Colombian senator proposing to ethnically divide war-torn state
Colombian senator proposing to ethnically divide war-torn state
Mar 17, 2015 posted by Alice Bradshaw-Smith
A conservative Colombian opposition senator upset local indigenous leaders by proposing to ethnically segregate the troubled Cauca state.
Senator Paloma Valencia of the Democratic Center plans said her party would promote a referendum “to decide if we break the department in two,” she was quoted as saying by local news outlet Proclama del Cauca
The department of Cauca is currently embroiled in a conflict over 141,000 hectares of land that the indigenous people claim is owed to them by the government.
The protests have been going on since November last year, but have so far only been met by police repression. Numbers of resultant injuries for both parties are every day increasing as the matter remains unresolved.
The proposal of the opposition party for Cauca is “one indigenous part, where they can carry out their strikes, protests and invasions, and one with the aim of development, where we can have roads, promote investment and create decent jobs for the people of Cauca,” said the senator.
More:
http://colombiareports.co/colombian-senator-proposing-to-ethnically-divide-war-torn-state/
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The senator responded to the question of where the black community would fall into the division by stating that they should “choose whether they want to create their own territory or join one of the other two.”
A second ally of Uribe, former newspaper columnist Ernesto Yamhure, added oil the fire by saying that “the indians can go claim land in Cauca and we can claim we have given them clothes and bathe them.
Yamhure had lost his job at El Espectador newspaper after media revealed he had been closely tied to Carlos Castaño, the founder of the paramilitary organization AUC.
Indigenous leaders furious
The Democratic Center’s proposal of Cauca’s division received immediate backlash from leaders of the indigenous community.
Indigenous leader of Cauca Feliciano Valencia said that the suggestion is typical of the Democratic Center Party, a party formed by former President Alvaro Uribe.
Uribe-loyal politicians “have always wanted to divide everything; political power, and now the country. One part for them, and another part for others,” the indigenous leader told Colombia Reports on Tuesday.
[center]
Ernesto Yamhure
[center]
Yamhure's death squad/narcotrafficker friend, killed by his bodyguards, Carlos Castaño [/center]
