SINCELEJO BULLRUNS

Unlike normal bullfighting where one man galantly dressed flaunts and takes on the bull, in a small town in northern Colombia bullfighting has been brought to a next level; here the spectators themselves take on the bull.

Mimicking boxers men challenge bulls, calling for the attention of the public. On the stands dancing spectators drink and play cumbia music. Brass bands sallute the untrained matadors valued for their macho courage.

Many have died in this town of Sincelejo - Last year miraculously only ten were injured, though one was gored nearing his death - On other years, such as 1999, eight were killed.

A yearly event for the past 150 years, Sincelejo, the town of bullruns, is now a tourist attraction for many visitors. For the duration of six days, each afternoon 40 bulls are let loose in the arena, while the men weave and dodge against them.

Oddly the tradition has no Spanish heritage but is a creole invention with its own customs and clothing. No bulls are killed.

Our idea is to go to Sincelejo and document this year’s antics. We will follow the tradition on all its levels, from the celebrations to fear in the challengers’ eyes, as well as those unfortunate enough to end up hospitalised. We will also follow the real protagonists, the bulls themselves.

The event takes place between the 16-21 of January.

NEW YEAR AT THE HOTEL BOLIVAR

so here we are 2008

happy nu yar an all!!

last nite i spent it at the Bolivar suite in the centre of Lima - where most people dont hang out - though the architecture is classical - once the money left the skank moved in



so there we were, about 20 of us
dancing, singing reggaeton and salsa karaoke
drinking for the year to come
some five of us decided to go the top floor
(the top two floors being abandoned)
we went via lift
we had a small torch
once there we began to walk
complete darkness
darkness complete
looking for 666
we got 664
then 665
the guy with the torch decides to play around and turn the light off stop fucking around we say
we hold hands
friek out
torch boy turns it on and off annoying the situation more
its difficult to walk when you cant see anything - you only bang into walls
then torch boy suddenly really frieks - says he felt something
were sayin shut the fuck up
his face is white
we quicken the pace to the lift
we are all slightly spooked
calling the lift the lift doesnt come
torch boy swears that before he felt something

the corridors are long, all the doors are locked


.................

then in the distance as we stand next to the left a sound comes our way

as though a small voice

................

then an angry grumble


we dont know what to think

... what the fuck could it be?

the grumble
gets louder

.......

now we really friek

the lift still doesnt come

a hollywood scenario

the corridors looking like something out of the shining

the light doesnt reach as far as the sound

where are the stairs?

i never saw any stairs


someone does; we decide to run to the stairs

we float, we glide, we miss most steps

we get to the party room quick like a bunch of spazzed out teenagers

..........

trying to catch our breath we try to explain
and i dont think ive ever been so adrenalin pumped


someone gives me the reggaeton karaoke mic so i can tell everyone

and so i say

the top floor is haunted

the darkness is complete

what the fuck could have been the voice that grumbled. a small gremlin perhaps. some drunk at peace but not with us. some dark recess from the past. I swear for all that moment I thought it was satan like when I was seven. As though all that had fucked me up as a kid was now glaring at me like a twitch.




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LOS ASHANINKAS

Deep in the Peruvian Jungle an unreported struggle intensifies, as globalisation, under its many guises, threatens the very survival of the tribe of the Asháninkas.

From semi-nomadic habits they saw themselves obliged to be completely sedentary. There are no longer the conditions to hunt, to fish and grow crops like their forfathers. The Asháninkas live in their aloted land, richly proud of their own cultural identity, and willing to fight for it.

When the Spanish conquistadors came they were unable to outdo the tribe. Even to much more recent times, the Asháninkas held off the terrorist group Sendero Luminoso, losing 5,000 their population, displacing another 10,000. Only 4,000 were left.

The violence is still present by the insurgence of Sendero or because of the development of a form of ‘narcoterrorism’ not easily identifiable as Sendero anymore. Those Asháninkas that left and then in the hope of returning to their communities came, found their lands invaded coca plant growers.

The menace that faces the tribe today comes in different forms. The heavy demand for cocaine has meant that low density farmers emigrating from the Andes; have begun to clear land for exclusive coca growth. Illegal loggers also continue stripping the rain forest. A further obstacle now are the Spanish and Peruvian petroleum companies encroaching on what little is left of their ancestral land.

Spanish petroleum company, Repsol, has given them only broken promises. In saying they would assist with medical care and improve sanitation it has only expanded into lands not corresponding to them.

“The government does not consult, it only informs the community” says Ruth Buendía, president of CARE (Community of Asháninka of the River Ene) in response to the expansions in the jungle area of the river Ene. Buendia, 32, is fighting so that the land, which she says was entitled to them, is not vanquished. “Investment must be consulted with the people living here to see whether it is favourable or not.”

The population is composed mainly of women and children, widows and orphans. There is a huge deficit of men and of the young of both sexes, because so many have died at the hands of subversives or are controlled by them.

Fascists and Indians

Fascists and Indians

Ponchos Rojos


Nazis in Santa Cruz

Fascists and Indians

Things have reached a new climate in Bolivia from where extremist factions are on the rise. On the one side a group called the ‘Ponchos Rojos’ seeking Indian insurrection, were recently seen on TV decapitating the heads of dogs as warning to the opposition. To the other, rekindled Fascists, using Nazi symbolism, have begun firing arms at manifestations. As steps towards a newly-thought indigenous constitution are realized, up to what point will talk of ‘imminent civil war’ come to, as the country divides even further?

Evo Morales, Bolivia's first Indian president, says that the changes in the country’s constitution will redress centuries of discrimination by a political class dominated by a European-descended elite. Proposals there range from rechristening Bolivia with an indigenous name, Qollasuyo, to that of land reform and allowing Morales consecutive presidential terms.

The country is at an unstable situation, in which poor and well-organized sectors of society have managed to take control of the government, but have not actually taken control of power. The power, as such, still resides with the government’s main political enemies based in Santa Cruz, Sucre and Cochabamba, the country’s economical bastions.

The leaders of opposition say they want greater autonomy from the capitol La Paz. Some, a radical minority, want full independence. They complain that they generate Bolivia's wealth and do not see why they should subsidize the poor in the mountains. Many wealthy landowners also oppose government measures to redistribute land to peasant farmers and limit the size of properties.

The story is of a disillusioned people who, with the great responsibility of constructing Bolivia for the new century, remain divided, in conflict, without a firm ideology of unity and of constructing a more just social order. As such the youth and the poor become the ‘cannon fodder’ for extremists capitalizing on the disarray.

One such group is the Falange Socialista Boliviana, a far right movement founded in the late thirties, whose voice, though silenced for the past thirty years, now regathers emphasis. Their talk of arms and radical change is seen by some in the East and South as the only firm solution. Curiously they are seen bearing Nazi symbols which leads one to think their rhetoric is openly racist.

Strongly affiliated are the ‘juventudes cruceñas’, young demonstrators from Santa Cruz said to now be arming themselves under slogans of “defending the patria”. They have already attacked shop keepers and vandilised in and around districts where there are MAS supporters (Movement Toward Socialism – Evo Morales’ party).

A counterpart on the left is the Ponchos Rojos, indigenous activists from the high plains who recently slit the throats of two dogs before television cameras shouting the names of the two leading opposition leaders, Branko Marinkovic and Rubén Costas. An Ayamara ancestral organization, composed of men over 50, it assures 100,000 members in their files. It has also converted itself in one of Morales’ main strike forces. Their leader Ruperto Quispe now threatens to take the lands of Santa Cruz “immediately” if the Constitution fails. They are also allied to hardened miners loyal to Morales, who explode small dynamite charges occasionally to intimidate any potential anti-assembly protesters.


All of the pieces seem to be in place for a civil war – a general climate of discontent and resentment after a long history of colonial oppression; a concentrated campaign aimed at stirring up fear, hatred, and racial/ethnic and regional divisions; the aggressive use of the media in promulgating violent conflict; the near-total silence of international observers regarding these same trends. Bolivia has always been an unstable pocket within the southern continent. But the intensity of the present cloud of instability could bring it closer than ever to a full eruption.

PADRE ARANA INTERVIEW

At first instances Father Marco Arana, 43, comes across as a mild mannered man. It’s hard to picture him as the outspoken figure he is associated with. He is courteous and open about all the contentious events surrounding mining company Newmont/Buenventura, and of the stories which inadvertently involve him and of the NGO he founded GRUFIDES.

Concerning Newmont/Buenaventura, owners Yanacocha and of many other mining ventures across Cajamarca, he directly implicated them on several wrongdoings of which the most violent are three murders:

1. Lingal Edmundo, Nov 04, killed in the province of Santa Cruz, a peasant standing up to water contamination caused by the mine La Sanja. Arana asserts he was killed by a group of peasants contracted by Newmont/B. There is apparent proof the rifles were given by the company.
2. Isidro Llanos Chevarria, Aug 06, killed at the manifestations of Combayo, by three contracted police men. Chevaria had been standing up to an expansion of Maqui Maqui Carachugo 2 sought by Newmont/B. The REPUBLICA has investigated this matter.
3. Esmundo Becerra Cotrina, Nov 06, shot 17 times by ‘sicarios’ (assassins) in the area of Yanacanchilla Baja. He had been given several death threats months before, for his stance against the digging of the San Cirilo Hill. It is an area from where several lake pockets would be depleted. Cotrina -a prestigious community leader- was the only one in his community to have gone to university. The project was by Newmont/B.




Arana then went on to add that from November 2006, for four months, there was a whole series of espionage tactics carried out by N/B on his person and of the personnel at GRUFIDES. He says he was followed everywhere, from the country to Lima. Calls were made to female employees threatening rape, as well as death threats to GRUFIDES employees’ family members. LA REPUBLICA has largely investigated this, from where a conclusion was made that a certain figure Aldo Schwarz, an ex Marine Commander, (pseudonym Pato!) was paid by FORZA, the cooperative security firm contracted by N/B.

There are said to 600-700 FORZA security guards at Yanacocha alone. The information is reserved but has been divulged by the guards themselves. In times of civil unrest mine companies are allowed to contract police to defend their interests. Police are gathered from other states which have no involvement with such provinces. Up to 400 policemen can be brought in. Their orders are often to repel -by whatever means- the disturbances which most often are in the form of road blocks. Added to this there are certain laws of impunity where it is hard to accuse a policeman for having carried out an action while on duty.

Arana says many in the community are wary of the press as often it has been through these means that many have been identified and then victimized.

There still has not been a systematic study of the current water contamination taking place in the several provinces of Cajamarca. In 2003 an external body was brought in, STRATUS, paid by N/B to make a study. Not much progress has been made since.
Trout are still dying, the waters are still poisoned. The problems between the mines and the communities are deteriorating.