Indigenous Nasa liberate ancestral lands in Cauca, Colombia

El Proceso de Liberación de la Madre Tierra, “The Process of Liberation of Mother Earth,” is a movement of indigenous Nasa communities in northern Cauca, in Colombia, who are engaged in practices of direct-action land recuperation and liberation, resisting what they call the “capitalist enslavement of Mother Earth.”

Through the recuperation of ancestral Nasa territories, the cutting down of monoculture sugarcane crops, the replanting of traditional foods and the ecological regeneration of the recuperated territories, the Nasa liberate the earth from capitalism and colonialism, in keeping with a long regional history of indigenous resistance.

Below we share a communique from the Process of Liberation of Mother Earth informing us of the most recent land recuperation in the Finca Chimán. A “finca” is a rural property– a parcel of farmland or ranch.

For more on the Liberation of Mother Earth, you can visit their (Spanish language) website. Also, this video on the practice of Nasa land regeneration from Avispa Midia has available auto-translated captions:

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The communities that make up the Liberation of Mother Earth in the Finca Chimán, in northern Cauca, Colombia, want to share with everyone that since October 26, 2021, we have taken possession of this territory.

We originally entered to liberate this finca on October 18, 2019. Since then, we have carried out occasional mingas, or collective work days. Now, two years later, we have entered to stay and live here.

We are Indigenous Nasa families: boys, girls, youth, women, men, and elders. We come from the higher zone, the mountainous region of northern Cauca. Where we come from, we live in tight quarters, like little pigs in sheds. There, 80% of the land is forested, and should be left alone so that the forest and animals can thrive. When we speak of liberating mother earth, we are referring to a return to the planet’s balance, spoiled by the ravages of the capitalist system.

When we speak of liberating mother earth, we also speak of returning to our ancestral territories, of recuperating our territory. And yes, we speak of having access to a piece of land to live an enjoyable life. If our ancestors lived here, if their descendants now live cramped in the mountains, if in the flatlands a single person can monopolize more land than an entire resguardo [a state-organized Indigenous territorial unit] causing ecological deterioration there, it is only fair that we recuperate this land.

We do so in a peaceful manner and according to our own free will. We are not allies of any armed or narco group. We liberate this land so as to escape their war and their strategies.

The issue of land in Colombia is a structural problem that has not been resolved for centuries. In addition to the land, the largest in Latin America, there is ecological devastation, what here we call slavery, the sickness of Mother Earth. This is the reason why today we liberate this land through direct action. Waiting only aggravates the problem.

To the institutions of the Colombian State that have the role of ensuring the fulfillment of the constitution, we say to them that if the problem is structural, the solution is structural and is not repressive. We say to them that we will remain here as a civil community, as a peaceful struggle.

If the solution from the state is far off, we will not wait for that moment to return to our land. We will get organized and live in our own way.

To Liberate Mother Earth
Is to live an enjoyable life
On this land
Now.

January 6, 2022
Point of Liberation Chimán
Proceso de Liberación de la Madre Tierra 
Northern Cauca, Colombia