On April 26, the Agrarian and Peasant Assembly was held in the Paz del Agrado village, a space for unity and organization in the face of the transformations that the countryside requires.
Gildardo Silva Molina (*)
The peasant struggles in Valle del Cauca have a significant chapter in the municipality of Florida. Since 1985, together with the flags of the Patriotic Union, these struggles reached an advanced level, driven by the organization and mobilization of the peasantry in the midst of a turbulent historical moment.
The strategic location of the municipality, in the foothills of the central mountain range and its connection with the north of Cauca, makes it a crucial point on the route that goes from Cauca to the Pacific, crossing Cali. These characteristics, together with the history of peasant struggles, made the area a place where the armed conflict flourished and left numerous victims and high rates of inequality and poverty.
From conflict to hope
Currently, Florida is experiencing a process of transformation and reactivation of the fight for demands that violence interrupted in the past. Since the signing of the peace agreement, the municipality was integrated into the Development Program with a Territorial Approach, PDET, emphasizing a commitment to peace that allows closing inequality gaps, returning the land to the peasantry and providing opportunities for a dignified life. in the territory.
The above was the starting point for the realization of the Agrarian and Peasant Assembly in the municipality, although some time ago the communities in the area were incipiently organized around institutional projects and initiatives. It was a meeting space that opened the possibility of generating our own agenda, unitary and aligned with the programmatic axes of the government of change.
Meeting for unity
In that sense, the Assembly had two central purposes: to strengthen the organization of farmers and, on the other hand, to present the offer of programs and projects around the agrarian policy stakes established in the National Development Plan, PND. Delegates from the Special Assets Society, SAE, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, National Land Agency, ANT, Regional Directorate of the Land Restitution Unit, URT, and the Department’s Secretariat of Rural Development, Agriculture and Fisheries participated.
The Assembly was established as a broad space of unity, convened by the peasant communities, Community Action Boards, organizations such as the Association of Rural Workers of Valle del Cauca, ASTRACAVA, the Popular Unity Process of the South West, PUPSOC, the Association of Peasant Reserve Zones, among others, with the support of the Historical Pact bench in the Assembly, led by Ferney Lozano Camelo and the Chamber of Representatives of the Patriotic Union and Juan Pablo Salazar of CITREP.
The fighting continues…
The guarantee of the rights of the peasantry as a vulnerable cultural group and subject to special constitutional protection is part of a fundamental political commitment to the transformation of the countryside, overcoming those persistent conditions in the territory that require urgent attention and action.
The task remained of promoting and forming a departmental agrarian reform assembly or committee. The work will continue to be, together with communities, movements and organizations, to strengthen organization, mobilization and unity.
* Representative to the Chamber for Valle del Cauca (Historical Pact-Patriotic Union Coalition)
