Liberal law to conservative pragmatism
Contrary to what the above title might imply, this section does not wish to suggest
that the plethora of legislature that came to be passed under the Liberal parties
extended reign in Colombia (1986-1998) has been sequentially undermined by the
Presidents that have followed. Indeed, what we cannot help but notice is that much
that has been said about Colombia post-La Violencia makes itself evident when we
consider the growth of the palm oil industry in Nariño.
The undeclared civil war that began in Colombia from 1948 following the
assassination of the Liberal and populist movement leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán,
commonly known as La Violencia, imbued the country with a deep-seated trauma
that would dog the optimism of the heady sixties. Between 80 000 - 400 000 are
estimated to have died in a war where killing became ritualistic to the point of being
creative and whose culmination is still being debated to this day.
The immediate post-Violencia period can be analysed as a moment of stasis in which
the political elite instigated the Frente Nacional (1958-1974) – a symbiotic rotating
government between the only two legitimate political parties, Liberal and
Conservative to prevent any return to the atrocious levels of violence and
suppression that had been experienced. Although the conflict was fought with an
even larger popular presence than the celebrated Mexican Revolution, it concluded
in a return of the conservatism that had always prevailed.
Colombia did not experience –nor has it ever– a prolonged and effectual social
revolution, through which most Latin American countries, and their oppressed, have
established a contestatory voice. The Frente Nacional was handed the guise of an
outward pacification; instead, it was a strategic gesture of solidarity between the two
legitimate plutocratic parties. For the poorest and majority of Colombians this
bipartisan amalgamation meant nothing. For others it was political treachery and it
also meant the gagging of any viable political alternative as they were made illegal.
Whilst we should not solely attribute the gravity of the current situation to a lack of
social revolution or the „deletion of the past‟ carried out by the Frente Nacional, the
spirit of these marked shifts in political dynamic are still felt in the country‟s
zeitgeist. According to sociologist William Ospina the Frente Nacional never
represented modern Colombia and continued,
[...] without a territorial project, without a sensible and particular development
plan, without an accord taking advantage of its resources’.
As the powers that be orientated their politics in favour of the accumulation of
capital, and the legacy of the clientalism and schlerotic system engendered by the
Frente Nacional left its scar on the political agenda, Colombia moved towards what
Palacios calls the Interregnum, a state unable to cope with its own powerful
centrifugal forces, as the masses moved to the cities, forming renowned vicar turned
guerrilla Camilo Torres‟ urban proletariat.
For those who remained in the countryside there was the increased intensity of the
narcotics trade to contend with, but this was, initially, less dramatically realised in
Nariño as it was in other areas of Colombia. Before we assess just how strongly the
clientalism can still be felt today amongst the outgrowers and contract farmers of the
twenty-first century, let us first understand how these development strategies have
become possible. Much legislature was passed during the extended rule of Colombian
Liberal Presidents, from 1986-1998, that directly benefitted members of ethnic
communities. The first to be signed was the ILO‟s (International Labour
Organisation) Convention 169 (Indigenous and Tribal Peoples‟ Convention); it
emphasises the human and fundamental rights that should be applied
indiscriminately to all indigenous and tribal peoples. In 1991, a new Constitution was
passed and renamed the „Constitution of Rights‟, replacing the last version passed in
1886. This document directly refers to indigenous and black peoples in a number of
its articles. Afro-Colombians were to be further recognised in Law 70, passed in 1993,
under former President César Gaviria Trujillo, and titled „In Recognition of the Right
of Black Colombians to Collectively Own and Occupy their Ancestral Lands‟.
In almost all communiqués issued by Colombian organisations protecting either
indigenous or black communities, if the content is one of distress, it will inevitably
mention one of the three crucial recognitions of the rights of marginalised groups,
often referencing the 2007 United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples too. To analyse them all is not within the remit of this article , but the
overarching focus is on land occupancy, and the titles and recognition of land tenure:
indigenous „reserves‟ are similar to „Black Communities‟ in the eyes of the laws in
that it is stipulated that the groups receiving collective title will continue to maintain,
preserve, and favour the land, whilst simultaneously practicing their traditional
lifestyle guided by their own idiosyncratic cosmovisions. As this article will go on to
show, these titles have on occasions been adhered to, but also flagrantly ignored by a
number of public and private entities.
The recognition mentioned above is not to be ignored. Law 70 is one of the most
celebrated in Latin America for the direct rights it empowers black communities with
in Colombia. It is important, additionally, to highlight that both Law 70 and the 1991
Constitution permit the collaboration of communities with external parties, as long
as they comply with the administrative entity of natural and renewable resources.
Article 57 of the aforementioned Law 70 best synthesises the intentions of this
potential development model,
The National Government will create a commission to study and to formulate a
developmental plan for the Black Communities. This commission will begin to
operate once the President of the Republic is elected and with the approval of the
National Development Plan CONPES. That plan will propose long-term policies
and will become the frame of reference so that policies of the National Development
Plan respect the ethnic diversity of the Nation and promote the sustainable
development of those communities in accordance with their own vision. This will be
a technical commission with ample knowledge of the realities of the Black
Communities. And, in order to create it, the proposals of the Black Communities will
be taken into account. The Department of National Planning will be responsible for
financing the expenses for its proper functioning.
By „collaborating‟ with multinationals, the idea of the outgrower model is that AfroColombians can cultivate their lands profitably, benefitting the country and local
residents economically whilst indirectly contributing to a sustainable future in terms
of renewable energy use and satisfying demand. The outgrower system, rather than
being a fair trade model, more closely follows a free trade model in its use of
cooperatives and direct access to global markets given the international status of the
companies for which they work.
The outgrower scheme and land grab
It would be prudent at this point to closely consider the outgrower scheme and how it
has been implemented in Nariño. The scheme brings together four key elements:
- a central facility surrounded by growers who produce on their own land under
contract;
- the provision of inputs and technical assistance to growers;
- guarantees to purchase the growers' crop subject to meeting predefined
standards;
- growers typically receiving a pre-agreed percentage of the final sales price of
their product, thus leaving them still fully exposed to price volatility.
In Nariño, the outgrower scheme is organised around processing factories that are
also linked to the traders and exporters operating in the region - such as Acepalma - ,
as well as with the input of supplies, the Colombian Government and government
agencies such as Corponariño or the USAID-funded Cordeagropaz (Corporación para
el Desarrollo Agroempresarial de Tumaco). The latter is a corporation with
Government backing that has done much to fuel the agroindustry in Nariño.
According to Øygard, Borchgrevink, Lazaro and Temo (2002) the success of the
outgrower scheme is attributable to the following,
Increases in agricultural production and productivity… [and] … synergies that
develop between sugarcane outgrowers (individual farmers), the outgrowers'
association and the processing factory (the buyer of farmers' produce) are the keys
to the success of the development effort and thus the possibilities of reducing
poverty.
Most of the communities that work the oil palm live in communities located along
the Mira River, near the border with Ecuador, where they collectively own their land
(Law 70) and govern themselves through community councils. It is not only large
scale farmers who have bought into the scheme. Incentives and loans were created
following the establishment of the regional corporations Corponariño and
Cordeagropaz (Corporation for the Agricultural Development
Liberal law to conservative pragmatism
Contrary to what the above title might imply, this section does not wish to suggest
that the plethora of legislature that came to be passed under the Liberal parties
extended reign in Colombia (1986-1998) has been sequentially undermined by the
Presidents that have followed. Indeed, what we cannot help but notice is that much
that has been said about Colombia post-La Violencia makes itself evident when we
consider the growth of the palm oil industry in Nariño.
The undeclared civil war that began in Colombia from 1948 following the
assassination of the Liberal and populist movement leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán,
commonly known as La Violencia, imbued the country with a deep-seated trauma
that would dog the optimism of the heady sixties. Between 80 000 - 400 000 are
estimated to have died in a war where killing became ritualistic to the point of being
creative and whose culmination is still being debated to this day.
The immediate post-Violencia period can be analysed as a moment of stasis in which
the political elite instigated the Frente Nacional (1958-1974) – a symbiotic rotating
government between the only two legitimate political parties, Liberal and
Conservative to prevent any return to the atrocious levels of violence and
suppression that had been experienced. Although the conflict was fought with an
even larger popular presence than the celebrated Mexican Revolution, it concluded
in a return of the conservatism that had always prevailed.
Colombia did not experience –nor has it ever– a prolonged and effectual social
revolution, through which most Latin American countries, and their oppressed, have
established a contestatory voice. The Frente Nacional was handed the guise of an
outward pacification; instead, it was a strategic gesture of solidarity between the two
legitimate plutocratic parties. For the poorest and majority of Colombians this
bipartisan amalgamation meant nothing. For others it was political treachery and it
also meant the gagging of any viable political alternative as they were made illegal.
Whilst we should not solely attribute the gravity of the current situation to a lack of
social revolution or the „deletion of the past‟ carried out by the Frente Nacional, the
spirit of these marked shifts in political dynamic are still felt in the country‟s
zeitgeist. According to sociologist William Ospina the Frente Nacional never
represented modern Colombia and continued,
[...] without a territorial project, without a sensible and particular development
plan, without an accord taking advantage of its resources’.
As the powers that be orientated their politics in favour of the accumulation of
capital, and the legacy of the clientalism and schlerotic system engendered by the
Frente Nacional left its scar on the political agenda, Colombia moved towards what
Palacios calls the Interregnum, a state unable to cope with its own powerful
centrifugal forces, as the masses moved to the cities, forming renowned vicar turned
guerrilla Camilo Torres‟ urban proletariat.
For those who remained in the countryside there was the increased intensity of the
narcotics trade to contend with, but this was, initially, less dramatically realised in
Nariño as it was in other areas of Colombia. Before we assess just how strongly the
clientalism can still be felt today amongst the outgrowers and contract farmers of the
twenty-first century, let us first understand how these development strategies have
become possible. Much legislature was passed during the extended rule of Colombian
Liberal Presidents, from 1986-1998, that directly benefitted members of ethnic
communities. The first to be signed was the ILO‟s (International Labour
Organisation) Convention 169 (Indigenous and Tribal Peoples‟ Convention); it
emphasises the human and fundamental rights that should be applied
indiscriminately to all indigenous and tribal peoples. In 1991, a new Constitution was
passed and renamed the „Constitution of Rights‟, replacing the last version passed in
1886. This document directly refers to indigenous and black peoples in a number of
its articles. Afro-Colombians were to be further recognised in Law 70, passed in 1993,
under former President César Gaviria Trujillo, and titled „In Recognition of the Right
of Black Colombians to Collectively Own and Occupy their Ancestral Lands‟.
In almost all communiqués issued by Colombian organisations protecting either
indigenous or black communities, if the content is one of distress, it will inevitably
mention one of the three crucial recognitions of the rights of marginalised groups,
often referencing the 2007 United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples too. To analyse them all is not within the remit of this article , but the
overarching focus is on land occupancy, and the titles and recognition of land tenure:
indigenous „reserves‟ are similar to „Black Communities‟ in the eyes of the laws in
that it is stipulated that the groups receiving collective title will continue to maintain,
preserve, and favour the land, whilst simultaneously practicing their traditional
lifestyle guided by their own idiosyncratic cosmovisions. As this article will go on to
show, these titles have on occasions been adhered to, but also flagrantly ignored by a
number of public and private entities.
The recognition mentioned above is not to be ignored. Law 70 is one of the most
celebrated in Latin America for the direct rights it empowers black communities with
in Colombia. It is important, additionally, to highlight that both Law 70 and the 1991
Constitution permit the collaboration of communities with external parties, as long
as they comply with the administrative entity of natural and renewable resources.
Article 57 of the aforementioned Law 70 best synthesises the intentions of this
potential development model,
The National Government will create a commission to study and to formulate a
developmental plan for the Black Communities. This commission will begin to
operate once the President of the Republic is elected and with the approval of the
National Development Plan CONPES. That plan will propose long-term policies
and will become the frame of reference so that policies of the National Development
Plan respect the ethnic diversity of the Nation and promote the sustainable
development of those communities in accordance with their own vision. This will be
a technical commission with ample knowledge of the realities of the Black
Communities. And, in order to create it, the proposals of the Black Communities will
be taken into account. The Department of National Planning will be responsible for
financing the expenses for its proper functioning.
By „collaborating‟ with multinationals, the idea of the outgrower model is that AfroColombians can cultivate their lands profitably, benefitting the country and local
residents economically whilst indirectly contributing to a sustainable future in terms
of renewable energy use and satisfying demand. The outgrower system, rather than
being a fair trade model, more closely follows a free trade model in its use of
cooperatives and direct access to global markets given the international status of the
companies for which they work.
The outgrower scheme and land grab
It would be prudent at this point to closely consider the outgrower scheme and how it
has been implemented in Nariño. The scheme brings together four key elements:
- a central facility surrounded by growers who produce on their own land under
contract;
- the provision of inputs and technical assistance to growers;
- guarantees to purchase the growers' crop subject to meeting predefined
standards;
- growers typically receiving a pre-agreed percentage of the final sales price of
their product, thus leaving them still fully exposed to price volatility.
In Nariño, the outgrower scheme is organised around processing factories that are
also linked to the traders and exporters operating in the region - such as Acepalma - ,
as well as with the input of supplies, the Colombian Government and government
agencies such as Corponariño or the USAID-funded Cordeagropaz (Corporación para
el Desarrollo Agroempresarial de Tumaco). The latter is a corporation with
Government backing that has done much to fuel the agroindustry in Nariño.
According to Øygard, Borchgrevink, Lazaro and Temo (2002) the success of the
outgrower scheme is attributable to the following,
Increases in agricultural production and productivity… [and] … synergies that
develop between sugarcane outgrowers (individual farmers), the outgrowers'
association and the processing factory (the buyer of farmers' produce) are the keys
to the success of the development effort and thus the possibilities of reducing
poverty.
Most of the communities that work the oil palm live in communities located along
the Mira River, near the border with Ecuador, where they collectively own their land
(Law 70) and govern themselves through community councils. It is not only large
scale farmers who have bought into the scheme. Incentives and loans were created
following the establishment of the regional corporations Corponariño and
Cordeagropaz (Corporation for the Agricultural Development
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