Letter from Afro-Colombian's to President Barak Obama

Afro-Colombian Grassroots Communities 'Speak' To President Obama

March 11, 2009
Barack Hussein Obama
President of the United States
White House
Washington, DC
United States of America
RE: A petition from Afro-Colombian Community Councils and grassroots
organizations
Dear Honorable President Barack Obama:
The Afro-Colombian organizations in Colombia would like to congratulate you and wish
you great success as President of the United States. As part of the global African
Diaspora we are proud of your triumph and share it with you as a collective triumph for
all those that struggle to institute democratic values, respect for the sovereignty of the
people, and for the defense of human rights.
We would like to take this opportunity to briefly share with you the current state of Afro-
Colombians and point out a few aspects of United State’s policies towards Colombia. The
U.S.-Colombian relationship is crucial to our Afro-Colombian communities and therefore
we urge you to establish a direct channel of communication with our organizations. We
believe that your government will be able to develop joint cooperative mechanisms for a
policy that is more inclusive with Colombia. Likewise, we are confident that your
government will be able to play a prominent role in the fight against racism and
discrimination. Now that we are approaching the evaluation of the Durbin Process, we
encourage your firm involvement in this process.
According to our estimations and public documents from the Colombian government,
there are a total of 11 million Afro-Colombians. We live on the Caribbean and Pacific
coastlines of Colombia; the valleys of Magdalena, Cauca, Patía and in the largest cities of
the country such as Cali, Cartagena, Barranquilla, Medellín, and Bogotá. Apart from
constituting a significant number, our participation in the public arena, in politics, and in
the distribution of goods and services is minimal.
In 1991, the Colombian Constitution was amended to recognize the ethnic plurality of our
country. The Afro-Colombian movement succeeded in achieving the adoption of the
“Law for the Black Communities”, also known as Law 70 of 1993. Between 1991 and
1993 these grassroots organizations worked to have many of our collective land rights
recognized for our communities. The titles of our collective territory, consisting of
5,600,000 hectares were recognized, along with our Community Councils, the
administrative authorities of our territories. The Afro-Colombian movement has grown
within the past 15 years at the urban and rural levels. It has positioned itself within the
national and international political and cultural arena forming solidarity networks...

Read letters in it's entirety here (English)

En español aqui (Spanish version)