The openMovements series invites leading social scientists to share their research results and perspectives on contemporary social struggles.<\/p>\n
Army barricade protecting mines in Colombia.<\/i><\/p>\n
Rosemary Bechler (RB):<\/i><\/strong>; So Lyda Fernanda RB:<\/i><\/strong> Greetings from one shocked referendum survivor to another, Lyda. In LFF:<\/strong> When we However it is too concentrated in the person of President But if the idea is building peace and moving towards a new RB: <\/i><\/strong>Of course this is not the first time that the Nobel peace prize has run LFF: <\/strong>Yes and when RB: <\/i><\/strong>So tell me, you have been writing about the Pax Neoliberal that Santos LFF: <\/strong>This is a When we look at the different \u2018post-conflict policies\u2019, If we look at the specifics of this sixty-year-old RB: <\/i><\/strong>Of those who voted \u2018no\u2019 in the referendum, were many of them doing so because LFF: <\/strong>\u00a0There were many strands and influences in this A small section of those who voted no were aware of this So people were aware of Santos\u2019 contradictory stance, but RB:<\/i><\/strong> So who voted no?<\/i><\/p>\n LFF:<\/strong> Many RB: <\/i><\/strong>\u00a0But you say nevertheless that a LFF: <\/strong>When you The massacre of the Uni\u00f3n There are many more such moments, and getting to know what RB: <\/i><\/strong>Is this the Environmental Truth Commission that you are talking about?<\/i><\/p>\n LFF:<\/strong> We need a process of environmental memory This is central to any RB:<\/i><\/strong> So have you been following the Standing Rock protests? They seem to LFF: <\/strong>Yes, it is People have been suffering all around from RB:<\/i><\/strong> I certainly see what you are saying. <\/i><\/p>\n Last December, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), in cooperation with How to cite:<\/strong> The openMovements series invites leading social scientists to share their research results and perspectives on contemporary social struggles. Army barricade protecting mines in Colombia. Rosemary Bechler (RB):; So Lyda, please introduce yourself\u2026 Lyda Fernanda Forero (LFF): \u00a0I am originally from Colombia and I am at the Transnational Institute which is an organisation based in Amsterdam….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nLyda, please introduce yourself\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n
\nForero (LFF): <\/strong>\u00a0I am originally from
\nColombia and I am at the Transnational Institute which is an organisation based
\nin Amsterdam. I am part of
\nthe \u2018Economic Justice and Corporate Power\u2019 programme. We work on different
\ntopics, including environmental justice, agrarian justice, but also how those
\nare affected by corporate power and trade and investment agreements. Being from
\nColombia, often in Colombia and working with
\nColombian organisations, I follow the political process closely and
\nspecifically, trade agreements between Colombia and the European Union and how
\nthey impact on that society. It is Colombian newspapers that I turn to first in
\nthe morning\u2026<\/p>\n
\nColombia, post-referendum, President Santos has just received the Nobel peace
\nprize. How do you view this?<\/i><\/p>\n
\nlook at the awarding of this prize, we understand it as a way for the
\ninternational community to support the negotiation process going on in our
\ncountry, the so-called \u2018peace process\u2019.\u00a0
\nIt came at a moment when all hopes were dashed by the results of the
\nplebiscite, so in this context the supportive signal that is being given here
\nis understandable. <\/p>\n
\nSantos, and even though it is important to acknowledge that he too is making an
\neffort to move forward in these negotiations on behalf of the Colombian elite \u2013
\nhe is not the only one who has significantly contributed to this process.
\nAnd he is certainly not the party that has suffered most in the conflict over
\nthe last sixty years. Some of the representatives of the victims were also
\ncandidates for the Nobel peace prize, and it is also the case that both
\nnegotiation teams, those of the government and of FARC, could have been acknowledged.\n<\/p>\n
\nmoment in the country \u2013 that support should be given to all the parties
\ninvolved and it could have been a very good way to do this, to acknowledge all
\nthe victims involved by giving the prize to them. On the one hand it is good to
\nfeel that the international community wants to support and help us find some
\nspace for moving forward, but at the same time, it is an affront not to
\nacknowledge the full scale of what is involved in this national debate. There
\nare many actors, and those most affected , who historically have been silenced,
\ncontinue to be silenced.<\/p>\n
\ninto some criticism, to say the least\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n
\nyou look at the role the president has himself played in the conflict, even
\nthough he is now making a big effort, you have to recollect that previously he
\nwas the Minister for Defence.<\/p>\n
\nis working on now \u2013 can you explain what this is?<\/i><\/p>\n
\nColombian twist on the Pax Romana that several organisations find useful to
\ndescribe a winner-take-all approach to the termination of the negotiations.
\nFrom the perspective of Santos\u2019 Government this also means to pursue results
\nthat accord with the development and expansion of neoliberal policies instead
\nof trying to discuss the real causes of the armed conflict which were related
\nto the social, political and environmental conflicts in the country. <\/p>\n
\nthey are a part of a corporate attempt to take over this so-called \u2018peace\u2019. One
\nof these proposals concerns the naturally conserved or \u2018protected areas\u2019 which
\nare the perfect scenario for setting carbon conserving or biodiversity targets.
\nBut as we have seen, these kinds of projects can also at the same time require
\ncommunities to be pushed outside their territories. It is just a different way
\nof doing that. The \u2018green economy\u2019 is presented as the environmental section of
\nthe post-conflict latest set of proposals, and in reality it is an exclusionary
\nproject aimed at displacing people and a takeover of the land. But we want to
\nemphasise a different environmental truth that involves other actors, who are
\nnot included in these plans.<\/p>\n
\nhistory, it comes out of conflicts over access to land and property
\ninequalities that were not properlysolved in the\u00a0 negotiations. There is a longer history of
\noppression and exclusion that goes back to the
\nbeginning of the republic let alone the colony. But with these actors, the
\nconflict between FARC and the Colombian Government goes back sixty years and access to land has been the main issue. For example, the \u2018Zidres law project\u2019 is providing subsidies and a
\nstructure for giving big landowners access to \u2018empty or uncultivated lands\u2019 (bald\u00edos). Legally they can have access to this
\nland with protection and subsidies, and this was happening at exactly the same
\ntime as the agreement on rural development was being negotiated
\nin Havana. So while farmers are expecting to have access to land and a final
\nbreakthrough in this historic problem of land claims, the Government is pursuing
\nthis legal outcome that goes in the opposite direction.
\nIt is contradictory viewed from a certain perspective, but in another way the
\nGovernment is only continuing to preserve the ownership of the land for the big
\nlandowners.<\/p>\n
\nof this obvious contradiction in Santos\u2019 aims?<\/i><\/p>\n
\nNo vote. The majority of the population didn\u2019t vote \u2013 it was the lowest turnout
\nin twenty-two years. There has always been abstention, but this was the highest
\nin two decades. The tradition of voting as a way of exercising democracy is not
\nestablished in Colombian politics, and in that sense this abstention does
\namount to a protest in so far as people don\u2019t seem themselves as empowered by
\nthe vote, but in this specific case this was not a feature of what
\nhappened.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\ncontradiction, but the social movements and organisations that acknowledged this
\nmost clearly actively campaigned for support of the agreement and voted in
\nfavour. Land conflicts, mining and energy and territorial conflicts, will
\nremain, but what these people feel is that the agreement is an opportunity to solve
\nthe problem in a new way, not through the use of weapons. That is what could make
\nthe difference.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\nit was not a reason to oppose the agreement.<\/p>\n
\npeople were influenced by the manipulation and lies of right wing and even
\nextreme right wing propaganda put out by Alvaro Uribe's party,
\nthe former president and Alejandro Ordonez the former attorney, while another
\ngroup was heavily influenced by the Protestant churches who raised a furore
\nover gender inclusion and rights for lesbians and gays. There was a small group
\nof progressives, but the majority were right wing, whose political leaders
\nbrazenly admitted afterwards that they had used lies to get their votes. <\/p>\n
\nmajor gain from this process is how it has allowed new versions of the truth to
\ncome to the surface ?<\/i><\/p>\n
\nlook at how our official history is taught, the situation of the victims and
\nthe role of the bigger landowners in this violence has not been touched on.
\nThere are so many things that have happened in our history that haven't been officlally acknowledged. <\/p>\n
\nPatri\u00f3tica<\/i> <\/i>party is
\nanother such emblematic moment \u2013 a previous attempt on the part of the FARC to
\ndemobilise and enter a peace process, on this occasion 5,000 people were murdered, as some organisations in Colombia have documented. This is only one moment out of so many in our history which remain unaccounted for. <\/p>\n
\nhappened is so important. This is why we need a Truth and Memory Process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nto clarify the truth of the armed conflict in the country. One official Truth
\nCommission is already taking place and they have published a series of interesting
\nreports. But for the environmental memory, the narrative is still lacking. The process
\nstarts by asking whether we should consider nature as a victim as well, not
\ndistinct from the human beings that it supports, but in connection with
\ncommunities \u2013 human nature if you like. We don\u2019t want to see nature as
\nsomething disconnected from us, because that just leads down a conservationist
\npath where all you want to do is to take humans out of the picture. We are part
\nof nature \u2013 human and non-human. The relationship between both and in permanent
\ninteraction creates \u2018the territory\u2019, and it is in the territory that we develop
\nour history. <\/p>\n
\ninvestigation of how that territory has been affected by war, and we need to go
\ninto this in real depth so that we can arrive at a process of environmental
\nmemory. In this sense, nature has been scenario and victim of the conflict. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\nhave something in common with your vision?<\/i><\/p>\n
\nreally good what they have been able to do so far\u2026 The idea of this
\nrelationship with the territory is common to both these cases and with many
\nmore around the world. In this moment of globalisation when everyone seems to
\nbe on the move we may be tempted to think that this connection has disappeared.
\nBut it has not. This linkage with our territory and with our roots is made even
\ndeeper by these changes, and you can see this in what is happening in Dakota.<\/p>\n
\nthe extractive mining and big dam projects for a long time. But what is more
\nvisible now is that when these conflicts can be divorced from the armed
\nconflict that takes place in the same territory, these causes can become more
\nvisible to anyone observing. For those others, they will have noticed in these
\nlast months is that people, activists, who are defending territories are being
\nmurdered even though we have a ceasefire in place. The number of murders is
\nover eighty in recent months. So we have a contradiction, zero deaths arising
\nfrom armed conflict over the last year, thanks to the bilateral \u00a0ceasefire; but more than eighty deaths of
\nactivists and people defending their land rights. So it is not so much that it
\nis more or less visible to those involved \u2013 but now what is going on over land
\nhas become evident, if you see the distinction. This is the challenge of our
\npost-conflict scenario!<\/p>\n
\nopenDemocracy and Armine Ishkanian from the London School of Economics and Political
\nScience (LSE) and co-editors of the openMovements platform,
\nhosted a small symposium on \u201cWorld Protests and Political Economy\u201d in their
\nBerlin office. The aim is to create a space to
\nexchange research results, maintaining a focus on the inter-connectedness
\nbetween economics and politics, and carry them into organizations that work on
\nglobal democracy. The FES is a German non-profit organization committed
\nto supporting Social Democracy through more than 100 country offices. <\/i><\/p>\n
Fernanda Forero, L. (2017) Human nature as victim in Colombia, Open Democracy \/ ISA RC-47: Open Movements, 4 March.https:\/\/opendemocracy.net\/lyda-fernanda-forero-rosemary-bechler\/human-nature-as-victim-in-colombia<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"