The 110,000 Nasa people of Colombia, live in the north of Cauca. It is estimated that over 50 percent of children from Nasa families in northern Cauca suffer from malnutrition, and 24 percent of the population does not have land with which to sustain their families.
Landowners of the region have been involved in planning massacres of indigenous farmers, displacing the residents and opening up territory for resource extraction. The Nasa resistance to hold land to sustain their communities is as old as the Spanish conquest. European settlers have pushed the Nasa peoples from the fertile lowlands into the highlands. It’s estimated that two million people were displaced throughout the country, abandoning 350,000 small farms. The massive displacements in the mid-twentieth century served the large landowners in the area around Cauca with large sugar cane plantations taking up huge tracts of land. FARC is an ever present para-military group that continues to surround Cauca.
Despite the massive killings and terrorization of the communities, San José de Apartadó declared itself a peace community in 1997. The 1,300 Residents of the rural community pledged not to engage in war, either directly or indirectly, and to negotiate peaceful solutions to end the conflict. This declaration caused the armed groups to declare San José de Apartadó as aiding the “enemy.” Many sectors within Colombia have joined together in support of the Nasa people, contributing what they can to their peaceful struggle for justice, land and autonomy.
AFSC, a Quaker humanitarian organization, nominated two Colombian groups for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their commitment to nonviolence during conflict. The Nasa have won Colombia's national peace prize twice for their commitment to non-violent social organizing and struggle.
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1452/61/
http://www.ww4report.com/node/3203
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/23/indigenous_colombians_begin_10_000_strong
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