Afro-Colombians appeal to Obama to help vulnerable minorities

Largely excluded from peace talks with leftist rebels, Afro-Colombian leaders are appealing directly to the Obama administration to ensure they’re not excluded from a proposed $450 million U.S. aid package to help implement the peace deal.

The Colombian government is expected to sign an historic agreement soon with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the leftist guerrilla group that has waged a five-decade-long war against the Colombian government. Much of that violence has occurred in the western Pacific region of the country and peripheral communities where the population is largely of African descent.

Leaders such as Isaias Chalá, mayor of the city of Quibdo in western Colombia, said Afro-Colombians are probably the most interested in a successful peace deal, considering the personal sacrifices their community has made.

“It’s one simple reason,” Chalá said in an interview after participating in a panel discussion on community concerns at the Inter-American Dialogue. “Because the violence in Colombia over the last 30, 40, 50 years has occurred primarily in the Pacific. The Afro-Colombians no longer want to live with this kind of violence.”

Colombia has the second-largest black population in Latin America after Brazil. An estimated 11 million people in Colombia are of African descent.

Congress is considering Obama’s proposal to provide $450 million annually to help Colombia reinforce security, reintegrate former combatants into society and re-establish the rule of law in regions that have been controlled by the rebels. The new plan, called “Peace Colombia,” is an continuation of Plan Colombia, the 15-year program that’s provided more than $10 billion to Colombia to confront drug trafficking and other ills.

The Afro-Colombians have been the most affected, but relatively neglected during the peace talks, said Michael Shifter, executive director of the Inter-American Dialogue.

“Their voice hasn’t been heard as much as it should be,” Shifter said. “They have a crucial role to play in this process of figuring out what the cooperation is going to be like moving forward between the U.S. and Colombia.”

Chalá was part of a group of municipal leaders and Colombian academics who met with members of the State Department, the U.S, Agency for International Development and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Oscar Gamboa, head of the association of mayors and governors of municipalities and departments with Afro-descendant communities, said they will request grants associated with the $450 million package.

For Peace Colombia to really be successful, Chalá and Gamboa said, it’s essential that some of that money be targeted directly at Afro-Colombian communities. Chalá cites double-digit unemployment throughout the Pacific region. Gamboa worries that if it’s all funneled through Bogota, that many Afro-Colombian communities will be left out. Economic development is critical, he said.

“If the people don’t have any income, they’re going to plant coca,” Gamboa said. “They’re going to do the illegal things.”

This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Afro-Colombians appeal to Obama to help vulnerable minorities."