Black Land Rights in Northern Cauca

Urgent, 24-Hour Fundraiser!
Black Communities in Northern Cauca are in urgent need of your support. Whatever amount you are able to donate will assist with the acquisition of food, water and medical supplies for hundreds of families out in protest. This urgent fundraiser will only last until 10pm Tuesday, April 26th - Only 24 Hours.

Over 2,000 elders, children, women and men from 41 Afro-Colombian community councils marched peacefully along four kilometers of the main Pan-American Highway in Northern Cauca to demand that the Colombian Government respect the constitutional rights of Black Bommunities to autonomous governance of their ancestral lands. The government's response to this first day of protest was smoke grenades, teargas, and at least one bullet wound as the Mobile Anti-Disturbance Squad (ESMAD) attacked the hundreds of families engaged in peaceful protest.

“This is a political act of the sovereign black peoples of Northern Cauca” said one of the march organizers. “We are in full support of a negotiated end of the armed conflict. We demand the participation of the Afro-Colombian National Peace Council (CONPA) and the Inter-ethnic Commission in the peace process. We demand guarantee for the safety of the human right defenders and the mobilization gathered here today.”

For years the communities have been demanding that the Colombian Government follow through with its constitutional duty to recognize collective land titles to the Ancestral Afro-descendant Community Councils that make up the Association of Community Council of Northern Cauca (ACONC). Instead, the Ministry of Interior denies the existence of black communities, while both the National Development Plan, and the current peace negotiations ignore Black Communities’ collective territorial rights enshrined in Law 70 of 1993. Meanwhile, dozens of Afro-Colombian community leaders continue to be assassinated, displaced and threatened.

Although they have reached a tentative agreement with government officials on the general negotiation principles, the communities intend to block traffic along this main route until their demands are met. The communities call upon national and international solidarity to ensure their safety and support their efforts to provide food, water, medical supplies and other essential necessities as the mobilization is expected to last days.

Please support the ongoing struggle for black land liberation by donating here, and staying informed via www.afrocolombian.org