lowest social stratum. But not all of the exploited are Indians.
"Only in the years immediately following the Conquest did the ethnic differentiation correspond to a division of classes between exploiters and exploited. Today, the Indians share with the peasants a common situation of exploitation" (Concerned Guatemala
Scholars, 1981:49). 52
Indian communities can tend to break down, with many Indians
losing their ethnic identity. This points up that ethnicity is not
only an objective phenomenon, but also a subjective one. In
reference to Peru, Van den Berghe (1979:264) affirms: "Through a multi phased process of ethnic, geographic and class mobility which
typically covers a substantial period in the life of an individual,
tens of thousands of Indians each year join the mestizo class". But
the opposite is also true, communities also continue to exist as distinct peoples. Their solidarity and ethnic identity constitute a
cohesive factor that reinforces and is reinforced by their common
economic interests.
The Indian movements are organized around Indian ethnic
interests and include their economic interests — which are
redefined in ethnic terms. In the case of the Colombian Indian movement, which concerns us here, the movement's connection to the overall class struggle is based on common class interests, despite
the fact that the other movements do not give as much importance to
the issues of ethnicity. Social movements are based on the sharing of several kinds of interests: economic, political, regional, and
ethnic. From the point of view of the CRIC, the Indian question
should be approached from the dual perspective of class and
ethnicity — as peasants and as Indians. This is the reason for
differentiated participation in the overall class struggle. Aside
from those goals common to all the exploited, the Indians set forth
their own demands. Because of the social homogeneity that
characterizes the Colombian Indians (as mostly poor peasants) and 53 because of their situation as a minority within the total population of the country, the ethnic element appears as a dimension of social
class. "The inter-ethnic relations are always and also class
relations; the Indian ethnic groups are in a position of dominated
class." (Varesse, n.d.:3).
Ethnic and National Minorities
In the case of other oppressed ethnic groups, which are demographically broader and are comprised of several social classes
— including a ruling class — their identity is expressed in terms of nationalities. Their struggle is not for autonomy, as in the previous case, but for self-determination, i.e., for the attainment of a state of their own. Polanco expresses the difference in the
following terms: "The concept of ethnic identity is restricted to groups within a social class or, at the most, to the totality of a
social class. The national phenomenon, on the other hand, applies to a complex structure of social classes in reciprocal and nonsymmetrical relationships. Nevertheless, such classes find
common grounds for solidarity which can form the basis for a particular kind of identity." (Diaz-Polanco, n.d.:20).
In Latin America, there are two major tendencies in the Indian movements: one defines the Indians as ethnic minorities, makes
alliances with other social movements, and adopts a class struggle
approach; the other defines Indians as nations struggling for
self-determination against western societies. 54
The firs t tendency predominates in Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil and Chile which are countries in which the Indian population constitutes a minority within the total population.
The second prevails in the countries of the ancient Incan empire such as Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.
In Guatemala, a country where Indians descended from the Mayan empire account for the majority of the population (65%) and where armed struggle is prevalent in the Indian regions (Quiche, San
Marcos, Kueheutenange, Verapaces, and Chimaltenango), the Indian movement has a cl assist orientation. This orientation also predominates in Mexico.
In Bolivia, the country with the largest proportional Indian population, (63% officially, and 80% according to the Indians) both approaches are represented in two Indian organizations: the Tupac
Katary Revolutionary Movement (MRTK) and the Tupac Katari Indian
Movement (MITSCA) which defines itse lf as a movement of national liberation.
Definition as an ethnic minority or as a nation is the object of an intense debate within the Indian organizations, especially in the international Indian congresses ("Marxists" vs. "Indianists").
Such differences necessarily affect the Indian movements of all countries. Even in the Department of Cauca, one of the major differences between the CRIC and the Indian organization of Gambia is that, in the latter, the theory of the Indian nation has more influence. 55
However, despite the differences and contradictions in the orientation of the Indian movement, all claim ethnic specificity:
"What all Latin American Indian organizations have in common is the decision to act as differentiated political entities."
(Bonfil-Batalla, 1980:165).
The unity of the nation states has been approached from an ethnocentrist perspective based on centralization, formalistic equality (which perpetuates real inequality), the imposition of homogeneity, and rejection of cultural differences.
Both Marxist and non-Marxist theorists considered that development of nation states would tend necessarily towards ethnic
and regional homogeneity. Some authors emphasized capitalist
expansion and the universalization of the proletariat, others
insisted on the unavoidable advance of progress. Engles stated that
ethnic groups would survive, if at all, as "ethnographic monuments". Among contemporary theorists, for example, i t is
suggested that the whole theory of imperialism, whether based on
Lenin or Luxemburg, has demonstrated that the expansion inherent in capitalism eliminates all primitive societies, in one way or another, in order to control their natural resources and their labor force (Crouch, n.d.:3).
However, recent history, socialist as well as capitalist, is marked by an insurgency of ethnic and national minorities, exemplified by the Indian movements of Latin America. "Throughout the world, whatever the type of government or the level of 56 development, ethnic minorities are mobilizing and in many instances have become the very center of the great conflicts of today."
(Bonfi1-Batal1 a,1980:188).
Nationality conflicts do not necessarily turn into separatist movements such as those which occur in states interested in suppressing the rights of nationalities (for example, in Spain, the
Basque separatist movement). In capitalist as well as socialist countries, piuri-national states which permit autonomy and even self-determination for national minorities can be found. For example, in Viet Nam, "The existence of minorities — a weak point for previous regimes — has become, on the contrary, one of the principal sources of strength for the Democratic Republic of Viet
Nam" (Chung, n.d.:16). In Viet Nam there are sixty different ethnic groups. Another examples is in the Soviet Union, where there are twenty autonomous republics. An example from the capitalist world is the case of Switzerland cited by Lipschutz (1974:115): "The
Swiss Federation with a double kind of patriotism: on the one hand, the cantonal or tribal patriotism of German, French, or Italian speakers and that of a neo-Latin language called Grisson; on the other hand, the National Swiss patriotism."
In Latin America, the only example of this that can be found is in the Nicaraguan Autonomy Project for the ethnic groups of the
Atlantic coast begun in July, 1985. This project is the response of the Sandinista Government to the controversial Indian problem which has been used by the United States to promote counter-revolutionary action. This case highlights the potential political importance of the ethnic question. 57
The Indian Struggles
The history of the Indians has been one of constant resistance
and frequently heroic struggles. They have participated in most of the peasant movements of their respective countries. Many of the movements that have been analyzed as peasant movements are, in fact,
Indian movements.
The political importance of the Indian struggles has been the object of debate. Those who deny that the peasantry is a specific
social class and center the revolutionary strategy on the proletariat view the Indian struggles as marginal and even
reactionary — an apology for backwardness, racism and
divisiveness. Whereas, those who recognize the peasantry as a
social class see the Indian situation as a problem of social classes
in which Indian struggles make sense only in a context of peasant
movements. For them, the ethnic problem will be overcome as a
result of solving the class problem.
However, the general tendency since 1970 has been the creation
of specific Indian political action organizations, differentiated
from the broader peasantry by their demands, methods of organization
and actions. Even the demands they share with the peasantry are
redefined in Indian terms. For example, the struggle for land is
redefined as the recovery of Indian territories.
Contemporary Indian movements, like peasant movements, are
characterized by increasing politicization. The development of
Indian ethnic consciousness has been a radicalizing factor in their 58
political awareness. Indians define themselves not just as an
exploited class, but as a class and an oppressed people. Indians
have now coordinated their regional organizations at the national and international levels. The internationalization of the Indian movement is an important characteristic associated with a common
history and with an identity and solidarity which transcends the
frameworks of the Latin American republics. Barre (1983) points out that the Indian movement advocates the internationalism of the oppressed, rather than the proletarian internationalism. "There is an increasing awareness of Indian identity at the continental level which promotes the search for solidarity among the different Indian groups. The holding of frequent international congresses and the formation of inter-regional councils are concrete results of that tendency." (Barre, 1983:153).
In 1974, the firs t Indian American Parliament was held in
Paraguay; in 1975 the World Council of Indian Peoples was created;
in 1977, the Central American Regional Coordination of Indians was also created; and in 1980 the South American Council (CISA) was formed. In the United States, 1970 marked the beginning of a new
stage of its Indian movement with insurrections at Alcatraz in 1970
and Wounded Knee in 1973 (Josephy, 1971:75).
In spite of the diverse historical backgrounds and the
heterogeneity of the Indian movements, a set of common demands
stands out.
First, the recovery and defense of Indian territo ries, implying a view of land not just as a means of production, but as the basis 5 9 of their collective existence, of their identity, and of their history. This is characterized by the viewpoint, "the earth is our
Mother," that is common to Indians. Indians fight not just as exploited peasants, but as peoples oppressed by colonialism.
Second, the defense of the communal character of their territories as opposed to private property. This constitutes a defense against the dissolution of their communities.
Third, the right to their cultural identity, to an education of their own, to the official recognition of their languages, and traditional knowledge, to their internal forms of organization, to the réévaluation of their history, and the right to their own political representation at the state level.
A cultural renaissance of the Indian peoples is beginning and i t will have a profound impact on Latin American culture. They will demand equal rights, ending the political exclusion to which they have have been subjected as ethnic or national minorities. Such a demand is presented in terms either of autonomy or of self-determi nation.
Another demand is an end to repression. Indian regions are frequently raided by the army or by death squads. In terms of repressive physical violence directed at Indians, the Conquest has not yet ended.
There is a real basis for a differentiated mobilization of
Indians through their own organizations. This basis rests on features such as the persistence of economic and social relations which characterize the Indian regions, their idiosyncratic 60 arrangements of land tenure, technology production and consumption, their typical relationship to the rest of society, their history of subjugation to the traditional hacienda, to servitude, to political control, to religious domination, to segregation, and to discrimination.
Such persistence is also associated, as it is for the rest of the peasantry, with the way in which the different modes of production interact in peripheral capitalism. This interaction reproduces the colonial relationship (based on ethnic differences) which is imposed on the Indians not only by the ruling classes, but by the other exploited ones, including poor blacks and mestizos.
Several factors call into question the alternative of integration, reinforcing the option of collective resistance and ethnic struggle. These factors include the relative geographic, economic, and cultural marginality of the Indians; their disadvantages in competing with other groups; and, the slim possibility of social achievement and for improving their living conditions.
The Indian policies of Latin American countries provide grounds for the differentiated political participation of the Indians.
Since the firs t Interamerican Indianist Congress held in Patzcuaro,
Mexico in 1940, and the subsequent creation of the Interamerican
Indianist Institute, a growing official recognition of ethnic specificity has been taking place. As a result, Indian policies have been issued and institutional arrangements have been created to deal exclusively with Indian matters. Despite the official integrationist policies designed to cause the Indians to lose their 61 ethnie identity, the limitations and contradictions within the states have permitted instead the reinforcement of ethnic awareness, and have opened up positions for qualified Indians who can use their skills in support of Indian causes.
The relative openness of Latin American States toward Indian demands is due not only to the international atmosphere, but also to other economic and political reasons such as: the necessity for a positive integration of marginal regions into the expanding national economy; the failure of standard community development projects, the social problems prevailing in many Indian regions; the potential for political destabilization as those regions have become the stage for guerrilla warfare; and, the need for the states to regain legitimacy by seeking the support of peasants and Indians. However, inability to provide alternatives which are quantitatively and qualitatively adequate for Indians continues to fuel the Latin American ethnic struggle and communal resistance. The contradiction between a relative openness on the part of the states and their inability to respond to the demands of the exploited classes opens some possibilities which, as Fais Borda (1983) points out, the social movements are aware of and must exploit.
Social Impact of Indian Struggles
The spread of Indian movements raises questions about their political significance. Bonfil-Batalla (1980) summarizes these in the ti tle of his publication, "A Challenge to Latin American
Creative Thinking". In effect, Indian movements are a social 62 phenomenon which challenges orthodox theoretic premises and invites
reformulation of thought regarding Latin American change by emphasizing the complexity of social reality and the alternatives within society and civilization suggested by the Indian perspective.
I t is particularly necessary to recognize the complexity of the
Indian question. Its solution can neither be reduced to a matter of social class, such as political and economic transformations for the abolition of exploitation; nor can it be formulated outside these matters. "Changes affecting the socioeconomic structures are a necessary condition. But they are insufficient by themselves to provide a satisfactory answer to the demands of the ethnic groups."
CDiaz-Polanco, 1987:15). Alternatives begin to be proposed by the
Indian movements based on the concept of autonomy, and on the right of the communities to manage their own affairs. This is the
formulation of participatory democracy, characterized by genuine participation which is applicable to other social groups. It questions the ruling criteria of representative democracy. Autonomy
is also related to the decentralization of the state and to topics
such as the reorganization of territory, the creation of new
political-administrative entities, transformations in the
legislation and the redefinition of the national state as a multiethnic state.
The question of national unity derived from the predominance of a socio-cultural patterns is being challenged by the Indian movements which exemplify the multi ethnicity of many of the Latin 63
American countries. The Indian movements propose, instead, national unity as the unity of ethnic, cultural and regional diversity. Such diversity is viewed as an enriching factor of nationality. These criteria broaden the alternatives for national development when it is understood not in terms of levels of a single kind of development, but in terms of different types of development within the framework of the material specificity and individuality of communities and regions.
By taking into account the values upheld by Indians (for example, communal ism, or the right to be ethnically different yet socially equal), the future of societies, and models for social change, acquire more complex dimensions. The construction of such ideals presents a challenge to the imagination of Latin Americans.
"The multi ethnicity, the ethnic pluralism, inevitably forces us to reinvent the life of society, to think over again, future coexistence, to feel unsatisfied by the imperfect solutions of historic socialisms" (Varesse, n.d.:4).
The study of Indian thought — to which the social sciences will ultimately give greater attention due to the rise of Indian protest movements — may lead to identifying the basis for an alternative civilization suited to confront the ecological and social crises that western civilization is currently facing. Beyond the immense cultural diversity that persists in Indian communities, it is possible to perceive a common background of a civilization that is different in its understanding of the world, of nature, of man's relationship to nature, and of men among themselves. The 64
Indian problem began with the clash of two distinctively different civilizations. Despite concerted attempts at extermination, neither
Indians nor their civilization have disappeared. Rather, it is a potential source of authenticity for the creation of future Latin
American societies.
A serious study of Indian thought should not be undercut by the romantic views of the past and the onesidedness adopted by some
Indian organizations. Nor should i t be circumscribed by the documents produced by those organizations. The Indian has a particular way of thinking, of feeling, and of acting in his daily life (this varies according to the level of acculturation). Written expressions of Indian thinking are preserved in the testimonies of
Indian leaders long dead, as in the message of Chief Seattle (of the
Sioux tribe) to the United States government, or the writings of the
Caucan Indian leader Manuel Quintin Lame — "In Defense of My Race."
Barre (1983:197) offers a generalization: "The Indians up to now, at least, do not want to organize political parties." That generalization is valid not only for Indians. Fals-Borda (1987), in
"The New Awakening of Social Movements" underscores the general mistrust social movements have toward political parties and the interests of those movements in new forms of political participation. They want participation to be based on horizontal, pluralistic and democratic interaction — as opposed to self-perpetuating hierarchies and self-appointed vanguards. They 65 want a participation oriented toward broadening the exercise of power at the grass-roots level, rather than seizing power by means of vertical and authoritarian organizations.
The previous chapters have centered around the importance of the peasant and Indian struggles in Latin America. The second part of this study presents a detailed description of an Indian movement in the Department of Cauca, in southwest Colombia. CHAPTER IV
THE GEOGRAPHIC SETTING AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF INDIANS IN CAUCA
The Region
Cauca is one of 23 Colombian "departments'* or states. It is
located in the southwestern part of the county in the Andean region. Its population is 800,000 (according to the 1985 census)—2.8% of the total population of the country. Its area is
30,000 square kilometers — 2.7% of the national territory. It is estimated that less than 2% of the 25 million Colombians are Indians and that half of these (between 200,000 and 250,000) live in the
Department of Cauca.
The western sections of Cauca are made up of the Pacific lowlands in the far west, mostly sparsely populated coastland and jungle. This region is populated predominately by blacks on the coast and the Waunana and Epera Indians in the jungle. This region is very hot and humid and comprises one third of the territory of
Cauca and contains one half of the region's natural forest. There are no roads communicating with the region and the rest of the
Department.
66 67
MAR CARWE
VENEZUELA
ARAUCA
'CAtANAME
VICHAOA
VALUE tOLIM A CALI META
QUAIMA CAUCA
CUAVIAAE NAMNO VAU PEt CAQUETA PUTUMAYO BRASIL
ECUADOR AMAZONAS
PERU
Figure 1 Map of Colombia 68
The mountain ranges (the western and central Cordilleras) cross
the Department from south to north. This mountain area is populated
by Indians in the higher elevations and mestizos in the lower
elevations. This region is primarily devoted to agriculture and
enjoys the diversity of climate associated with changes in
altitude. Most of the land holdings are small and, traditionally
have been farmed by the Indians.
In the western cordiliera, most of the Indians are Paez Indians
living in three resguardos (Indian territories). In the Central
Cordillera, the Indian population is much larger and more diverse.
The southern half is inhabited by Indians considered to be
descendants of the Yanacona, who have lost their native language.
There are five resguardos in this part of the cordi11 era. In the
northern half (also referred to as the northeastern region of Cauca)
most of the Indians who live in the 48 resguardos in the area,
belong to the Paez, the Guambiano, and the Totoro Indians. These
ethnic groups still preserve their own languages. There are also other Indian groups who lost their original languages but still
identify themselves as Indians.
The Rati a Valley in the south has a predominately black
population except for the high plateau in the center which is
mestizo and white. The Cauca Valley in the north separates the two
Cordilleras and blacks and whites are predominate. This region is
crossed by the Pan-American Highway. Its economy is better
developed than the rest of the department. 5 9
Cauca was one of the most important departments of the country during the last century. Its capital city, Popayan, is the center of a traditional aristocracy that produced sixteen Colombian presidents. Today, Cauca is second to last in terms of development. Sixty percent of its population is rural, compared to
32% nationally. Its economy is based on the agriculture of the traditional mi ni fundi a and small land holdings, and extensive cattle raising in large, inefficient haciendas. Its land tenure structure is characterized by extreme inequality: "While 98% of the landholdings account for just 22% of the land, 1.7% account for
46%." (SETPA/OPSA, 1980:115). The Indian struggles of the last fifteen years have modified the land tenure arrangement by seizing the land of many haciendas. Nevertheless, there has not been an increase in the overall production.
In comparison to national averages, the economy of Cauca has lagged behind. "While the GDP of the country grew at a rate of 5.3% between 1950 and 1980, the rate of growth for Cauca was only
2%...Thus, falling from the 12th to the 21st position among all the departments during the same period." (CRC, 1984:41).
The severe economic situation in Cauca is the basis for social unrest, especially in the northeastern region which is the most densely populated by Indians. This region has become one of the points of most intensive armed struggle in the country. The loss of economic and political importance of the traditional landed aristocracy of Cauca has favored the development of an Indian 70 movement. The Northeastern region constitutes the geographical setting for the present study. For a detailed geographic description of the Northeastern region see Cortes (1986).
This region is the steepest and highest part of the central
Cordillera in Cauca, ranging in altitude from 1700 to over 5000 meters above sea level. One third of this territory (that over 3000 meters altitude) is called the Paramo. The Paramo is abundant with lakes and natural forests. Snowcap and volcanos mark the highest points. It is sparsely populated because of the intense cold and humidity. The area between 2000 and 3000 meters altitude is called the "cold zone." This is the roughest part of the cordiliera. Most of the Indian resguardos are located in this zone. The least steep areas of the region have been monopolized by haciendas for raising cattle, or are overpopulated, forcing most of the Indians to occupy the worst parts. The lowest area of the cordi11 era, from its foot up to 2000 meters is called the "temperate zone." This zone comprises 20% of the territory of the northeastern region. This is a good agricultural zone, especially for coffee. The population is mixed between Indians and mestizo peasants. This is the most densely populated area of the northeast region. There is also a black population in the lower part of the northeast region and the
Cordillera.
The following graphic summarizes the geographic distribution of the population of the northeastern region of Cauca. The upper part of the Cordillera (between 2500 and 3000 meters altitude) is inhabited almost exclusively by Indians, from south to north the NORTH SOUTH KQ C 0>"S Meters Huila r>o Purace snowcap cn volcano ft) 9000 2 • o zy 4000 o o 3000 i/> c+ 2500 ______JAS ______Po*c## Ouamblonot Toforo«i Coconucoa -Î CT C rf INOIpENAS Y MESTIZOS 2000 o3 ’ MESTIZOSE INOIOENAS 1900 ■o AIT IP LA NO OE POPAYAN O T3 N EOnOS Y MESTIZOS C 1000 B) VALLE
O3 MUNICIPIOS' rORIBIO JAMBALO PAEZ INZA MIRANDA CORINTO C ALGTO SAN1AN0ER CALDONO SILVIA TOTORO PURACE
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION Central Cordillera, Northeastern Cauca 72
Coconucos, Totoroes, Guambianos, and Faeces. In the next stratum down (2000 to 2500 meters altitude) most of the Inhabitants are
Indians, but there are a few mestizo communities. From 1500 to 2000 meters the majority of the population is mestizo with a few Indian communities interspersed. Below 1500 meters there is virtually no
Indian population, instead there are blacks and mestizos. The municipalities (counties) are listed at the bottom of the graphic.
The northeastern region of Cauca, especially with regard to the
Indian population, is affected by severe problems. The conflict between Indians and the terratenientes (landlords) has been constant, often violent. The living standards are extremely low.
For instance, the rate of infant mortality for every 1000 children born alive is 100, compared to an average of 61 for the whole
Department, and 51 at the national level (CRC, 1984:269). The northeastern region also has one of the highest incidences of tuberculosis in the world.
Historical and Cultural Background
The Indian situation in Cauca has been marked by persistent economic and cultural oppression and repeated attempts to dissolve reservations similar to the efforts to eliminate the indigenous population in other regions of Colombia. However, in the Department
(state) of Cauca, about two hundred thousand Indians have survived, preserving a great part of their territory, traditional authority and important characteristics of their cultural heritage. 73
The creation of the Regional Indian Council of Cauca, CRIC, in
February, 1971, opened a new page in the indigenous people's history. The ongoing extermination process began to be reversed.
Reservations were recovered or enlarged. Cabildos were reorganized, reasserting their traditional authority. Cultural identity was reaffirmed and pilot level programs in community economy, health, education, and legal assistance were implemented.
Since its creation, the CRIC has faced repression (it has been constantly labeled as subversive) and more than fifty of its members have been assassinated (it has constantly been qualified as subversive) and many attempts have been made to destroy the organization itse lf. Thr tenacity with which these indigenous people have resisted repression and maintained their movement distinguishes them as a highly aggressive mass social organization. While the
ANUC peasant movement of the previous decade ended in dissolution, the CRIC, which appeared in the context of this agrarian struggle, maintained its influence in Cauca and expanded it in other Indian regions. The creation, in February, 1982, of the National Indian
Organization of Colombia, ONIC, was the result of the CRIC's unrelenting activity. The CRIC's political power and its successful development programs have made the CRIC a model for all national projects implemented in indigenous regions.
This chapter treats the early history of the Indian peoples of
Cauca, showing how the objectives adopted by the CRIC have profound historical and cultural roots. Then, Chapter five analyzes the development of CRIC up to the time of the creation of the ONIC. 74
Historical Events
"History has taught us that the struggle of the indigenous
peoples is long. I t began centuries ago and has not ended. Defeats
have not destroyed the Indians' patience, and they continue to
fight, as if saying, though exploited, the rebels..." (CRIC,
1973:17).
Before initiating an analysis of its structure, it is important
to become familiar with the CRIC's historical background. Although
the CRIC emerged in conjunction with State-promoted peasant unions,
it is actually a continuation of the specific aspirations of the
indigenous peoples and their deep-rooted historical struggle. This may be supported by identifying those characteristics of the present
struggle (objectives which the CRIC is trying to achieve today) that
have existed as historical constants or have been manifested
repeatedly in previous periods.
It will be shown that the belligerence which characterizes the
present struggle of the indigenous people of the CRIC is stimulated
by two fundamental factors: the heroism with which their ancestors
confronted the Spaniards in defense of their territory, and their
conviction that the lands they are demanding legitimately belong to
them. Both of these factors are based in historical reality. The
indigenous people of Cauca — of the "cordi11 era — were the last
indigenous people in Colombian territory to be dominated by the
Spanish. They possess legal documents — some dating from colonial 75
times — which accredit them as owners of the majority of the lands
they reclaim. These "titles" were recognized by the Republic
establsihed after the passing of European colonialism.
Throughout history many attempts have been made to eliminate the
obstacles that impede the commercialization of indigenous peoples'
lands. These attempts seek to abolish the inalienable, community
character of indigenous peoples' reservations. The Indians,
however, have always organized to resist these efforts. Even though
many reservations were successfully displaced or appropriated, the
Indians have remained dedicated to their recovery and
reconstruction. The creation of the CRIC was perceived as an
opportunity to recover lost territory and reconstruct and enlarge
reservations. In this area, significant achievements have been
made.
Besides the loss of their lands, indigenous peoples' labor has
been exploited on "haciendas." In Cauca, the institution of
"terraje" was widespread and led to the decomposition of the
reservations. On various occasions indigenous people tried
unsuccessfully to shake off the yoke of "terraje". Eliminating
"terraje" became one of the primary objectives of the newly formed
CRIC and was its first notable victory.
Since colonial times the Indians have preserved the "Cabildo" as
an organizational institution at the reservation level. When the
CRIC was created, Indians raffirmed the "cabildo" as an authentic
organziational unit and worked toward its strengthening rather than 76 forming associations which was the structure of peasant organizations introduced by the state at that time.
The indigenous Colombian population possesses a culture which qualifies it as a distinct ethnic group. Since the arrival of the
Spanish, however, indigenous peoples have been victims of deliberate campaigns to destroy them and their culture. However, to a greater or lesser degree, cultural identity — considered an inalienable right — has been preserved. Reviving their culture has been proclaimed as one of the most important goals of the present Indian movement.
The CRIC's program is not something new or alien to the
indigenous peoples reality. I t espouses objectives which have profound historical and cultural roots.
Early Armed Resistance of the Indigenous People of Cauca
One source of inspiration fueling the belligerence of the indigenous people of the CRIC is the heroism displayed by their ancestors in wars against the Spanish invaders and in later armed uprisings. Political speeches often call attention to this resistance and affirm that the struggle has not ended, exhorting present and future generations to follow the example of their ancestors.
Although the exact historical facts have been lost, the Indians are proud of their resistance to Spanish conquest. This pride is not an artificial mechanism of cultural reaffirmation, it is sustained 77
by historical reality. It took the Spanish more than one hundred years of war marked by costly reverses and a failure to establish
any permanent settlement in the disputed region a relative control of the indigenous people of the cordi11 era was achieved. Even those
Indians defeated in the firs t stages of the conquest evidenced a willingness to fight until the end. The following historical account underscores the deep-rooted nature of the present struggle to
recover usurped territory.
Much has been said about the martial qualities of the Paez
Indians. Cieza de Leon (1918:17) observed: "The Paez Indians have
inflicted much harm to the Spaniards. There are from six to seven
thousand Indian warriors who are very brave, strong, well-trained to
fight, big and clean bodies; they obey their captains and superiors".
The chronicler Pedro de Aguado, in 1563, describing the Spanish
attempt to found a settlement (San Vincent de Paez), in
Tierradentro, wrote: " ...la s t battle left the Spaniards very
frightened. Indians chased them impatiently. Every single one of
the Spaniards could have been killed by the Indians" (Aguado,
1956:513).
Referring to the destruction of San Vicente de Paez in 1571, the
resistance of the Paez is beautifully synthesized by the Spanish
chronicler, Castellanos (1944): "The Paeces honored their fame and
kept their freedom. They do not accept strangers in their province"
(Gonzalez, 1976:41).
Together with the Pijaos and Yalcones from the Magdalena river valley, the Paez were the last in the territory of Nueva Granada to 78 submit to Spanish dominion. Only after they had resisted for almost a century and inflicted memorable defeats upon the European invaders.
But the Paez and their allies of the Magdalena valley were not the only ones to resist the invaders to the end. The indigenous people of the Puben valley (today Popayan) also fought fiercely.
In early 1535, Sebastian de Bel alcazar's troops, coming from
Peru, and led by his lieutenants, Pedro de Anasco and Nicolas de
Ampudi'i, entered the Puben valley for the firs t time accompanied by
Indians they had conquered during their expedition to the North.
Despite this army, Bel alcazar did not enter Popayan until the end of
1536. Fierce battles at Mastales and Guazabara frustrated two attempts to subjugate the Pubenenses. Even after the Spanish settlement on the region these Indians continued their resistance.
At the time of the Spanish arrival, the tribes of the Puben valley formed into the Pubenense confederation, governed by chief
Payan, who controlled the valley, and his brother, Calambas, who governed the cordi11 era. Pubenza, one of the principal pre-Colombian settlements of the territory, was the central city of the confederation. In Pubenza there was a temple ("Casa de borracera", which literally translates "house of drunks" according to Castellanos) which showed by its splendor the cultural development of the confederation. It is described by one chronicler as follows: "The village was growing fast. There was a house so huge that i t had four hundred columns, each one so thick that two
Spaniards could not circle them" (Jijon, 1936:148). 7 9
The valley was guarded at its borders by the fortresses, mastales and guazabara, the sites of the above mentioned battles
Castellanos' (1944). description of the Mastales fortress and the
3,000 men who defended it, gives an idea of the military opposition confronting the Spanish. "The village was well-protected by a wide and dense fence of more than fifty feet, made of 'guada'. When the
Indians saw our soliders, more than three thousand of them emerged out of that fence well armed with all kinds of weapons and their bodies decorated with gold." (Vergara, 1958:28).
Pubenenses allied themselves with other warrior tribes of the
Cordillera who had been their adversaries before the Spanish invasion. Bel alcazar was forced to come to the rescue of his first expedition reinforced by an Indian army of Yanaconas, Paltas, Cali
Calis, and others recruited in Peru, Ecuador and the southern region of Colombia.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the cordi11 era, in the Magdalena valley, Pedro de Anasco founded Timana and tried to force the
Indians to pay tribute. In an effort to intimidate them, he burned the Gaitana's son alive. The Gaitana had "a son who commanded many people who for not homaging the conqueror Anasco punished ... and gave the sentence aloud that he die made coal and ashes"
(Castellanos, 1944:148). This woman, Chief of the Yalcones, was part of an alliance of Paeces, Pijaos, and other smaller tribes which resisted the Spanish throughout a century. Anasco was captured by 80
the Gaitana and died after being pulled from village to village by a
rope passed through his jaw. Afterwards, the Indians attacked and destroyed Timana.
Juan de Ampudia organized an expedition to avenge Anasco's death, rebuild Timana, and suppress the Indians of the cordi11 era, who were harassing Popayan and interrupting transit which had to pass through Guanacas to reach Santa Fe de Bogota. He entered
Tierradentro by way of Moras and was defeated and killed in Avirama
in 1540. The defeat of de Ampudia placed Popayan in greater danger,
since, according to Castellanos, the Paez, encouraged by their victories "wanted to increase their territory, dominate others and
force the Christians out of the area" (Jijon, 1936:226).
Belalcazar himself headed a new expedition against Tierradentro
in 1543 and was defeated at Talaga, where, Garcia Tovar, another of
his captains was killed. "After killing Captain Tovar, the Indians
were so defiant against the Spaniards that Belalcazar was forced to
escape at night with only one hundred men alive" (Jijon, 1936:226).
This defeat deterred the Spanish from returning to Tierradentro
for almost twenty years and forced them into a defensive position
around Popayan. The reverses suffered by the Spanish fueled the
fighting spirit and encouraged the political alliances of the
indigenous people. "This situation persisted for many years after
the Spanish defeat at Talaga and during this time the colony of
Popayan lived in constant fear of surprise attacks by the Paez
against isolated haciendas, mines and provision convoys" (Henman,
1981:258). 81
Domingo Lozano, led a great military expedition against
Tierradentro in 1562, intending to eliminate the danger which the
Indians of the cordi11 era presented to Spanish towns and communications between Bogota, Neiva, Popayan and Cali. The chronicler Pedro de Aguado (1956), witness to the events, described the expedition in an extensive document. The principal objective of this mission was to found and maintain a village in Paez territory.
The Spanish entered the territory, destroying everything in their path. By the time they arrived in the area of the Guanacas, neighbors of the Paez, "when the principal chief, cacique Anabiema, saw so many Spaniards together, he came to them with other chiefs asking for peace because they did not want to be punished.
Anabeima, understanding that the Spaniards were decided to wage war against the Paeces, thought in taking advantage to revenge against the Paez cacique named Avirama who some days earlier had killed twenty of his Indians. For Captain Lozano this was immensely beneficial, so, he accepted to grant everything Anabeima demanded."
(Aguado, 1955:502).
The collaboration of chiefs Anabeima and Esmisa with the Spanish proved decisive, "...the damage done by the Indians led by Anabeima in the village of Abirama was so great and complete that in a few moments, they burned it to the ground" (Aguado, 1956:503). Later, they were joined by chief Suin Esmisa's father, and a female chief of the salt mines, who wanted protection from the Pijaos, "their principal enemies, who had stolen, destroyed, kidnaped their women and children and killed many of their people" (Aguado, 1956:517). 82
Taking advantage of the conflicts among the Indians of
Tierradentro, Lozano founded the village of San Vicente de Paez in
January, 1563 (near the present town of the same name in Huila).
However, the Paez continued to harass Spanish settlements in their
territory and Lozano had to request reinforcements from Popayan to
protect the newly founded town.
Reinforcements of 400 Guambianos of chief Calambas, who belonged
to the encomienda of Sebastian de Belalcazar's son, Francisco, were promptly sent. Calambas knew the area well, having lived in
Tierradentro in his childhood. His troops spread ruin and destruction through the Paez to the point that "they shouted many times from the mountain tops that they had received more damage in a
short time from Calambas than anything done by the Spanish before"
(Aguado, 1956:538).
The alliance of other Indian groups with the Spanish forced the
Paez to accept a peace settlement. "The Indians of the villages where Captain Lozano was passing by, decided to make peace with the
Spaniards in order to avoid the severe punishment. They requested
Don Diego, the cacique of Guambia, to be their mediator since they
knew him long ago, because he had lived in their lands" (Aguado,
1956:537).
With the mediation of Calambas, Chief Avirama and the chiefs of
Paez, Taravira, Talaga and Simurga negotiated peace. Lozano
immediately distributed these Indians in the form of encomiendas to
his soldiers, and they began working the salt mines and extracting 83 gold from the Suin and Tumbichucue rivers, but the Paez resented the encomienda structure and soon rebelled.
A new alliance of indigenous people in the region arose, including the Paez' enemies Esmisa and Anabeima. "And as a result, all of the Indians of the province became rebellious, did not want to serve, have peace or friendship with the Spanish, who began to again suffer calamities and necessities." (Aguado, 1956:552)
Again, reinforcements, including a force of Guambiano Indians, were sent from Popayan, but when these later withdrew in 1571, the
Paez seized and destroyed San Vicente. The firs t Spanish village in
Tierradento had survived for only nine years. Then, the indigenous people of Tierradentro declared war on Calambas and drove him, along with 700 of his followers, towards Quichaya. The Paez took the offensive by renewing their alliance with the Pijaos and attacking nearby towns. In 1577, they attacked the mining city of La Plata, a city commercially important for Popayan, Cali, Quito and Santa Fe, killing all Spanish inhabitants.
In 1579, the Royal Audience of Quito ordered another military expedition against Tierradento. The city of Nueva Segovia, or
Caloto, was founded at the site presently called El Rodeo, near
Inza. The following year its population was transferred to Toez to rescue San Vicente. In 1582 Paez attacks forced its transfer to
Toribio, on the opposite side of the cordiliera once again the
Spanish had been forced out of tierradento. However, this site was 84 destroyed by the Paez only seven years later. The repeated relocation of this town is reflected in the great number of different sites in Tierradentro named Segovia or Caloto.
After fifty years of war, the Spanish had been unable to conquer the Paez. The Spanish were forced to retreat, and adopt a defensive attitude constructing fortresses in Guambia and Timbio. The Paez and their allies descended from Guanacas, Moras and Toribio.
The tribes of the central cordi11 era dominated the territory between Popayan and Ibague, attacking and destroying Totoro,
Anserma, Cartago, Caloto, Roldanillo and Ibague. They disrupted transit along both the Cauca and Magdalena valley routes, which connected the south with the central part of the country.
The Pijaos were even more aggressive than the Paez. They attacked the Spanish at the very center of their domain and this — together with the internal conflicts between chiefs Natagaima and
Calarca — led to their extermination. At the beginning of the
17th century, Juan de Borja, President of the Royal Audiencia, organized the final expedition against the Indians. It lasted four years and was excessively bloody, since by this time the Spanish were secure in their colonial domain and had abundant resources to carry out a program of extermination. Many indigenous peoples, especially the Pijaos, suffered near annihilation.
Chief Natagaima allied with the Spanish and defeated Calarca, near Ibague. He then advanced south along the Magdalena destroying centers of Paez, Yalcone and Andaquie resistance in the Magdalena 85 area, and subduing Tunibios, Calocotos and surviving Pijaos in the
Cauca region. Armed resistance by indigenous people of Cauca was crushed by the end of the second decade of the 17th century.
Leaitimacv of the Indian Territorial Struggles
The indigenous people of the CRIC are clearly convinced of their rights to the land they reclaim. These territories belonged to their ancestors and were recognized firs t by the Spanish crown and later by Republican legislation. Even though Indians had to abandon their armed struggle, they retained control over their territory and pressured the conquerors to recognize their claims. The Spanish government proved an unwitting ally, demarcating Indian territory to assure the Crown's control over the conquered, thereby benefiting directly from Indian tribute.
The use of legal action to defend their territory has been a traditional aspect of the Indians' struggle which continues to this day. The CRIC encouraged the de facto implementation of the law, instead of waiting for the authorities to enforce the law. The following historical analysis outlines the legal arguments of the
Indians.
One of the principal motives behind Spanish adventurism in
America was the conquest of new lands. In Catholic European eyes, the Pope of Rome, as representative of God, was empowered to distribute conquered pagan lands. Thus, Pope Alexander VI, in the
Bui a of May 4, 1493, awarded recently discovered American lands to 86
Catholic kings, who in turn gave the rights to those lands to their conquerors. At the same time, the Spanish crown "explicitly recognized the Indians' rights to lands which they continued to occupy after the conquest, either because of their resistance to the conquerors' invasion or because this invasion had not reached their refuges" (Diaz, 1976:15).
Felipe II, in 1532, ordered that when dividing land among the
Spanish conquerors, "respect must be given to Indian lands". The Law
6 of 1560 stipulated that when Indians were forced to live in towns,
"the Indians' lands be conserved as they had been before". Such promises appear in other laws related to the Indians as well.
Fabian Diaz maintains that "the crown limited itse lf to recognizing occupation as a true title of property, and legislating the terms by which territory was demarcated and identified" (Diaz,
1976:19) in those lands not abandoned by Indians.
Therefore, the "titles", which specify the boundaries of the reservations, were elaborated to indicate areas in which the Spanish could not obtain property. Instead of being property deeds belonging to Indians, these documents impede the possession of property by non-Indians within reservations.
In the 16th century, reservations became a means of reversing the economic destruction of the indigenous population. Reservations reaffirmed the economic and political dominion of the Monarchy over the private interests of the conquerors.
The uncontrolled advance of private Spanish interests in the early years of the conquest threatened the Crown interests and 87 infringed on the power of the Church. In 1545, Carlos V tried unsuccessfully to abolish the encomienda, citing accusations made by his missionaries. The dominion of the Spanish Crown was reaffirmed and the Church won an active role in the administration of the
Spanish domains in America. Obligatory domestic service for Indians was abolished and the establishment of reservations afforded a minimal protection for indigenous peoples. The Spanish continued to receive the Indians' tribute according to "an official rate as a royal concession" (Gonzalez, 1976:19).
With the end of Spanish dominion, the reservations' inalienable character was reaffirmed by Simon Bolivar in his Decree of July 5,
1820. He ordered that Indians be recognized "as legitimate property owners" of territories belonging to their original reservations
"according to their title s , no matter who be arguing against them"
(Triana, 1980).
The Spanish Crown had established a protectionist code of
"Special Rights" for indigenous people within the context of colonial exploitation. The office of Protectorate of Indians was instituted, the authority of the chiefs was confirmed, and laws concerning the fair treatment of Indians were drafted. The reservation system was instituted at the time of Venero de Leyva, first president of the New Kingdom of Granada. Tributes, encomiendas, and land partitions were maintained. But, since humanitarian concerns were always secondary to colonial interests. 88 this legislation was used as a basis for the accusations presented by Bartolomé de las Casas, Montesinos and Juan del Valle, and the first Bishop of Popayan against exploitation of Indians.
The wars of resistance left the indigenous peoples weakened.
With a military solution no longer viable, they turned their struggle to the courts, basing their claims on the protectionist laws. At the beginning of the 18th century, Manuel del Quilo y
Siclos, chief of Tacueyo, Toribio and San Francisco, in what is today northern Cauca, and Juan Tama, chief of the eastern towns, received recognition of their rights from the Crown. The document which Chief Qui 1 os sent to the King in 1700 offers an example of the
Indians' arguments.
"I believe that Your Majesty has the right to cede land to white people, without prejudicing tribute paying Indians who have the right and preference, because we are legitimate Americans and have not arrived from other foreign places. It seems to me that I have the preferential right to land ownership; now, as Your Majesty governs what was conquered and has absolute right, we beg you to consider us rightful owners of the lands inherited from our ancestors" (Diaz, 1976:24).
The Chief recognized the rights of the King "to what he conquered"; but reserves the "right of preference" for the indigenous people to their lands by arguing that they are legitimate
Americans and have inherited these lands from their ancestors. The
Chief insisted on Indian prior rights, derived from the real and continuous possession of their territories, in spite of their 89 subjugation. The following year, on June 11, 1701, title establishing the boundaries of the reservation was signed. This original title was amended in 1735, 1772 and 1899 (Deed No. Ill of
June 10, Notary of Santander de Quilichao), and is used by Indians today to justify their claims. Most of the eastern Cauca and
Tierradentro reservations derive from official recognition of the title obtained by Juan Tama in 1708.
The progressive loss of Indian territory may be seen in modifications to the original title s. To support their claims to what had been reservation land, indigenous people have tried to obtain the original titles for each reservation.
Even when present authorities refuse to recognize their legitimacy, these titles have become the principal legal weapon of the Indians. These documents confirm the Indians' legal ownership of the land. Legal appeals based upon Titles and protectionist laws appear as a historical constant throughout land recovery struggle.
Legal proceedings have long been characteristic of the Indians' struggle. For example, the Cabildo of Guambia sent a document denouncing the arbitrary eviction of Indians from the hacienda "El
Chiman" to President Eduardo Santos on July 21, 1939. In it, they said, "We have presented an infinite number of briefs in every possible way, and have made numerous trips to Bogota without obtaining any results..." (Indian Affairs Archives). The Guambiano
Indians began their legal struggle for this hacienda in 1825 and continued until 1980, when — organized by the CRIC — they 9 0 recovered it by force. The hacienda "Las Mercedes", located within the territory of "El Chi man", was recovered in the same way, on
October 12, 1982. Thus, a century and a half of appealing to the mayors and judges of Silvia (1825), the Superior Tribunal of Popayan
(1853), the Supreme Court of Justice (1855), The Ministry of Public
Works (1911), the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce (1938) and before the President of the Republic finally ended.
The concept of "special rights", with its protective character, although instituted under colonial rule, carried over into
Republican legislation. Law 89 of 1890 and its regulatory decree
No. 74 of 1898 established that indigenous people were not ruled by
"general laws of the Republic in matters of reservations" (Triana,
1980.122-167). Chapter V of both documents is dedicated to the
"Protection of Indians." The Indian is still considered a minor under the law, lacking sobriety, and is exempted from paying taxes or serving in the armed forces.
When the CRIC adopted as one point of its seven point program to
"demand the recognition and just application of Indian laws”, it was not a new idea, but rather an adoption into its policies of an ongoing legal struggle.
The Indians' struggle for their reservations does not violate the law. On the contrary, it is the state which has violated the law by dissolving reservations, expropriating the lands, and permitting people who do not belong to the reservation communities to occupy these lands. Indigenous peoples are demanding that the 9 1 state respect the laws which define the inalienable character of their reservations. Authorities have not shown an interest in respecting Indian's rights, as the report of the Agrarian Procurator of 1972 demonstrates: "I have observed, as director of the Agrarian
Law Office in Popayan, the lack of interest with which the administrative authorities, at the municipal and state level treat problems related to Indians living on Reservations in Cauca. The same situation exists with judiciary authorities at the municipal level." (Pinzon, 1972)
The existence of laws has never guaranteed respect for Indian
land rights. On the contrary, the situation is characterized by the disparity between legislation and enforcement. The Spanish made popular the saying, "The law is obeyed, but not fulfilled."
However, in spite of their violation, the Indians believe that they have legitimate rights. This is not a stubborn belief in something abstract. Thousands of Indians have been arrested in the course of the land recovery struggle during the last ten years, but not one has been convicted of property violations in territories covered by reservation titles.
The CRIC has taken Indian territorial recovery as the firs t point in its program: reestablishment of Indian reservations.
Increasing Indian needs for land, and the influence of the agrarian struggle at the time of CRIC's founding have lead to a second, complementary position: enlargement of existing reservations.
The present slogan of the peasant movement "Land for those who work it", reflects the urgent need for redistribution of agrarian 9 2 property. The present pattern of latifundi os inhibits the economic development, not only of peasants, but also of Colombia in general.
Law 135 of 1961 (the Agrarian Social Reform Law) declared that latifundi os which are inadequately exploited are to be considered of social utility. This stimulated and legitimized agrarian conflicts especially the struggle for the enlargement of reservations.
The Communal Character of Reservations
When the Spanish arrived in what is today Colombia, the idea of private property did not exist. The territory which is now Cauca was divided in cacicazgos of communal property. Later, the Spanish established reservations in which the concept of land as communal property common to the indigenous peoples was preserved, in spite of the dominant idea of private property. "Indians, individually, are mere users of reservation territory, which belongs to the community, represented by the Cabildo." (Decree 73, 1898, Article 95).
Consequently, the Indian struggle for land does not have as its objective the distribution of territory as private property, but the restitution of land to the reservation as communal property. In some cases recovered land has been granted as a private holding (not as private property) to families with the greatest needs. The CRIC has promoted the formation of communal enterprises in territory regained by the Indian movement.
The inalienable, communal character of reservations has prevented Indian lands from passing into the hands of private owners. There have been many attempts — using different arguments 9 3
and political schemes — to dissolve reservations. Many
reservations have been eliminated and the Indigenous people evicted
from their lands. Nevertheless, Indians have reacted resolutely to
every attempt to dissolve reservations. The dissolution of the
reservations of Calderas and Riochlqulto, In 1969 and 1970,
respectively, resulted from agrarian reform. Great discontent arose
In the community and contributed to the creation of the CRIC In 1971.
The collective character of the reservations has been criticized by those who covet the Indigenous peoples lands as causing the low productivity of Indian regions and of Cauca In general. For
example, the City Council of Silvia, In a document presented to the
Minister of Industry on August 28, 1930, requested the parceling of
Indian lands In the eastern region of Cauca, arguing that "this
region, which Is one of the most Important in the Department, is outside of the commercial land market and excluded from the benefits of scientific advancement..." (Indian Affairs Archives). Eight years later a new message from the Council of Silvia affirmed that dissolution of reservations "will save the economy of this
Department and provide the civilization of the destitute Indian
race" (Indian Affairs Archives).
The Council of Inza also referred to Law 89 and Decree 74 as "an
Iron ring which has continually been an obstacle to progress In the
rich and fertile lands of the Inza and Paez districts" (Council of
Inza, 1984). Besides the fact that Indians do not pay taxes to
sustain the local municipalities, the "Iron ring" Is felt by all those who have dispossessed the Indians of their territory — they 94 can never be completely certain of ownership of the land they have seized. It is also argued that the reservation keeps land in the hands of Indians who do not work it; tax exempt reservations deprive areas where they exist of revenues that could contribute to the their development; and, the collective character destroys Indians' personalities and impedes integration — with equal rights and responsibilities — into the national society.
"There is in the Indian, today, a complex, a sensation of inferiority precisely because he sees that he is not really the owner of anything; he sees land as a patrimony of his race, but not of his family, not of the individual" (Gonzalez, 1979:296).
This argument is based upon the belief that private property is fundamental to the individual. According to it, indigenous people will not be integrated into the society until they become owners of private property, having the right to "do what they please" with their possessions.
Many reservations were dissolved as a result of the pressures of those interested in seizing Indian lands. The messages of the
Council of Silvia, representing the interests of terratenientes and colonos in Tierradentro and the eastern region, were partially successful. In April, 1944, the government issued Decree 918,
"about dissolution of Indian reservations in the Tierradentro region of Cauca". Indian territories located on the right bank of the
Ullucos, Guanacas, Turmina and Topa rivers were parceled; while a decree of the Dictatorship in 1953 eliminated the reservations of
Caldono. In May of the same year, as an outcome of the 9 5 recommendations of the First Latin American Indigenist Congress, held in Mexico, the government was the object of international protests against the dissolution of reservations. (Indian Affairs
Archives, document of May 3,1944) The Assembly of the Department of Cauca requested that the President take special measures to assure that Indians not lose their lands as a result of parceling.
The Assembly was clearly aware of this danger.
Upon its arrival in Tierradentro (Inza), the commission named to carry out the land parceling found the Indians, who were backed by the National Federation of Peasants and Indigenous People, mobilized in opposition. In disturbances of September 15, 1944 Victor J.
Merchan—leader of the Federation and Communist Party member—and three other Indians were arrested. The Indians' discontent was so great that the head of the Dividing Committee, said in one of his reports: "...there were symptoms indicating that the Indians' intended to attack the town which led the mayor, with a considerable number of citizens of the area—the whites of Inza—to dissolve an
Indian meeting in Guanacas and arrest its organizers" (Indian
Affairs Archives document of September 30, 1944).
Organized Indian action has existed as a historical constant in response to attempts to dissolve reservations. Examples can be seen in the armed uprisings of Quintin Lame at the beginning of this century; in the formation of peasant and indigenous leagues in the
1930's and 1940's led by Jose Gonzalo Sanchesz; in the conflict in
Guanacas, the opposition to INCORA at the beginning of the last decade, in the statement, "We certainly do not want anything from 9 6
INCORA, we do not want deed or parceling as the Government is doing in many areas" Document from the Pioya reservation, (Caldono,
October 9, 1970); and in the opposition to the census of 1972 for fear that it might lead to dissolution of reservations. The CRIC emerged as a dynamic expression of organized action by indigenous people to reinstate those reservations which had been dissolved and also to create new ones.
The opposition of Indians to the disintegration of their reservations has been strengthened by the disastrous loss of land suffered by indigenous peoples whenever reservations were parceled.
When the Division of Indian Affairs was created in 1960, its director, Gregorio Hernandez de Alba assumed an active stance against parceling reservations. He said: "Since these people are not prepared to manage private real estate, shortly after parceling and receiving legal titles and deeds, they mortgage their property at very low prices, as they have been led into debt by those who later plan to repossess their land. They are then forced to abandon their land to whites or mestizos, and become men of the land without land for their families. As group union is destroyed when they are expelled from their natural, traditional framework, they become
'free wheels' in society, and their new condition is damaging both for individuals and for Colombia." (De Alba, 1960:5)
However, policies favoring the dissolution of reservations have not been totally eliminated. The Agrarian Reform Law views the reservations as a temporary measure, until the Indian achieves a certain level of development. 9 7
"According to INCORA, the Division of Indian Affairs is organizing socio-economic development programs which aim to accelerate the division of those reservations which, due to their high level of acculturation, can be objects of this measure, without seriously traumatizing the social and cultural order." (Valencia,
1968:71).
The reservations of Calderas and Riochiquito were considered sufficiently developed and were dissolved in 1969 and 1970 respectively. This resulted in resentment against INCORA and against the census of 1972, mentioned earlier.
The movement is not to preserve the reservation as communal property of the CRIC, but as something that existed long before the founding of the CRIC.
Exploitation of Indians on Haciendas: "Terraie"
As the haciendas expanded within the reservation territory, the indigenous people were reduced to the condition of "terrajeros." To avoid eviction from the land which they had traditionally inhabited, the Indians promised to "discount terraje" (to work as hacienda laborers without receiving wages) for four days or more per month, depending upon the amount of land the Indian needed. Native peoples were paying, with their labor, for the "right" to live in the land that they had inherited from their ancestors. When land was sold, the new owner had to accept the presence of the Indians as long as they promised to pay terraje. This system provided a dependable source of cheap labor. 9 8
The indigenous agricultural system consists of slashing and burning (rosar) a small extension of forest or brush to plant an area of between one-half and one hectare. After three or four years, when the soil is no longer fertile, the Indian lets the plot be taken over by underbrush and begins a new "rosa." To do this it is necessary that the patron assign another plot.
A servile relationship developed between hacienda owner and terrajero. The Indians, deprived of traditional communal ties, became wholly dependent on the "goodness" of the "patron". If they did not fulfill their terraje obligations completely, the patron could increase the amount of tribute or refuse permission to pasture animals or to plant crops.
This dependency forced the terrajeros to accept all manner of abuses and mistreatment, as well as the expropriation of their land.
Besides controlling hacienda resources, the hacienda owners had recourse to public authorities such as judges and police. The economic power of the hacienda owners was also political power. The hacienda owners were either party bosses or their local representatives.
In 1912 the "terrajero" Quintin Lame lead an armed Indian uprising against the government of Cauca. This movement demanded the defense of the reservations against further encroachments, the recovery of lands already lost, the strengthening of Cabildos* authority, and the recognition of indigenous culture and 9 9 traditions. Guillermo Valencia (ex-president of Colombia) led the dominant classes of Cauca in a response so violent that Quintin Lame had to flee Cauca.
In the 1930s, Jose Gonzalo Sanchez, leader of the Peasant and
Indian League, again took up the struggle against terraje. The goal this time was not its total abolition, but rather a reduction of obligatory labor. Sanchez was also suppressed and was poisoned in
1945 (Tierra, 1938; The Bolshevique, 1934).
The terraje system became the predominant form of exploitation of the Indian labor force, not only in the haciendas located on the reservation territory, but wherever an Indian community survived.
This system was implemented exclusively in Indian areas.
In the 1950s, the situation of the terrajeros worsened.
Agrarian reform, most especially Law 1 of 1968 (the Parceling Law), caused terratenientes to evict terrajeros to avoid having their lands redistributed by INCORA. This caused the terrajeros to struggle against being driven off their lands. In February 1971, an assembly convened to back the terrajeros’ fight in the hacienda El
Credo in the Tacueyo reservation and the CRIC was born.
Recognition of Cabildo Authority
After 1968, the Colombian government promoted the organization of peasant unions as a means of implementing agrarian reform. In
Cauca a few unions were formed among the indigenous population, but the CRIC, decided to organize the Federation of Cabildos, not as a 100 rejection of the peasant unions, but because the Cabildo was a unique unit within the Indian community and had been active and effective in the defense of reservations.
Although the Cabildo is not a pre-Colombian institution, for centuries it has been the principal social organization of indigenous peoples. Even in communities where the indigenous language and music have been lost, the Cabildo is often preserved.
The Cabildo is the legal representative of the communitiy and has the responsibility to protect the reservation, care for community title s and documents, assign use of reservation lands, and prevent the sale, rent or mortgage of reservation lands (Law 89 of
1890). Cabildos have sometimes surrendered land to the Church or to private owners (have permitted or, at least, have not prevented this). However, i t is also true that the Cabildos have defended the reservations by mobilizing the community to work lands in danger of being usurped and presenting legal demands and petitions to the authorities.
All existing reservations have a Cabildo and even some communities outside the reservations have one. The establishment of
Cabildos is fundamental to the CRIC's struggle to reconstruct reservations which have been abolished or to the creation of new reservations. This is true, not only in Cauca, but also in other
Indian regions which have followed its example. In the Choco, for example, in a period of two years, eighteen Cabildos were formed to demand the government creation of respective reservations. 101
Communities are mobilized each year to choose Cabildos and the majority of adults — both men and women — participate in this election. The authority of the Cabildo is highly respected. This respect stems from the democratic character of the selection and from the support which the position receives from the medicine men
— who still wield considerable influence on the reservations—and whose supposed magic powers are seen as instruments of cultural preservation.
Besides its land related functions, the Cabildo organizes the people to work in community projects such as road maintenance and other projects benefiting the community. It also intervenes in internal community conflicts and represents the community before state institutions. Cabildo activities are usually so time-consuming that the economic results in terms of productive labor time lost are often negative for its members.
The Church, politicians, and local authorities all understand the importance of the Cabildo and often try to manipulate i t to their own ends. The Church, for example, convinced many reservations to allot land to the church and instituted the custom of the "rosa del santo" which is a plot worked by the community organized by the Cabildo—produce of which then went to the Church.
This custom, however, has tended to disappear as Indian organizations gain strength.
Government authorities often refused to legalize land claims of
Cabildos they did not agree with, and politicians used the Cabildos in their electoral campaigns. There have even been cases in which 102 colonos offer their services as secretaries of Cabildos in communities which need people who know how to read and write in order to use their influence to later receive land titles. Among the Indians themselves there are those who use their authority as
Cabildo members to accumulate land and to harm others.
But, despite these problems, the Cabildo remains -he center of traditional community organization and it is logical that the CRIC, instead of implementing peasant unions, proposed the strengthening of indigenous cabildos as one of its objectives. The Board of
Directors of the CRIC meets once a year to determine the orientation and priorities of the organization and this meeting must be composed of representatives of each Cabildo.
Many difficulties have arisen in Cabildos which are ideologically dominated by the Church or politicians. These groups try to stigmatize the CRIC by accusing it of being a communist organization in the hope that it will be rejected by the Indians.
For example, the Tierradentro region is considered mission territory and here the politician Victor Mosquera Chaux maintained hegemony for many years. Anticommunism presented a serious obstacle to the organization of the indigenous population and the leadership of the
Cabildo. Slowly, the CRIC has broken down this ideological and political domination and has gained influence in many of these
Cabildos.
The Cabildos which most identify with the CRIC and lead the struggle in their communities are those of reservations which have been reinstated, new reservations, and reservations which face serious problems (especially those who lack of sufficient land). 103
Defense of Cultural Tradition
Indigenous people have long defended an inherited cultural tradition of pre-hispanic origin against "civilizing" actions aimed at its destruction. While the Church and the school system have been the principal mechanisms of cultural oppression, the whole dominant cultural and social context suffers from a rejection of everything Indian. This is not simply an instance of a dominant influence which absorbs the indigenous culture, but of deliberate attempts to destroy it.
Despite such "civilizing" action, the indigenous people retain a rich cultural heritage which is an essential part not only of their life as an ethnic group but also of their identity as Latin American peoples. This cultural survival results from both the isolation of these communities and from active cultural resistance. Taking refuge in traditionalism was, for the Indians, a means of resisting the imposition of alien economic, social and cultural systems.
In Cauca, the indigenous communities have been in permanent contact with the dominant culture since the arrival of the Spanish.
They have, however, to a greater or lesser degree, preserved their own culture, and this culture has tended to be strengthened since the creation of the CRIC.
Many languages which existed when the Spanish arrived have disappeared. Paez and Guambiano, however, have been preserved, in spite of the fact that until recently, teachers punished children for speaking their native language in school. Even today it is 104 common to term "rational" those Indians who speak Spanish and
"foul-mouthed" those who do not. There are also communities which stopped speaking their languages many years ago but continue to identify themselves as Indians through cultural manifestations such as medicine, music and other traditions.
The CRIC has produced a resurgence of native language: various communities and many individuals who had stopped speaking their native languages have returned to using them in daily life and as a symbol of defense against repression. The native languages are used in mass demonstrations and organizational events. CRIC has developed a program of bilingual schools which is producing a notable impact on the preservation and recovery of native languages.
Another prominent cultural manifestation in native communities is traditional medicine. Because of the magic-religious world view which characterizes the indigenous culture, traditional medicine represents not only the curative aspect, but also the relationship with the forces of the Indians' material and human world.
The Indians believe that all aspects of daily community life are influenced by occult forces. Each community has its medicine men serve as intermediaries with these forces. Even the political struggle, the recovery of land, the fight against enemies, the defense of the community, the protection of leaders, are carried out, with the close participation of indigenous medicine men.
Indigenous people believe that they carry secrets and powers which are exclusively theirs and that the force of their culture resides in these secrets. The Catholic Church understood this and 105 focused its power against these medicine men, stigmatizing them as sorcerers. Nonetheless, these magical-religious concepts have persisted, often clandestinely, and have manifested themselves even within the struggle of the CRIC.
Traditional music has also been preserved by the Indians of
Cauca. In December and during Holy Week, the music of the chirimia
— bands of flutist and drummers — plays an important role in the social activities of the community. This tradition persists even in peasant communities and in middle and lower class urban sectors.
Delegations accompanied by their respective chirimias attend some of the principal events of the CRIC.
Moreover, a wealth of mythological elements, legends and oral tradition subsist in the region. This set of manifestations exemplifies a cultural phenomenon which has survived more than 400 years despite continuous extermination attempts. These are not isolated manifestations or folkloric residues, but are rather elements of a dynamic culture, active in daily life.
Upon this basis, indigenous people continue to see the strengthening of their culture as a priority in the struggle for territory and the right to live and progress according to their unique peculiarities and history. For this reason they consider themselves not only peasants, (since they subsist upon the land), but also as an ethnic group related to the land and as communities integrated through their culture with a specific territory. "For us the land is not only a piece of plain or hill which gives us food.
As we live on it, work in it, rejoice and suffer with it, it is for 1 0 5 us the root of life. For this reason we watch it and defend it as the basis of all our customs" (Secretaria de Indigenes, 1973:17).
The CRIC has established the defense of culture as one of its principal objectives: "To defend history, language, indigenous customs and prepare Indian teachers to educate according to the
Indians' situation and in their respective language".
Culture, often a conservative element under structures of domination, becomes a dynamic force within the context of the Indian movement. It helps people recover pride and confidence in themselves at a personal and collective level. At the same time the struggle has produced a cultural renaissance which encourages the development of the communities from their own roots and integrates traditional forms with new. Culture, therefore, acquires a political dimension which strengthens the struggle. The CRIC has demonstrated this in its projects in the areas of education, health, cooperatives and production. CHAPTER V
THE CASE STUDY OF THE INDIAN MOVEMENT IN CAUCA
The Context In Which the CRIC Emerged
At the beginning of the 1970's a large number of agrarian conflicts arose in Colombia. The Indian Organization, CRIC, emerged within the context of these struggles.
During the 1960s the United States promoted agrarian reform programs in the majority of Latin American countries in order to counteract the influence of the Cuban revolution and adapt the agrarian structure to the expansion of capitalist development. In
Colombia, Law No. 135 of 1961 authorized the expropriation of unproductive latifundios and ordered their division among needy peasants. This law aroused the expectations of poor and landless farmers, but when it failed to fulfill these aspirations, peasants often took matter into their own hands, seizing land.
When Carlos Lieras Restrepo—who inspired the agrarian law and represented a modernizing sector of the political class—assumed the presidency, he accelerated the agrarian reform with measures such as the sharecropping law and the creation of a national peasant organization.
107 1 0 8
Law No. 1 of 1968 (the sharecropping law) established automatic renewal of sharecropping contracts for 10 years, payment for permanent improvements, and extended the possibility that leasors and sharecroppers could finally become owners of the property they work or that their eviction would be costly. The law also included reforms such as a minimum wage and payment of social benefits to agrarian laborers.
Even though these measures were intended to benefit the peasants, instead they aggravated the situation since land-owners
evicted many peasants and forbade the planting of permanent crops,
like coffee, which constituted an important source of income.
Lieras also created a peasant organization—Association
Nacional de Usuarios Campesinos, ANUC—as a mechanism to bring political pressure against terratenientes and gain the political
support of peasants. The Office of Peasant Organizations, assigned to the Ministry of Agriculture, was created and together with the
Instituto Colombiano de Reforma Agraria (INCORA) was responsible for organizing peasant unions.
Counting on government protection, and supported by the active participation of some leftist organizers who encouraged the usuarios to become independent of official orientation, a series of mass mobilizations using the slogan, "Land for those who work it", took place. During 1970 and 1971 the government reported the invasion of
424 haciendas in Colombia.
Cauca was affected by this climate of agrarian agitation, which was embraced by the Indians. After centuries of struggle to defend 1 0 9 their land, social autonomy, and cultural identity, a new phase of their struggle was beginning.
Unproductive latifundi os and feudalistic production relationships predominated in the Department of Cauca. These, along with the extreme poverty of the peasants, provided excellent conditions for reform and the development of a peasant movement.
Table No. 1 shows possession of the land: 2% of the latifundios possessed as much land as 74% of both minifundistas and small land owners together.
TABLE NO. 1 PROPERTY DISTRIBUTION IN CAUCA (PACIFIC COAST NOT INCLUDED)
Categori es Owners Holdings Area
Mi ni fundi 0 61.02% 82.02 % 22.45% Small Holdings 23.34% 12.86 % 20.50% Medium Holdings 3.52% 3.37 % 11.08% Latifundi0 2.11% 1.69 % 45.97%
Source: Londono,1981:11
Among non-Indian peasants the organization had little success.
The leaders of the organization were manipulated by traditional politicians. For once, the government seemed more radical than the peasants of Cauca. In the Indian sector, however, organization was widely accepted and a different type of organization—the CRIC—was created, integrated into the peasant movement through the Indian
Secretariat of the ANUC. 110
The situation at that time was especially serious in indigenous
regions. In addition to the unequal distribution of land, other
factors such as the illegal seizure of reservation lands by
non-Indians, the general poverty of the Indians, labor exploitation on haciendas, and the long-standing tradition of struggle manifested
themselves.
In terms of economic development, Cauca is the second to last
Department in Colombia. Its capital, Popayan, is the cradle of the country's most firmly entrenched aristocracy, which based its former power on black slavery and the exploitation of Indians. In the 19th century, it was the most important sector of national politics; however, in recent times, it has been displaced by the burguesia of other regions of Colombia, such as Cundinamarca, Antioquia, Valle, and Costa. This loss of economic power and political influence can be seen in the northern region which, as a result of the expansion of the sugar industry, has fallen under the control of capitalists from the neighboring Department of Valle.
When the United States blockaded Cuba after the 1959 revolution, the Department of Valle replaced part of the Cuban sugar exportation. Since then, the sugar industry in Valle has achieved one of the highest rates of production in the world—126 metric tons per hectare (Colombia Information Service, 1980).
The expansion of the sugar industry has been accompanied by the establishment of cattle ranches and the agro-industrial production of sorghum, soy beans, cotton, sesame, and other crops. The intensification of commercial agriculture in the northern flatlands Ill of Cauca has affected the neighboring cordillera zone, stimulating the commercialization of land, the establishment of cattle ranches, coffee plantations and the lumber business. These activities have further aggravated the loss of land by Indian communities located in the area.
Unable to increase production in their own lands, the terratenientes of Cauca, have countered their loss of economic and political privilege by appropriating Indian lands and intensifying exploitation, particularly the system of terraje. They have done everything possible to legally dissolve reservations, with some success. Of the more than 70 reservations which existed at the beginning of this century, only 48 remained in 1970. The majority of these were later invaded by non-Indian farms, violating the inalienable character of reservations accorded in Law 89 of 1890.
Reservations such as Paniquita, Coconuco, Guambia had been reduced to the extent that they were unable to maintain new generations.
S till, the reservations legal claims did have validity.
Reservation territory had been appropriated principally by residents of nearby towns and migrants from other regions. They took advantage of the period of violence (1946-54) or their influence in the municipal government to take possession of Indian lands. In 1972, the Agrarian Procurator, Carlos Pinzon, explained how the illegal occupation of reservation land led to social conflicts. "This occupation has operated in two ways: firs t, tricking Indians by offering them sums of money for lands which they have worked for many years, knowing that there are legal 112 prohibitions against the sale or purchase of these lands. Second, the use of violent measures by "whites" who have unscrupulously driven Indians from their land, killing or threatening them, but always obtaining the evacuation of lands which are immediately occupied by new owners." (Pinzon, 1972:3).
The majority of these new "owners" hold little political power themselves, but are backed by party bosses who depend upon the
Indian vote which they manipulate at election time.
The scarcity of land for indigenous peoples, accompanied by a decline in natural resources, has been further aggravated by the use of rudimentary farming techniques and the economic impossibility of adopting new methods. Traditional techniques like slash and burn on steep slopes were useful when Indians had sufficient land to rotate parcels and permit recuperation of the soil, flora, fauna, and water. However, once land become scarce, they led to the destruction of the ecological balance in the area. The quantitative and qualitative loss of productive land made the Indians less able to meet their basic necessities with each season.
Before the emergence of the CRIC and the firs t land recoveries, indigenous people of the most overcrowded reservations migrated to other regions, particularly the western cordillera where they formed new communities. Later, influenced by CRIC, they reinstated
Cabildos and initiated the creation of new reservations such as
Honduras, Chimborazo and Agua Negra in the municipality of Morales, and Las Del ici as in Buenos Aires. 1 1 3
Temporary migration in search of wages, although on the rise in general, has declined in those areas where land has been recovered.
Indigenous workers migrate towards regions of commercial agriculture
(especially beans and coffee) where they are hired as jornaleros, without social benefits, earning much less than minimum wage. "As regards wages it can be affirmed that in indigenous regions these fluctuate between COL$80-150, but when the laborers are Indians, they received only 50% of this value." (Londono, 1981:15).
Therefore, the primary cause of the disintegration of indigenous communities is the semi-proletariat character of Indians as jornaleros, which drives them away from their communities.
The participation of Indians as full-time workers on capitalist haciendas is minimal. The agrarian proletariat is composed of town dwellers in the northern plains region of Cauca and of the Patia
Valley, where the majority of the population is black.
The agrarian reform law also provides incentives for land recovery, reservation enlargement, reconstruction of usurped reservations and formation of new reservations (Triana, 1980). This law reinforced the Indians' aspirations by reaffirming the importance of reservations within the legal structure of Colombian agrarian regions. As was mentioned earlier, indigenous peoples' conviction that reservation land rightfully belongs to them is the basis for the persistence and aggressiveness which has characterized the Indian movement.
Law No. 1 of 1968—the sharecropping law—had its effects upon the situation of indigenous people. Hacienda owners reacted to the 1 1 4 implications of the sharecropping law by evicting terrajeros since it was feared that the law would classify these laborers as eligible to claim ownership of plots they had worked and lived on for extended periods of time. To contract terrajeros as laborers would have required the payment of minimum wages and other labor benefits, which conflicted with the traditional hacienda system. To avoid problems with INCORA, hacienda owners proceeded to "clean up" their lands, that is, evict terrajeros and replace them with a salaried
labor force and, where necessary, recognize a minimum number of terrajero families needed to maintain the land.
In the municipality of Popayan, for example, the hacienda "El
Canelo" which belonged to the Gonzalez family, had as many as eighty terrajeros. That property has now been recovered by Indians. The exterrajeros relate the following: "When we heard about INCORA, in
1969, a delegation went to denounce that the landlord wanted to evict us from the land where we had always lived. When Samuel
(Gonzalez) realized this would affect the hacienda he accepted only six terrajeros of two families: of the Lame's, Ricardo, Carlos,
Isaura and Francisco and of the Santiago's Fortunato and Gerardina.
"The owner called the mother of the Santiago's and told her not to get involved with INCORA, that INCORA was bad, that she should say that she was a contracted laborer. He said, 'I'll build you a good house and gave you land to work.' She said, 'I'm staying with the patron.' The only things he gave her were a cat and an old machete" (Personal Interview). Terrajero offspring were forbidden to plant for themselves, keep animals or construct dwellings apart from the paternal home, but they were obligated to work on the hacienda for very low wages 115 whenever the patron or farm manager needed them. On occasion they had to "help" on the hacienda to avoid being evicted. "When the patron would come to count cattle on Saturday, for example, everyone, even women, had to help round up animals, but nobody was paid for working that day" (Personal Interview). So, the terrajero's children had only their labor as a source of income, working as jornaleros, since they did not even have direct access to the land that they and their ancestors had occupied for centuries.
Within this context, the need was felt to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the new laws, and the formation of the
CRIC and the Indians began to fight.
It was not an arbitrary choice, then that resolution of the terraje problem became the initial objective of the CRIC in 1971.
The terrajeros were fighting at El Credo in Tacueyo and at Chi man in
Silvia. These struggles led directly to the formation of the CRIC.
One of the objectives of the firs t Indian assembly, at which the
CRIC was created, was to recognize and support the struggle of the terrajeros being evicted from El Credo. The refusal to pay terraje became one of the firs t issues of the new Indian movement. This idea quickly spread to many other reservations. When Indians refused to pay terraje, the terratenientes forbid them to use hacienda land, reducing them to the family garden plot.
Thus began the conflict for land recovery which extended as soon as the CRIC was created to the reservations most lacking in territories. Then, to those which had been dispossessed and to 1 1 6
Indian communities that had survived as ethnic groups without their own reservations. The struggle to revive the reservations, became
central to the development of the CRIC.
The emergence and development of a social movement like the
CRIC, which is aligned in the class struggle against terratenientes
is correlated to forces which favor it. Besides the emergence of peasant conflicts at the national level and the process of State
sponsored agrarian reform, which tended to affect the interests of
terratenientes, the decadent character of the dominant class of
Cauca must be taken into account. Its weakness has been as important
as the indigenous peoples' strength.
By 1970 the aristocracy of Cauca had lost much of its political
influence and economic power. Since their economic and political
interests did not coincide with those of the national dominant
class, dedicated to capitalistic development, they lost the support
of the central government. Institutions such INCORA, DANE, and
peasant organizations, dependent on the central government,
supported the incipient Indian movement.
To prevent land recoveries, police and paid assassins were
frequently employed—both at the departmental and regional level.
But the army, so often used in the past against areas of supposed or
real guerrilla activity, did not enter actively into the suppression
of the land recovery movement. The army is a national entity and
does not respond mechanically to the will of a politically important
class like that of Cauca's aristocracy. 1 1 7
This tacit support of the central government permitted the CRIC to form alliances with official institutions and political opposition groups such as the ANAPO in the northern region and the
"Liberal Left", and to open cracks in the political domination of the official Liberal Party of Victor Mosquera Chaux who was the principal political representative of the terratenientes of Cauca.
Because of its reactionary nature, the aristocracy of Cauca has been unable to institute reform measures that might neutralize the
Indian struggle. On the contrary, it has resorted to violent repression as its central strategy. However, this violence has not ended the Indian movement. Instead, the conflicts have grown more acute and Indians have been forced to become better organized. This has led to the radicalizing of the CRIC.
The Initial Group of Colaboradores
The fact that the CRIC was promoted and directed by a group of non-Indian activists, called colaboradores. has been important since its emergence. By 1970, indigenous groups felt great concern regarding the consequences of agrarian reform on the reservations.
Some Indians such as the terrajeros of El Credo and Chi man, began land recovery activities. However, no general organization existed which could take advantage of the opportunities offered by the situation.
The initiative to organize peasants at this time stemmed from the state. The political direction of the organization was disputed by intellectuals and progressive organizations who tried to 118 encourage the peasant organizations to achieve independence from the
State and the adoption of radical demands. Those activists that promoted the CRIC, their political views, and their particular way of handling community organization, were to have great influence on the further development of the CRIC.
In this chapter the initial structure of the CRIC will be analyzed. It should be noted that, from the outset, the organizational process of the CRIC has been directed toward increased Indian participation in leadership, aspiring ultimately to become a federation of cabildos.
President Carlos Lieras adopted a policy of strengthening INCORA by appointing many offices supportive of the agrarian reforms. The most progressive directors continued to lead INCORA during the first years of the Pastrana adminstration. But, when they conflicted with the interests of the most important terratenientes, who organized the "Chicoral Pact" to prevent agrarian reform and repress the peasant movement, they were removed.
People like Carlos Vi 11 ami 1 Chaux, General Director of INCORA and Victor Manuel Calle Patino, Director of the Peasant Organization
Office, supported land recovery and tried to hire progressive, leftist intellectuals as officials (Rivera, 1983 and Zamocs, 1983).
In Cauca, Oscar Agudelo of INCORA, Valle and Juan Jose Torres, director in Cauca, collaborated until the first Assembly of CRIC, but later withdrew their support.
Professionals holding radical political views were hired to work promote agrarian reform and peasant organizations. Without 119 belonging directly to INCORA, they received institutional and economic backing. One of these groups became the nucleus of the
Indian movement in Cauca.
These were not people of the then fashionable le ftis t groups, but were individuals who had contact with Christian organizations at the time of Golconda priests and the United Front, when as a result of the political activity of Father Camilo Torres, radical sectors emerged within the Catholic church.
Although from its inception the group had a global concept of the revolutionary process similar to that of the PCML (a group from which i t tried unsuccessfully to gain support), i t did not have a
"hard line" policy or share the dogmatic and extremist positions which characterized the Colombian left at that time. This permitted
it a great deal of political flexibility and a sense of reality. It was able to re-evaluate its initial concepts and form teams with
local background and perceptions. This was important to the
consolidation of a mass social movement by a population that the
left at that time considered unimportant—the Indian people.
The group in itia lly located in Corinto to work in the northern region, principally in the plains area, since it believed that "the
sharpest, most objective contradictions, susceptible to being
developed by political work were present there" (CRIC, 1973:2). An agricultural proletariat, as well as a large number of minifundistas which were confronted with the problems of expanding sugar plantations and capitalist haciendas was present. 120
The group began by participating in existing conflicts: promoting a strike in the Ucrania sugar mill and instituting the recovery of the hacienda Garcia Abajo in the municipality of
Padilla. At the decisive moment, the workers who were primarily blacks, failed to carry into action the radicalism which they professed at meetings. Only a few peasants in the mountains achieved successful land recovery, and this had little effect upon the later aspects of the struggle.
The inexperience of the activists, a lack of grass-roots support in the region, misunderstanding of the cultural peculiarities of the black population, and the power and experience of the bourgeoise and terratenientes in defending their interests all contributed to these initial failures. Three years later another strike—which also failed was attempted at the El Porvenir sugar mill.
Corinto is an epicenter of radicalism in the northern area. It was the scene of the Liberal party guerrilla movement in the late
1950's. Later, the MRL gained influence. In the 1960s, the area endured an armed struggle. Antonio Larrota returned to Corinto from
Cuba and tried to organize Liberal ex-guerrilleros and was assassinated by one of them. The 1965 kidnapping of Harold Eder, a sugar magnate, in Corinto resulted in increased repression—arrests and tortures which served to increase the peoples' resentment.
While most of the towns close to Indian regions manifested latent conflicts between the town and the Indians, Corinto, with a mixture of black, white, mestizos, and indigenous people, was locked in a struggle that was primarily economic, rather than racial or cultural. 121
When the activists arrived in Corinto, social problems such as human misery and housing problems had become critical. The parish priest, Pedro Leon Rodriguez, former companero of Camilo Torres, supported the pacifist seizure of municipally owned urban lands. On the night of Sept. 9, 1969, four hundred families occupied municipal lands and formed La Colombiana barrio. From that time on, a popular unity movement, with a local and urban orientation, was directed by this priest. The activists supported the Popular Unity movement and attracted the attention of Father Rodriguez and other PU activists.
At the end of 1969, Gustavo Mejia returned to Corinto after serving 68 months in prison. He entered the group and exercised a decisive influence upon its later evolution. Gustavo was ? grass-roots popular leader who had participated as a Liberal party guerrilla and had been a MRL Deputy to the Assembly of Cauca. His energetic defense of popular interests made him a target for repression. A policeman who tried to assassinate him as he left a political debate, was killed in the resulting confusion. Mejia was again sent to prison.
In April of 1970, Popular Unity, directed by Father Pedro Leon, sponsored independent candidates in elections for the Corinto city council, six of whom were elected. This campaign proved politically important for the group, since aside from the victories, it established its independence at a time when the left refused to participate on principle.
The Social Agrarian Front, FRESAGRO, was founded by Gustavo
Mejia in September of the same year. Its objective was to mobilize 122 peasants in land recovery programs and to bring pressure to bear on the Peasant Union officials who, committed to local party politics, were less aggressive than their counterparts at the national level.
As its firs t act, FRESAGRO pressured INCORA to organize cooperative farming in plains lands, similar to that in Jamundi, Valle.
Although its center was in Corinto, FRESAGRO included all of the northern municipalities since Mejia wanted to form a wide political front. The MOIR, the Communist Party and Liberals who had belonged to MRL, were invited to participate. Some MRL lawyers offered legal counseling during the early years of the CRIC. Mejia also tried to attiact and provide political education to former Liberal party guerrilleros. This failed as most were now in the employ of the politicians and were later hired to assassinate the activist leaders.
Political activity in the cordillera put the activists in contact with the indigenous population—with whom Mejia had experience at the time of the Liberal party guerrilla movement and the MRL. The group was convinced of the Paez' willingness to fight and the importance of reservation recovery. Indians accepted
FRESAGRO enthusiastically and by 1970, the Assembly convened from which the CRIC ultimately emerged. A newspaper, "Popular Unity" was published and proved useful in spreading information about both the exploited class and indigenous peoples' struggles. The firs t issue appeared the same day as the founding of the CRIC.
The initial group was committed to the Indian sector, reinforced by local activists who knew the region and had a clear understanding 1 2 3 of the local situation. The group also received the support of
Father Pedro Leon Rodriguez, the firm support of the town of
Corinto, and the participation and experience of the opposition leader, Gustavo Mejia. In practice, it challenged the political divisiveness and ideological dogmatism typical of most political organizations at that time.
The Creation of the CRIC
The organization of FRESAGRO toward the end of 1970, enabled serious activity to begin among the Indians of Corinto, Caloto and
Tori bio, in the northern region of Cauca. FRESAGRO supported the terrajeros of El Credo—threatened with eviction—where they had the backing of the Cabildo.
Three reservations exist in the municipality of Tori bio:
Toribio, Tacueyo and San Francisco, which according to legal title s, cover the entire municipality. Nonetheless, these reservations had been invaded by haciendas; the Indians had been pushed back into the steepest lands and their exploitation as terrajeros had been generalized. All three Cabildos had a history of community defense, however, without the strength of an organized movement they could achieve little. It was useless to appeal to the local authorities who were precisely the ones usurping reservation territory. With the eviction of terrajeros as a result of Law 1 of 1968, and faced with the possible extinction of reservations contemplated in the agrarian reform, these Cabildos, like many others, began to alert communities to prepare for reservation defense. In this way the 124 presence of FRESAGRO was a long awaited opportunity and the indigenous people gave it their support.
In all of the other municipalities of the northern region the majority of reservations had been totally usurped and indigenous communities lived as small property owners on the poorest land, or as minifundistas and terrajeros on haciendas. The terrajeros of El
Credo proposed the firs t Indian assembly—from which the CRIC was to emerge and FRESAGRO was entrusted with its organization.
The municipalities of Silvia, Jambalo and Totoro in the eastern
region of the department had also developed an organizational process which, at the time of the creation of the CRIC, had produced the struggle of the terrajeros of Chiman.
In 1962, a group of Guambiano Indians, terrajeros, as well as minifundistas formed the Agrarian Union of Las Del ici as to defend
themselves from merchants and party bosses of Silvia, and to try to
resolve the problem of land scarcity. The Union was organized to put pressure on the Cabildo which was not showing an interest in
land issues. At that time the Cabildo was controlled by the wealthiest Indians who lived under the influence of politicians and the Church and were, therefore, not interested in land struggles.
The union attracted many people but had little political clarity or organizational experience. In 1964, this Indian group, with counseling from FANAL, bought the San Fernando hacienda with a loan from the Caja Agraria. This bank demanded the formation of a cooperative, "Las Del ici as", which since its conception has become a 125 nucleus for activism. Although there had not yet been land recovery struggles, hacienda owners feared that the union and the cooperative would eventually try to recover lost territory. The union representing the terrajeros did in fact request that INCORA return various haciendas to reservations.
The union increased its activities in other reservations of
Silvia and in the neighboring municipalities of Jambalo and Totoro, and even achieved some influence in Tierradentro and Caldono. In
1970 the Union of Eastern Cauca was constituted.
By this time the influence of the peasant movement could be felt throughout Colombia. Twc yc^rs earlier, the national campaign to form the Peasant Organization had reached Silvia and Jambalo and some groups had been established. The principal demands were land recovery and the abolishment of terraje. Thus began the terrajeros' struggle to recover the hacienda El Chiman which ended successfully in 1971.
From the initial CRIC group, one member was designated to coordinate activities and strategies with INCORA officials who supported the indigenous organizations in the eastern region. Some of these officials became permanent colaboradores in the Indian movement. The activity leading to the formation of peasant unions increased contact between different communities and Cabildos from the municipalities of Silvia, Jambalo and Totoro. The people of the
"La Rosea" foundation also joined in, but later split off.
Indians from the three eastern municipalities also attended the
Assembly on February 24 and presented the proposal to create the
CRIC as a federation of Indian Cabildos. 126
In the North, FRESAGRO, with economic aid from INCORA-Valle, and with the dedicated support of its director, Eduardo Agudelo, began to prepare for the Assembly. INCORA-Cauca also supported this
Assembly, but withdrew its support immediately afterwards. S till, more than two thousand Indians—from Corinto, Caloto, Toribio,
Silvia, Jambalo and Totoro—were gathered together for the firs t time. An initial program was adopted although was later modified and an Executive Committee was elected although it was also modified in the second assembly.
The firs t program included the following points :
1. INCORA would expropriate the haciendas on reservation lands and
give free legal title s to Indian families.
2. Reservations where minifundios existed would be enlarged, in
light of the Agrarian Reform Law in its section concerning
parceling.
3. Law 89 of 1980, which considered Indians minors instead of adult
citizens of the Republic, would be changed.
4. The Indian people would be granted participation in modifying
these laws, since only this group really understands, or can
solve, its problems.
5. The Division of Indian Affairs would be disbanded as it was
considered inoperative.
6. Terraje would be abolished.
As can be seen, with the exception of the 6th point (which became the primary banner of the CRIC) all the other program issues 127 were appeals to the state for concessions. This reflects the official paternalism to which Indians were accustomed, the influence of organizations like FANAL, and the existing paternal image of
INCORA and some of its officials.
INCORA appeared to be one of the principal promoters of the
Assembly—so much so that official vehicles and loudspeakers were used in its organizational activities. At a national level, INCORA was respected since it had demonstrated its willingness to execute agrarian reform. In contrast, the Indians' rejection of the Division of Indian Affairs, the entity which supposedly protected indigenous peoples' interests, showed the lack of orientation this institution had in respect to State politics. This situation is in sharp contrast with some of the Division's activities at the beginning of the 1950s, when i t was under the direction of Dr. Hernandez de Alba, who was a noted indigenist.
The Assembly in Toribio, the First Congress of CRIC, concentrated on agrarian reform which, opened the possibility of reservation land recovery through institutional action. The points of the firs t program proposed neither cultural issues nor defense of the traditional Cabildo organization, which reflected the lack of identification of the specific Indian problem. "It can be seen that we did not truly recognize our problems as Indians, due to the fact that we had learned to organize in the same way as peasant groups, which existed in Cauca before the CRIC. And since at that moment
Indians had not organized—as such—nobody thought that our organizations would work." (Como Nacio El CRIC, 1981. p. 11) 128
In spite of the fact that at that moment land recovery was at its national zenith, the first program did not propose direct action to recover land.
The spirit of the program was not deserving ofh the repression unleashed against the recently created Indigenous organization. In the Assembly, Indians brought accusations against terratenientes and authorities. A Spanish nun denounced mistreatment of Indians in one municipal center. But the pretext for repression brought against the CRIC as a subversive organization was caused by an extremist speech given by an political representative of the left wing of the
Liberal party. After the Assembly the Cabildo of Toribio and Gustavo
Mejia were detained for two months.
The Assembly named the firs t executive committee: Manuel
Transi to Sanchez brother of Jose Gonzalo Sanchez, Indian leader of the 1930's and 1940's, president; Hector Cuchillo of Tacueyo, vice-president, and Antonio Sanchez of Guambia, secretary. The hasty selection of the committee contributed to the group's poor functioning. Activities continued to be coordinated by FRESAGRO and the Peasant Unions.
Given the growing radicalization of peasant struggles, the team of activists proposed to contribute to the strengthening of the ANUC in Cauca. At the second departmental assembly of ANUC, the board of directors was restructured to include progressive and Indian leaders. It was decided to dissolve FRESAGRO and to work within the
Peasant Organization, but without abandoning the idea of a special
Indian organization. 129
When repression lessened, a new assembly was called to reactivate the CRIC, on September 6, 1971, in La Susana, municipality of Toribio. Delegations of Indians from the Central and Southern regions participated in this Assembly which included a realistic analysis of Indian problems and of the most important
Indian leaders. As a result, the program was restructured along more autonomous lines, recognizing the Cabildo as the basis of all organization. Instead of requesting the modification of Law 89, as the firs t assembly had done, this law was accepted and considered in spite of its many defects as a legal framework within which the struggle could be carried out. "
The program, which was approved, and remained unmodified until
1981 when a new point concerning the promotion of Communal Economic
Organizations was included as follows:
1. Recover reservation lands.
2. Enlarge reservations.
3. Strengthen indigenous Cabildos.
4. Reject terraje.
5. Demand knowledge and just applicationof Indian laws.
6. Defend Indian history, language and customs.
7. Prepare Indian teachers to educate in light of the unique
Indian situation and in the respective native language.
An Executive Committee capable of vigorously initiating this program was elected. Those designated were: Julio Tunubala, leader of the Chiman terrajeros and representative of the eastern region. 130 president; Antonio Mestizo, of the northern region (who later resigned and was replaced by Trino Morales), vice-president; and
Juan Gregorio Palechor, of the southern region.
It was agreed that the CRIC would be guided by a Board of
Directors, formed by two representatives of each community, preferably Cabildo members, and would meet periodically. However, many Cabildos were reticent to participate in the CRIC.
From the Assembly of La Susana, the CRIC began to pressure official entities into action to resolve State related problems.
Two important studies were made which corroborated the veracity of
Indian accusations: "Indian Reservations: their Reality and the Law" by Fabian Diaz Aristizabal (Diaz, 1976) and a report by the
Agrarian Procuator, Carlos Pinzon Villamil (Pinzon, 1972).
Both studies asserted the right of indigenous communities to the totality of their reservation territories and denounced the fraudulent methods used by non-Indians to appropriate reservation lands. These documents, especially Villamil's, were widely circulated in Indian communities. To Indians, these documents reinforced their conviction of the legality of their demands and could be used as tools in their legal struggle. Supported by these documents, a commission traveled to Bogota on March 23, 1972, to meet with government representatives from whom they obtained a certificate in which the government recognized that reservation lands had been usurped and promised to provide "immediate solutions". This certificate was signed by the Governor of Cauca and representatives of INCORA, the Ministry of Government and the 1 3 1
Ministry of Agriculture. "The minutes of this meeting helped to continue mobilization of Indian communities by showing that the authorities recognized the legality of their claims, even when nothing was done to reverse the situation" (CRIC, 1975:3).
The First Land Recoveries
The firs t result of the Assembly of La Susana, or the Second
Congress of the CRIC, was the spark it provided to the land recovery initiatives of the terrajeros in El Credo and Chiman and the initiation of recoveries in Paniquita. (See annex: Recoveries in
Indian Regions of Cauca and Map of Reservations and Recoveries.)
The terrajeros of El Credo, reassured of their rights to the land and stimulated by the support of growing mass forces, rejected the offer of credit made by INCORA to buy the hacienda and not only refused to continue paying terraje, but also refused to pay for land from which they were to be evicted. The patron could not evict them and although recognition by INCORA was slow, the indigenous community occupied the land de facto and decided to annex it to the reservation of Tacueyo and form part of its Cabildo.
For their part, the terrajeros of Chiman, supported by the companeros who had organized in the cooperative of Las Del ici as, were pressuring the owner of the hacienda to negotiate. Finally, toward the end of 1971—and only after many Indians were repeatedly jailed—this land was delivered into Indian hands as a result of
INCORA negotiations. A communal business was formed which is still functioning today. 132
Because of the size of the "family units", INCORA decided that only 24 of the 48 terrajero families could form part of the communal business. This engendered resentment among Indians of the
reservation against those in the communal business, and caused the majority of Guambianos to remain at the margin of the struggle where they were troubled by rivalries between local leaders and political groups which attacked the CRIC. The CRIC gave all its support to
Julio Tunubala, who besides being the president of the CRIC, was also president of the communal enterprise. Errors were committed, such as backing Julio’s bossism, for which the CRIC suffered the consequences and had to remove him as president in March, 1975. His companeros in the communal enterprise also expelled him and sent him to prison.
Paniquita, a reservation surrounded by large haciendas of the
Popayan aristocracy, had been reduced to 205 hectares in which more
than 100 families subsisted. The situation was further aggravated as almost all the land was planted in "fique", which meant that food
stuffs had to be acquired in the market. Due to the lack of land,
residents of Paniquita had been leaving the reservation to settle other areas since the beginning of the century. Therefore,
Paniquita was one of the reservations most desperately in need of
land recovery. The contrast between the latifundio and the minifundio (haciendas dedicated to extensive cattle production as opposed to intensive production of one market crop) constituted a
situation typical of those in which INCORA intervened. The Cabildo formalized petitions before the Institute, but having received no 133 official response and motivated by their participation in the congress in La Susana, the indigenous community decided to recover the haciendas of San Antonio and La Concordia. At the end of one year during which Indians were jailed a number of times--the community triumphed and the communal enterprise of San Antonio-La
Concordia was founded with 38 members on 900 hectares which had been recovered, quadrupling the reservation's size.
Negotiating with INCORA, the Indian community promised to pay the value of this land. The Institute legalized the Indians' possession and assisted in the formation of a communal enterprise and conceded credit and technical assistance to the project. The community was to institute, from that moment on, important organizational and economic support for future land recovery efforts.
Expansion of the CRIC
At the end of 1971, positive factors including a definite program which permitted the CRIC to summarize principal Indian demands, an Executive Committee formed of experienced leaders, a team of activists willing to concentrate its talents on organizing the Indian sector, and momentum derived from its initial triumphs permitted the CRIC to move into hitherto un-organized areas.
The Indian census of 1972 presented an opportunity to work in all of the indigenous regions by serving as the principal census organization. By the time this census was completed, extensive coverage of the Indian regions had been achieved. This permitted 134
campaign for land recovery, Cabildo reconstruction and mass mobilization. This had the effect of making the CRIC stand out.
The activities of the CRIC threatened the terrateniente and political interests, and these sectors reacted violently. Local assassins, the army, and the police were mobilized against the
Indian organization. This continued a long-standing history of repression that has dogged the CRIC since its inception.
The Indian Census: 1972
In 1972 the CRIC was hired by INCORA and DANE to carry out a census of indigenous communities. The selection of the CRIC to carry out this census was the object of conflict within both Incoda and
Dane, between politicians of Cauca, and even within the CRIC.
INCORA and DANE were confronted with the risk of contracting an organization which provoked great opposition from the authorities of
Cauca. But, on the other hand, CRIC could be effective in carrying out the census. Both INCORA and DANE had a favorable attitude toward the CRIC.
For the CRIC, the decision to accept this contract involved risks. As a union organization, i t was considered dangerous to represent the government in an activity which was highly unpopular in indigenous communities. The Indian population feared that the census would be used to impose taxes and/or dissolve reservations.
But on the other hand, the census gave the CRIC an opportunity to penetrate all of the indigenous communities, learn firs t hand about 1 3 5 their situations and divulge its organizational program. Although the CRIC team had many doubts, it was finally decided to utilize the opportunity presented by the state.
The census required nearly all of the CRIC's resources. The firs t step was to promote the census in indigenous communities and organize a group of fifty Indian interviewers. Since Indians with even a minimum of schooling were hard to find. Politicians of Cauca tried to have the contract cancelled, alleging that the census would be used to spread the objectives of the CRIC and to divulge the memorandum of the Agrarian Procurator. At that time Conservative and
Liberal party politicians exercised almost total hegemony over the indigenous population and the CRIC's penetration was very threatening to them. Their opposition was so fierce that presidential intervention was needed to ensure that the census was carried out as planned. The opposition of politicians and clerics was such that the census only achieved a coverage of 50%.
A four-day technical course was organized to prepare interviewers both in census activities and in spreading the objectives of the Indian Movement. At the community level, the census promoted meetings in which the peoples' demands where aired and the CRIC's objectives were disseminated. The coordination of both technical and political aspects was entrusted to members of a team which would present a socio-economic report on each reservation where the census was made. The objectives were to gain an overall picture of the Indian problem, its regional peculiarities and necessities and to achieve widespread political consciousness. 135
Although the census was rejected on some reservations, the
CRIC's participation permitted i t to begin activity in new regions like Tierradentro and the eastern area of Cauca which had not yet been organized. The penetration of Tierradentro was particularity important since the principal centers of the Paez population was in this area. Organizational activities were the least successful in the southern region, with its five reservations—Caquiona,
Pancitara, San Sebastian, Guachicono and Rioblanco. The indigenous population in this area has preserved the Cabildo tradition but lost its native language long ago and considers itself "civilized". In contrast with the north-eastern reservations, there are no haciendas within the reservations. Economic and cultural problems are also different than in other areas of Cauca, which made this region easy for traditional politicians to absorb. During its first twelve years, the CRIC had only marginal influence in this region. Only recently have inroads been made, but without any systematic organization as yet.
This census also permitted the recruitment of new leadership and the evaluation of both outsider and indigenous activists' abilities, not only in political discourse, but also in practical organizational action. The financial support provided by the 1972 census gave CRIC's precarious financial situation a boost. "At the end of 1972 almost all the conditions necessary for the extension, consolidation and strengthening of organizational work had been fulfilled and important existing demands—as well as new ones detected by census coordinators—began to be pushed forward" (CRIC,
1976:14). 1 3 7
In spite of the intensity of census work, efforts were also
directed toward organizing strong indigenous participation in the
National Peasant March promoted by ANUC to be held in September.
The ANUC organized peasants from all parts of the country in a march
on Bogota in response to repressive, divisionist policies initiated
as a result of the "Chicoral Pact" of January, 1972. The ANUC
formally broke off its relations with the government, which began to
support the "Armenia Line" of leaders expelled from the "Sincelejo
Line" which tried to nullify representation to radical leaders.
Peasants from Narino, Putumayo and Cauca were to be concentrated
in Popayan. But, throughout the country the march was impeded by
the authorities and the peasants from Popayan only reached Tunia, a
few kilometers away, before being dispersed by the army.
Due to the ANUC Executive Committee's poor organization of the
march and the lack of participation of the Cauca ANUC the only
representation of peasants from Cauca were the Indians of the CRIC.
This marked the beginning of a r if t between the two groups. This
conflict continued to worsen as the Executive Committee of ANUC
steadily lost influence over its peasant base and began maneuvering
to seize the control of the Indian movement.
Political Education and Organizational Development
The spreading of the CRIC to the majority of Indian communities as a result of the firs t assemblies and the census, necessitated the formation of an Indian staff to respond to the multiple organizational tasks which emerged. 1 3 8
The negative experiences of the firs t theoretical courses pointed up the CRIC's need to redefine their basic philosophy and methodology. Leadership would develop slowly, depending on the consolidation which the organization could achieve. An awareness arose that only grass roots organizational work would reveal the
Indians most prepared for leadership positions. Elementary level courses could then be adapted for their audience, and the leadership would grow with the organization of the masses. "The CRIC's job is not to create leaders: CRIC's work is to educate so that i t is the totality of the indigenous community which directs the problem, those who direct the land recoveries and the struggle in Cauca. This is our job as an organization" (Speech by CRIC's president. May,
1976).
It can then be seen that the dialectic relationship between leadership and grass-roots support was defined from the grass-roots perspective; and the relationship between theory and practice, from the perspective of practice.
General illiteracy was one of the principal factors limiting preparation. It was necessary to produce very simple texts which could be used by those who knew how to read at all. Pamphlet #1,
"Our Struggle Yesterday and Today" was published for use in firs t level courses, and defined: what it means to be peasants, what it means to be Indians, the ancestral struggle, and the emergence of the CRIC. This pamphlet was widely distributed in indigenous communities. "Enough!" was developed for second level courses and 1 3 9
offered more challenging information. In following months. Pamphlet
#2, "How to Organize", and two folders, "Our Struggle is Your
Struggle" and "Towards Indian Unity" were produced.
The courses started with the basic analysis of real, concrete
problems of indigenous communities, treating them in a simple way
which could be understood by the majority of Indians. Gradually,
the courses and the ideas they covered, became progressively more
complex. They tried to ensure that political education advanced not only among a small group of leaders, but that it was shared within
the grass-roots organization.
The courses were not theoretical, rather they were intimately
related to the Indian movement. This prevented the formation of manipulative "leaders" using a revolutionary jargon not understood
by the masses.
These courses did not ensure the preparation of an Indian staff
capable of conducting political education in the communities as
quickly as was needed. The indigenous communities—accustomed to
"white" politicians speaking on these subjects, found it hard to
accept Indians leading these meetings. Much of the organizational
work continued to be carried out by the activists. Slowly Indian
leaders with practical experience in political education and
organizational activities began to emerge. At the same time, the
communities became more confident of their own leadership.
In general, the direction of the CRIC rested with a team of
activists working together with Indians of the Executive Committee.
Group orientation fell principally to the more politically advanced 140 activists. The participation of Indian leaders in the political orientation would also be the result of a process of practice and constant analysis of the indigenous movement. Of the original three members of the Executive Committee, Trino Morales and Juan Gregorio
Palechor have continued permanently at leadership levels. Julio
Tunubala was expelled from the Organization in March, 1975, and replaced by Marcos Anibal Avirama who is currently the leader.
Organization at a grass-roots level consisted of small local meetings under the guidance of each activist. After the census, each activist was responsible for carrying out organizational activities in a specific region. Initially, meetings were attended by Indians who were discontented and resentful of local politicians, terratenientes, or clergy. Reference was made in these meetings to the Violencia and the history of the indigenous communities. Local problems, poverty, lack of public services, exploitation by merchants and terratenientes of the region, and deceitful politicians were discussed. Problems specific to each region were discussed and immediate problems which represented class conflicts, but were not perceived as such by the Indians, were analyzed. For example, problems with politicians were not at firs t seen as expressions of policies of the dominant class against the poor majority, but as dishonesty in one politician or another, which was counteracted by supporting a different politician. It was very difficult to speak against the Liberal party, and even after some time, many people continued to identify with, and vote for, one of the traditional political parties. 141
In the initial stages of political consciousness-raising,
conflicts between rich and poor, Indian and white were presented.
Educational activities began by reiterating the need to unite not only Indians, but all poor of other social sectors with similar
problems. However, even the simple slogan of union and organization of the poor was weakened by many disagreements among the people.
Confronting these problems was a delicate task which could easily
endanger the work being carried out. Depending upon the
circumstances and the activists previous work, little by little , open criticism of the dominant class would be achieved. But, most
frequently, indirect allusion was preferred. In the beginning, the activists' insecurity made constructive criticism difficult. Often
latent hostilities persisted and if they did not receive prompt, proper handling, sooner or later they produced negative results.
Julio Tunubala maintained his authoritarian, party-boss attitudes, a poor relationship with companeros, and tended to use
his position for personal gain until i t was finally necessary to
expel him from the organization.
The preparation of Indian leadership was too slow to be a short
term solution for organizational activity. The team of activists was limited and was severely affected by the death of Gustavo Mejia
in March, 1974. Mejia was one of the group's most important
leaders. After his death, the CRIC began to enlist persons with
political experience. Some member of the PC(ML) of Cauca were
recruited, but in a short time this political union was broken. 142
The ML, most of whose militants were students like other leftist groups at that time, considered the CRIC an organization without political direction. In effect, the CRIC was one of the few organizations which had not been contaminated by the proliferation of "Correct Lines" which mechanically adhered to one model of socialist revolution or another. It did not take part in international alignments favoring the USSR or China. It did not consider electoral participation or abstention as a question of principle; did not show particular political radicalism; and in work with Indians preferred analysis of concrete problems rather than
"political discourse" and revolutionary jargon.
The ML was not suited to participation in the process which the
CRIC had patiently developed. Rather the ML wanted to seize power positions by defaming existing directors. The final conflict was a result of an attempt to use the Indian movement to institute the strategies designed by the PCML at a national level in Cauca. The original directors of the CRIC would not consent to this and considered these strategies extremely dangerous, as they alluded to the imminence of class warfare and sought to accelerate this process. The ML did not, however, interest itself in concrete
Indian issues.
Before the CRIC leadership could repudiate the ML, some communities, such as Coconuco, had already turned their backs on their ideology. From then on the PCML opposed the CRIC vigorously and was at times more dangerous than official repression. 143
One of the most divisive aspects of the sectarian organizations
of that time was the notion that those who did not belong to them
had to be combatted as an obstacle to revolution. Such vehemence
calmed towards the end of 1975 when failures of the peasant movement
at the national level and internal dissention weakened them.
In mid-1975, when all efforts were concentrated upon the
preparation of the Fourth Congress, a divisionist attempt emerged in
the northern region, promoted by one of the newcomers who was
responsible for coordination of this area. His criticisms were
based on the CRIC's supposed lack of political formation and also on
aspects of its organization. This person wanted to use the Congress
to change the CRIC's directors, but his arguments were reduced to personal attacks directed at certain leaders. The Congress rejected
this attempt and left his adherents outcast.
These typical examples of extreme leftist organization behavior toward mass social movements (Zamocs, 1983) caused the CRIC to be wary of le ftis t groups, to jealously guard its autonomy, and, ultimately, to prefer a slower development process, based on its own
strengths which were deeply rooted in the Indian experience. Work
in the northern region was reorganized, integrating this area with
other regions, and implementing greater coordination to overcome the
localism which predominated in some areas.
After the Fourth Congress, political preparation courses were
intensified and part of the Indian leadership began to participate
in organizational activities outside of its own communities. 144
The Land Recovery Struggle
In the period between the census and the Fourth Congress,
important land recovery was made, especially in Coconuco. The 350
hectare hacienda "Cobalo"—property of the Conciliary Seminary of
Popayan, was occupied in 1972.
Coconuco was a small reservation (900 hectares), of very steep
land, surrounded by latifundios dedicated to dairy and cattle production. These belonged to the Valencia, Iragorri, Arboleda,
Munoz, and Angulo families, all powerful members of the aristocracy. Their haciendas were worked by terrajeros of the
indigenous community. Beginning in 1964 a number of modern, capitalist haciendas dedicated to intensive potato cultivation and milk production were started, directed by the Zambranos and
Collazos. These families did not belong to the aristocracy, but were upwardly mobile, and were assimilated into the dominant class.
For the next decade the community, which was the principal labor source, experienced intense proletarian and capitalist production.
The majority of the 500 salaried workers who labored in the haciendas were Indians from the reservation. On the traditional haciendas, the production relationship was also changing and terrajero labor was being replaced by wage earners.
Before the formation of the CRIC some attempts at organization had been made: including a strike against the hacienda Patugo, owned by Adolfo Zambrano, which demanded wage increase; the
expulsion of people who did not belong to the community or to the
Cabildo; and unsuccessful attempts were made to recover a lot in the 145 hacienda of La Estrella and some hot springs, held by the municipal government which were a local tourist attraction. This last conflict provoked antagonism which continued for some time between the indigenous community and townspeople.
In 1972, during the census activity, Indian leaders arrived in
Coconuco. Initially the community was reluctant to accept them because there was fear that the census would lead to the parceling of reservations. Julio Tunubala was responsible for the region and organized a study group using the GRIG Pamphlet No. 1. "One or two pages gave us enough discussion material for an entire evening".
(Personal Interviews). The GRIG participated in a search for the original Coconuco reservation title , which proved that the haciendas of Gobalo, La Estrella and part of Canaan belonged to the reservation (the other part of Canaan was part of the Purace reservation title ). Before beginning the struggle for land recovery, members of the community visited recovered territory in El
Credo, Chiman and Paniquita. The recovery of Cobalo began November
13, 1972, and the Church mobilized the police to evict Indians who were jailed on 23 different occasions.
"The number of Indians arrested was 20, 60, 100 and on one occasion reached 230, counting women and children. Finally, arresting them became a problem, since the directors of jails did not want to receive more people from Coconuco. The last time the
Indians were jailed they had to go hungry for several days in the
Popayan ja il, as the budget for them had been exhausted" (CRIC,
1981:21). 145
Accusations against the Church both at the national and international level pressured them for a solution to problem. While the solidarity of other Indian communities produced food and money to support prisoners' families. Accusations made public in newspapers, on radio, in round table discussions, at conferences in unions and universities, were very damaging to the Church. At this time the Third Congress of the CRIC, in Silvia, mobilized public opinion. Messages from different countries put increased pressure on the church. The Indians even sent a letter to the Pope! On
December 16, 1973, after one year of struggle, the hacienda was
formally given back to the Indians. Only a few days before this decision was made, the Bishop of Popayan had visited Cobalo and the
indigenous community had surrounded him while the police looked on without taking action. At that moment, the Bishop promised that the hacienda would be returned to the reservation. The communal enterprise of Cobalo was constituted on recovered land.
The much publicized recovery of Cobalo and the impulse given to the Indian movement in the Congress of Silvia paved the way for a great surge of land recoveries in the majority of indigenous communities.
In the North, where before the creation of the CRIC the initial group of activists had achieved some land recovery in peasant areas, the Indian land recovery campaign began in 1972, in Corinto, Caloto,
Toribio and Santander. In 1973, on the Jamblao reservation, the village of Zumbico, which paid special taxes to the University
Hospital of Popayan, refused to continue paying these taxes and was 147 integrated into the reservation. In Jambalo, struggles were also evident in Barondillo, Epiro and La Floresta. In Paniquita the communal enterprise of San Antonio-La Concordia supported land recovery in Las Del ici as, El Barro and Campo Alegre. The struggle by ex-terrajeros also began in the San Ignacio and San Isidro haciendas in 1972, and in El Canelo in 1974. All three are located in the municipality of Popayan. Land recovery was also achieved in
Caldono. In mid-1974 the indigenous community of Purace initiated litigation against the sulfur mines of the area, which instead of benefiting the inhabitants of the region, damaged the environment of large portions of reservation land.
By the Fourth Congress of the CRIC, about five thousand hectares had been recovered, which contrasted with eight thousand which
INCORA had negotiated in ten years. The occupation of land was not limited to reservations which had been eliminated or had part of their territory expropriated, but also it was extended to other areas where reservations did not exist, but an indigenous community did exist as terrajeros or extremely poor parcel owners. This was the case of Indians in San Isidro, San Ignacio and El Canelo or of those who migrated to the western cordillera, as well as the majority of the communities in the northern region. The situation of Las Del ici as, in the municipality of Buenos Aires, also emerged.
In all of these cases Cabildos were organized to direct land recovery campaigns.
The concept of "invading" land has never been accepted by the
CRIC. The occupation of land outside the limits of the reservations 148 or where reservations never existed, situations judicially considered invasion, have been justified with the argument that apart from the dire necessity, these lands were originally Indian, as archaeological remains and oral tradition testify. Present day
Indians have the right to reclaim this territory, even if the ancestors which inhabited it were not of their ethnic group.
The case of Las Del ici as, in Buenos Aires, for example, illustrates this situation: the majority of Indians in the area came from Caldono. As far as can be determined. Las Del ici as was never part of a reservation (to date it has not been legally recognized), but when Indians decided to recover this land they not only chose the term reservation, but also proposed the name be changed to
Piedra Mono-Juan Tama Reservation. The first part of this name refers to some petroglyphs found in this territory which are interpreted as depicting "monos" or monkeys. These stones are used to demonstrate that this has been indigenous territory. Juan Tama refers to the Chief who in reality or mythology was the ruler of all the land inhabited by the Paez. The legitimacy of the land recovery struggle rests in the fact that "these lands belong to us because they were our ancestors'". The "need for land" has not necessarily been the principal motivation for this struggle, since part of recovered land has not been put into production. Even less important is the concept of "Land for those who work it", a slogan, which in spite of the contact with ANUC, has never been meaningful for the CRIC. 1 4 9
More than the dependence upon judicial documents or "titles"
which demonstrate the past or present existence of reservations, the
reality which sustains the land recovery struggle is the existence of communities which have maintained their indigenous identity and
consider themselves heirs to their ancestors' material and cultural
heritage.
Communal Activities
Since its formation the GRIG has taken a firm stand regarding the communal character of recovered territory and impeding at all
cost the parceling of this land. It maintains that recovered land must be reincorporated into reservations and be subject to the authority of the Cabildo.
Communal action has been utilized by the Cabildos, even before the formation of the CRIC, to defend endangered territory, as well as for land recovery. The Cabildo has also been an expression of
indigenous culture and is therefore an integral part of the cultural recovery proposed at the beginning of the Indian movement.
Communal utilization of recovered lands is justified by the fact that the struggle to recover them was sustained by common effort.
Many land recoveries, especially where the enemy was very strong or
the communities very weak or without Cabildo support, were possible
due to the participation of Indians from other regions. Without personal benefit and in spite of risks and difficulties, these
Indians have understood each recovery to be important in the
struggle of all indigenous people. 150
Communal action, as a mechanism of territorial defense, has a
political function: "Communal action is an arm of our struggle and
organization" (CRIC, 1980 b).
The CRIC attempts to perpetuate the forces which emerge in land
recovery operations or community enterprises so that they become
permanent organizational structures. Communal activities are also
seen as a practical instrument of grass-roots political education
and as a source of leaders.
During this period, INCORA proposed, at the national level, that
lands received by peasants be worked as communal enterprises. This
proposal was also accepted by the CRIC for recovered reservation
lands. The model of communal production developed in countries like
Israel. Chile and Brasil was proposed by IICA-CIRA a group which
lent technical assistance to INCORA. The state considered communal
enterprises as a useful mechanism to provide technical assistance and planned development in mi ni fundio regions and to encourage a
capitalistic agricultural structure. Multinational banks also pressured for the conformation of organizations for communal production.
These communal efforts produced very contradictory results. The
enterprises of INCORA constituted one of its partial successes,
especially in Cauca. They thereby justified, at least in part, the
existence of INCORA, since in the area of reform of land ownership
structures, its activities were of little significance.
The peasant organizations and also the CRIC accepted the
communal enterprises as a means of consolidating organizational 151
structures and as a source of funds. For the indigenous population,
communal enterprises constituted a form of legitimizing recovered
territory and of obtaining credit and technical assistance for
production.
INCORA considered economic aspects to be more important than
organizational or political aspects. This over-emphasis on economic
matters, and INCORA*s bureaucratic management and control over
financial, planning and market decisions in the communal enterprises
led to many failures. INCORA*s intervention sublimated communal
activities to economic-busi ness objectives; introduced standardized
organizational systems which, in the case of Cauca, did not f it the
nature of indigenous communal labors; and budgeted for unnecessary
items or bought too many items at a time which were difficult for
affiliates to handle. This led many enterprises to fail while others, successful economically, resulted in a loss of Indian
autonomy, causing them to distance themselves from their original
communities, reject Cabildo authority, and abandon the struggle.
This was especially true in the Coconuco and Northern region enterprises where economic interests, personal benefit, and a capitalistic approach, supplanted the original intent. These
enterprises abandoned the struggle, dedicated themselves to business and competed among themselves. Some gradually increased the areas of **Pancoger** small plots of land used for individual production) to the detriment of communal areas, which were ultimately parceled.
Those enterprises in which the CRIC achieved autonomy from
INCORA reaffirmed CRIC*s political objectives, and continued to be 152 active in the Indian struggle. Various communal enterprises were formed which rejected official intervention and have tried to implement different development strategies. The ideal structure to assure the following goals has still not been found but the main principles leading to these goals is understood: work recovered lands in an economically efficient manner, strengthen organizational structures not only at a production but also at a reservation level, and advance the ideals of the Indian movement.
Reinstatement of Cabildos
An important step in the Indian struggle at this stage was the reorganization of those Cabildos which had disappeared when their respective reservations were dissolved and where the majority of the population s till preserved its identity as an indigenous community. 153
TABLE NO. 2
CABILDOS REINSTATED
CABILDO MUNICIPALITY DATE OF RECON STRUCTION
Caldono (Plan Zuniga) Caldono May 4, 1973 La Aur ora Santander May 13, 1973 Los Quingos Moral es Nov. 13, 1973 Media Naranja Cori nto Feb.. 1974 Santa Helena Cori nto July 1, 1974 Huellas Caloto July 23, 1974 La Cilia Miranda 1974 Canoas Santander 1974 Guanacas Inza Feb., 1976 Las Del ici as Buenos Aires July, 1976 Novirao Tototro 1980 Quintana Popayan 1982
Source: CRIC, 1980 b:24
Cabildo reconstruction was the result of making indigenous
communities aware of their rights to ancestral territories, some
legally recognized from colonial times. The consequences of Cabildo
and reservation dissolution could be easily seen: loss of community
cohesion, lack of organization, lack of protection for Indian
families, and loss of land. Dissolved reservations were invaded by
colonos and hacienda owners and Indians were victims of fraud and
violence, and their individual claims carried no weight with
authorities. Therefore, these Cabildos were reborn with the
objective of directing their communities' struggles to recover lost
lands and reconstruct their former reservations.
Large assemblies, attended by delegates from different
reservations, convened to discuss Cabildo reconstruction. These assemblies improved the level of consciousness in the Indian masses 154 and reinforced their commitment to the struggle- Although municipal mayors refused to certify of Cabildo elections (required by Law 89,
Article 10, Chapter II), these were recognized, de facto, by the assemblies which assumed legal authority in the communities.
Assemblies were also organized to reactivate Cabildos and to protest against mayors who tried to ignore elected representatives or impose easily manipulated.
The strengthening of Cabildos and the land recovery struggle, caused new conflicts. A growing number of Indians were rejecting their identity and acquiring economic, social, cultural and ideological characteristics which distinguished it from the indigenous mass. For them, the idea of "returning to the reservation" and living under the Cabildo authority was unacceptable. This sector opposed Indian organization. Poor peasants perceived the idea of reservation reconstruction as threatening their small property holdings. The political backwardness of these regions and the virulence with which the
Indian movement began, clouded the class identity shared by poor peasants and Indians, making the movement appear, initially, anti-peasant. The reconstruction of reservations affected the
interests of a sector of relatively wealthy peasants and Indians who
seized the land of reservations when they were parceled or at the time of the Violencia (1950's). In fact, land recovery operations were directed against this group.
Municipal authorities considered reservation reconstruction as a reduction of their budgets, since reservation lands were exempted 155 from taxes. This constituted an additional motive for their hostility toward the Indian movement. The existence of Cabildos committed to the struggle, especially like the newly constituted ones, inhibited the political manipulation and economic exploitation of Indians, which was easier to achieve when there was no group to organize and protect them.
There was a proliferation of paid assassins in the region. The
Indian movement had an abundance of enemies, the majority of which lacked sufficient political power to obtain official repression on their behalf and who then resorted to private thugs and killers.
Mobilizations
Mass mobilizations have characterized the Indian movement since the creation of the CRIC. They have taken the form of congresses, assemblies, demonstrations, and marches. These were seen as a means of agitating for CRIC's objectives, pressuring the government and formulating public accusations. The greatest surge of mass mobilizations was in the period between the census (1972) and the
Fourth Congress.
The assembly of Silvia—the Third Congress of the CRIC, held
July 15, 1973, was extremely important. Four thousand Indians demonstrated the success achieved by the political organization developed within the framework of the census. Tierradentro was in itia lly chosen as the location for this assembly, but Monsenor
Enrique Vallejo, the main representative of the Catholic Church in the region, and Victor Mosquera Chaux, one of the most powerful 155 politicians in Cauca, considering the area opposed the location considering the area their own private territory. Three days before the date of the assembly, after meetings between the governor of
Cauca and the directors of the CRIC, the location was changed to
Silvia.
National press coverage of this assembly gave the CRIC recognition as an independent Indian organization, with no ties to the government, political parties, or the clergy. Before the meeting in Silvia, organizational conditions were difficult for the
CRIC, since it was accused of being a subversive group. However, the publicity given to this congress permitted the CRIC to work more freely, making open repression more difficult.
The assembly in Silvia actually had a national character, since besides the indigenous population of Cauca, delegates from the
Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, Guajira, Putumayo and Narino attended. One delegate also came from Ecuador. However, the delegation from tribes of the United States could not attend. So, besides strengthening the movement in Cauca and giving a final blow to terraje, this congress initiated long term activities leading towards the formation of a national Indian movement.
From this time, on delegations of CRIC members were sent to different Indian regions of Colombia. The next step was the meeting of delegates from various regions on October 12, 1973, to celebrate the Week of Solidarity with the Peasant Indian Struggle, in
Medellin. The objective of this meeting was to reject the "National
Meeting" sponsored by ASCOIN (Colombian Indigenist Association)-in 157 which the Church tried to pressure for the renovation of the
Concordance with Rome and the Missions agreement which guaranteed its hegemony in Indian territory (Secretaria de Indigenes, 1973).
Then came participation in the Indian Commission of the Third
Congress of ANUC in September, 1974, in which 450 delegates of 22 indigenous communities from different regions of Colombia were gathered (Secretaria de Indigenes, 1974).
The Silvia Assembly the most important expression of the CRIC's political activity and had a profound impact on the mass mobilization of Indian communities.
During this period the colaboradores' activities in villages were directed toward preparing regional assemblies. The indigenous population, assembled en mass, organized, carrying flags, shouting slogans and giving speeches in both Spanish and native languages, had a great impact upon enemies and on non-Indians in the towns where these assemblies were held. These mobilizations were the
Indians' principal means of political expression from the beginning of the movement until the end of 1975. Even today they continue to be used sporadically, especially to protest the assassination of
Indians.
Mass assemblies symbolized the rebirth and expansion of the indigenous movement, giving voice to demands carried down from colonial times. The Indians' expression of their rebellion, in their own language, face to face with their enemies, played a significant role in the recovery of a long-sublimated identity and personality. Mass support helped reinforce the rescue of cultural 158 values and strengthen the personality of the indigenous population at a moment when it seemed destined to extinction.
In the assemblies, frequent reference was made to the exploitation suffered by the indigenous population from the time of the Spanish invasion. Indians were remembered as free, autonomous people, owners of the lands for which they were fighting. The law
(Law 89 of 1890) was often cited, lending legality to the present struggles. Mobilizations also served to make "accusations against authorities, terratenientes, clergy, merchants and other enemies; repression, eviction from the land, misery, lack of education, health, roads, and other services, as well as cultural oppression were denounced. Mosquera Chaux and monsenor Arce Vivas, as central figures of economic and cultural oppression became the principal targets" (CRIC, 1980:173).
Mobilizations contributed to broadening the perspectives of
Indians at a local, regional, national and even international levels; the recognition of the similarity of problems among Indian groups and other exploited sectors; and the identification of not only the immediate enemy, but also the fundamental one.
Together with short courses and discussion meetings, large assemblies became an important educational tool in the formation of organizational leadership. "For this reason, communities see the
CRIC not so much as a teacher but as a context within which an effective education, adequate to their needs, is made possible."
(CRIC, 1976:11). 1 5 9
Mass assemblies stimulated the preparation of Indian spokesmen in most communities. These Indians were forced to overcome their fear of speaking in public and to learn to organize ideas that expressed the community's situation and understanding of the struggle. Their ideological constructions improved with practice in public presentations and listening to other delegates. They also made the speaker's role more dynamic within the community.
Indians designated to represent the CRIC in meetings of other organizations expressed themselves more clearly now, and they pressured the CRIC to stimulate political education.
One particularly important method of mobilization throughout the CRIC's history has been mass demonstration to protest against repression—especially assassination—and to the commemoration of anniversaries. This kind of mass demonstration offsets intimidation. It also provides Indians with the opportunity to strengthen their commitment, in spite of sacrifices.
On March 10, 1974, in Corinto, an assembly was held to pay homage to the memory of Gustavo Mejia, founder of the CRIC and one of its most important leaders. About five thousand Indians from the department of Cauca gathered for a symbolic burial. For the following five years, the anniversary of his death was celebrated in
Corinto. Although he was not Indian, Gustavo Mejia became a symbol of this struggle.
Another mobilization which deserves mention is the demonstration in Popayan, on September 17, 1974, in which workers from Cauca, Valle and Marino marched in support of the community of 160
Purace and the workers of the sulfur mine "Industries Purace".
Exploitation of this mine had begun 28 years earlier and 600
hectares of reservation had been usurped by the mining company.
Poor industrial safety standards had resulted in the deaths of four workers in the previous three years. Pollution was damaging for workers, for the general population, animals, crops, soil, and water.
In 1973, the community presented a petition to the company demanding pollution control, cancellation of projected open pit mining, monetary compensation for the community, and preference in employment for community members. Union leaders who supported the petition were fired. In reaction, the workers went on strike July
30 and the community blocked the road to prevent the transport of
sulfur.
Representatives of the Cabildo and the union formed a committee to organize the protest. The alliance between workers and Indians proved a new method of struggle and was widely discussed in the
indigenous communities. Three days after the demonstration in
Popayan, an agreement was signed before the governor of Cauca in which a 30-day period was established to resolve these problems and pay indemnities.
Repression
Since its beginning the CRIC has been the object of
repression. However, with the increase of land recovery initiatives, the reconstruction of Cabildos and mass mobilizations, repression became more severe. Between 1973 and 1975, nineteen CRIC 161
members were assassinated: 5 In Corinto, 3 in Caloto, 2 in
Santander, 3 in Jambalo and 6 others in different reservations.
Especially important was the murder of Gustavo Mejia, one of the
founders of CRIC and its most important leader, in Corinto, on March
1. 1974.
The firs t ten of the above assassinations took place in the
northern region which had the longest history of violence.
Militarization of this area was constant and increased with the .
kidnapping of the Dutch consul, Eric Leupin. Indians of this area were imprisoned and tortured, ostensibly as part of the
anti-guerrilla campaign: "There is overwhelming evidence from these
areas (Indian regions of Cauca) which proves that the majority of
victims of repression are not members of guerrilla groups but
unarmed civilians." (Reyes, 1979:8). Table 3 shows the number of
Indian arrests between August and December of 1975 .
TABLE 3 INDIAN ARRESTS, AUGUST - DECEMBER, 1975
TOWN NUMBER OF ARRESTS Cori nto 18 Caloto 17 Tori bio 2 La Aurora 16 San Isidro and San Ignacio 35
Source: CRIC, 1981:55) 162
Cabildos were also subjected to repression: governors of the
San Francisco, Tacueyo and Jambalo reservations were imprisoned; a member of the Cabildo of La Aguada was assassinated; and the
Cabildos of San Francisco and Tori bio were under military control
for various weeks.
Although paid assassins, militarization, police intervention
and direct personal attacks by wealthy land owners existed in all
areas, repression took on certain regional characteristics. In the
North, for example, which is an area of FARC influence, army action
predominated. In the central zone, where haciendas of the Popayan aristocracy abound, the principal instrument of repression has been
the police; permanent police posts have been established in haciendas. The eastern area was plagued by local assassins, which were numerous as a result of economic, political and religious conflicts. In Tierradentro, land owners have personally murdered
Indians.
The repression has also developed particular characteristics.
The army acts upon orders from superiors and is mobilized through political channels with influence in the Third Brigade, located in
Cali. On the pretext of combating guerrillas, it brutalized the civilian population. Generally, the army does not intervene directly against land recovery operations, and it has even been known to be tolerant. However, i t has also destroyed the crops and personal belongings of the civilian population and has treated
Indians as badly as the police. 1 6 3
Police action has been characterized by direct confrontation
with Indians, destruction of their belongings and mass
imprisonment. In some circumstances, i t charges for its services:
"Some (police) even affirm that Indians' demands are just, but since
terratenientes pay them, repression becomes the only way they can
compensate for their miserable salary. Police violence is turned
into a business whose price rises with the intensity of the
conflict."(Cinep, 1979:204).
Initially, fear of repression kept many Indians—especially
women—away from the movement. However, sooner or later i t became
impossible to escape the need for action and fear was overcome. In
general, women were the firs t to face repression, and in many cases were the most combative. Confronting repression was a decisive step
in personal reaffirmation, toward confidence in the Indian moment
and toward unity and solidarity. The myths surrounding the power of
the repressive apparatus were broken: army, police, judge, mayor, jail, lost their power to inspire terror. Indians developed tactics such as changing their names, giving misleading answers, pretending they did not speak Spanish, working at night, and
standing guard.
Repression solidified political ideas because i t created disillusionment and eroded the political caudillos used by terratenientes to mobilize repressive forces. The authorities—church, official institutions, judges and repressive groups—aligned with the terrateniente. 164
The traditional legal approach of the indigenous peoples lost its footing in this situation. Generally, when they looked for legal aid Indians fell prey to lawyers and legal representatives.
Institutions like the Council of Indian Affairs and INCORA, proved inoperative most of the time because of bureaucracy, or their open alignment with the enemy.
Legal assistance for Indians of the CRIC, was initially provided by lawyers of the le ft wing of the Liberal party, former companeros of Gustavo Mejia in the MRL. With them, the CRIC formed an alliance. There was need for political organizing and legal assistance to aid prisoners and obtain permission for mass mobilizations since the country was in state of siege. This alliance with the Liberal party was terminated at the time of the elections of 1976, but by this time the CRIC had obtained permanent judicial assistance from a private foundation, PROPUBLICOS, and
later from another foundation, FUNCOL (Foundation for Colombian
Communities).
Fourth Congress of the CRIC: Toez. Tierradentro
(August 7-9. 1975)
Preparation for the Fourth Congress began In March, 1976.
Meetings were held by region to select reservation representatives from each sector (North, East, West, Central). Different situations were analyzed, and the meeting of the Board of Directors in July was organized. Delegates from 31 different reservations attended the
Board meeting and made final decisions about the Congress. It was decided to stimulate Cabildo participation and increase to four the number of members of the Executive Committee elected per region. 155
As happened with the assembly in Silvia, the governor of Cauca again tried to prevent the Congress. At this time Cornelio
Reyes—one of the maximum leaders of the terrateniente sector—was
Minister of Government and had the responsibility of deciding whether or not to grant permission for the Congress. In itially , he refused to authorize the meeting since "the country was in a state of siege". When the CRIC delegation threatened to hold the Congress
in Purace—which would further aggravate the situation between the
sulfur company, the union and the community—the Minister granted permission to hold the Congress "behind closed doors" at the Indian
Training Center in Toez. Three thousand Indians attended.
When the Congress had been inaugurated,the governor of Cauca,
Aurelio Iragcrri, who had in itially refused permission to hold the assembly, attempted to present a "message of dialogue from President
Lopez". The Congress refused to listen to him which made the governor promise to hold a meeting against the CRIC in the same
location. This assembly convened a month later, September 7, in
Toez, with the participation of the Minister Cornelio Reyes. At this time, the government declared war on the CRIC and formed the
Regional Agrarian Council of Cauca—CRAC—which intensified persecution against the Indian movement. In the following months
Marcos Avirama, president of the CRIC was the object of two assassination attempts.
Indigenous communities presented reports about their respective regions, analyzed their experiences, and agreed upon criteria for continuing efforts. The Congress organized the following 1 6 6
commissions: organization, lands, repression, official institutions, culture and education, communal work, coordination with other
struggles of oppressed peoples, and publications. These were subjects which corresponded to practical activities being carried out. The conclusions of this Congress were published in the "Indian
Unity" newspaper. Edition No. 7.
The organizational emphasis of the meeting was on the autonomy of the Indian movement from the state, political parties, religious groups, as well as the ANUC, and other political and social organizations.
Experiences with official institutions had been negative, especially with INCORA, due to its manipulation of communal enterprises. The following situations were questioned: the reluctance of the Caja Agraria to approve credit to Indians; the complicity of INDERENA (Institute for Protection of Natural
Resources) with companies like Carton Colombia (U.S. Container
Corporation) and Industries Purace; and the inoperability and politicization of the Council of Indian Affairs. Strengthening of the movement within indigenous communities was proposed so that these communities would be prepared to make their own decisions and persist in land recovery operations and petitions.
The relationship with other organizations such as ANUC and the union of Industries Purace were reaffirmed. However, it was recognized that problems between them existed. (These problems would later lead to a further deterioration of relations, especially with ANUC.) 167
ANUC supported personal attacks against specific Indian leaders
and its delegate, Juan de Dios Torres, instigated an unpleasant
incident which was massively repudiated. His attempt to take over
the "Indian Unity" newspaper was also rejected.
With the fractioning of the Peasant Organization, evident
during the Third Congress of the ANUC (September, 1974), its
Executive Committee decided to obtain control of some other
organizations. The national and international prestige of the
Indian movement made the CRIC one of the groups which ANUC wanted to
take over. The "Indian Unity" newspaper was also considered
important for the international financial benefits it could offer
ANUC.
The growing ineffectiveness of agrarian reform programs and the policy of INCORA requiring Indians to pay for lands, led the
Congress to decide to support de facto actions such as land
recovery; to pay only for improvements and not for the land itse lf; and to agree not to divide recovered lands but to develop them
communally. The magnitude of the conflict and the intense
repression directed against some land recoveries led to the
decision—in some situations—to accept INCORA mediation and sign a
commitment to pay for the land, with the hope that the long-term
situation would change and i t would not be necessary to pay. For
this reason the commission approved that "in those regions where the
situation of conflict is more difficult, to permit the government as mediator, but without losing autonomy or becoming objects of new
bosses" (CRIC, 1980 b:85). 168
In spite of their many problems, communal enterprises reaffirmed activities such as mingas, group land recovery, and the exchange of labor, not only for recovered lands but also for normal daily labor.
The Congress emphasized the need for autonomy and agreed that
"enterprises independent of the government and with their own functions be organized." (CRIC, 1980 6:92) But it was realized that this could be achieved only "when Indians are sufficiently qualified to be responsible for these enterprises" (CRIC, 1980 b:92). The lack of training, resulting from educationally backward communities, and a lack of experience in these types of activity, increased dependence on government institutions. The CRIC offered political instruction to communal enterprises, but at this stage was not in a position to give technical or financial assistance. At that time, a
Committee for Communal Enterprises of Cauca functioned under the oversight of ANUC, but it was not really of practical value.
Because of the priority given to land recovery conflicts, the
Indian movement continued to see cultural development as something latent, although it became manifest in different aspects of the struggle. At the time of the Congress, culture s till had not gained priority status. The increased use of native languages in mass assemblies and as a defense against repression was the principal cultural achievement at that time.
The majority of decisions concerning culture made in this
Congress were not implemented. Among these were resolutions that all medicine men support the Cabildos and the struggle; that the 1 6 9 tradition of "washing the staff" be revived in the Cabildos; that medicine men teach botany; that oral traditions be revived; that music be used in mingas; that commerce in cocaine leaves be suspended; and that all teachers must be bilingual. There was obviously a lack of relationship between what the indigenous population proposed in the Congress and the practical handling which the CRIC gave to cultural matters. The political emphasis of the
CRIC and the fact that it was in the hands of non-Indians who understood the importance of indigenous culture, but did not share or participate in it, was reflected in this situation. When Indians with deep-rooted cultural identity entered the CRIC leadership, this changed. Cultural revival was later established as a fundamental in bilingual schools and in the CRIC's health program. Although proposed in the Fourth Congress, the reaffirmation of traditional medicine—not as health care, but as an element of the community identity—has only recently begun to be put into practice.
Some of the decisions with respect to the newspaper were also not very realistic. It was recommended that regional committees be created to contribute articles which would be revised by the
Executive Committee, and that reading of the newspaper be done collectively. The majority of Indians at the time were illite ra te and totally unprepared to carry out these activities. Besides, at the time of the Congress the newspaper had only published six editions and was almost exclusively a labor of the colaboradores.
Even today existing conditions do not permit the newspaper to be written exclusively by Indians and is far from being understood by 1 7 0 the majority of the indigenous population. It is however, an important instrument of leadership and communication with other
Indians and progressive organizations.
The reports and deliberations of the commissions demonstrated a positive balance in work carried out in the indigenous sector. The
Indian movement proved to be an important political reality in the
Department of Cauca. Its determination to hold the Fourth Congress with or without official permission and in spite of the state of siege, forced the government to grant permission. Its independent character became obvious when it refused to accept the presence of the state governor. The political content of the deliberations, the presence of delegates from the most active unions, and the internal order and discipline which made this massive three day event possible all demonstrated that the indigenous population was not the same lethargic sector of five years before.
The Department of Cauca was strongly supported by the national government in its struggle to counteract the CRIC. Government
Minister Cornelio Reyes appeared in Toez and declared the CRIC a subversive movement. The following month President Lopez celebrated the festivities of October 12th in Mi tu, Vaupes—another Indian region of Colombia—by presenting his thesis "The Two Colombias" in which he made grand promises to the abandoned indigenous population. Empty promises and repression were the government's answer to concrete problems. In the long run, unkept promises gave 171 the CRIC more credibility with Indians. Repression directly by the
CRAC—could not destroy the organization. Rather i t strengthened the Indian resolve.
Events Between the Fourth and Fifth Congress of CRIC August 1975 to
March 1978
The surge of repression following Minister Reyes' v isit, on one hand, and the stimulus provided by the Fourth Congress, on the other, caused the CRIC to concentrate its efforts on consolidating what had been gained so far. Large mobilizations characteristic of the previous period became less frequent, although several significant mobilizations were held: the commemoration of the anniversaries of the deaths of Gustavo Mejia and Father Pedro Leon
Rodriguez; an assembly in Popayan to protest the assassination of
Indian leader Justiniano Lame (February, 1977); a demonstration against the economic policies of the government (August, 1976); participation in the National Strike of September 14, 1977; and a demonstration in Corinto to counteract a divisionist attempt within the CRIC (October, 1977). Other regional demonstrations were also organized to protest against repression .
The organizational resources of the CRIC were sufficient to attend to projects already undertaken. It had only a dozen activists and a reduced number of indigenous leaders. Given their limited number, these activists avoided committing themselves to actions which they were not capable of completing. On the other 172 hand, it was important to translate protest activities into concrete actions, so that these would not become demagogic. The communal stores were one such concrete activity.
The Communal Stores
Between 1976 and 1977 eight stores were founded in
Tierradentro: San Jose, Cabuyo, La Troja, Irlanda, Huila, Talaga,
Segovia and Guanacas. The first two communal stores in the region had been founded earlier: the "Cooperative of Moras" in October,
1973, and the "Pedro Leon Rodriguez" in Mesa de Togoima in July,
1975.
The proliferation of stores in Tierradentro led to a stores meeting in the region in July, 1977. It was proposed that these stores be integrated in order to make bulk purchases and share transportation costs. This initiative did not succeed at the tine.
But later, in 1979, a Central Indian Cooperative was created which, with its own transportation system, subsumed and coordinated the cosKRunal stores.
The Communal Stores were not limited to Tierradentro. In
December, 1976, a central cooperative was formed to coordinate six local stores In Corinto. In Caldono, the stores of Picacho, Las
Delicias and Pueblo Nuevo were created during this period. Communal stores were founded in the majority of villages where the CRIC had influence. In many villages, the stores were accompanied by communal agricultural plots. 1 7 3
Aside from the economic benefit which they represented for the
communities, the communal stores—and communal work in general—was of great organizational and political importance. It helped to counteract the image of illegality associated with Indian movements and provided an example for other communities. Even the church,
firs t opposed to the communal stores, began to promote them.
The stores supplied food for meetings and communal labors and money to fund community delegates to organizational activities. The
stores, therefore, underwrote communities' organizational costs at a
local level thus making them self-sufficient.
These communal stores became local meeting and organizational centers, especially on reservations where land recovery struggles had not taken place. The directive that the CRIC gave to the stores was clearly different than that of official cooperativism. "Our objective is not to achieve economic success for a group of cooperative members, but to utilize the economic framework as a means which contributes to strengthening the Indian movement."
(Unidad Indigene, No.11:7). In spite of the fact that the CRIC did
not have state economic aid, it was successful, while the attempts
at official cooperativism failed. The newspaper, "Indian Unity"
summarized the activities of communal stores in the following
manner: "We have advanced in our basic orientation by putting the
communal stores at the service of our struggle and by using them to
strengthen our organization; employing profits to help finance
communal labors, to support other companeros, to finance
mobilization and courses, and to maintain health programs and other 174 community initiatives. In some places, the stores have stimulated communal production, study of the newspaper, and discussion, criticism and correction of internal problems" (Unidad
Indigena,No.21:9).
The formation of groups for labor was also encouraged to develop communal parcels belonging to groups of "companeros". To orient the economic activities of the CRIC, a course entitled
"Communal Economic Organizations" was organized in Coconuco July
1-4, 1976. The development of enterprises, stores and communal work groups led the Fifth Congress to form a commission to study economic organizations.
Land Recovery and Repression
The struggle for land recovery continued throughout period with new recoveries in Paniquita, Coconuco, Purace, and Corinto and also moved to new areas like Tierradentro, Jevala, Novirao and Las
Delicias (Buenos Aires).
The land recovery conflict gained special intensity in the
Central region when Justiniano Lame was assassinated in February,
1977. Lame was an Indian leader of the communities of San Isidro,
San Ignacio and El Canelo in the municipality of Popayan, and was killed while under arrest. His remains were not returned to his family. The CRIC attempted to stage a symbolic funeral in Popayan, which could not be carried out due to military prohibition. To 175 protect the haciendas of the aristocracy of Popayan, permanent police posts were established on these properties, reinforced by constant militarization.
In the North, where paid assassins proliferated and
terratenientes participated directly in violent repression. Miguel
Andrade fired on a group of Indians in the process of land recovery, and Ramon Penagos assassinated three Indians in Jambalo. A total of eight Indians were killed in the northern region during this period. The CRAC, through the northern chapter of the SAC
(Colombian Agricultural Society) initiated a press campaign in Cali
(El Pais and Occidente newspapers), against the indigenous communities of northern Cauca and against the CRIC. On April 4,
1973, The CRAC sent a message to the governor of Cauca, threatening to take matters into their own hands if the governor did not act against the CRIC.
Both the Fourth Congress and the v isit of Minister Reyes to
Toez had special impact upon the population of Tierradentro. Both events were massively attended. While the Congress stimulated the initiation of land recoveries in the region, the intimidation tactics directed against the CRIC slowed progress which had been evident since 1973. Land possession problems were not as great in
Tierradentro as in reservations on the western side of the central
Cordillera and the Cabildos here had been traditionally manipulated by the Church and politicians. Only one land recovery in the reservation of Huila (November, 1974) had taken place before the 176
Fourth Congress. Also, before the arrival of the CRIC to this area,
the Indians of Huila, directed by Benjamin Dinducue had recovered
the territory of "La Granja", possessed by the Church.
Immediately after the Congress, land recovery was initiated by
terrajeros of Santa Rosa and San Andres, another in Yaquiva and two
more in Huila. Also inspired by the Congress, the Cabildo of
Guanacas, which had been dissolved in 1944, was reinstated in
February, 1975.
Literacy and Health
Other activities of this period were the formation of health
and literacy teams which could not be instituted as originally
conceived. Various health courses were offered under the direction
of a doctor from the group of activists, using a method of exchange
of experiences and the course criteria of utilizing botanical
resources and traditional health practices of the community. This
was complemented by the teaching of first aid and the stocking of a
limited supply of pharmaceutical products. First aid supplies were
collected with the help of communal stores and enterprises.
The reader, "Learning to Read is also Fighting" was designed
for use in the literacy program, and an attempt was made to form a
literacy team. An Economic Education Committee was also formed to
advise communal stores and enterprises, but its activities were not
effective.
Of all the difficulties which prevented these activities from taking root, the most important was the organizational structure of 1 7 7
the CRIC. At that time it consisted of a small group of activists
responsible for all activities developed in their specific region.
But this new economic emphasis, and emphasis on health and
education, demanded a division of labor, specialized knowledge, and
specific resources. It required the formation of teams, in each area, at the central level of the organizational structure of the
CRIC. In time, these and other teams were established, and programs
in health, education, enterprises, stores, a Central Cooperative,
production, communication and legal assistance were presented. At
the same time, the emergence of Indian leaders responsible for organizational activities in their respective areas permitted the
reassignment of activists to other work teams.
Political Education
Courses in social class structure, exploited class
organizations, Indian history, and history of the CRIC were offered,
and intensified in the months of preparation for the Fifth
Congress. Educational activities were complemented with the
publication of special articles on geography, Indian culture and
history, and editorials on organization, struggles of exploited
classes, and political parties in the "Indian Unity" newspaper
(Nos. 10, 12 and 13). Articles on union conflicts (Riopaila,
Fecode, Bancarios, etc.), frequent during the administration of
President Lopez, were written. These conflicts finally led to a
National Strike. 1 7 8
The economic crises of the Lopez administration brought especially negative consequences to the indigenous population of
Cauca. They suffered from a high cost of living, faced the fique crisis, and the closing of Industries Purace. This led the CRIC to promote the coordination of the Indian movement with other mass movements in the nation.
The CRIC participated in both the Purace and fique conflicts.
In 1976, the workers of Industries Purace, with support of the indigenous community, began a 95-day strike which resulted the acceptance of union petitions. The community, however, did not receive the payment of five million pesos, sanctioned by the government, as indemnity for land contamination. On the contrary, the government authorized the company to begin open-pit mining, which worsened the ecological problems. One year later, workers suffered a 120 day mine closure, which led to the dissolution of the union and the end of indemnification hopes.
At the same time, Indian fique producers of Cauca began to
coordinate activities with producers in Antioquia, Narino, Santander and Boyaca. Although this struggle continues at present, little progress has been made and no short term solution is in sight.
These and other union conflicts at a national level, as well as the development of the CRIC, presented new questions in the Indian community which required broader knowledge for understanding and more sophisticated answers. The economic backwardness of Cauca, the isolation of Indian communities, the predominance of illiteracy and 1 7 9
linguistic barriers had kept Indians on the fringe of social movements. Political education became urgent for the CRIC. It was
considered a priority for the Fifth Congress, which formed a
commission to discuss this topic.
Contradictions and Political Juncture
The conflicts between the ML group of Cauca and the Executive
Committee of ANUC at this time had expressions: the celebration of
"Meeting of Indians Bases" in Silvia (August, 1976), promoted by the
ML, and establishment of the "Gustavo Mejia Restoration Committee" on October 12, 1977, in Corinto, supported by ANUC.
The meeting in Silvia proposed to replace the existing
Executive Committee of the CRIC with Indians who had difficulties with this body. The majority of Indians in attendance rejected the idea of dividing the CRIC, of creating a "little CRIC", and reaffirmed the existing Executive Committee. This demonstrated the lack of grass-roots support for the ML and the artificiality of its tactics. The national directors of this group—students, workers and peasants from different departments—had been invited to this encounter.
Conflicts with the Executive Directors of the ANUC were the result of a marked disintegration of the Peasant Organization. On finding the majority of peasant unions dissolved, the ANUC
leadership decided to transform its union organization into a political one. At the Fourth Congress of ANUC, February, 1977, in 180
Tomala, the Revolutionary Organization of the Pueblo (GRP)—which
had controlled the direction of ANUC for some time—was officially
established. The transformation of ANUC into one more leftist
group, disputing the movements of exploited classes precipitated its
end as a peasant organization and contributed to its isolation.
The CRIC stopped ANUC's attempt to make the Indian struggles of
Cauca appear to be as a result of ANUC’s work, and also opposed the
attempt to create a national Indian movement at the end of 1976,
when the respective regional Indian organizations were still very
weak or did not exist. Although the creation of a national Indian
organization was an objective of the CRIC, it was seen as resulting
from the coordination of regional Indian councils which at the time were s till new.
At the Congress of Tomala, the CRIC was one of the dissident voices. Its representative was forced to speak while the delegates
shouted "down with Indians". The CRIC, together with Indians from the Putumayo, wrote that: "...th e indigenous population is part of the peasant movement. While the ANUC represented peasant interests our organization participated in it, but beginning with the Fourth
Congress i t has become a political organization and we do not
consider that it represents our interests as indigenous peasants."
(Unidad Indigena, No.32)
Therefore, through an ex-activist of the CRIC, who was the brother of an GRP leader, a divisionist movement began within the
CRIC, which culminated with the formation of the "Gustavo Mejia
Restoration Movement". Although this group became well-known 181
outside the Indian regions through paritipation in an electoral
coalition (FUP) with the ORP and the MOIR among Indians it achieved
only slight influence in the northern area. Its life span was short,
ending with its electoral failure.
In spite of these experiences with le ftis t political
organizations, the period was characterized by the CRIC turning
toward other struggles of exploited classes. Delegates and
solidarity information were sent to representatives of other
movements and participation of these groups in CRIC events was
encouraged.
United action with other sectors was demonstrated by the CRIC
participation in the National Strike. Almost all of the roads
crossing Indian regions were blockaded, and despite intense
m ilitarization, demonstrations were held in various towns. Fearing
an Indian mobilization, the authorities of some towns imposed martial law and mounted guards to intercept the marchers. This
served to strengthen the CRICs political influence in the area.
This political situation responded to the CRIC conception of
Indians as an ethnic group with the majority of its member belonging
to the poor peasant class. From the initial stages of the CRIC,
this position was adopted both in theory and practice, and it
continued to be upheld throughout different struggles. The advances
achieved in its consolidation, permitted the CRIC to come out of its
relative isolation. In the political sphere, as a result of the 182
National Strike, a unifying line began to open between unions and
political groups which rejected the sectarianism and vanguardism
which had characterized le ftis t groups for some time.
This rejection was also expressed at a national level by the
formation of the FIRMES movement during the 1978 electoral
campaign. Leftist groups were asked to participate in this
election, renouncing their large number of candidates in favor of
one unity candidate. The warm reception given the FIRMES
proposal—perhaps due not only to the idea of one candidate, but
also as a rejection of sectarianism~was the basis on which, even
after the elections, FIRMES continued to exist within the political
arena, trying to reaffirm the tendency towards unity. In mid-1979,
during a wave of repression, FIRMES proposed the formation of a
Democratic Front to fight for human rights and civil liberties. The
CRIC was invited to form part of the National Council. The CRIC
declined to participate, however, until Front abandoned theoretical
declarations and adopted specific actions to advance the exploited
peoples' movement.
The Fifth Congress: Conconuco. March. 1978
Five regional meetings of Directive Councils and courses in
political education were organized in preparation for the Fifth
Congress. Reports were written by each commission, two of which were
published: "CRIC: History of its Organization and Struggles" and
"Project of a Political Platform". These documents synthesized 1 8 3
Indian movement experiences and framed political criteria that had been developing for seven years.
The general meeting of the Board of Directors held at the end of January, 1978, in Paniquita approved the following commissions for the Coconuco Congress: political platform, historical analysis of the CRIC, lands, economic organizations, political education, national Indian commission, Indian situation in Colombia (carried out by intellectual indigenists), and struggles of the exploited classes, workers, and peasants.
The Conconuco Congress was a unifying act, not only for the
CRIC but also for numerous Indian, worker and peasant delegations from other regions of Colombia. Earlier divisionist attempts had no effect on this Congress. The openness which the CRIC had been developing toward other organizations was manifested in the attendance of 49 delegations.
This situation was not a rejection of earlier positions, or a reaction to internal problems, but the result of CRIC's development and the broadening of its orientation. It also reflects general political changes in Colombia, such as the flourishing of mass social movements and a tendency towards greater unity.
The conflicts of the previous two years with two political organizations (ML and ANUC) were not the result of political development in the grass-roots or the direction of the CRIC. Both situations were introduced or set up in a very artificial, superficial manner and were rejected by the Indian mass and rapidly disbanded, without leaving structural fissures in the Indian 184
movement. While the ML tried to capture the direction of the Indian
organization, the ORP/ANUC tried to create an internal division (the
so called "Restoration Movement") to commit the CRIC to electoral
action which ANUC and MOIR were planning.
The encounter with the experiences of other social sectors,
unknown to the majority of Indians, awakened interest in studying
these situations and comparing them to the Indian situation.
Besides, the political level which characterized the debates of some
events attended by CRIC delegates impressed the Indians and made them feel the need to improve their level of political formation.
New, young leadership was encouraged to attend these events along with more experienced leaders.
The Fifth Congress was an excellent opportunity for a great number of Indians to experience this same situation, especially those who participated in the commission on exploited class struggles and political platforms. As a result, the need to give priority to political education, which had emerged with Congress preparations, was further reinforced by the Congress itself.
Land recovery—a constant activity the and central axis of the
CRIC from its formation—and communal economic organizations were
the other important topics of the Congress. In these areas, the
Congress reiterated existing directions from earlier Congresses and meetings, since clear ideological and political direction had already been achieved. What was needed in the economic sphere now was technical and financial assistance to fill the void left by 185
INCORA. The Congress, however, was more concerned with forming marketing and production teams and programs to be implemented by the
CRIC at a later date, beginning with the creation of a Central
Cooperative.
Similarly, the National Indian Commission took a step toward
the formation of a National Indian Organization and reinforced the need to strengthen and increase contact between regional Indian organizations. A coordinating committee to replace the Indian
secretariat of the ANUC was planned, but a national Congress would
not be held for two years.
Events Between the Fifth to the Sixth Congress March 1978 to April
1981
The period between the Fifth and Sixth Congresses was marked by the crisis of 1979, which sharply interrupted the CRIC development and temporarily dismembered its leadership. As the wave of repression which precipitated this crisis began to subside, the direction of the CRIC was restructured and reactivated. Programs in education, health, and cooperatives, were launched which have made the CRIC an important factor in state Indian activities. The creation of a national Indian Movement was also begun.
Schools for Political Education
In the months the Fifth Congress, the CRIC concentrated its efforts on the organization of workshops in political organization for selected groups of activists of each region. These workshops or 186
"Political Schools", as they were called, consisted of twenty
Indians from a region gathered for one week to study three basic topics: social classes, Indian history, and the conclusions of the
Congress. After a simple presentation of the subject, groups of five or six people were formed under the leadership of an activist or an experienced Indian leader to discuss the material.
The daily regimen was strictly followed and was the responsibility of a specific Indian in each group whose orders had to be obeyed by all workshop members. At the end of each day this person's activities were evaluated, providing a practical experience
in political organization. Discipline, physical exercise and sports kept the participants active and alert so they could derive maximum benefit from their studies.
The "Political Schools" offered a great educational experience for the CRIC. Five schools were conducted, one for each region, and plans were made to continue with new participants and at different
levels. These plans were interrupted by the repression beginning in
1979.
The schools were geared toward an intermediate level of the organizational structure. Although members of the Executive
Committee and principal leaders attended, the schools were designed for them. The workshops were different from the courses and talks given in villages for the Indian masses. Their objective was to prepare Indian activists who had emerged in different spheres (land recovery, mobilizations, enterprises, and stores) and in different regions; training them to be responsible for all organizational 187 activity in their respective regions. The schools, then, were oriented towards the consolidation of regional organizational structures managed directly by Indians. Prior to this time, Indians had led their own land recoveries, stores or enterprises, but the coordination of the Indian movement at a regional level had continued to be the responsibility of the activists with only a few exceptions.
One of the criteria which had guided the activists’ labors from the beginning of the CRIC had been to gradually prepare for their own replacement by Indian leadership to permit the opening of new and more specialized activities which emerged as the organization developed.
The crisis of 1979 forced the activists to withdraw, and although regional organizational structures had not been consolidated, conditions were such that Indian leaders emerged to prevent the destruction of the organization. Since then, regional labors have been progressively assumed by the Executive Committee.
The team of activists, revived with a majority of new members, has been restructured into teams dedicated to specific programs such as legal assistance, education, health, production, marketing and communications.
1979 : The Surge of Repression
The openness of the CRIC towards other mass movements and the power demonstrated by the Fifth Congress were evidence of the fact that the CRIC could no longer be considered a local or isolated 188 phenomenon. Reaction against the CRIC was articulated by cattlemen of the northern region who organized into the Society of Farmers and
Cattlemen of Cauca. This group organized "Public Order" meetings in which politicians from Cauca and Valle participated together with high officials of the army, police, and DAS. The "Defense League of
Northern Cauca Property Owners" was formed and a massive press campaign was launched to discredit the Indian Movement.
Before 1979 there were various assassinations, such as the killing of Lisandro and Marco Tulio Casso in Jambalo (October, 1978) and of Abelino U1 (November 1978) who was one of the principal
Indian leaders in the northern region. Groups of as many as twenty assassins entered Tori bio and Caldono with aid of the authorities.
The army made anti-guerrilla incursions in the North and installed permanent posts in the haciendas around Popayan to prevent mobilizations and land recovery in commemoration of the anniversary of the assassination of Justiniano Lame. In Tierradentro four
Indians were tortured by the police and a regional leader and vice-president of the CRIC, Benjamin Dindicue, was detained by the
Army twice at the end of 1978. He was freed on February 1, 1979 and assassinated on February 4th.
The most terrible wave of national repression in recent years broke lose as a result of the theft by the M-19 guerrilla movement of five thousand weapons from an Army depot in Bogota, on
January 1, 1979. The human rights violations which surrounded this 189
situation caused international consternation. Not only was the M-19
the object of fierce repression, but all other mass progressive organizations were victims of official violence as well.
This opportunity was not wasted by the dominant class in Cauca, which used this pretext to attack the CRIC which was the strongest mass social organization in the Department. On February 4, accused of belonging to the M-19, the Indian leaders Marco Anibal Avirama, president of the CRIC, his brother, Edgar Avirama. Taurino Nuscue,
secretary, and Miguel Nuscue and Mario Escue Pasou were arrested and tortured. Also detained were the activists Luis Angel Monroy,
Graciela Bolanos and Guillermo Amortegui. They were later tried by a Military Court.
Other leaders and activists, harrassed by repression, were forced to take refuge in the mountains. Many more Indians were arrested and tortured. In August, forty-three Indians were in custody and the majority were presented before the Military Court.
Later it was possible to have them remanded to civil courts and almost all of the cases were resolved favorably.
All of the Indian regions of Cauca were militarized and comnunal stores were systematically attacked. The cooperative of
Corinto was broken into by the army and its manager was taken before a Military Court; the store in Las Delicias (Buenos Aires) was
destroyed by the police and the Indian Cruz Nene was assassinated.
The store of Media Naranja (Corinto) was assaulted by paid assassins 190 and Jose Maria Quiuapungos was killed- On November 12, while the
Cooperative of Siberia (Caldono) was celebrating the anniversary of its formation, the Indian Lorenzo Chepe was assassinated.
In spite of the general terror, more than one thousand Indians attended the demonstration organized in Popayan to celebrate May
1st. The CRIC office was transferred to the reservation of
Paniquita to avoid the danger in Popayan. A special meeting of the
Board of Directors was called for May 11, in which the Executive
Committee was restructured and Jesus Avirama named president to replace his brother, Marcos.
Gradually, new activists joined the CRIC and the Popayan office was reopened. Contact with the former leaders, who had taken refuge in the mountains, prevented the crisis from being used by other organizations to usurp the position gained the CRIC. However, attempts were made. The FARC tried to benefit from the labor in the northern region and a former activist who had been separated from the movement some time before, joined official accusations against the CRIC directors, trying to gain influence among Indians and solidarity groups. When rejected, he concentrated his activities in
Guambia and Jambalo, where he achieved influence in some Cabildos and promoted various land recoveries.
The general practice of torture and the injustices committed by the military provoked a rapid civilian reaction expressed in the
Forum on Human Rights held in Bogota on March 30 and 31. This forum 191 included mass participation of union, political, religious and cultural organizations, as well as international delegations such as the World Committee for Peace.
A delegation of Indians from the GRIG presented a report on the situation in which Indians confronted and denounced the government's
Indian Statute project. These accusations were sent to the Latin
American Parliament organized in Bogota at that time and to the
International Seminar on Community Development, promoted by the
Colombian Minister of Government. Later a round table discussion was held in the CINEP; its report, entitled "Indians and Repression in Colombia" was published in the "Controversy" magazine. Issue
No. 80, and widely distributed.
Demonstrations of solidarity with the CRIC were organized in different Colombian cities, and in Popayan, a forum was held on
March 28, which created a human rights committee. Accusations were continuous throughout the whole year and even received international attention. When Amnesty International came to Colombia (February,
1980), i t traveled to Cauca, visited Indian regions and interviewed
Indian prisoners. The report issued by Amnesty which was circulated internationally, documented the injustices committed against Indians belonging to the CRIC.
Towards the end of 1979 the CRIC was invited to attend the
Russell Tribune, in Ireland—the most important European forum on
Human Rights. "Indian Rights in America" was the area in which the 192
CRIC participated. All of these activities contributed to ameliorate, somewhat, military excesses, permitting various leaders to come out of hiding and return to the organization.
The Indian Statute was proposed by the government through its
Division of Indian Affairs as a political measure to limit the autonomy of indigenous communities and complemented the violence directed against Indian organizations. This Statute emerged within the context of the Security Statute which the government of president Turbay Ayala decreed nationally to limit civil liberties even more than the state of siege that had been in effect for more than thirty years.
The Indian Statute required that each community be certified by the government and empowered the Administrative Department of
Community Development to certify the existence of each indigenous community, of its traditional authority, and of the person who exercised this authority (Article 9). This negated the customary right of the communities to territories which they had traditionally inhabited and the political autonomy existing legislation gave them.
The Statute also conceded to the government "the control, inspection, and vigilance over associations, corporations or foundations which carried out or tried to carry out activities among the indigenous population" (Unidad Indigena, No.35:7). It may be supposed that given the strength and degree to which the Indian movement was politicized, this Statute was not designed to protect the communities from religious missions which destroyed their language and culture or the abuses of politicians, merchants and 1 9 3 terratenientes. Instead, the objective of this statute was to prohibit the organization of Indian movements, and was in the spirit of the Security Statute and accusations asserting that the CRIC was part of armed insurrection movement.
In spite of the fact that the Indian Statute was proposed at a time when the direction of the CRIC was dismembered and other regional Indian organizations were only beginning to organize, both national and international reaction was swift. Indigenous communities exerted sufficient pressure to force the National
Congress to postpone votes on the issue on various occasions and finally to defeat the Statute.
The activity of the Foundation for Colombian Communities
(FUNCOL) was important in the defeat of the Statute, as were also the solidarity of the Commission of Human Rights, the CINEP, Amnesty
International and many other organizations and persons at both the national and international level. "The parliament members Vi liar
Borda and Gilberto Vieira delivered the final blow to the Indian
Statute by collecting thousands of accusations from all over
Colombia and from abroad, showing that the statute was both dilettante and contradictory in its formulation, and represented violation of civil and human rights of an ethnic minority".
(Unidad Indigena, No.39:11)
Present Programs
In late 1978, the Central Indian Cooperative was created, but due to the lack of organization resulting from the repression, it 194
did not commence work until August 1, 1979. The Cooperative,
located in Popayan, had its own transportation, and distributed
goods to the network of CRIC organized stores and cooperatives.
Besides the economic benefits for the communities and its effect on merchants, this activity increased communication between the regions of the CRIC and reaffirmed an organizational presence which only a
few months before seemed to have been destroyed.
The network of CRIC cooperatives and communal enterprises, in
spite of their problems, had many advantages over the official
cooperatives in the rural sector of Cauca. Not only did they
counteract the subversive image of the CRIC, but they also made the
CRIC a necessary point of reference for any official development plan in Indian areas.
Another program which emerged in similar conditions was that of
bilingual education. Candidates for bilingual teachers were
selected and attended courses at the end of 1978. Criteria for the
educational program were discussed and the conclusion was reached
that schools should be bilingual and bicultural. It was also felt
that they should have a political orientation in agreement with the
objectives of the CRIC, transmit theoretical and practical
knowledge, and that their program curriculum should not prevent
students from continuing their education in official schools. In
late 1979 and early 1980, the firs t schools were initiated and two years later a total of 18 schools were functioning independent of
official education. 1 9 5
Organizing the functioning of the Central Cooperative with its
extensive network of stores and cooperatives — the bilingual
school program were great undertakings. The activists team always
had been small, and now was reduced by repression. The team was
responsible for many other activities as well.
These tasks required a division of labor, training in respective areas, and appropriate financing. The programs were
initiated with outside personnel coordinated by activists, according to the criteria already established by the organization. The pamphlet "Communal Economic Organizations" was published to offer direction. Courses in accounting and enterprise orientation were offered and a meeting was held in El Chiman, in February of 1980, in which 70 delegates from 32 stores and communal enterprises participated. It was necessary to create an administrative apparatus for the Central Cooperative consisting of a manager, an accountant, distributors, truck drivers and a secretary. All of these required a considerable budget to permit purchase of a building, equipment, a truck, salaries and initial capital. The
Central Cooperative began to function with a capital of 480 thousand pesos (US $5,000) contributed by its members (36 stores and communal enterprises) and credit for 734 thousand pesos (US $7,000), used to acquire the initial merchandize and to cover partial value of a building. A later donation of two million pesos (US $20,000) was received that permitted the purchase of a truck and other equipment.
The education program started with seven schools : Cabuyo in the Vitonco reservation, Pinuelo in Munchique, Laguna in Siberia 196
(Caldono), El Chiman in Guambia, Miravalle in Suarez and Canelo in the Popayan area. In September, 1980, Potrerito in Toribio was created and by the end of the year, 100 children were studying in
CRIC schools.
The bilingual program was directed by a trained education specialist and a bilingual Indian, who were later joined by two new activists. A small stipend was presented to teachers, since they had to dedicate full time to this work. These schools also began a nutrition program financed by the communities and the CRIC.
A communications program also began and was responsible for publication of the Indian Unity newspaper and whatever materials were considered necessary at a given moment. The concept of a recorded newspaper was experimented with, but abandoned. Until
1979, no specific person was assigned to manage the newspaper, which was the responsibility of the entire team of activists.
The judicial program began to function in 1976 with the help of
PROPUBLICOS and FUNCOL. Later, in 1982, the health program was initiated with two doctors and one nurse who were soon joined by another doctor and nurse sent by a European institution.
International Medical Assistance. As a result of the earthquake of
1983, a project of rural reconstruction began, in which the CRIC worked with official institutions like the SEA. Finally, in 1983, the program of agricultural production began under the direction of a qualified agronomist. 1 9 7
In 1980, while the activists directed their activities toward economic and educational goals, the indigenous communities continued their land recovery struggles. In Purace, the land recovery in Campo
Sarria continued and the largest recovery—the 300 hectare hacienda of Patia- was begun. In Tierradentro, recoveries were initiated in the properties of Laguan and of LLanero; in Corinto in El Guabito and Barro Colorado; in Caldono in Guaico, Cerro Alto and Plan de
Zuniga, in Caloto, La Estrella, Balcanes and others. In Las
Delicias, El Penon, Santana, Mandarino, La Culebra, San Francisco and Delicias lands were recovered. The Catholic Church of
Tierradentro also returned the farm named "Minas" to the Talaga reservation. The Tumbichucue reservation was also reconstituted as it had been part of Calderas and did not accept parceling in 1970.
Two thousand Guambianos, with little direction from the CRIC, recovered the hacienda Las Mercedes from the Gonzalez Caicedo family in August of 1980, and in November marched towards Bogota. A huge demonstration was organized on February 24, 1981, in Popayan, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the CRIC. In spite of many problems, the CRIC held its Sixth Congress (March 30 - April 4) strengthened, and at the helm of important activities. It should not be thought that at the end of 1979 repression definitively ended. Purace, Las Delicias, Toribio and Caloto were severely affected in 1980. 198
The Sixth Congress
This Congress was a reaffirmation of the directions proposed in
earlier Congresses.and meetings were held on topics like
organization, lands, education, culture, economic organizations,
newspaper and relations with other mass social movements.
Achievements in these areas were highlighted. The impact of the
bilingual schools was demonstrated by the firs t presentation of a
commission of children. The consolidation of economic activities
was analyzed and led to the adoption of the
eighth point in the CRIC program: formation of communal economic
organizations.
In contrast with the Fifth Congress, fewer delegations from
other social movements attended the Sixth Congress. This was not
due to any modification in CRIC policy, but rather was caused by the
dispersion and decrease in mass movements at the national level.
In effect, the conclusions of the Fifth Congress were taken as a
basis for discussion in the commission on Mass Social Movements,
concluding that if the objectives of solidarity and unity had not
been achieved, it was due to the lack of continuity, which has
characterized mass movements.
In spite of the lack of peasant organization in Cauca, which
left the CRIC without what should have been an important point of
support, the CRIC has tried to provide this support to non-Indian
and mixed community movements. Significant advances have been made
in areas of black, Indian and mestizo population, where Cabildos
have been organized to govern the entire community. (In Las 1 9 9
Delicias, for example, and the majority of recently consitituted
Cabildos.) The Indianization of peasants is sometimes spoken of,
since various Cabildos have allotted land to poor peasants who have
been completely assimilated by the Indian community. The press of
Cauca observed that some peasants utilize Indian organizations to form Cabildos of their own and recover land where reservations have never existed.
In the commission of Intellectuals Facing the Indian Problem the use of research to divide the Indian movement and satisfy the personal interests of researchers was criticized. Severely criticized were an anthropologist from the National University and a journalist (ex/activist) who, especially in his work with
Guambianos, tried to foment dissention. The CRIC had been reticent to accuse these two people individually, but the majority of the participants in this commission were non-Indian delegates.
In a self-evaluation of the Sixth Congress, the CRIC affirmed:
"It is the reaffirmation of the road we have been following,
constantly enriched with new experiences and greater tasks, Tïut with a stable orientation, sustained under difficult conditions, against the attacks of our enemies and the violent criticism of those who
call themselves our friends." (Unidad Indigena,39:2)
The principal short-term activity which emerged from the
Congress was the commitment to participate in the organization of a
national Indian Congress, as agreed upon in October, 1980, in Lomas de Ilarco, Toiima. 2 0 0
The year 1981 was declared "National Indian Year" by the
government as a means of counteracting the bad image which Colombia
had acquired in the two previous years. However, the most
outstanding aspects of that year were repression, penetration of the
"Agape" religious sect, and Indian protest for the nonfulfillment of
government promises.
The reservations of Toribio and Caldono were the most seriously
affected by repression; in the latter, Floro Campo, captain of the
reservation of Caldono was assassinated on May 25, 1981. Conflicts
intensified with the recovery of Guaico Adentro and the
deterioration of the economic situation. This deterioration was due
to dependence upon the production of fique, which had been largely
replaced by the use of plastic products, without, however, any
government sponsored programs to help poor farmers dependent on
fique. Two thousand Indians participated in a demonstration organized by the regional communities in Caldono in October.
At the beginning of the following year, 1982, the situation
became even worse. Fourteen Indians from Caldono and Las Delicias were assassinated in the first four months of the year. Among these were a sister and cousin of the Indian priest, Alvaro Ulcue. The
region was placed under military control. Approximately two hundred
Indians were arrested and some were sent to the Third Brigade in
Cali. The governor of the Caldono reservation, Patricio Acalo, was
arrested and beaten in the town's central park. 2 0 1
In Toribio, the Army limited the quantity of food which Indians
could transport, confiscating the excess. The press in Cali
repeatedly characterized the leaders of the CRIC as subversive. And
in May, 1982, nine Indians were condemned by an Army court.
The religious sect "Agape" penetrated Toribio, Jambalo and
Tierradentro. The emphasis of this group's preaching was aimed at
demobilizing the Indians. This was not the firs t time protestant
sects have been used to divide the Indian movement; religious
organizations have repeatedly denounced CRIC leaders as
subversives. In Caldono one of the principal terratenientes and
enemies of the Indian organization is a Protestant pastor, Porfirio
Cana. The support given by some politicians to the Agape movement
antagonized the Catholic church and eventually led to rapprochement
between the CRIC and church representatives in Tierradentro.
The CRIC continued its programs with Central Cooperative assemblies, courses in bilingual and political education and Indian
legislation. In 1981 and 1982, for the third and fourth times, the government presented its projected Indian Statute to the consideration of the National Congress. Finally, and definitively, this statute was defeated.
CRIC delegates participated in two important international
events in 1981: the Third World Congress of Indians in Gamberra,
Australia, in May and the South American Indian Congress in Lima,
Peru, in November. The participation of the CRIC in these
international conferences was important, since it helped to foster a
recognition of Indian rights and because CRIC expositions helped 2 0 2
counteract the radical indigenist tendency, "Indigenista Astral",
which is predominant in the South American Indian Council (CISA).
This group, especially strong in Peru and Bolivia, sees the Indians'
past as having no internal conflicts, blames the "west" for all
present problems and opposes alliances with other sectors of
exploited peoples.
However, the principal effort of CRIC directors was dedicated
to supporting the National Indian Coordinator in the preparation of
the First National Indian Congress. A great part of the work and
responsibility for this event fell upon the CRIC, as it was the most
experienced and developed regional organization.
The National Indian Congress
From its inception, the CRIC adhered to the idea that its
struggle could not be separated from other mass social movements of
exploited peoples, much less from other Colombian Indian organizations. It also felt the need to form a national Indian movement which would combine the forces of different communities to
achieve common objectives.
The National Indian League, which had existed in the 1940s
under the direction of Jose Gonzalo Sancez and Eutiquio Timote, had
united the efforts of Indians from the Sierra Nevada, Cauca and
Tolima. Also, Quintin Lame, persecuted in Cauca, had moved to
Tolima where he continued to agitate his cause which was based upon
the prolonged historic alliance between Paez and Pijao against the
Spanish. 203
The firs t steps of the new movement were initiated in the CRIC
congress in Silvia, July, 1973, and continued through the Indian office of the ANUC from 1974 to 1977, when relations between the
CRIC and the Executive Committee of the ANUC were severed. After
that, provisional coordinating committees functioned until the
formation, in October, 1980, of the National Indian Coordination, which was placed in charge of organizing the firs t national Indian
Congress.
It is necessary to underscore the importance of the newspaper
"Indian Unity" as a means of communication and education,
indispensible in the formation of the national movement. Also, the
role of the Foundation of Colombian Communities—FUNCOL—was
outstanding. Besides giving legal assistance to many Indian
communities at a national level, it periodically published the
bulletin YAVI, which contributed to the organization of communities,
the defeat of the Indian Statute, and the convocation of the
National Meeting in Lomas de Ilarco, Tolima, in which the National
Coordinating Committee was established.
In preparation for the Congress, the coordinating committee visited diverse communities in different regions of Colombia. It
promoted meetings, courses, regional congresses, and solidarity movements in various cities. It also took charge of the preparation of documents, publications, finances and other details, including obtaining permission to hold the Congress and overcoming the obstacles imposed by the national government. 204
The following organizations participated in the First Congress :
GRIT : Regional Indian Council of Tolima COXA : Council of Arhuaco Indians from the Sierra Nevada CRIVA: Regional Indian Council of Vaupes CRIDOC: Regional Indian Council of Western Colombia OREWA Regional Organization of Orewa-Waunana Indians UNUMA Organization of Indians of the Llanos Orientales MIDIK Movement of Katio Indians of Antioquia CRIC Regional Indian Council of Cauca
Indians from San Andres de Sotavento, Cordoba, Narino,
Amazonas, Cunas of Uraba, Coreguajes of Caqueta, Kamsa and Ingas of
Putumayo and Indians from the Cota Cabildo in Cundinamarca also
attended. Delegations of Indians from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia,
Brazil, Costa Rica, Panama, and Mexico, as well as from the South
American Indian Council and the World Indian Council were also
present.
A total of two hundred delegations demonstrated the wide
representation of the Congress and the diffusion obtained by the
Indian movement. Naturally, not all of the 150 indigenous groups
which exist in Colombia were represented. Many of these are
dispersed in various regions of the country and are very isolated
from each other and the rest of society. Although the majority of
these groups are s till not organized, the major regional
councils—except for the Guajiros—were represented.
In spite of the great diversity of relationships with the
national society, geographic medium, forms of social organizations,
and cultural traditions, the majority of Indians face the same problems. Principally, these are: the usurpation of territories and
natural resources, penetration by religious sects, cultural 205 oppression, segregation into the lowest category of the social structure, lack of state recognition of laws which benefit the indigenous population, and the Indian Statute, considered contrary to the interests of indigenous groups.
The Congress approved a set of objectives which had emerged from the struggles of regional organizations. Among these were defense of territory, resources, culture and legislation. Communal economic organizations, bilingual education and autonomous health programs were also stimulated. Solidarity with movements of other exploited social classes was also affirmed.
The program of the National Indian Organization of Colombia is as follows:
1. Defense of Indian autonomy. 2. Defense of Indian territory. Recovery of usurped territory. Collective character of reservation property. 3. Control over natural resources located in Indian territory. 4. Impulse communal economic organizations. 5. Defense of Indian history, culture and traditions. 6. Bilingual and bicultural education, under control of Indian authorities. 7. Recovery and impulse of Indian medicine and demand for health programs in agreement with the social and cultural characteristics of the community. 8. Demand for application of Law 89 of 1890 and other legal dispositions favorable to Indians. 9. Solidarity with the struggle of all exploited and oppressed peoples.
One of the basic objectives of the Congress was the formation of a national Indian organization established under the name of
National Indian Organization of Colombia—ONIC. The executive committee of this organization was formed from representatives of different regional organizations and its firs t president was Trino
Morales, one of the Indians who founded the CRIC. 205
The ONIC was the result of a ten-year process of patient grass roots organization. Although this movement cannot yet be considered a consolidated organization, it has sufficient real support to affirm that it is not simply a bureaucratic entity.
The ONIC is the result of a fierce struggle against a situation in which usurping of territory, economic exploitation, cultural oppression, and violent repression are common and threaten the existence of the communities which have been able to survive to the present. Many Indians died or were jailed and persecuted for their organizational activities. This will continue and may become more serious, but various regional organizations now have experience in overcoming such problems.
The ONIC emerged as an autonomous movement. Its concern with autonomy can be understood as a rejection of the manipulation of the
Indians by the state and religious missions; their experience with
ANUC and some leftist organizations; and the agitation of recent years against the Indian Statute.
On the other hand, the emphasis on autonomy results from the belief that Indians are an ethnic entity possessing ancestral territory, their own forms of social organization, a culture which differentiates them, and a historical course of action which has given them their own sense of identity.
This autonomy is not framed within the same indigenist context which characterized some movements of Peru and Bolivia and 207
predominates in the CISA. The ONIC considers itse lf to be part of
the mass struggle of oppressed classes, without losing its own
special essence.
With the creation of the ONIC, a new stage in the Indian
movement was initiated, offering many possibilities, such as a
unified organization of land recovery activities in regional
movements, organized group force which as it is consolidated will be
able to exert pressure upon the state, and recognition and influence
before union and political organizations as well as with
international Indian entities.
Perspectives on CRIC
The CRIC constitutes a political force that has produced
significant changes in the life of indigenous communities of Cauca.
It had formed a socio-political base which reverses the process of
extinction. Its influence is felt today by the mass of Colombian
Indians who have their own national organization to unify their
forces and coordinate their struggles.
The frustrations of repeated attempts by Indians of Cauca to organize and struggle to achieve their aspirations found in the CRIC a genuine hope of resolution. In twelve years, part of their
usurped territory has been recovered; the danger of reservation
dissolution has decreased with the creation of new reservations; the obsolete terraje production relationship has been abolished and
communal labor has been reinforced. Cabildos have been strengthened and tended to receive greater autonomy and recognition by the state. 208
but they will have to continue to evolve if they are to face new
conditions which result from the transformation taking place within
the communities. A cultural rebirth is occurring which will be able
to develop without loss of identity. A positive balance can be seen
with respect to the group objectives which the CRIC has promoted
since its creation.
However, this success constitutes only a firs t step towards
social transformation that will guarantee Indians' rights as
individuals and as ethnic groups. These objectives cannot be
achieved in isolation, but depend upon the sum of all of the forces
sharing them: in a group context they depend upon the development of
the national Indian movement and in a political context, upon the power of grass-roots social organizations. The contribution of the
CRIC is limited in both areas. However, its influence is greater in
Indian organizations than in the development of other sectors.
The CRIC has been active in the national Indian movement, contributing to its creation and offering its experience. Its policies, objectives and practical approach have influenced the national movement, and at the same time it has been enriched by the contributions of other Indian organizations. The great diversity of the Indian panorama, shared and analyzed through the ONIC, will be useful as a basis for better understanding Indian problems, tfor deepening cultural concepts, for improving organizational forms, for improving work methods, and in locating the role of each regional organization within the global perspective. 2 0 9
As a result of the regional struggles, much interest in Indians
problems has arisen. Indian life is continually the object of
political, academic and artistic analysis. Not within a folkloric
framework, but as a social problem and as a source of values which
contribute to the development of national identity. This phenomenon
is occurring throughout all Latin America and will favor the later
development of Indian movements in each country.
In Colombia, the State's attention has been called to the
Indian problem, and favorable laws and development plans have been
promulgated for Indian regions. In Cauca an emergency program has
been promoted in Indian areas as a result of the earthquake of
March, 1983, and the CRIC is increasingly taken into consideration
when official programs are introduced in its sphere of influence.
In its confrontations with the state and the dominant class of
Cauca, the CRIC has been relatively isolated due to the lack of
development of other peasant and union organizations. The CRIC has
taken advantage of the conflicts within the dominant classes—their
loss of political influence, flagging economic development, decadent
character, and lack of support by the central government—to
advance. The CRIC is making alliances at different levels and
trying to utilize State support where possible (for example, the
relationship with INCORA and the Census of 1972).
The CRIC has had to sustain—almost alone—the weight of
repression in the Department of Cauca. Support has come principally
from abroad and nationally from cities like Medellin, Bogota and
Manizales. Cali, in spite of being the largest nearby city, has 2 1 0 offered no group support. Although the CRIC has its headquarters in
Popayan, no urban infrastructure to offer assistance has developed outside its own team of permanent activists.
Given the lack of development of a peasant organization in
Cauca, some peasant sectors which border Indian regions have
gradually assimilated the Indian struggle, especially in the
Northern area. This has presented a different situation than the
CRIC was accustomed to handling. Reservations, Cabildos, land
recovery and culture are mentioned, but the realities are different
than those of indigenous communities. The CRIC has extended beyond
its own territory. Due to the lack of their own organizations, the peasant population (mestizo, black and white) has joined the Indian movement. This is a growing trend and the CRIC will have to make the necessary adjustments to confront it.
As a result of the 1983 earthquake, the CRIC together with
SENA, formed the rural Reconstruction Committee. Therefore, i t has had the opportunity to organize activities in the peasant sector around Popayan. The contrast with organizational activities among
Indians is great, and the conditions of reconstruction, will determine whether or not this labor will decrease as housing problems are resolved. This activity is also very different from
the assimilation process which was mentioned earlier.
The phenomenon of urban invasion settlements has also emerged
in Popayan, due to the earthquake, and presents a great potential
for organizational development. The CRIC has maintained contact with these, but in spite of the political importance which rural 2 1 1 reconstruction and urban Invasion settlements may have for mass social movements in Cauca, the CRIC cannot dedicate major organizational resources to them. The achievements of these sectors depends more upon other factors than upon what the CRIC can offer them.
In the development of its own programs, the CRIC faces the short-term task of production and the political management of its growing relationship with the state. To date, the central axis of the movement has been land recovery and in this area the CRIC has been far ahead of much state action, since the promise of agrarian reform was never fulfilled.
But the same cannot be said about production, since the criteria of an integrated capitalistic economy cannot logically be applied to the present condition of indigenous communities. Indians are interested, above a ll, in land recovery. They believe the land legitimately belongs to them and that they need it for survival. In the last two years the CRIC has established a production program and the last congress (the seventh) celebrated in Caldron, in November,
1983, declared as its primary banner "Production".
Therefore, the CRIC will have to reorient its organizational capacity—in immediate terms—to mobilize communities in this activity, in which it has had both positive and negative experiences. Many problems arose in the communal enterprises in which the INCORA intervened. These were either economic failures or tended to become isolated from the movement. In parallel, in some 2 1 2
recoveries different associative modalities for production have been
formed which could prove to be the key to develop an authentic
production model.
To date, the labor of the CRIC has been the political
orientation of economic organizations, to protect their autonomy
from the State and to assure that they contribute to strengthening
the Indian movement. Now, it will also have to assume, directly or
indirectly, technical training, and budgeting and management of
financial resources. This will bring about modifications in its
internal structure and growing relationships with official entities,
will open new ground — competition with the State in development
projects. The CRIC will run the risk of being absorbed or utilized
by the State or becoming institutionalized and integrated in the
existing political system. It will, however, also have the
opportunity to obtain advantages and strengthen the Indian movement.
This is also true of other programs like health, education and
cooperativism. The CRIC has begun these programs on its own, in a
totally autonomous manner, accumulating experience and developing
criteria. The success which these programs have achieved now makes
the State consider them points of reference in the development of
its own projects. The official cooperative agency (DANCOOP) must
rely on the CRIC for its projects in Indian regions; the health
program is considered a pilot experience for the project which
UNICEF is going to develop; and the bilingual schools are the basis 213 for a research project in curriculum adaptation for official primary schools, which the Ministry of Government has contracted with the
University of Cauca.
The CRIC has obtained these experiences with a great deal of creativity and responsibility, but these have been small projects and the CRIC is far from having the ability to attend to all the needs for credit, health, schools and other services for the entire
Indian population. It has never intended to replace the state in providing these services, but has tried to develop skills which can be used to identify what the Indian community should demand from the state. To date the CRIC has taken the initiative and has sufficient strength and clarity to pressure for these demands.
CRIC As A Social Movement
CRIC is certainly both an expression of the profound crisis that the Department of Cauca is undergoing, and a new social force which has significantly affected the political life in the
Department during the last 15 years. CRIC will certainly continue to Influence the course of Cauca's events. CRIC is also an expression of the agrarian crisis of Colombia affecting the entire peasantry and it plays a role, as a radical and solid grass-roots organization, in the overall class struggle. It is also an expression of what happens to Indians in Colombia and, to a great extent, in Latin America. CRIC plays a leadership role in regards to the Indian movement at the national level and participates as an influential organization in the Indian movement at the Latin
American level. 214
At the end of the 1960's the structural setting for the Indians
in Cauca was most favorable for the emergence of a social movement
such as CRIC: Indians were (and still continue) enduring the miserable living conditions, blatant social injustice and overt
cultural oppression. For centuries, Indians have been losing their
land and the great majority lived as landless, "minifundistas", or small landholders. As labor force Indians were nearly serfs in the
system of "terraje" predominant in Cauca. The Indian resistance to further loss of land was violently suppressed. Violation of
elemental human rights of Indians happened without social restraint.
Cultural oppression was ever increasing; Indian languages rapidly disappeared, especially through the influence of the school system; many Indian communities disintegrated; and the personal identity of
the Indians was destroyed.
Not all Indians, however, were hopeless victims. To a lesser
or greater extent, the seed of resistance was always present.
Indians counted on economic, political and cultural mechanisms of
defense which contributed to their survival as ethnic communities.
But the balance of power was overwhelmingly negative for the
launching of an Indian movement. The movement needed a favorable
opportunity like those in the 1970's to emerge.
Indians identified the landlords as their main adversaries,
along with the local authorities, the church (in some localities)
and various politicians, but there was also ideological and
political dependence on these individuals, as well as contradictions within Indians themselves, with regard to their ethnic interests. 215 and between them and the peasantry with regard to their class interests. In other words, in the sphere of subjective factors
-consciousness-, there were many handicaps for the development of a social movement. The gap was to be filled by the external political influence. In the case of CRIC, that influence was provided mainly by independent activists and by the overall context of peasant organization and agrarian political development at the national level.
The most immediate circumstances precipitating the emergence of
CRIC were the expectations aroused by the promises of agrarian reform and the State promotion and organization of the peasant movement at the national level under the presidency of Lieras
Restrepo, but of course, this took place within a complex panorama at the national level and in connection with international trends relating to human rights. A synthesis of the organizational characteristics of CRIC may contribute to a better understanding of the movement in Cauca and may be a useful point of reference for the comparative analysis with other social movements.
The original leadership of CRIC lies in an external group made up of radical intellectuals and local leaders of long political experience. This combination balanced the theoretical perspective with a practical knowledge of the concrete situation. Both, the intellectuals and the local leaders, shared a cl assist revolutionary approach to the Indian problems and their relation to the overall political process of the country. Thus, since its beginning, the
CRIC adopts a cl assist approach to the Indian question. Since the 216
start, the group emphasized the importance of providing political
education to the Indian leaders and of understanding the cultural
specificity of the Indians. This contributed to keeping the Indian organization independent from the national peasant organization and
to formulating specific Indian demands which were not defined in opposition or apart from the peasant demands.
The initial relationship of the peasant movement in general, and of some leaders of CRIC with the State becomes apparent in the first set of objectives of the Indian movement which were oriented toward seeking the intervention of the State in favor of the
Indians. Very soon, the State lost the control of the peasant movement and the movement becomes radical. Six months after the
CRIC was founded, a second program -effective today- was constructed on the basis of the historical demands of the Indians. The autonomy of the Indian organization in relation to the State and other organizations is progressively emphasized.
The continuance of some of the initial leaders from the inception of the movement up to the present has contributed to the preservation of the Indian movement against the attempts of other organizations to control it. Those contradictions, usually originated by the activists, not by the Indians, promoted the creation of parallel organizations of short duration and low impact. But those contradictions together with traditional disagreements between Paez and Guambiano Indians ended up creating the organization of Guambia as a different Indian organization. 217
The non-Indian activists who belong to the leadership group
exert considerable influence in the political orientation and in the
organizational aspects of the Indian movement. Their interest in
understanding the Indian culture, keeping in permanent contact with
the Indian communities and incorporating more Indians into the
leadership group is outstanding. The Indian culture is an aspect
which li ttl e by little has been gaining importance within the
Organization. But still, it will be a long time before it can
provide proper answers to many questions about the politics, the
education, the health, the production, the history, the identity and
all those problems generated by the cultural oppression to which
Indians have been submitted throughout centuries. In other words,
the development of the ethnic perspective still has a long way to go.
The initial organizational structure of CRIC was based on a
regional distribution of responsibilities under the coordination of an Executive Committee which was integrated by Indians who
represented the different regions. In the beginning, the severe
political repression of that year, as well as the growth and
complexity reached by the Indian movement at that time, made it
necessary to implement a change in the organizational arrangement.
From then on, the regional work depended more and more on the
Indians of the Executive Committee while the activists concentrated
their efforts on the specialized programs of health, education,
production, etc. which cover the different Indian regions. 2 1 8
There has been a gradual change in the participation of non-Indians: the activists worked for the Indian organization on a voluntary basis with no economic rewards; but later i t became necessary to hire people with sufficient technical training to carry out the specialized programs of the organization: lawyers, medical doctors, nurses, teachers, accountants, drivers, secretaries, economists, agronomists, etc. Also, some Indians, who have to devote all their time to the Organization, receive specialized training and a small salary.
It is important to point out the support of national and international foundations, especially European organizations, which provide economic support not only to the Indian movements, but to many popular movements throughout Latin America and in other third world countries. It is obvious that the popular organizations, on the one hand do not count on economic support from the State and, on the other, the economic resources of their constituencies are very limited to provide economic support for them.
The introduction of formal labor relations into the organizational apparatus modifies its internal personal environment. Discipline, concern, and social interaction on the basis of voluntary personal commitment are confronted by new • criteria. The coordination of the regional work with the specialized programs has been difficult to achieve. Something that has helped in this regard is to have a representative of the
Executive Committee in each one of the specialized programs. 219
The relationship to the traditional organization of the
communities is also problematic. Initially, the purpose of CRIC was
to become a federation of 'cabildos'. Ideally, this would mean that
the leadership of CRIC would be integrated by all the heads
(governors) of the cabildos, but this has not happened yet. Early
on, many of the cabildos were manipulated by local authorities which
portrayed CRIC as a communist organization. Furthermore, the
cabildos are elected for a one year period and on the basis of
criteria which do not coincide with the organizational criteria of
CRIC.
While CRIC is a centralized organization at the departmental
level, the cabildos are local authorities constrained to each one of
the resguardos; they are elected by their communities to administer
the internal matters of their communities. On the contrary, for the
Executive Committee of CRIC, the Indians are appointed for a three year period. They are chosen from among the Indians most capable of
understanding the global socio political context. They are
generally those who have more experience outside their communities,
and who have a better command of the Spanish language. For an
Indian who does not have sufficient command of the Spanish language
it would be difficult to manage as a member of the Executive
Committee or of the specialized programs. This explains, in part,
why the most outstanding Indian leaders of the organizational
apparatus are very low in terms of their Indian identity, and why
the cultural factors have not achieved the importance that an Indian
movement implies. 2 2 0
Formally, the organizational structure of CRIC is headed by a
Board of Directors which is made up of representatives of each one of the resguardos. However, in practice, the Executive Committee is more important. The meetings with the Board of Directors is more to inform them than to seek their approval.
Emphasis has been placed lately on the criteria that those elected for the Executive Committee must be Indians with previous experience as 'cabildantes' (members of cabildos), and that each one of them, together with the cabildos of the region they represent, are responsible for the organizational work demanded by the development of the Indian movement. CHAPTER VI
THEORETICAL. FRAMEWORK FOR THE EMERGENCE OF INDIAN MOVEMENTS
Introduction
This chapter will present a theoretical framework to explain why an Indian movement, such as the CRIC, arises among agricultural
Indians struggling to preserve their communities in the face of the process of decomposition similar to those affecting the peasantry.
A social movement can be defined as an organized, collective action directed against common adversaries and towards achieving shared objectives. Two sets of interrelated explanatory factors stand out: objective and subjective factors.
Objective factors are those structural conditions related to the objective situation of the social group in question. Objective factors include facts regarding the social context and assessment of conditions which have evolved out of a historical process: objective conditions are necessary but not sufficient for the emergence of a social movement. In the absence of these conditions, i t would difficult for a movement to arise. But, the mere presence of these conditions does not guarantee that the movement will
2 2 1 2 2 2 arise. In the case of Indian movement, some of these structural factors are: inequitable land tenure, political repression, low standards of living, cultural oppression, and the influence of modernization.
For a social movement to arise it is also necessary that subjective factors develop: that to a greater or lesser extent the participants be aware of the situation they are mobilizing against, and that they become capable of identifying the opposing forces and their own objectives. Two factors are related to this, the contradiction between growing expectations and frustration, which constitutes the effective component of action, and efforts of political education oriented toward understanding the importance of collective and organized action.
There exists a dialectical relationship between objective and subjective factors. In the case of the latter, is the awareness of an objective reality, and from that comes a reaction against a situation that is consciously perceived as something that must be changed. It is an awareness that develops from the complex interactions that the movement produces among the Indians and between the Indians and other social forces. Political consciousness becomes, itself, a new objective force that intervenes in the power struggle for or against social change.
Why does a social movement arise at a given moment, not before or after? The explanation lies within the specific conjunctural situations for each movement. These are situations that, at a given 223 moment, alter significantly the existing balance of power. Thus, a latent conflict becomes an explicit confrontation. Conjunctural circumstances open up the possibility for collective action or make it indispensable.
Conjunctural factors in this case may be new situations such as a new law, a new agrarian policy, or the influence of new political forces such as the guerrilla groups. Other factors may be the unusual intensification of processes that are already building; massive evictions, repression, outside influence, and the deterioration of the economic situation to a point where basic survival is threatened.
Finally, for a movement to develop as a sustained social force, it requires an organizational structure. The organizational characteristics determine the movements ability to confront the daily conflicts that constitute the concrete life of a social movement.
Structural Factors
Two types of structural factors must be differentiated: the fundamental and the secondary factors. The fundamental factors are those directly negatively impacting the communities: land expropriation, overexploitation of the labor force, repression, and cultural oppression. The secondary factors are not directly imposed on the communities but have an effect upon them. 224
Land
Historically, the struggle for land has been the fundamental
basis of most Indian as well as peasant agrarian movements. Land is a natural resource limited by its intrinsic qualities such as the quality of the soil, topography, climate and geographical location and by the technology used to work it. Two processes contribute to reduce the amount of land available for the peasant: the constant
subdivision of the property due to demographic growth; and, the accumulation of land by those who possess more economic, political, and cultural resources. The contradiction between the increasing necessity of land for peasants, on the one hand, and its diminishing availability, on the other, naturally tends to lead to open social conflicts. Measures that may be taken to lessen this contradiction include: migration, colonization, agrarian reforms and technological projects to increase the productivity of the peasants. The peasant and Indian movements against the monopoly over land are also an answer when the scarcity of land has become critical or when a favorable conjuncture occurs.
To the Indians, land is not just a means of production. Indians
struggle not only for piece of land, but for a territory associated
to their ancestors, their history and their beliefs. A territory which is the base not only for his material reproduction but for
social and cultural reproduction as ethnically differentiated
communities. These are lands which used to belong to them and that
in most cases were illegally expropriated. 225
For the above reasons, land takeovers by Indians are considered as "recuperations", not "invasions". While the central slogan of the Colombian peasant movement (ANUC) was "Land for those who work it" the slogan of the Indian movement has been "The recovery and enlargement of the resguardos". Thus, the legitimacy of the peasant struggle is based on the argument that land must fu lfill a social purpose, but for the Indians, the legitimation is supported by the traditional occupation of the land for centuries and by documents
("titles") given to them by the Spanish Crown and legally recognized by the present legislation of Colombia. In both cases, peasants and
Indians struggle against common adversaries. However, the Indian struggle expresses both an ethnic and a social character.
In the second place, the Indian territories are characterized by communal ownership over the totality of the resguardo and family possession of individual parcels of land. This arrangement emphasizes the collective character of the Indian movement, which undertakes to both defend the territory of the community against the possession and expropriation by outsiders and to recuperate the lands previously invaded. This is one of the reasons for the massive character of the Indian movement. Not only do those directly affected in their family lands participate in the movement but any member of the community, may participate eneven though they do not receive any personal benefit. Often, Indians from other communities often participate in a land takeover, for the sake of ethnic solidarity, because they are Indians. The totality of the 226
Indian population of Cauca was involved in the struggle against the
"terraje". Their remarkable solidarity with the terrajeros
expressed outrage against an injustice that offended all the Indians.
The fact that the resguardos have been legally recognized by the
Spanish Crown and present State government challenges the right of
ownership of the resguardo land by non-Indians. At the same time,
it legitimizes the right of the Indians to struggle for those
lands. It is very important to note that the struggle of the
Indians is not against the law, but rather they demand that the law
be obeyed and that their rights to resguardo lands be respected.
This is very important because the tenacity which characterizes the
Indian struggles is partially supported by the conviction that they
fight for something that legally belongs to them and that they can
demonstrated by their legal documents. Continuous frustration with
legal procedures sparks the direct collective action to take over
land.
Since the Indians ordinarily live in the most isolated and
backward regions, usually those who expropriate them are traditional
terratenientes (as in Cauca), settlers, and multinational companies who find the Indian territories to be a profitable natural
resource. Because of this, Indians lose their lands more by direct
expropriation than by absorption due to the expansion of capitalist
agriculture. 227
Exploitation
Peasants and Indians are exploited directly and indirectly by other social classes such as the terratenientes, agrarian capitalists, merchants and money lenders. Directly, when they have
to sell their labor force by entering into relations of servitude as
sharecroppers, renters or terrajeros working for a traditional
landlord; or as wage laborers working for agrarian capitalists.
Indirectly, when as sellers of their production and buyers of manufactured products they are exploited by intermediaries and by
commercial and financial capitalists. Also, they are exploited by
the State when the taxes they pay are not used to provide them with
corresponding public services. The latent conflict involved in this
situation may take the form of a social movement against the direct
and indirect exploitation of the labor force.
Indians share with peasants the same bases of exploitation. But they also have their differences. The direct forms of exploitation,
the 'terraje' appear as the typical form of exploitation of the
Indian labor force. The economic exploitation and dependency that this relationship implies are exacerbated by the servitude into which Indians working for a 'white' landlord are forced. Thus, the
terrajero is somebody, on the one hand, whose land was expropriated
— usually by violence or fraudulent procedures— and, on the other hand, whose labor force overploited.
As previously mentioned, in the case of the Colombian Indian
Movement the terrajeros, despite being the most dependent of all the 228
Indians, constituted the initial nucleus of the movement. This
contradicts the hypothesis that it is the independent peasants who
in itia lly constitute the major force of rebellion. This is
explained by the specific conjunctural circumstances surrounding the
emergence of the CRIC. Particularly, this circumstance was massive
eviction of terrajeros, when the law of 'aparceria' (sharecropping
law) was issued. While this law virtually eliminated the possibility of survival for the terrajeros, the presence of a
national peasant movement gave them both the opportunity and support
necessary to react collectively.
As wage earners, the Indians also find themselves in a
disadvantageous position with respect to the rest of the peasants.
They are forced to take the lowest paid jobs or are underpaid simply
because they are Indian.
In the sphere of commerce, as sellers or buyers, the Indians
also find themselves in disadvantageous positions: their
insufficient command of Spanish and mathematics make them easy
victims; or because they are Indians, the merchants abuse them.
Local merchants are usually "whites" who live outside of the labor
force and land of the Indians. Indians increasingly resent the merchants for being exploiters and oppressors. This accumulated
resentment together with the exploitation to which they and the rest of the peasantry, are subjected, constitute further ingredients for
the radical characteristics of Indian struggles. 229
Repression
In backward and marginal regions, such as the Indian regions, repression includes the extraeconomic factors of subjugation, the violence employed by the settlers to drive the Indians away; the violence of the terratenientes, as in the case of Cauca; and the slavery imposed upon the Indians of the Colombian, Equatorian and
Peruvian Amazone by the rubber barrons. The loss of lands due to the expansion of agrarian enterprises in the most advanced areas of agrarian capitalism (without ruling out violence) is generally achieved through economic mechanisms: purchase, rental, foreclosure and the like.
Given the violence usually associated with the expropriation of
Indian lands, violent response should be expected. This is further exacerbated by the lack of control on the part of the State due to the isolation and geographic characteristics of these regions
(jungles, mountains, desserts). The strategy of the guerrilla groups to fill the vacuum of State power in marginal areas must also be considered. Many of the Indian territories throughout Latin
America, including all the Indian regions in Colombia, are presently involved in guerrilla struggles.
Many Indian communities have a long tradition of struggle. The heroism of their ancestors against the Spaniards constitutes an incentive for the combativeness that characterizes the present
Indian struggles. Indians consider their present struggles to be continuation of the ones that forebearers have been waging since the time of conquest. 230
The end of Spanish domination did not bring liberation to the
Indians. In some cases their situation became worse. At the present time, the most extreme cases of repression and violation of human rights frequently occur against the Indian population.
Nevertheless, a characteristic of the Indian movement is their continual appeal to legal procedures. The legality implied by official documents which recognize the Indians as legitimate owners of the land they claim, has reinforced the will of the Indians to pursue these claims through endless legal procedures. As mentioned earlier, the Indians do not fight against the law. On the contrary, they request that the State enforce it, but frequently, instead of law enforcement they find repression. When violence does not destroy the movement, it forces the Indians to defend themselves.
By their own initiative, or with the aid of other movements, they adopt radical forms of struggle. Huizer, generalizing about Latin
America affirms that... "frequently, the initial concern of peasants who started getting organized was to demand that the existent laws were abided by the landlords. Radical methods were used only after the legal institutional channels for the solution of the problems were continuously blocked by the stubborn opposition of the
Lati fundi stas". (Hui zer, 1980:296)
The history of combining legal procedures with direct confrontation becomes apparent in the way Indians deal with their problems: to exert pressure by taking direct action, and at the same time, to be willing to negotiate with their adversaries (to combine 231 types of struggle). It is important to point out that, simultaneously with participating in armed struggle (not only in
Colombia but in other countries), Indians also resort to traditional mechanisms of defense such as Indian medicine (sorcery) and language. The crucial actions undertaken are analyzed with the medicine in the traditional coca rituals. To avoid being understood by their opponents, they communicate in their own languages.
"Ethnic differences incentivate the solidarity among the rebels and a special linguistic code facilitates the development of an autonomous system of communications".(Wolf, 1982:271)
In synthesis, the tradition of struggle, the faith in the lawfulness of their demands and the accumulated experience in dealing with repression, together with the increased perception of the prevailing land tenure arrangements and repression as illegitim ate, contribute to providing the Indian movements with the strength and combativeness that characterizes them.
Cultural Oppression
The Indians are culture bearers of a distinct civilization. The development of this civilization was truncated by the imposition of western civilization upon the arrival of the Spaniards. An outstanding aspect of colonialism is its constant and deliberate effort to destroy the cultural expressions of the subjugated peoples. In material terms, for Indians colonicalism has meant: land expropriation, exploitation of the labor force and annihilation 232 of Indians. In cultural terms it has been characterized by the imposition of the Spanish, Christianity and other western values.
In cultural terms, the situation under Spanish domination did not change at all after independence. The integration of the Indians into the rest of society has not been approached from a perspective of respect for their identity and cultural specificity. Due to the recent concern in Latin America about the Indian question which is associated to the rise of Indian movements during the decade of the
1970's, this cultural colonialism is being challenged.
Colonialism has been disguised as a "civilizing" endeavor, but its real effect has been cultural oppression. It has not just imposed western values, but has waged a deliberated attack against the Indian culture. In former times colonial domination meant persecution and death to the sorcerers, physical punishment to those who insisted on speaking their own native languages, disregard for traditional Indian authorities, and a generalized environment of segregation against everything of an Indian origin. Today such segregation is more subtle, but equally oppressive. The church and the school stand out as the mechanisms most directly involved in
"civilizing" the Indians (See Cortes, 1985).
Cultural oppression has produced the progressive loss of cohesion and internal order within the Indian communities. At the individual level, it has produced the loss of identity, the feeling of inferiority and shame for being Indian.
Colonialism, as other social processes, has been an uneven process limited, on the one hand, by the resistance of the Indians 233 and, on the other hand, by the internal contradictions of the dominant society. Thus, the expansion of the school system, for instance, has been more deficient in the Indian regions than in the rest of the country. Paradoxically, this has prevented the total disappearance of the Indian culture and has made the state recognize the cultural differences. The State uses that awareness to implement its integrationist projects.
The Indian movements themselves have adopted the strengthening of their culture as one of the fundamental objectives of their struggle; the struggle against cultural oppression as a distinctive characteristic of the ethnic movements. All the Indian movements claim the right to be educated in their own way, to preserve their native languages and other cultural expressions, to respect for their traditional authorities and to their own forms of social organization.
There is an Indian cultural renaissance in Latin America today.
This renaissance is particularly noticeable in the importance given to the use of their native languages; in the efforts to design adequate systems of writing those languages; in the recuperation of their history and oral tradition; and in the reactivation of the role of the medicine man as their own way of interpreting reality.
In synthesis, the loss of the territories, the overexploitation of the labor force, political repression and cultural oppression constitute the fundamental structural factors for the emergence of the Indian movements. 234
Secondary factors
At the beginning of the chapter it was stated that a combination of multiple factors, objective as well as subjective, was necessary for the emergence of an Indian movement. The fundamental structural factors which are related directly to the material and cultural survival of the Indian ethnic groups have been pointed out. There are other structural factors which contribute to the rising of agrarian movements. There can be considered as secondary structural factors since they do not seem to be so detrimental as those previously indicated. Of those secondary factors, which to a greater or lesser extent also affect the life of all peasantry the most important are those that bring the rural population in contact with new social, political and cultural realities, raising their aspirations for improving their living conditions. Such factors are: modernization, urban influence and migration.
One characteristic of unequal social development is the modernization of some regions or some sectors as opposed to the backwardness and, frequently, the impoverishment of the periphery.
The influence of modern life necessarily affects the traditional perception of the peasant of his social situation. It motivates him towards change, whether individual change without questioning the prevailing social structures, or collective change oriented to the transformation of the social structures. Modernization also produces changes in the local power structure which, usually, are detrimental for the traditional terratenientes. 235
The explosive urban growth during the recent years in Latin
America, the creation of middle size cities, and the expansion of the transportation and communication infrastructure, has broken the isolation that used to characterize the peasantry and has put it in contact with urban influence. The most important urban influence for Indians is experience with political forces and labor unions which expand the level of awareness and with whom they may become allies. Many of the leaders of peasant and Indian movements, especially in the early stage, have had previous organization experiences.
Also the migratory cycles, between the countryside and the city, and between other agrarian regions alter the peasant life, introducing into it the modern and urban influence. Even if these influences do not free the peasants from the traditional power structure, it prepares them to reject that power.
All these influences foster in the countryside a new dynamic of diverse consequences which are not always favorable to the development of agrarian movements. Their impact for the development of political awareness depend on many other factors, as will be seen in the following section.
In Cauca, in particular, the structural context is marked by the following characteristics: the sharp contrasts in the land tenure arrangement and the illegal expropriation of Indian lands; the backwardness of the Department, the generalized poverty of the
Indian population; the depletion of the natural resources; the low 236 technological level In production; the decadence of the traditional
landed aristocracy; the political "clientelism" and the servile exploitation of the Indian labor; the repression, generalized violence and abuses against the Indian population; the cultural oppression, the religious imposition and the segregation of Indians; the incapacity of the State to provide adequate public services and the manipulation of the local power against the Indians diminishing the effectiveness of legal procedures; and the contrast between
Cauca and its neighbor, the Department of Valle, in terms of modernization.
Subiective Factors
In order to participate in a social movement, a person must make a decision based on some degree of consciousness. Any social movement has two points of reference: the departure point or situation against which the movement emerges and the point or goal that the movement attempts to achieve. Both are dialectically related, but do not necessarily appear simultaneously. To be aware of what one reacts against is the first step in the development of consciousness. It may be an effective reaction based on a greater or lesser degree of rationality. It is the development of the consciousness as negation of a given situation, as the result of
some type of frustration.
Huizer indicates three situations of frustration which foster the rise of agrarian movements: a sharp deterioration of the 237
prevailing situation; rising expectations due to a partial change
that excludes the peasants from its benefits; and, a real
improvement of the peasants' situation which is suddenly stopped or
reversed.
The intensification of frustration may be the result of negative
changes which cause the situation of the peasants to deterioriate
with regard to some or all of the structural factors. For instance,
massive evictions of dependent peasants and land confiscation;
intensification of the exploitation of the labor force; increasing
repression and cultural oppression. All of these are interrelated:
by losing his land, a peasant becomes exploitable labor. His
resistance is then punished and ideological arguments are used to justify the repression. If Indians are involved, the arguments against them often have racist connotations: lazy Indians who do
not work the land or know how to cultivate it; Indians are incapable of progress; Indians are the main cause of regional backwardness
because their lands are tax exempt. The legal extinction of
resguardos is seen as a measure to "civilize" the Indian lands.
On the other hand, to be clear about the goals of a movement, as
a positive purpose, requires a deeper rationalization. The movement may be oriented to the achievement of partial demands or to the
transformation of the social structure.
The development of consciousness as a negation is associated
with pre-political movements while consciousness as affirmation of
social goals is associated with political movements. There are two 238 types of political movements: reform movements, which aim at partial transformation of social structures, and revolutionary movements, which are oriented to radical and global social changes.
Identification of a concrete set of objectives for the struggle is another one of the features characteristic of a social movement.
Various theories suggest that the peasant movements by themselves tend to remain in the firs t level of consciousness while the real political dimension is introduced through the outside influence of urban political groups.
Objective structural factors determine the development of subjective factors: consciousness does not emerge out of a vacuum without contradictions or by mere political indoctrination.
Political consciousness is a consciousness of reality. Social movements are in itia lly a reaction against an unbearable situation.
However, the spontaneous development of consciousness is also limited by the immediate reality. For a social sector like the peasants or the Indians, not placed at the center of the dynamics of their social system, their immediate reality seems to be an even greater limitation for the spontaneous development of their consciousness.
The initial level of awareness Is determined by the impact of the structural factors formerly indicated: inequality, exploitation, injustice, repression, and cultural oppression.
Political awareness starts from the objective recognition of a 2 3 9 common situation and the necessity for concerted efforts center around common interests which transcend the differences and contradictions within the communities.
For the Indians, such firs t level consciousness is related to accumulated resentment against segregation and to the recognition of ethnic inequality. The first explanation that Indians form for their situation is the fact that they are Indians. Therefore, it
should not be suprising that, at least in the firs t stages, the
Indian movements may have indigenist connotations: the appeal to
the unity of Indians against whites. However, in this context,
"whites" refers to those persons and institutions which have a
negative impact on the daily life of Indians: local terratenientes, public employees, priests, politicians, merchants, and, frequently peasants who compete with them for access to land and natural
resources and who segregate and exploit them. This is the
consciousness of a concrete reality — backed by a long negative
experience — where the fundamental adversaries, the social
structures, the functioning of the system, and the common interests with other social groups, have not yet been identified.
It is worth noting that Indians in Cauca use the term "mestizo"
to differentiate the poor peasant from the "white" exploiters. In this context, the "mestizo" and "white" labels are more class related than ethnic in nature. The ethnic consciousness against whites may lead to a reaffirmation of the Indian identity in order to counteract the inferiority complex internalized for centuries. 240
The historical experience has also given the Indians a sense of legitimacy about their claims. This, in turn, implies that their perception of the demands and acts of their adversaries are illegitimate. For this reason, the land takeovers have, for the
Indians, the meaning of "recuperations". They base their claims on their rights to the land of their ancestors — rights accorded to them in legal documents, in their myths and oral traditions, and in archaelogical remains which demonstrate their ancestors' occupation of the land.
Any social movement requires a legitimate justification. In the case of the Indians it is a historical justification that, together with the memory of the combativeness which characterized some of their ancestors, provides strength for their present struggle. It is a collective memory which is recorded and made active by the movement. To resort to history as a source of consciousness seems more typical of the Indian than of other social movements.
The development of consciousness is a struggle against the internalized ideology of submission. The passiveness of the Indians is not only the result of violent repression and their economic vulnerability, but it also is the result of their acceptance of political and ideological domination. The movement faced at least two ideological obstacles. First, the denial of their identity by those Indians who consider themselves "civilized" and who therefore, feel reluctant to accept a movement oriented to reaffirming their ethnic identity (in Cauca they are called "blanqueados" [whited] or 241
"salados" [salted] by other Indians). The second obstacle is a prejudice against social transformation. The politicians and the church, especially, have manipulated the phantom of anti-communism to scare Indians away from these influences. To label a movement as
"communist" prejudices the Indians against it, especially in the early stages of the movement. It is a difficult tactic to combat, but once overcome, it provides a sense of persona reaffirmation.
Something similar happens with regard to repression. For many
Indians in Cauca, their first arrest was something like a baptism that granted them the status of true fighters.
Ethnic consciousness does not necessarily preclude the development of class consciousness. On the contrary, it is an important start for further political growth. Class contradictions are found at the base of ethnic contractions, although not every ethnic aspect can be approached from a class perspective.
External political influences on Indian movements and the Indian interaction with other social movements play a decisive role for the development of political consciousness by placing ethnicity in a broader social context. Nevertheless, some Indian movements reject this approach and adopt an idigenist perspective in opposition to the class viewpoint. On the contrary, a mechanical application of the class approach can lead to a disregard for ethnic specificity, denying its significance to the Indian movements.
The initial level of consciousness does not necessarily determine the further political development of a movement.
Consciousness is a dynamic factor which varies with its 242 confrontation with reality. Any social movement provides political education for the masses. It promotes a collective examination of past history and the present situation. It develops the political understanding and ability to work out contradiction with the adversaries and within the movement. This type of education is achieved through mechanisms such as local meetings, assemblies, land takeovers, congresses, and encounters with other social movements.
Massive Indian events contribute to strengthening the use of the native language, to recovering the history and to reaffirming Indian rights. Participation in the events of other social movements contributes to widening their political awareness.
The organizational apparatus of the movement also promotes educational activities and provides resources such as workshops, leaflet, and periodical publications which serve to improve the political formation at the grass roots level and the qualifications of the leadership. Furthermore, the organizational praxis develops responsibility, disciplines solidarity, and other values important to the development of a social movement.
A movement with an in itia lly moderate perspective may later become radical. On the contrary, a movement of deep initial perspective may be co-opted, neutralized, or may never develop enough strength to achieve meaningful social impact. Often, in the political work of le ftist groups there has been a r if t between their sophisticated program, their intense debates, and the real dimension of their social power. Also, the proposition of global objectives without responding to concrete demands has been frequent. 243
Perhaps the political dimension of a social movement depends less on the initial level of consciousness than on the type of structural contradictions that originate it. Thus, the more severe the social crisis in which a movement emerges, the greater the possibility for the movement to develop politically and to achieve meaningful social transformations. Praxis is, in itself, a factor of consciousness development. The impact of a social movement can reach beyond its initial conscious purposes
Coniunctural Factors
Under special circumstances which break the relative equilibrium of the social situation (when a conjunctural situation occurs), the interaction between structural and subjective factors produces the rise of social movements. Conflict becomes a collective, conscious and organized action oriented to the transformation of the situation. The conjunctural factors are specific circumstances which precipitate the reaction. They are the result of the intensification, to an unbearable level, of the original problems, they may also be new situations which alter the balance of power which maintained the situation in a relatively stable state, thus providing a possibility for the organized action of the subordinated groups.
The intensification of frustration and/or the rise of expectations caused by conjunctural circumstances constitute the precipitating psychological factors of social movements. Both are 244 part of the same phenomenon since the unfulfillment of expectations increases frustration.
The decision in favor of collective reaction may be the result of the accumulation of deteriorating processes to a critical level.
For instance, demographic growth and the subdivision of the original family property among new generations reduces available land to the point where i t loses its capacity to satisfy minimal needs. Even if evictions, expropriations, and other abused do not happen, the level of mi ni fundi a reached in some regions is a sufficient reason for the emergence of social movements.
Because of the constant rise in the cost of living, accelerated by the inflationary processes that have characterized the Latin
American economics for the last two decades, the limit of survival is reached sooner, causing people to make the decision to mobilize.
Multiple factors of the present economic development, such as the following, contribute to this situation: the deterioration of the terms of trade between the agricultural products that the peasant sells and the manufactured products that he buys, the depletion of soils and other natural resources, the increasing indebtedness and the growth of necessities under the influence of modernization.
At a given point in time, increasing frustration is the result of rising expectations due to new situations. For instance, the promise of agrarian reforms and other state programs, the modernization of neighboring regions, the urban experience of the 245 peasantry, the rise of other social movements, specific conjunctures such as a populist government or the alliance of the peasantry with a sector of the ruling class at a given moment.
The intensification of capitalist expansion due to foreign investment after World War II accelerated the process of decomposition of the peasantry, intensified the contradictions of the interaction among modes of production, and transformed, in its own terms, those social relations which constituted an obstacle to its expansion.
Marx argues that social change becomes unavoidable when prevailing relations of production become an impediment for the further development of the forces of production. Even though in
Latin America, only the Cuban revolution (1959), and recently, the
Nicaraguan revolution, succeeded, the entire region entered a phase of sharp social conflict. As a response, agrarian reforms were implemented in many countries. Other countries opted for military dictatorships. Agrarian reforms and/or military dictatorships were the main features of Latin American political development during the last two decades.
Besides attempting to counteract the influence of the Cuban revolution, the agrarian reforms tried to create favorable conditions for agrarian capitalism and reduce the impact of migration on the cities. Relations of production prevalent in the countryside constituted an impediment for these objectives, so transformation became necessary. That transformation could be 246 achieved by providing land to the peasants, as some agrarian reforms intended; or, by sponsoring the modernization of large landholding, which in fact happened.
To some extent, a contradiction between the rising bourgeoisie and the traditional terretenientes developed. Because of this, in
Colombia, the State, under the presidency of Lieras Restrepo, not only tried to implement agrarian reform, but it also sponsored the organization of the peasantry to counteract the opposition of the landlords. Under this context, the peasant movement emerged at the national level, together with the Indian movement.
Another important aspect of social movements is the relationship between repression and democratization on the part of the State. A process of democratization facilitates the emergence of social movements. Repression either destroys (at least temporarily) or radicalizes them.
At the end of the 1970's a climate of democratization (a return to civilian government) and communal participation began, sponsored at the international level by the United Nations (Stiefel 1980).
"Participation" is the new international strategy for development of the deprived sectors of dependent countries. Participation requires a minimum of democratization. This strategy seeks to counteract the economic and political failures of military dictatorships and authoritarian governments which have characterized Latin American politics.
Another conjunctural factor of specific importance for Indian movements is the international environment is in favor of the rights 247 of oppressed minorities. "The last five years have seen the rise of ethnic, regional, and national movements, in almost all of the plural countries, in the developed as well as the underdeveloped world".(Bonfil-Batella, 1977)
The fact that the Indian problem is a topic of increasing concern in international forums for human rights, is very important, as demonstrated by the Colombia case in which Amnesty International and other organizations, especially European organizations, have intervened to protect the life and freedom"of many Indians.
Contribution to the Analvsis of Social Movements
The case study and the analysis presented heretofore focuses attention on a recent, surprising and widespread sociological phenomenon which has been underestimated in prevailing approaches to social change; the Indian movements. It argues that Indians possess the potential to counteract the processes of their elimination and extermination and that they are an important force in transforming or changing societies.
This approach challenges those contentions of the social sciences, including Marxism, which view Indians as opposed to social change and as the remnant of a primitive world inevitably doomed to disappear.
Traditional cultures are said to be resistant to social change.
In this dissertation, the reaffirmation of the Indian's cultural identity is viewed as a source of strength for Indian communities and their members. On the other hand, the effect of "civilization" 248 as negators of the Indian culture, has had the opposite effect.
Externally imposed development has thus found a stubborn resistance on the part of Indians, who have employed a strategy of ethnodevelopment — change according to their own, particularly the cultural idiosyncracies. For Latin America in general i t is questionable if the Indian factor has been a cause of underdevelopment. On the contrary, this study suggests that the exploration of Indian social organization and culture will be useful in finding the actual causes of underdevelopment and defining alternatives for development.
Indian survival is not just a fortuitous case. There is an economic basis related to the functioning of capitalism in peripheral economy that has contributed to the Preservation of
Indians and peasants. There is also a political reason related to the potential of collective resistance. Indian resistance is enhanced by ethnic mechanisms such as communal property of their territory, traditional social organization and ethnic solidarity.
The Indian movements of today are an expression of active resistance that seeks to change their subjugated social condition. This assures their preservation as ethnic communities culturally differentiated from the rest of society.
Studies of peasant movement in Latin America (Quijano, n.d.,
Huizer, 1980; Wolf, 1982) include the Indian movements without specifying any difference. This study, on the contrary, emphasizes the difference between peasant and Indian movements while viewing both of them as part of the overall class struggle. While the 2 4 9
Indian problem has been seen primarily as a class problem — the problem common to all peasantry — the present study contends that ethnicity cannot be reduced to a matter of class alone. The differentiating factor of Indian movements from other social movements is that of their organization around ethnic interests including class interests, which are redefined in ethnic terms.
The middle part of this dissertation presented a case study of one of the most important Indian organizations in Colombia, CRIC. A detailed description and analysis of the organizational development of CRIC from 1970 to 1982 was presented. My knowledge of that movement comes from my participation in the movement as an activist and uses the methodology of the participant observer (Investigacion
Accion Participativa) which is a new methodological trend in the
Latin American social sciences, associated with the study of social movements (Fals-Borda, 1980).
Hopefully, the explanatory framework for the rise of Indian movements presented in the concluding part of the dissertation will be useful for those interested in explaining Indian, peasant or social movements in general. I do not claim to have discovered anything new. What I have written has already been said in one way or another, by other people interested in the subject, but hopefully the combination is unique and sheds some light on social movements.
Knowledge is also a collective struggle. I learned directly from the Indians most of what I have written. GLOSSARY
ANAPO : Minority political party composed of followers of ex/dictator Gustavo Rojas Pinilla.
ANUC : Associacion Nacional de Usuarios Campesinos. A national organization which promoted the national pesasant movement.
ASCOIN : Colombian Indigenist Association; promoted by the Catholic Church.
Barrio : Urban neighborhood with certain social cohesion.
Cabildo : Indian authorities, democratically elected, which govern communities (reservation).
Chirimia : Typical Indian musical group consisting of flutes, drums and other percussion instruments most often seen at Christmas time and during Holy Week.
CINEP : Center for Educational and Political Research. Centro de Investigacion y Education Popular.
Colono : Person who settles unoccupied land.
Companero : Companion, comrade, person with whom a relationship is formed based upon participation in common activities.
Cordillera : Extensive mountain chain. In Colombia reference is made to the Eastern, Central and Western Cordilleras.
CRAC : Regional Agrarian Council of Cauca; group formed to try to counteract the influence of the CRIC among the Indian population.
DANCOOP : National Department for Administration of Cooperatives.
DANE : National Department of Statistics; government agency responsible for gather various types of statistical information.
2 5 0 251
DAS : Administrative Security Department; official government intitution; secret police.
Department : Geographical division corresponding to state.
Encomienda : Colonial system which granted Indian labor force to conquerors and their descendants.
FANAL : National Agrarian Federation. FARC : Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, guerrilla army.
Fique : Agavacea plant like sisal or jute, used to produce a fiber to make rope and burlap-type sacks; presently often replaced by plastic causing serious problems for communities dedicated to producing this fiber.
FIRMES : A democratic political front.
FRESAGRO : Social Agrarian Organization; 1969-1971.
FUNCOL : Foundation for Colombian Communitites; provides legal assistance to Indians.
Golconda : Organization of Colombian Catholic priests dedicated to study and implement social action; active in Colombia in the 1970s.
Hacienda : Large extension of land, often having existed since colonial times and in the hands of the dominant class.
IICA-CIRA : Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences. Inter-American Center of Agrarian Reform.
INCORA : Colombian Institute of Agrarian Reform.
INDERENA : National Institute for the Defence of Natural Resources.
Jornalero : Laborer employed for a daily wage without social benefits.
Latifundio : Extremely large extension of land, often inadequately exploited.
Minifundio ; Extremely small extension of land upon which a peasant or Indian family must try to subsist.
MOIR : Revolutionary movement active in the 1970s.
MRL : Revolutionary Movement of the Liberal Party; reformist movement within the traditional Liberal party; active in the 1960s. 252
ONIC : National Organization of Colombian Indians; formed in 1981 to coordinate the Indian movement at a national level.
Patron : Hacienda or land owner; employer.
PCC : Colombian Communist Party.
PCML : Marxist-Leninist Communist Party.
PROPUBLICOS : Non-governmental agency which provides legalassistence to the CRIC.
Rosa : Plot of land dedicated to slash and burn agriculture which is rotated frequently to permit ecological balance.
SAC : Colombian Agricultural Society.
Terraje : Servile labor relationship existing in Indian regions-Zsimilar to sharecroping—in which rights to the land are "paid" by working without wages on the hacienda.
Terrajero : Person who work in a labor relationship of terraje.
Terrateniente : Owner of an extremely large extension who lives off the land without making any major investments in production.
Titles : Documents from the time of the Spanish colonization which demarcate reservation terratory.
Violencia ; Decade of social and political violence which began with the assassination of Jogre Elicer Gaitan, on April 9, 1947. Many important guerrilla leaders of today emerged within the context of this period.
Washing of the Staff : Traditional ceremony in which authority is passed from the out-going to the in-coming Cabildo. It is symolized by going to high altitutde lakes to wash the staves which represent authority. BIBLIOGRAPHY
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