Our defeat was always implicit in the victory of others our wealth has always generated

our poverty by nourishing the prosperity of others Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of
LatinAmerica.
Latin America has always been the target of all great powers due to its fruitful soils, its
richness in precious stones, minerals, spices and bounteous natural and human
resources. These ones have attracted curious, powerful and covetous people around the
world who have comeeven before Christopher Columbus arrival.Thesemenfromtheold
world thrilled by the wonders of suchunexplored land started totrade with the natives (an
innocent exchange of things that were not common for both parties).Unfortunately, human
beings after having something and seeing someoneelsespossessions, we immediately
show our nonconformist spirit which leads us to covet what it doesnt belong to us and
thus make us commit crimes of all kind like robbery, but especially crimes against
humanity (which are human rights violations) such as:forcedmigration,genocide,slavery,
forcedprostitution,humantrafficking,amongothers.
On the other hand, its universally acknowledged that many people throughout the last
centuries has recognized Christopher Columbus as the brave man who discovered
America (or the socalled New world) and whos been honored by having his own day
Columbus day celebrated in the USA on October 12th which has been widely criticized
because its related withtheatrocitiesmadebyColumbustoindigenouspeoplesduringthe
European colonization time ( part of the history that has never been mentioned by our
history teachers from school). In most of LatinAmericancountries theynamedthisholiday
the day of race or in its Spanish version Da de la raza commemorating the first
encounters of Europeans and NativeAmericans.Sadly, eventhoughwenowadaysliveina
technological society where its easy to get information, some people still believe that
Christopher C. was a hero ignoring that he was the forerunner of todays Latin Americas
povertyandenslavement.
In the first place,in order to know how Latin Americas misfortune started, itsimportantto
clarify the process of Americas discovery: Firstof all, Columbus was not the first person
who discovered America In fact, Leif Erikson was the firstEuropeanto setfootintheNew
World (in 1001 AD), then, Vikings started to explore the land but they just made a few
voyages. 500 Years later,Christopher Columbus had the first contact with thebeaches of
the Bahamas in which he and his crew found the natives of these lands (lucayans). They
were as curious as Christopher and they naively gathered around them looking at each
other for the first time and exchanging their possessions. Columbus was amazed by the
Gold and theprecious pearls of different colors and sizes that the indigenouspeople were
wearing asjewelry.Atthatmoment,herealizedhewasinagoldmine. Aftergoingbackto
his land andsharing his adventure, the Spain Catholic rulers decided to finance anewtrip
to thenewworldinordertotaketheresourcesfound overtheresothat,theycouldstockup
on what they need by themselves and be the monopolistofthetradeinspicesandtropical
plants, etc. In 1493 Columbus returned to the indigenous territories but this time with
seventeen ships under the authority of the Spanish crown which has given to him the
permission to invade forcibly the new world as viceroy and governor of the Caribbean
islandsandthemainlandofAmericadictatorshiphelduntil1500.

Columbus regime was the start of agoryperiodforthenative inhabitantsofAmerica.After

setting up shop on the large island called Espaola (named by Columbus) which is what
weknowtodayastheDominicanRepublicandHaiti,heenactedslaverypoliciescommonly
known as Encomienda which is a legal system used by the Spanish crown during the
Spanish colonization of the Americas in which a person takes responsibility ofa specific
number of natives and teaches them the Spanish languageand the Catholic faith, getting
tribute from the natives in the form of labor, gold, or other products. Many natives were
forced to do hard labor and subjected to extreme punishment and death if they resisted
(retrieved from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encomienda). This led him to the
exploitationofnaturalresources,forcedlaborunderbrutalconditionsandfinallytotheonset
of extermination campaign against the indigenous people all over America. Bartolom de
las Casas recounts better than anybody else what people went through at that time: the
greatest outrages and slaughterings of people were perpetrated, whole villages being
depopulated...The Indians saw that without any offenseontheirparttheyweredespoiledof
their kingdoms, their landsandliberties and of their lives, their wives, and homes. As they
saw themselves each day perishing by the cruel and inhuman treatment oftheSpaniards,
crushed to earth by the horses, cut in pieces by swords, eaten and torn by dogs, many
buried alive and suffering all kinds of exquisite tortures... many surrendered to their fate,
whilethesurvivorsfledtothemountainstostarve
( Neitschmann, Bernard, "The ThirdWorld War,"CulturalSurvivalI,.Luarterly,Vol11,No.3
(1987).
Furthermore, the socalledtribute systemEncomiendainstitutedin1495wasacruelway
of fulfilling the Spanishlust for Gold. Every threemonthsindigenouspeopleovertheageof
fourteen had togive totheir commanders ahawksbillof gold(iftherewasashortageofit,
they had to give twentyfive pounds of spun cotton) those who didnt do their jobs were
punished by having their hands cut off until to bleedtodeathandthosewhodidweregiven
a token to weararoundtheirneckssotheycan beidentifiedastheoneswhocarryouttheir
wishes. Natives were notonlykilledbythemurderscommittedbythepeoplewhobelongto
the old continent (if we can call them people). In fact, there was a more effective and
lethal way of getting rid of these subhumans ( also called "lower animals," with lack of
souls as the Spaniards used to call them): the outbreak ofepidemics,sexuallytransmitted
diseases and pandemics such as: smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, bubonic plague,
cholera, diphtheria, scarlet fever, venereal disease and the common cold brought and
transmitted by Europeansandunluckily spread into the noninmune natives, killing a huge
part of the indigenous population between 1520 and 1890 without any mercy and almost
instantly. The exact death tollis unknown however, its said thataccordingtotheestimate
of the initial population, it was wiped out more than 80% oftheindigenoustribesduringthe
colonizationtime.
Nevertheless, we believe that this recapitulation of Americas historical events isnow just
part of our past and that no longer exists in our societies. We innocently think that the
ethnic minority annihilation doesnt occur in such civilized world. The human murder by
poverty in Latin America is secret every year, without making a sound, three Hiroshima
bombs explode over communities that have become accustomed to suffering with
clenched teeth(Introduction:120MillionChildrenintheEyeoftheHurricaneOpenVeinsof
Latin America Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent By Eduardo Galeano).
Nonetheless, theres still a neverending and silent war closer thanwe ever thought. The

most powerfulcountriesaredoingeverythingtheyneed(evenifitsagainstthelaw)inorder
to take advantage of our inexhaustible natural resources until their greedy hands are
completely overflow making themselves more powerful and richer but at the same time
making us poorerandmore miserable.AccordingtotheUnitedNationsthereare60million
campesinos whose fortune amounts to $.25 a day. At the other extreme, the pimps of
misery accumulate $5billion intheir private Swiss orU.S.bankaccounts. This isjustone
of the thousand facts that show us the inequality, selfishness and lack of humanity that
existsinthecurrentworld.
In addition to the Spanish colonization, the World War I and II, theres another war that is
unknown for many people here in Latin America: The exploitation and expropriation of the
indigenous' territory in the Guajira Peninsula located in Colombia due to the intensification
andexpansionoftheworld'slargestopenpitcoalmineattheCerrejnMine.
Contrary to the Cerrejon's vision and its "commitment" with the development of the
communities that surround the areas where they are operating, Aviva Chomsky, Steve
Striffler and Garry Leech have assembled a comprehensive collection of reports in their
book : The people behind the colombian coal, describing the horrors, the impact of the
Cerrejn mine (in a very detailed way)and thecrimescommittedagainstthehumanrights
of these defenceless communities like the Wayuu who have inhabited the region before
Europeansarrivedin1499.(UniversityofArkansas,Fayetteville (2007,October14).Human
Cost Of Colombian Coal Revealed. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 18, 2013, from
http://www.sciencedaily.com
/releases/2007/10/071012100630.htm). Before giving details
about the cruel but real facts reported on this book, its important to know about how this
evilandmercenaryprojectstartedandofcourseaboutthecompaniesinvolvedinit.
In 1975, The Colombiangovernment invited 17 firms to participate in thebidforminingthe
32,000 hectares that form what we know today as the Cerrejn North Zone. Only five of
these companies engaged in it and just three of them met the requirements: Intercor, an
Exxon subsidiary, was chosen.Oneyearlater,Carbones deColombiaS.A.(Carbocol)and
Intercor, after an international competitive bid, signed a 33year partnership contract in the
month of December for the development of the coal reserves of the Cerrejn NorthZone.
This contract considers three stages: exploration (19771980), construction (19811986),
and production (19862009). An agreement wassignedwiththeColombiangovernmentin
January of 1999 to extend the last stage for another 25 years,until 2034 ( retrieved from
http://www.cerrejon.com/site/english/ourcompany/history.aspx). These events mentioned
before, they meant fortheindigenousandAfroColombiancommunitiesthebeginningof an
unstoppablecalvary.
The company Intercor took control of every single detail, so they could have everything in
favor of them: the spent money on publicity,theyapproachhypocriticallytotheresidentsin
order to offer themjobs,carryingout vaccinationcampaignandamongotherfavorsthey
lure the communities and their leaders to their side in order to neutralize any opposition,
they even manipulatedthe local, municipal and provincial media, so they could hide allthe
biased information, the truth itself and avoid public opinion and the worst thing, they
convinced and bought the authorities, the police and even the government so that nobody
could use theelementsmentionedbeforeagainstIntercor.Unfortunately,thecompanytook
advantage oftheir innocence and needs and lack of information,giving them a promise of

development that was never fulfilled. Instead of helping them, they brought destruction,
pollution,famine,fear,disease,andabovetheextinctionoftheirculture.
During the construction phase (building of the mines railroad and port) and the expansion
of the Cerrejn mine (1,482acresperyear),therewerethousandsofpeoplefromdifferent
communities (Tobaco, Tamaquito, Caracol, Espinal, among others.) forcibly displaced,
and taken withalltheirbelongingsinamerciless and inhumanwaytotwoplotsofland(that
nowadays have been named asResguardos)givenbyIntercor.However,theseplacesare
uninhabitable due to the lack of resources and subhuman conditions in which they are.
Despite all the warnings that the Intercor company make to thefamilieswhodwellcloseto
the construction zone, some of them decide not to abandon their lands because, these
ones are sacred for them. The book tellsushowtheywere punished:theminingcompany
opted to enclose thearea where the families were living, placinga chainlink fence around
it, withlocks onanentrydoorandarmedguardstoreporteachmovetheinhabitantsmade.
Residents wereoftendeniedaccesstowaterand thecompanymadeapolicyofrefusingto
employ any of them.The community has continued to resist for the last 14 years, locked
inside a chainlink fence, asif they were in aNaziconcentrationcamp.(thepeoplebehind
Colombian Coal by Aviva Chomsky, Garry Leech, and Steve Striffler, p. 20). As we can
observe, almost all thehuman rights of these people weredeeplyviolatedtheydidnthave
any mercy either respect for theirlivesortheirrelativesgravesnomatter whatthey hadto
do, they had to take over every single piece of landtheysawasChristopherColumbusdid
inthepast.
Some of the consequences that the Cerrejns openpit Coalmine project brought to the
dwellers of the northern section of Guajira were: Environmental degradation (the loss of
coastal land which led to the loss of offshore marine resources such as: turtles, fish,
shellfish, etc. thatare part ofthe Wayuu diet and their income) Health problems: Eyeand
lung problems in humans and in livestock due to the dustfromtheroad,dietaryalterations
caused by the introduction of processed food, Mental disorders, social problems like
prostitution, alcoholism and increased of violence dueto thestressproducedbytheforced
changes brought by the company in their lives Social change: degradation of Wayuu
selfesteemandthedevaluationoftheirsocialidentity,etc.
Sadly,the communitiesandtheirleadersarestillstruggling withtheColombiangovernment
in order to negotiate the relocation and reparation of their communities. Even though,one
of the Colombian laws says that its responsibility of the government of this country to
protect its citizens no matter their sex, religion, language, political opinion, raze itseems
like this law is not applicable for these vulnerable populations and what is worse, after all
the complains that these indigenous people have madetotheColombiancourt,there isno
punishment for those who have made such atrocities already explained in previous
paragraphs.
Powerful countries have alwaysbeen the puppeteers of theshow(inthiscase,thewars
that Colombia has been going through during the last decades as in example the drug
war) and our government is the puppet of this performance. Besides that, Itsextremely
disappointing to know that there are many people who are not even aware of our
enslavement and much worse, they believe that they will never be kidnapped or they will
never experience a dangerous situation like the ones that villagers who live close to the

areas where people from guerilla pass by have gone through. I think that we must be
conscious that Colombias economic, political, educational and socialsituation is getting
worse day by day because were submitted to the governments will and we have always
been afraid of swimming against the tide due to the threat that weknowwecouldpossibly
haveifwedosomethingforthebenefitofthewholenation.
as in conclusion,i invite you tosharethisinformationwithyour friends,familymember,etc
and think about of today's Colombia situation, and answer the following questions: after
reading this, what are you going to do? What could be the possible actionsthattogether(i
mean the whole nation) we can do in order to finish off the corruption of this country? Do
you think it's important to change first ourselves and then everybody else? What do we
needtochange?

http://zinelibrary.info/files/Churchill%20%20From%20a%20Native%20Son%20%20Selected%
20Essays%20on%20Indigenism%2019851995.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide_of_indigenous_peoples#Spanish_colonization_of_the_

Americas
http://www.mnc.net/norway/LeifErikson.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day
http://www.unc.edu/world/2011Seminars/LANC_Study_Guide_Readings.pdf
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/columbus_day
http://www.cerrejon.com/site/english/our-company/who-we-are.aspx
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071012100630.htm