Colombia: Help stop eviction of El Guayabo

Source: CPT, JustPax

Christian Peacemaker teams and JustPax in Colombia have sent an urgent appeal today for a group of farmers that are being threatened with eviction. The write:

Earlier this year a municipal judge ordered the eviction of part of the land that the farmers of El Guayabo have cultivated for decades. The legal process, plagued by flaws and irregularities, including the judge exceeding his powers over the National Land Agency, will deliver a number of hectares to a single person who has never lived or cultivated these lands. This process violates the way land titles are awarded. The eviction, set for Wednesday, December 13 at 8am, will leave 11 families without the source of their daily food violating the right to a decent life, the right to healthy food, the right to work. Likewise, it will put the children's right to education and health in jeopardy, since their families will not have the means to support themselves.

The municipal, departmental and the national governments have turned their backs on the community and have not foreseen emergency measures for this humanitarian crisis.

While the lawyers continue to try to postpone the eviction by legal means, we need to pressure the State to be present and guarantee the fundamental rights of all the people affected.

Dear CPT community, this is an emergency, the community of El Guayabo needs your support. We ask you to make your voice heard, amplifying the community's claim, calling and sending emails to the addresses and numbers that appear below, clearly indicating that the eviction must be postponed until the National Land Agency intervenes in the situation and continues with the legal procedures already in place. Also request that the corresponding humanitarian assistance be guaranteed, the government's indisputable responsibilities.

We also ask you to hold the peasants in your prayers and share this story with your community.

Thank for your support. Blessings,

Colombia Team.

Stiop eviction of El Guayabo

Please send this email to:

interior@santander.gov.co (Departmental Government - Secretary of Interior, Sr Manuel Ricardo Sorzano Romero)

with copies to:

atencionalciudadano@agenciadetierras.gov.co (National Land Agency)
quejas@procuraduria.gov.co (Prosecutor General)

Sr Manuel Ricardo Sorzano Romero
Secretario del Interior, Departamento Santander

Le estoy escribiendo con alta preocupación por la situación que se presenta en la comunidad de El Guayabo, municipio de Puerto Wilches Santander.

El 13 de diciembre si las autoridades competentes no intervienen habrá una grave crisis humanitaria causada por un proceso jurídico lleno de irregularidades. Es su responsabilidad de intervenir y ponerle fin a la constante amenaza de ser desalojada que tiene la comunidad de El Guayabo. La Agencia Nacional de Tierras tiene procesos vigentes donde ha identificado que los predios en cuestión son baldíos y el orden de desalojo no puede ser efectuado contra las familias campesinas que ocupan las tierras por mas de 25 años.

Ademas las familias que están bajo amenaza de desalojo son reconocidas como victimas y victimizarlas de nuevo es una grave violación de sus derechos como victimas.

El estado tiene una responsabilidad de garantizar los derechos de las victimas.

Espero que antes de que un grave error sea cometido usted en su función de autoridad Departamental podrá intervenir y frenar esta tragedia.

Sinceramente,