Varying Thickness Of Drivers Licenses

17th to 22 September Sur de Bolívar

our boots at the end of the trip

The journey to the south of the department of Bolivar was probably one of the most adventurous trips that I have so far in my life have made. The occasion was a two-day meeting of the miners in this particular of the gold production from small mines and agriculture dominated section of Colombia. The "Sur de Bolívar" is characterized by up to 2300 m high mountain range and is a low populated, inaccessible region. Assume that is mined from the humanity so coveted gold metal, you realize the lifestyle of the residents of the small mining villages to much. There is a lack of infrastructure, medical care and education. The large gold reserves are far removed from small independent miners, who live on the value of gold sold.

"La Teta" (the tit) symbol of the Sur de Bolívar, is shown with pride when it is visible. "Pornografia geografica" ...

Since the late 90s, the international companies Goldminenbau Conquistador Mines and Anglo-American moved into the area, thousands of people living there were killed by paramilitaries or sold. Today, the existence of the mineros of the gold mining giant Kedahda (a subsidiary of the already notorious multinational Anglo Gold Ashanti), is under pressure, which has already licenses purchased in the area and wants to exploit its underground natural resources in a big way. The profits of this reduction would not, however, in Colombia's pockets, and certainly not flow into the general population. Only five percent of the profits will be the Colombian state, or rather the oligarchs who rule this country, given, in which even the "Compensation" are included for the enormous environmental damage to be adopted. The large remainder would flow directly to foreign countries. For the miners and their families, this means the imminent loss of their livelihoods and the destruction of their habitat. Before, they could defend themselves against these plans by the Federation in the agro-mining workers of the south of Bolívar - organize FEDEAGROMISBOL. Together and in national and international networking, they resist the release plans of the Colombian government to multinational enterprises, painstaking work to build the Muliwege to their villages from passable to motorized trails, create and maintain a school - just fighting "por una vida digna y la de el territorio Permanencia " (for a dignified life and a continued existence in its territory).

This organization is not immune from state repression. "Lideres sociales" - leaders of organizations in the region to be shot by soldiers of the Colombian army out of court, such as Alejandro Uribe Chacon on 19 September 2006, exactly two years ago. On the occasion of his second death anniversary of the Assembly mineros in San Pedro Frio was held, the purpose of our trip was. The murder of Alejandro Uribe broke Two years ago, a multi-day uprising of 1300 mineros out in the next town of Santa Rosa, as a result it to an agreement between them and the government came after this case should be solved legally. This has been happening within two years, the perpetrators remain unpunished, and the same Batallon that Alejandro shot two years ago, is still stationed in Sur de Bolivar. This is one of countless examples of the Colombian conflict is typical impunidad - the impunity of the perpetrators.

Other important personalities of the Federation had to leave for safety reasons the area, as Teo and Gabo, which we support as part of several international and national facilitators now on its way to the meeting of FEDEAGROMISBOL after because of the challenges it risk more than a year could not visit the area.

Wednesday evening (17 September) began a long time our arrival in Bogotá. Eleven hours of night we went to Aguachica, from there take a taxi to Gamarra, a beautiful, small and very hot place at the Rio Magdalena. From there it goes on about a half hour on a speed boat up the river to Santa Rosa, where we spend the night on Friday in a small modest hotel and already considerable heat.

boat trip on the Rio Magdalena

place on the Rio Magdalena

is in our hotel in Santa Rosa

The next day, further up in strong SUV up the mountain. Our target is the small gold mining town of San Pedro Frio (as the name suggests, out of the heat), is to take place Friday and Saturday the Asamblea. A year ago, the only passable way to four-handed in front of San Pedro Frio Fußstunden. Now we can only run for one hour. Without rubber boots is very little to achieve, the way is softened by the many rain so that we hochstraucheln in ankle deep mud of the mountain. I turn on staying focused mode can hardly breathtaking wilderness left and right perceive of me, but just check the depth of the sludge in my next kick.

roadside

sweaty and dirty, we reach San Pedro Frio, and for me totally unlikely place near one of the gold mines, above and in the clouds, where the man in my ideas living in extreme poverty. The houses are fashioned entirely of wood boards, plastic sheeting and corrugated iron. Flush toilet and shower work with small plastic buckets, with which one draws the spring water of the toilet bowl or your own body. Cook on wood fires. It is a place of rubber boots, all residents of small to large to trudge through the ubiquitous red mud, they hardly even seem to notice.

View near San Pedro Frio - above the clouds

San Pedro Frio

San Pedro Frio. Rare moments in the sunshine

San Pedro Frio
gold mine near San Pedro Frio

girl washing dishes

two guys in front of the window

clicking the little "town square" will be built a rain cover made of plastic sheets, among which held the two-day meeting.

covered "village square" of San Pedro Frio

The square is surrounded by amazing colorful equipped shops, where everything possible is being sold rubber boots to even fresh fruit. Lucky for me, otherwise I would have for breakfast, lunch and dinner, rice, potato and yucca eat - the meat, which is part of the customary here grinding it, I give away out of habit (not really a moral imperative - and I see only happy, free-grazing animals) to flesh-hungry compañeros.

The "soup kitchen" in the Many guests of the meeting in the morning cooks, both lunch and dinner with meat, rice and yuca. It can happen that you get stuck with the hot plate in his hand in the mud before. - The people around me helped, in which they were tugging at my pant leg to free the foot again ... :)

children, dogs and mules characterize the village. Mules present here the main means of transport dar. heavy loading, they enable both the colorful abundance of goods in the shops of San Pedro Frio, and the descent of pregnant women traveling on her back about fifteen days before the expected birth to the next village with medical care need.

"Getränkemuli" on the way to San Pedro Frio

Two days and two nights we spend here. I am stunned and impressed. Could imagine a life in this place ever. It seems absurd that people set up under these harsh conditions, given their home. But that's what they do, with daunting commitment, just to fight for this habitat.

Asamblea FEDEAGROMISBOL

Asamblea of FEDEAGROMISBOL

memorial speeches for the murdered Alejandro Uribe Chacon. Chorus: "!? Alejandro - Presente Presente Presente Hasta cuando Hasta siempre Hasta siempre Hasta siempre!"

I live the various speeches and discussions at the meeting, but do not understand much. Note only annoyed that the participation of women in the discussions virtually non-existent. The typical for Colombia machismo is undeniable. The women hang around with children on their lap, or stay in the homes and kitchens to feed the families and the many guests Assembly ... Besides mud, gray skies, cool air and the society of cockroaches, this is another reason for me, this place just can not really find appealing. - What my amazement still does not detract. Daisy bakes in the semi-darkness of my beloved arepas (sweet cakes made of various cereals)

indefatigable cook in the guest kitchen

here for incredible documentation: a Colombian (Costeña - from the coast), which is almost as big as me!

create some very few are even WITHOUT rubber boots in San Pedro Frio. Do not know how ...

Sunday morning half past five breaks our group again. The mud is even deeper, it has rained in the night. The drive back to Santa Rosa is an adventure, we are happy to survive thanks to a virtuoso charioteer and an almost unbreakable determination SUVs (now I know what these cars are good! not for the dam Kottbusser!). That same evening we can take the night bus to Bogotá, where we arrived on Monday morning shortly before seven clock - to arrive tired but happy and no worse incidents - of course in the rain.

Rio Magdalena - early Sunday evening

Period Early Heavy Short

toriam> greed eats brain

history repeats itself. This oil-picture I painted in times of new market noise. who collapsed, as painted in the picture. now in the great banking crisis, the true motive still.

... now is thinking of toriam: I should be better banking analyst? shares or guru?
not worry: this metier motivates artists do not!

brain-eating governments

oil on canvas
format: 59 x 60 cm

copyright & right as always with toriam

Metal Gear Msx English Rom Zip

ninth mission in Boyaca to 14 September 6th

Mission to the Departamento de Boyacá for Wednesday, 9 September to Sunday 14 September was my first trip outside of Bogota. Our group consisted of 13 people who stood together activists from the Corporación COSPACC, The mission led, the Fundación del Comité de Presos Políticos (NGO that takes care of political prisoners in many regions of the country), the project banco datos from Sogamoso and facilitators from the Red de Hermandad, of the Peace Brigades International (PBI) and a Christian Colombian human rights organization whose name I do not notice me.

Journey in the department of Boyocá (northeast of Bogota located), due east in the nearby subdivision, the Province of La Libertad, where the three of us Villages want to visit: Labranzagrande , Pisba and Paya :

(click can to enlarge the map so that the three isolated villages in the far east of the department of recognizable)

the Provincia de La Libertad has a great wealth of the ecosystem, a breathtakingly beautiful natural scenery of mountains and valleys in all possible shades of green with many rivers.

Currently Oil exploration conducted in the area ...

In addition, it has always been a strategically important country section, as it is inevitably on the way between the wide plain, which makes up the entire eastern Colombia, and the interior. It is in the 20th Century also an important effect of the two guerrilla groups space FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and ELN (National Liberation Army) become residing somewhere in the inaccessible mountains of the province.

The residents of the Provincia de La Libertad farming are mainly farmers, the small cultivation of maize among other things, Platano, beans and some coffee, but live mostly by rearing cattle. Their habitat is characterized by complete neglect of the state, at least in terms of social structure: there is poverty, lack of medical care, education and infrastructure.

farmhouse on the way to Labranzagrande

Instead of decades and longer-old armed conflict in Colombia, in an absurdly unequal distribution of wealth (rural) property and power is rooted to fight through investment in the social sector, the only use by the government in the province again only by a massive infiltration of army and police.

policeman in Pisba (Photo Ariadni)

This is the setting of the living conditions of people in this region roughly sketched. They live in the middle between the legal and the illegal armed forces of this country and are the direct victims of the conflict.

Our mission is the first in years Investigation of the human rights situation in the province. Our objectives are to demonstrate the humanitarian situation in which its inhabitants are to document in the form of interviews and evaluate. On the other hand, should be tried together with the residents and the authorities of the communities to find a way to cooperate with national and international NGOs to defend human rights in the region.

Wednesday: 13 clock meet at the bus station Bogotá. With one of the luxurious buses that traverse the country here, in which even I can stretch the legs, where one freezes to death, however slightly due to excessive air-conditioning to Sogamoso . From the second-largest city of the department of Boyacá, with 120 000 inhabitants, formerly an important religious center of the Muisca indigenous people, who had built a sun temple here, get we will not see much because it's already dark when we arrived. The cold forces itself on the strongest impression. We eat, we still accompany three from the Red Fabian (Director of COSPACC) to a small reunion, which I do not know much, then even a beer in the only bar that is still open at this late time (about 23 clock) , and then dip in the short night's sleep in a small hotel. 4:45 the alarm clock rings, half applications concerned the group gathered to take the bus to Labranzagrande . No breakfast, but the inevitable in Colombia, "Tinto" - very watery, black coffee with lots of sugar, but at least nice and hot will help us further.

6:03 Tinto at the bus station Sogamoso

about five hours driving through the mountains and the greenery, horses and cows graze just off the road soon is not paved. We are losing altitude, and it is getting warmer. Twice the bus stops - once because of a small herd of cattle:

and once for a venomous snake that drinks in the middle of the road from a puddle:

Labranzagrande Thursday morning greets us with charm and spring-like warmth. About 500 people live in this village with its village square and the little colored stucco houses.

Labranzagrande

Labranzagrande

Labranzagrande

seller Labranzagrande

small courtyard at our hostel in Labranzagrande

begin our work. In all three villages, it consists in our mission and each of us the residents of the village and all who have come from the environment for the occasion to present and explain our intentions.

presentation of the mission before the people of the community Labranzagrande

then follow the interview, where we are in four to five small groups and divide in different corners of the room to receive the single person at tables that you want to tell something . Using an interview form, we take their name, age, passport number and if possible phone number on the data of the victim, the story of the incident itself, a possible history, and any problems in the present.

We hear sad stories of selective assassinations of family members (usually husbands) by the guerrillas, extra-judicial executions by soldiers of the army, illegal arrests and detentions by the army, massacres and psychological torture.

Most cases are four or more years ago. In most human rights violations Labranzagrande the FARC, in Pisba in Paya and the ELN and the Colombian army are attributed.

The majority of cases are shown from a lack of trust in the competent state authorities never. And even if, those responsible remain unpunished, the victims received a small financial compensation. No work-up of debt and loss and suffering that will result from the conflict instead.

follows in each village after a pause, a meeting with the authorities of the municipality to discuss with them the combined results from the interviews with the victims and see how the situation can be improved.

found in all three villages, we have a clear breach of international humanitarian law, which provides for the widest possible separation of civilian life and military combat operations by defining protected places such as schools, hospitals, cultural institutions and private houses of military presence should remain unaffected.

The armed police and soldiers are ubiquitous, especially in Pisba Paya and they seem to be the number of villagers to make smooth.

policemen in Pisba

at every corner and in between they have in the villages of their "Trincheras" built small huts with sand bags Look and loopholes.

Pisba: Trinchera middle between two houses. (Photo: RedHen)

Pisba. Trinchera right next to the hospital and the pharmacy (Photo: RedHen)

The police in Pisba and Paya are omnipresent and apparently already fully integrated into the daily lives of people living there:

Pisba children, in the background policeman and his Trinchera

meeting and presentation to the residents of the community Pisba in the library. The police are all the time before the door of the library ... (Photo: RedHen)

Friday, as usual in the early morning hours, we set off small rented SUVs after Pisba. The roads are an adventure. Only since the beginning of 2005 villages Pisba or Paya are motorized access at all, after the municipality has built in self-government drive-way.

rise to some of us into the back of the second car after the transporter has given up (in background) Labranzagrande shortly after the Spirit. There are rides over hill and stone and some mountain stream, where we are shaken up properly. With wind and sun in their faces and a direct experience of nature and landscape through which we travel. Wonderful!

One of the mountain streams that run through the middle of the road

stay in Pisba. Presentation of the mission, discussions with victims. After that presentation of some results and discussion with the authorities of the municipality.

homes in Pisba. They were from any German parish funded and built. The chimneys are pure decoration.

Pisba residents of the community, most farmers. Some have walked for hours to take part in the mission.

Pisba. An old peasant woman

one interviews with the victims in the library in Pisba

Pisba

On Saturday morning we go to Paya. Similar scenario in hot weather. Assembly of residents, interviews, then talk with the authorities of the municipality.

young farmer from Paya

the early evening we head back to Labranzagrande to where we spend a short night last. The mission in the Provincia de La Libertad is complete, the Sunday bus consists of Labranzagrande to Sogamoso, where we take the bus to Bogotá.

The mission of the individual cases of human rights violations (in total we have collected about 70 cases), cooperation with the authorities of the communities and further action by the Corporación COSPACC in the Provincia de La Libertad must now be evaluated and discussed. There will be a summary report and a presentation of the mission at a press conference in the coming days.