Just Cause - Campesinos resist extermination in Colombia

"Just Cause," hosted by Colombian human rights advocate Piedad Córdoba, offers a series of documentaries on Latin American economic, political and social realities. In today’s program we visit campesino communities in the Catatumbo region of Colombia and speak with long-time residents about the dire situation they’re facing. We march and block highways, says one young girl, because indigenous peasants have been ignored. She believes the situation in Catatumbo was the spark for a national agrarian strike in 2013 that lasted 53 days, when leaders were stigmatized and jailed and at least four people killed in a round of heavy State repression. In the course of the strike, other groups joined in, such as teachers unions, hospital workers and students. Today government policies favor agribusiness and large multinational energy companies that prefer a countryside without campesinos. Faced with extermination policies, a key campesino demand now is the establishment of a Peasant Reserve Zone to strengthen agricultural production and assure access to the land, water and seeds necessary to gain food security and food sovereignty. teleSUR