Indigenous People Troubled by US Military Presence in Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

Published on Friday, August 14, 2009 by Inter Press Service
Indigenous People Troubled by US Military Presence in Colombia
by Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA - The head of Colombia's biggest association of indigenous people is concerned that allowing U.S. troops to use military bases in his country will signal a regression to former times when the United States exercised control over Latin America, while a native activist warned of an increase in the number of cases of sexual abuse of young indigenous women by foreign soldiers.

A recent agreement between Bogotá and Washington for the U.S. to use seven military bases in Colombia, which has caused concern across Latin America, was ignored in discussions about Colombia's record on racial discrimination, held this week in Geneva.

At sessions of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the effects of militarisation in Colombia, which has been torn by civil war by nearly half a century, were examined, but the controversial issue of the bases was not raised, said Karmen Ramírez Boscán, a leader of the National Indigenous Organisation of Colombia (ONIC).

"This issue is a focus of broad debate at the national level, and of course it should have been dealt with here at this U.N. agency," said Ramírez Boscán, a Wayuu indigenous woman.

The fact that it was not discussed is because "we all know that a very sensitive situation is developing," she said.

The agreement between the two countries provides greater access to Colombian territory for the U.S. military, which will operate small stations known as Forward Operating Locations (FOLs) or Cooperative Security Locations (CSLs).

This will create changed circumstances and greater difficulties for Colombian, especially indigenous, women. "I think that, directly or indirectly, this generates violence, and obviously its most immediate effects are on Colombian women," said Ramírez Boscán.

The indigenous leader recalled cases that have been investigated of young single mothers in which "the fathers had been stationed at Colombian military bases. They became pregnant by foreign soldiers, not Colombians," Ramírez Boscán told IPS.

"I believe the greater presence of U.S. troops will definitely bring changes to the local areas near the bases," she said.

Wilbert van der Zeijden, an expert with the Transnational Institute, told IPS in April that "We should not forget that military bases are usually inhabited mostly by young men, who get bored and frustrated, being far from home, family, friends and girlfriends/wives. They seek 'diversion' in town. "The result has been a steep increase in all sorts of crime, including rape, drugs, theft and violent abuse," he said. In the view of Luis Evelis Andrade, an indigenous elder and head of ONIC, the fight against drugs and terrorism is being used as a pretext to wind the clock back to the time when the United States had total control over Latin American countries.

More:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/08/14-4