SOUTH AMERICA
A Cargo of Questions 1992
Colombia
BUENAVENTURA
This is the biggest Colombian port on the Pacific coast, located on Casajal Island. It is a poor town with a predominantly black population. In the 16C and 17C many Africans were shipped by the Spanish Empire to the 'New World' of the Americas as slaves. they arrived in the Virreynato de la Nueva Granada, which included the territories of present day Colombia, Panama, Venezuela and Ecuador, and put to work in the mines and plantations. Today the descendants of those African people represent about 5% of the Colombian population.
Slavery, the power of the Inquisition, monopolistic control of commerce, taxes and duties, all imposed by the Spanish authorities, prompted an open rebellion in 1781 that was brutally crushed. Even the plantation and slave owners saw a self interest in independence from a Spain that prohibited free trade and increased taxes to wage war on the British. In 1794, inspired by the libertarian spirit of the French Revolution, Antonio Nanino translated into Spanish the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
Artículo I - Los hombres nacen y permanecen libres e iguales en derechos. Las distinciones sociales sólo pueden fundarse en el bien común.
Artículo II - El objetivo de toda asociación política es la conservación de los derechos naturales e imprescriptibles del hombre. Estos derechos son la libertad, la propiedad, la seguridad y la resistencia a la opresión.
Artículo III - El principio de soberanía reside esencialmente en la Nación. Ningún cuerpo, ningún individuo puede ejercer una autoridad que no emane expresamente de él.
Artículo IV - La libertad consiste en hacer algo que no dañe a otros: así, el ejercicio de los derechos naturales de cada hombre sólo tiene las fronteras que aseguran a otros miembros de la sociedad el disfrute de estos mismos derechos. Estas fronteras sólo pueden ser determinadas por la ley.
Artículo V - La ley tiene derecho a prohibir únicamente acciones perjudiciales para la sociedad. Todo lo que no está prohibido por la ley no puede ser impedido, y nadie puede ser obligado a hacer lo que no ordena.
Artículo VI - La ley es la expresión de la voluntad general. Todos los ciudadanos tienen derecho a contribuir personalmente oa través de sus representantes a su formación. Debe ser el mismo para todos, ya sea que proteja, o que castigue. Todos los ciudadanos, siendo iguales a sus ojos, son igualmente admisibles a todas las dignidades, lugares y empleos públicos, según su capacidad y sin distinción distinta de la de sus virtudes y de sus talentos.
Artículo VII - Ningún hombre podrá ser acusado, detenido ni detenido sino en los casos determinados por la ley y según las formas que haya prescrito. Los que solicitan, despachan, llevan a cabo o hacen ejecutar órdenes arbitrarias, deben ser castigados; Pero cualquier ciudadano llamado o incautado bajo los términos de la ley debe obedecer de inmediato; Se hace culpable por la resistencia.
Artículo VIII - La ley debe establecer solamente las penas que sean estrictamente y evidentemente necesarias, y nadie puede ser castigado sino bajo una ley establecida y promulgada antes del delito y legalmente aplicada.
Artículo IX - Todo hombre que se presuma inocente hasta que se declare culpable si se juzga indispensable detenerlo, todo rigor que no sea necesario para la seguridad de su persona debe ser severamente reprendido por la ley.
Artículo X. Nadie podrá ser molestado por sus opiniones, ni siquiera religiosas, siempre que su manifestación no perturbe el orden público establecido por la ley.
Artículo XI - La libre comunicación de pensamientos y de opiniones es uno de los derechos más preciados del hombre: todo ciudadano puede hablar, escribir, imprimir libremente, salvo para responder al abuso de esta libertad, en los casos determinados por la ley.
Artículo XII - La garantía de los derechos del hombre y del ciudadano requiere una fuerza pública: esta fuerza se instituye así para beneficio de todos y no para la utilidad particular de aquellos en quienes se confía.
Artículo XIII - Para el mantenimiento de la fuerza pública y para los gastos de administración, es indispensable una contribución común; Debe distribuirse equitativamente a todos los ciudadanos, según su capacidad de pago.
Artículo XIV - Todo ciudadano tiene derecho a averiguar, por sí mismo oa través de sus representantes, la necesidad de un impuesto público, consentirlo libremente, conocer los usos que se le asignan y determinar la proporción, , Y duración.
Artículo XV - La sociedad tiene derecho a solicitar una cuenta de cualquier agente público de su administración.
Artículo XVI - Toda sociedad en la que no se garantice la garantía de derechos, ni la separación de poderes determinada, no tiene Constitución.
Artículo XVII - La propiedad es un derecho inviolable y sagrado, nadie puede ser privado del uso privado, si no es cuando la necesidad pública, legalmente señalada, lo requiere evidentemente y bajo la condición de una indemnización justa y previa.
Article I – Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions can be founded only on the common good.
Article II – The goal of any political association is the conservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, safety and resistance against oppression.
Article III – The principle of any sovereignty resides essentially in the Nation. No body, no individual can exert authority which does not emanate expressly from it.
Article IV – Liberty consists of doing anything which does not harm others: thus, the exercise of the natural rights of each man has only those borders which assure other members of the society the enjoyment of these same rights. These borders can be determined only by the law.
Article V – The law has the right to forbid only actions harmful to society. Anything which is not forbidden by the law cannot be impeded, and no one can be constrained to do what it does not order.
Article VI – The law is the expression of the general will. All the citizens have the right of contributing personally or through their representatives to its formation. It must be the same for all, either that it protects, or that it punishes. All the citizens, being equal in its eyes, are equally admissible to all public dignities, places, and employments, according to their capacity and without distinction other than that of their virtues and of their talents.
Article VII – No man can be accused, arrested nor detained but in the cases determined by the law, and according to the forms which it has prescribed. Those who solicit, dispatch, carry out or cause to be carried out arbitrary orders, must be punished; but any citizen called or seized under the terms of the law must obey at once; he renders himself culpable by resistance.
Article VIII – The law should establish only penalties that are strictly and evidently necessary, and no one can be punished but under a law established and promulgated before the offense and legally applied.
Article IX – Any man being presumed innocent until he is declared culpable if it is judged indispensable to arrest him, any rigor which would not be necessary for the securing of his person must be severely reprimanded by the law.
Article X – No one may be disturbed for his opinions, even religious ones, provided that their manifestation does not trouble the public order established by the law.
Article XI – The free communication of thoughts and of opinions is one of the most precious rights of man: any citizen thus may speak, write, print freely, except to respond to the abuse of this liberty, in the cases determined by the law.
Article XII – The guarantee of the rights of man and of the citizen necessitates a public force: this force is thus instituted for the advantage of all and not for the particular utility of those in whom it is trusted.
Article XIII – For the maintenance of the public force and for the expenditures of administration, a common contribution is indispensable; it must be equally distributed to all the citizens, according to their ability to pay.
Article XIV – Each citizen has the right to ascertain, by himself or through his representatives, the need for a public tax, to consent to it freely, to know the uses to which it is put, and of determining the proportion, basis, collection, and duration.
Article XV – The society has the right of requesting an account from any public agent of its administration.
Article XVI – Any society in which the guarantee of rights is not assured, nor the separation of powers determined, has no Constitution.
Article XVII – Property being an inviolable and sacred right, no one can be deprived of private usage, if it is not when the public necessity, legally noted, evidently requires it, and under the condition of a just and prior indemnity.
He was arrested and imprisoned in Africa.
Women were excluded from the category "citizen", and the inviolability of property as a sacred right could easily be seen as a justification for owning a slave, but nevertheless, the declaration sparked revolts across the Caribbean. The uprisings in Saint-Domingue and in the Haitian Revolution took inspiration from its words, as discussed in C. L. R. James' history of the Haitian Revolution, The Black Jacobins.
In 1808 when Napoleon replaced Ferdinand VII of Spain with his brother Joseph, the colonies refused to recognise the new monarch, and town by town, the colonials declared their independence. I Bogota, the Corte Suprema del Nueve Reino de Granada was set up as a central elected state authority, but many of the provinces refused to send representatives and instead became advocates of regional autonomy. The rivalry between centralists and federalists ensues to this day.
Information Wrap
Tras un "pacto de caballeros" acordado ayer entre la cúpula sindical y el Gobierno, los trabajadores de puertos levantaron el paro y normalizaron las operaciones de cargue y descargue de mercancía que que se retrasaron por 72 horas. Segun el Presidente del puerto Buenaventura, Marcos Castro, en la reunion sostenida entre la dirigencia obrera y el ministro de Obras, Juan Felipe Gavira, se presentaron "acercamientos" que permitieron a los sindicatos suspender la orden de paralisis, y al Gobierno garantizar que no tomaria represalias contra los trabajadores que participaron en los ceses.
After a "gentlemen's pact" agreed yesterday between the union leadership and the Government, the workers of ports ended the walkout and returned to the normal operations of loading and unloading of merchandise that they had delayed by 72 hours. According to the President of Port Buenaventura, Marcos Castro, in the meeting between the workers' leadership and the Minister of Works, Juan Felipe Gavira, "approaches" were presented, which allowed the trade unions to suspend the strike order, and the Government made a guarantee that would they would not retaliate against the workers who had participated in the work stoppages.
ESPECTADOR, 30 April, 1992.
What is the difference between slavery and wage slavery?
Is it unemployment?
What is the difference between slavery and wage slavery?
Is it unemployment?
Colombia
SANTA FE DE ANTIOQUIA
Founded in 1541 by Jorge Robledo it was an important and prosperous centre during the colonial period as well as the capital of Antioquia until 1826. Antioquia is one of those Colombian regions where the population is largely made up of people with a white European heritage.
Colombia is a nation of many and mixed peoples. About half the population are mestizos (a person of European and Amerindian descent), about a fifth mulattos (a person of mixed white and black ancestry) and another fifth white, mostly descendants of the Spaniards. The remaining indigenous peoples (called Amer-Indians?) consist of over 50 different tribal societies scattered in small enclaves in almost all regions of the country. They represent between 1% and 1.5% of the population. Very recently, half a millenium later, the new Constitution of Colombia recognises the rights and independent existence of the indigenous peoples of this land. Accomanying this recognition, various economic priorities have been instituted by the Colombian state to promote and preserve the culture and traditions of these peoples. For those people, imported into the continent as cargoes of slaves and left to inhabit the poorest regions of the country, there have been no equivalent provisions in the Constitution. They are not descended from European or indigenous people, and they are forgotten.
April 24, 1992 was 'Secretaries Day' in Colombia. A full page colour advertisement for Superley uses 64 images of women. Whether they are models, or secretaries, only one has dark skin, only six faces suggest a woman over 30 years old, the rest conform to a North American stereotype of glamourousness.
To what image do you aspire?
How can you see yourself through the image of another culture?
What is the purpose in a society where the majority are poor of constantly showing images of glamour, wealth and white middle-class power?
Information Wrap
Después de años de planification, la Exposición Universal de Sevilla fue inaugurada ayer por el rey Juan Carlos de España en medio de repique de campanas, al estruendo de fuegos artificiales y lanzamiento de globos. El rey Juan Carlos, que guió al Estado español durante el difícil periodo posterior a la muerte dictator Francisco Franco en 1975, dio la orden para que fuera puesto en marcha el festival, que según los organizadores, denostar al mundo que España esta lista para enfrentar los desafíos del proximo siglo. "La Exposición Universal tiene por fin transmitir a sus visitantes la riqueza y variedad de las culturas que el hombre ha creado, asi como su capacidad de innovación y las ideas de tolerancia, respeto por el pluralismo y solidaridad internacional", dijo el monarca al inaugurar la mayor Exposición Universal. Decenas de militantes representantes de indigenas americanos afirmaron que tenia la intención de entregar una carta al monarca pero que no lograron hacerlo. En esa carta denunciaban la masacre de 50 millones de aborigines de America, se pronunciaban contra las ceremonias del Quinto Centenario la organización de un "espectáculo celebrando un genocidio" y los gastos de millones de dólares mientras millones de seres humanos mueren en la miseria.
After years of planning, the Universal Exposition of Seville was inaugurated yesterday by the king Juan Carlos of Spain in the middle of the ringing of bells, explosions of fireworks and a launch of balloons. King Juan Carlos, who led the Spanish state during the difficult period following the death of the dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, gave the order to start the festival, which according to organisers, announces to the world that Spain is ready to face the challenges of the next century. "The Universal Exhibition aims to convey to its visitors the richness and variety of the cultures that man has created, as well as their capacity for innovation and ideas of tolerance, respect for pluralism and international solidarity," said the monarch at the inauguration of the largest ever Universal Exhibition. Dozens of militants representing Native Americans claimed that they intended to deliver a letter to the monarch but were unable to do so. In that letter they denounced the massacre of 50 million Aborigines of America, and they denounced the ceremonies of the fifth centenary (of the discovery of the new world) and the organisation of a "spectacle celebrating a genocide" costing millions of dollars while millions of human beings die in misery.
EL TIEMPO, 21 April, 1992.
What is justice if it does not represent an equivalence in exchange?
Colombia
CANAVAREL
The Tayrona National Park is named after the Tayrona Indians. Columbus never set foot on Colombian soil, but Alonso de Ojeda, one of his companions on the second voyage, explored the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and was amazed by the wealth of golden ornament possessed by the Tayrona culture.
The legend of El Dorado begins in the stories of fabulous mountains of gold and emeralds that were prompted by this discovery. Later on, the impact of a huge influx of precious metals from the Americas through Spain to the European economies, produced an inflation of prices that affected every transaction in the "old world".
The Kogui and Arhuacos still live in the valleys of the Sierra nevada today, the almost untouched Kogui traditions are of help in the archaelogical interpretation of the Tayrona culture.
Recently the government of Colombia declared an amnesty on the status of money held abroad by Colombians. No questions would be asked as to how these funds were acquired on repatriation. Overnight, the reserves of currency swelled to such a degree that the Colombian Peso became a very hard currency. It was revalued on the world market to such an extent that the entire price structure of the economy was hoiked up to levels that the averagely poor could not afford. Such large monetary reserves, however, have transformed the attitude of foreign capital investment, even though parts of the economy, the supply of electricity, telecommunications, ports and financial services are in turmoil.
An interesting logic where an increased confidence in a currency market produces less money for workers and the poor. Is capitalism logical?
What has changed in 500 years?
Information Wrap
Colombia is now named after Columbus, but has changed name several times, usually on the occasion of a new constitution. those of 1857 and 1863 were federalist and the constitution of 1886 was centralist. The independence movement was always in the hands of the elite Creoles (the Spanish word criollo, implying "native" or "local", historically denoted a class in the colonial caste system, comprising people born in the colonies but of totally or at least largely Spanish descent), as were the two political factions. The conflict known as 'La Violencia', the civil war that broke out in 1948, in some ways still remains to be resolved, even though Liberals and Conservatives signed a pact to share power in 1957. Together, these ruling groups managed the country in turn, eliminating a central feature of democracy, political opposition. This has changed recently, and has allowed the people to express their concern at the adverse effects upon the country's economy, brought about by mismanagement and corruption of a ruling elite.
When will La Violencia be resolved?
Is peace a dream?
