Colombia: dos décadas en los movimientos agrarios

Land distribution and political power in Colombia have been central factors of war and the organizational processes of the agricultural workers have developed under direct state repression, affected by internal divisions and by the intervention of external agents. The 1991 Constitution opened possibilities of political expression to indigenous and Afro Colombian peoples but factors of conflict have had no substantial changes. The violence resulted in the formation of guerrilla organizations and by their roots in rural areas that house resources for agriculture and mining become the military objectives within the strategic interests of the United States, arguing the country’s participation in the drug economy. Trade unions have developed into export agriculture, but given the difficulty of inserting domestic production in these markets the state and employers have pushed the deterioration of working conditions through the weakening of workers´ organizations. The resistance against spoils brought the revival of indigenous peoples and most of them have established and reinforced alliances with other communities and peasant movements, renewing and broadening its dialogue with unions