[narconews] Colombian Coca Growers Protest the Forced Eradication of Their Crops Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2008 10:42:53 -0500 (CDT) March 10, 2008 Please Distribute Widely Dear Colleague: In the last week days, thousands of coca growers that had been occupying town centers in northern Colombia to protest the forced eradication of their crops have begun returning to their villages after three weeks of negotiations with local authorities. Their occupation of four large towns showed that Colombia's much-demonized producers of the raw material for cocaine are willing to move to alternative, legal crops if the government will treat them as partners rather than enemies. It also brought to the surface, once again, the suspicious, uncaring and hateful attitudes so many officials hold toward the country's rural population, a political and cultural divide that has kept a civil war going here for half a century. Read the full story, here: http://www.narconews.com And don't miss all the articles from the last week in Narco News. Journalist Okke Ornstein reports on another aspect of the tensions between Colombia and its neighbors after the bombing of a guerrilla camp in Ecuador. Ornstein writes: "In 2001, I wrote on these pages that the Dariin jungle province separating Panama from Colombia was a ticking time bomb. Over the years, however, I started to wonder if I had been wrong on that. All seemed quiet on Panama's eastern front. But today, the time bomb can be heard ticking again and may be ready to go off." Nancy Davies files another commentary from Oaxaca, this time looking at the case of Eufrosina Cruz, a woman barred from political office due to her gender, using a very controversial interpretation of traditional indigenous law: "Nothing in indigenous usage prohibits governance by a woman; many towns such as Tlalixtac de Cabrera (about twenty minutes by bus from Oaxaca City, and roughly twice the size of Santa Maria Quiegolani) have elected a woman to fill the position. In Tlalixtac, the woman mayor chosen last week is highly respected for her community services. Now retired with a pension, she can afford to give her time and energy to her town. So electing a woman depends on each autonomous town's own decisions. At present, of the 412 municipalities governed by traditional indigenous laws known as usos y costumbres, at least 80 impede participation by women. But it's not clear how many of these do so because of machismo, or because of caciquismo the power of local political bosses. "Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza, who just turned 28, is a university graduate in accounting, and director of a technical school for indigenous students. She left her remote hometown of Santa Marma Quiegolani to pursue her education and a career. She returned to run for the mayor's office, supported by a group of women how many, I don't know, but it seems from what I read that Eufrosina is leading a true indigenous women's movement. "In an assembly held November 4, 2007 under the system of usos y costumbres, her name was placed on the "ballot" because the outgoing mayor, Sazl Cruz Vazquez, was sure that in an election in which women were not allowed to vote, the accountant could not defeat the man whom Cruz Vazquez had personally selected, Eloy Mendoza Martmnez. Neither Eufrosina or other women were permitted to participate in the assembly. The big surprise came when the vote tally began to run in her favor. At that moment, Cruz Vazquez decided to annul the election. The reason he gave: No women allowed." Read these stories and more, only in The Narco News Bulletin. http://www.narconews.com >From somewhere in a country called Amirica, Dan Feder Editor-in-Chief The Narco News Bulletin www.narconews.com Narco News is supported by: The Fund for Authentic Journalism P.O. Box 241 Natick, MA 01760 http://www.authenticjournalism.org The Fund receives online donations at this web page: http://www.authenticjournalism.org Apply for your co-publisher's account, here: http://www.narconews.com/copublisher/application.php Subscribe for free alerts of new reports: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/narconews Suscribete gratis para alertas de nuevos reportajes en espanol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/narconewsandes Inscreva-se para alertas gratuitos de reportagens do ultimo minuto em portugues brasileiro: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/narconewsbrasil