Colombian Campesinos Mark First Victory, Make Government Listen

After almost two weeks of national agrarian strikes across the country, resulting in three dead and hundreds injured by the Colombian government, the campesino movement won a partial victory Friday, starting a round of negotiations that ended with an partial agreement with the conservative government of Juan Manuel Santos.

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“The government will give precise orders to the national police and army so the peaceful mobilizations will not be undermined and they will maintain a cautious distance,” said the document, signed in the presence of the Interior Minister, the Agriculture Minister, a representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Colombia's ombudsperson.

The document recognized social protest as a right that must be respected and guaranteed by the state, meaning the end of criminalization of social organizations.

Negotiations will also formally address in depth the recognition of political, economic and cultural rights of campesinos, Afro-Colombians and Indigenous communities.

The government also agreed to stop stigmatizing the campesino movement by linking them with terrorist groups; it will urgently re-assess the cases of campesinos detained across the country as an aftermath of the agrarian strikes in 2013, 2014 and 2016.

Another part of the agreement regarded the opening of negotiations over a process of land distribution meant to protect the air, water and the ecosystem, on which rural communities ground their life and survival.

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The 70 mobilized campesinos communities in 27 districts of the country gave the government a 36-hour deadline to reach an agreement, ending Saturday at 9 p.m., local time, when they will discuss whether or not to continue their strike, or Minga, and the blocking of roads across the country.

Since May 30, tens of thousands of campesinos, rural workers, Indigenous and Afro-Colombians communities have been fighting against massive land inequality and privatization decrees, as well as the right to participate in the ongoing Colombian peace talks under the banner of the Minga of Resistance for Life, Territory, Dignity, Peace, and the Implementation of the Agreements.

However, this has been met by massive brutality at the hands of the Colombian riot police known as ESMAD who have attempted to crush the strikers with lethal force.

Clashes have already left three protesters dead, as well as over 100 jailed and 202 injured.

Lawmakers are now close to approving a controversial legislation that would allow the police to enter private residences without a judicial warrant, carry out arbitrary arrests and criminalize protesters occupying public space.