It’s Monday morning just before noon and Murray Lumley and John Spragge are riding an elevator to the 21st floor at 1 Dundas Street West to deliver a letter to the Colombian Consulate in Toronto. The two Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) members enter the crowded, stuffy office, make their way to the reception window and ask to speak to the Consul General about 123 families who have decided to return to their lands today after being evicted by the National Police and mobile riot police squad two years ago.
Lumley and Spragge want a guarantee from the Colombian government that the families won’t be subjected to any use of force by the police and given access to the land that was used for farming before they were evicted.
The land is located in the township of Buenos Aires in the El Penon municipal jurisdiction in the southern region of the Bolivar department. The families, known as the Buenos Aires Peasant Organization (ASOCAB), first occupied the land in 1997 that previously belonged to alleged drug trafficker Jesus Emilio Escobar. Since then, the families have farmed the lands in order to survive.
In 2007, CPT alleged that someone claiming to own the property sold the land to El Labrador Consortium and in 2009 the new owners decided to take back the land from the peasants. The ASCOB maintains that they have a right to possess the land, including the right to food that would otherwise be lacking without the use of the land.
“When I was living in Las Pavas, I did not suffer much,” says a woman in a video posted on the CPT website. “Now, we are forced to beg.”
The Consul General is unavailable but a representative assures Lumley and Spragge that he will give the letter to her.
The two men return to the sidewalk in front of the 29 storey building on Dundas Street that’s sandwiched between Yonge and Bay Street. They join their colleagues in handing out leaflets to passersby, encouraging them to call the Colombia Consul at 416-977-0998; 416-977-0475 or by email at [email protected] in support of the people of Las Pavas.
Last week, Stewart Vriesinga of CPT called Lumley and Spragge from Colombia and told them that the people had decided to move back to the land on March 28. CPT decided to do an awareness vigil and information picket in Toronto. It chose to hold the action in front of the Colombian Consulate so they could also deliver their letter to the Consul General.
“It’s disputed,” says Lumley. “But I believe there are laws in Colombia having to do with people who have been on a piece of land for a length of time and are using it to live on and grow their own food.”
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