The Last Week of Fieldwork

Well, my 3 months of fieldwork in Medellin will come to an end next Wednesday, as I leave for Berkeley on Thursday. During this time I have learned a great deal about internal displacement in Medellin, I have shared some of that knowledge with you through this blog.

The next step for me now is get back to Cal and write my thesis, finish with the classes I have left and graduate in May of next year. I have some graduate school programs in mind, all of them in Europe, and I will start applying in December/January.

I would like to thank you for reading about this journey of mine, in which I learned so many things not only about issues in internal displacement but also about myself.

Ursula

World Humanitarian Day

Celebrate World Humanitarian Day on August 19th
For more check out
http://ochaonline.un.org/News/WorldHumanitarianDay/tabid/5677/language/en-US/Default.aspx

Quimbaya Wordle

Click on the image to see its larger version.

This is a wordle on all the text I have written to date on this blog. Wordle is an online software that creates an image based on the data you entered. The larger words are the ones that are used more often, and the smaller the ones that are used less often. I thought this would be a very interesting exercise.

A Remarkable Couple

Today I conducted an interview with a couple who had caught my attention at last week's march. They held a sign and walked slowly through the streets on their boots, brown from the dry mud. Their faces were clear in my mind during the following days. The day before yesterday I saw them again. This time I approached them and introduced myself. We got to talking and that is how I found out that they have been displaced for 8 years, yet they received the first government "emergency" aid just 8 months ago. They lost their 4 children to government family services and are not allowed to see them. They cannot find work because the man is 50 and the woman is not much younger. At first they were too embbarassed to tell me that how they survive is by begging at the stop lights in the wealthier neighborhoods of the city. They agreed to meet with me the following day (yesterday) but unfortunately I waited for 1.5 hours before leaving. I thought that something must have come up, but was sad I did not get the chance to talk more with them.

Today, I was driving running errands for my father when I saw them at a stop light just a few blocks from where I live. They were on the other side of the road and traffic did not allow me to stop, so I hoped that they would still be there when I drove back. Lucky for me they were. I asked them if they had breakfast, they said no. They spent last night under a bridge because they had not made enough money the day before to pay the bus fare back to their settlement. I offered them to pick them up in 15 minutes and treat them to breakfast. They accepted.

We got to talking and it was heart-braking to hear their story of struggle for the past 8 years. One of the worse things was to hear what people say to them when they are begging, in the best case they call them lazy, in the worst they threaten to kill them if they see them begging there again. Unfortunately, poverty is a crime here and in every other place.

I had printed a picture I took of them during the march, and they were happy when I gave it to them. The woman looked at it for a long time, and pointing to the sign they were holding in the image she asked 'what does this print say again?' It was an eye opener to realize they did not even know what the sign they held for 3 hours said.

They were peasants, they did not have much money to begin with before being displaced, but at least, like the man told me, they had fruit trees, streams and rivers in which to fish, they cultivated the land and never had to worry about not having food on their plates, although they could not afford much else. Now, they are in the city, a concrete jungle (it is, even though it sounds like a cliche), where you have to pay for everything.

Both are convinced that there is power in numbers since they received their first government aid thanks to the help of the leader of the organization of displaced population they joined about a year ago. They hope that the marches and take overs they have done will make their struggles visible. When I asked them what gave them hope to go on, they said 'the help of the government.' Let's just hope that help doesn't come too little too late.

A Little Outraged

Today was a frustrating day. This week has been good so far, I've been very busy conducting interviews and transcribing them, but as always I have learned a lot.

Today I was waiting for a leader to conduct an interview and bumped into a couple of other leaders I had met before. They told me that at 2 o'clock there was a meeting at the city council, and that I should go. I jumped at the chance because to me those meetings are very informative, and it is also important to see the institutions and the displaced population interact.

Unfortunately, after waiting for about 30 minutes outside the city council, we were informed that the meeting was moved to August 5th. This is when my outrage started. I have seen the displaced fight for visibility and to be taken seriously, yet they keep being ignored. Today was an example of the lack of commitment on the part of the government. There were about 200 people there for the meeting, some of whom did not even have 4 cents in their pockets (literally). Some of them cannot find a job, and therefore must beg at the stop lights in the rich neighborhoods of the city. Others missed work because they wanted to be heard. This was a slap in the face. Many of the people who attended today can't even afford to pay the bus fare, and then they must turn around and come back at a later date? I am sorry but this is outrageous, at least to me.

Now, the population is arranging to do a march, a march similar to the one that took place here in Medellin last Friday. The difference is that this time they want to march from Medellin to Bogota to demand their rights in the capital. This would be an arduous march. Bogota is over 9 hours away from Medellin if you are driving, and one must go up the Andes, and then down them. It amazes me what they are willing to do to try to become visible. And it amazes me even more how they keep being ignored.

A Couple of Answered Questions

It was brought to my attention that I haven’t really talked much about who the displaced are and why they are displaced since I started the blog. This post will address those issues as well as other questions I have received by e-mail. I will not get too in depth about all the issues, just give a general overlook in order not to make this too tedious.

1. Who are the displaced?
In the Guidind Principles on Internal Displacement, UNHCR defines internally displaced persons as “persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of Human Rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border” The Colombian definition stated in Law 387 is similar; “every person who has been forced to migrate within the national territory leaving their locality of residence or habitual economic activities, because his/her life, physical integrity, security or personal liberty have been violated or are under direct threat with occasion of any of the following situations: Internal armed conflict, interior disturbances and tensions, generalized violence, massive violations of human rights, international humanitarian law infractions or other circumstances that emanated from the above-mentioned situations that can alter or dramatically alter de public order.”

In the Colombian case, many scholars agree that most of the displaced are rural farmers who have had to flee their land due to direct threats to their life. Rural farmers have different problems, one comes from armed insurgent groups who take over their land, who draft their children, or who kill or threat to kill family members, the other are neoliberal developmental schemes such as megaprojects (does Narmada Dam ring a bell?). In the case of the armed insurgent groups, many civilians are caught in the fight because they are perceived to belong to the “enemy.” This is a serious problem because the Colombian case gets even more complicated when we look at the actors. There are paramilitary groups, there are guerrilla groups, and other smaller actors, and they all fight amongst themselves for the control of land. So, a farmer can be accused by the paramilitaries of being with the guerrilla, and unfortunately, if someone is believed to be an “enemy” the punishment is death. If the person is lucky, he/she will be warned and can leave before it’s too late. In other instances, the groups take over the person’s home, and they have no other choice than to leave.

What makes this problem even more complicated is the drug trade, which is how most of these insurgent groups fund their fight. It is no longer an ideological fight, it is a fight for power and cash, lots and lots of cash. In Colombia, we have seen how a group that started to rebel against the central government on the basis of political ideologies has moved to being a terrorist organization linked to the international drug trade. At first, the rebellion was rooted in the time known as La Violencia (The Violence), which occurred between 1948 and 1958. During those years about two hundred thousand people lost their lives. The bloodshed stopped when Liberals and Conservatives agreed to share power in 1957.
Unfortunately, this bilateral agreement left out other parties (especially from the left), which felt compelled to fight for inclusion. The intractability of this conflict has been greatly aggravated by the transformation of the guerrilla (one of the most notorious and infamous actors) into a terrorist organization that focuses its energy in bringing unrest to the territory, killing citizens, hiding in national as well as international territory, profiting from extortion, kidnapping and most importantly from the drug trade.

Going back to the affected population, scholars agree that the rural population is targeted as a deliberate strategy of war, internal displacement is not collateral damage or an unintended consequence. On a more demographic note, most displaced persons are women head of household and children. Women have to displace by themselves because their husbands have lost their lives. There are also many indigenous people who have been displaced from their ancestral land.

One of the most difficult issues for the displaced is that they lived comfortably before displacement, many owned their own piece of land, and had their own home, always had food on their plate, etc. When they displace they cannot bring their means of production with them, as soon as they lose their land they lose their livelihood. Some estimates report that 95% of displaced persons (in the world) live under the poverty line. This is the most common complaint I hear from the people I’ve been working with, they had a good and “dignified” life before, now they live in dangerous areas, in ranches made out of wood, cardboard, in the worst cases, they don’t even have that. They have to sleep on the sidewalks.

2. What does Law 387 stipulate?
In my last post, and in most of my posts, I have mentioned this law, but have not gone really in depth about it. Experts in the subject agree that Colombian legislation on internal displacement is the most advanced in the world. Law 387 is the centerpiece of Colombian IDP legislation it was enacted in 1997 and was the result of a collective effort by scholars, government entities, the Red Cross, and UNHCR, among others to outline the rights of the displaced population, the responsibilities of the government, and to design a plan of action to tackle the problem of internal displacement. Law 387 established the politics of prevention, emergency humanitarian attention, and voluntary return or resettlement of the displaced population. One of the products of this law was the creation of the Sistema Nacional de Atención Integral a la Población Desplazada or National System of Integral Attention to the Displaced Population (SNAIPD). SNAIPD is a meeting point for all public, private and communitarian entities to formulate policies and adopt prevention measures of forced displacement. The goal is to generate action and to have an impact on the displaced population at national, regional and local levels. Law 387 allowed for the creation of many important entities whose mandate is to assist the displaced population.

I apologize in advance, I wrote this very quickly, this is by no means an in-depth analysis, or explanation of what happens here in Colombia with internal displacement or it’s causes, etc. But although I don’t have much time, I wanted to address the questions (and suggestions) I received.

Displaced Person's March in Medellin

Her Sign Reads: "Without Weapons Life is a Different Story"

The Sign Reads: "Senecio Serna, 103 Years, Displaced"

Anti-Riot Police Guarding the Entrance to the Office of Accion Social

PBI was Accompanying and Observing the March

Yesterday was a very interesting day. I was able to do some anthropology literally on the streets of downtown Medellin. The displaced population organized and conducted a march in commemoration of the creation and passing of Law 387 of 1997, while at the same time protest against the fact that, for the most part, it is not being honored, at least not fully. The people held banners and were enthusiastically marching through downtown, demanding that their rights be protected.

The march lasted from around 10.00am to about 1.30pm. There were probably 1000 people present, men, women, young and old. There was a man who sat on a wheelchair, and a girl sitting on his lap held a sign that read: "Selecio Serna, 103 years, Displaced."

Other signs read: "No more never-ending lines, no more injustice, no more violation of our rights, we demand respect" "We reject long lines, lack of information, bad treatment on the part of functionaries, domicile visits, and the failure to fulfill emergency humanitarian assistance" "The displaced request respect from the government. Land, dignified housing, equitable productive projects" "We didn't ask to be taken out of what was ours. Why are you denying our rights?" "No more hunger" "We demand truth, justice and integral reparations according to Law 387 of 1997" "Humanitarian humiliation, that is what emergency humanitarian assistance has become for all the population in situation of displacement in the Department of Antioquia" "The displaced and vulnerable population is not begging" "We demand the observance of Law 387, C278, T025 and good attention" "We demand dignified housing, administrative reparation, productive projects for 19 minimum salaries" "Major Alfonzo Salazar we want land for our housing projects Law 387 of 1997" "Violated rights: to equality, to free expression, to one's own identity, Articles 5 and 6 of C.C.A and articles 23, 29, 13 y 2 of the constitution" "Medellin, an equitable and solidary city. 57 thousand million for the murderers, 6 thousand million for the victims" "women head of household mistreated by Accion Social. Auto 092 needs to be a reality" "Without weapons life is a different story."

These were just a few examples of what people were carrying with them. The most important part is that they had the arguments, they had the law behind them, they quoted laws, and follow-ups to the laws. They were demanding what was promised to them, nothing more and nothing less.

It was a powerful experience to be able to participate and observe this massive collective action, but I am sad to say that I've been looking everywhere to find news about this, but have not been successful. I have only found 2 short stories in small and independent news websites. There is absolutely nothing in local newspapers. This problem keeps being invisible, even with these large collective efforts on the part of the displaced population.

I have to keep this short; I need to prepare for another interview I'm conducting in a few hours. I hope you enjoy the photos. I will try to write a post with more in-depth information on who are the displaced and why they are displaced, per the request of one of the readers. I am aware of the fact that I haven't touched much on that since I started writing, I just have a small hint on the description of the project. I will try to post that tomorrow. Please feel free to email me questions if you have them, I'll be glad to try to answer them as best as I can.