Protect the Raizal People of the San Andres Archipelago

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I have very strong views about the national protest taking place across Colombia over the past 2 weeks and the absolutely brutal response against the demonstrators by the Colombian public security forces.

But today, I rise about a very different and specific human rights crisis in Colombia, one that receives little attention in the United States and from the international community. I am speaking about the plight of the Raizal people who have lived for centuries on the islands that make up the San Andres archipelago.

The Raizal are descendants of Pilgrim settlers, enslaved Africans, Amer-Indians, and British emigrants. They speak Creole English, and most are Protestants.

However, in a twist of fate characteristic of the history of colonization, the islands on which they live--San Andres, Ketlina, and Old Providence--are under the sovereignty of Colombia, whose population is Spanish speaking and largely Catholic. It has been that way since the 1800s.

For a long time, the Raizal were left largely to their own devices. They were self-governed with a self-sustaining economy.

But in the 1950s, the Colombian Government decided to strengthen control over the islands by promoting tourism and mass migration from the mainland. The result is that San Andres, the largest of the islands, is extremely overpopulated. The Raizal have been reduced to minority status on that island. And the development for tourism has so seriously damaged the pristine environment that UNESCO tried to protect it by declaring it a biosphere reserve in 2000.

But the smaller islands of Old Providence, accessible only by ferry or small plane, and Ketlina, connected by a bridge, largely escaped the fate of San Andres. The population of both is almost entirely Raizal, and their communities have successfully resisted efforts to bring in big development projects or build military installations there until now.

The islands were hit very hard by Hurricane Iota last November. On Old Providence, hundreds of houses were damaged and hundreds more destroyed completely.

Colombian President Ivan Duque promised to rebuild in 100 days. It has now been 6 months. The next hurricane season is on the horizon, and reconstruction is nowhere near complete.

The delay is partly due to the government's failure to properly consult with those most affected. But what the government did do was allow the Colombian Navy to take advantage of the crisis and build a new dock, a project the community had previously rejected due to the risk of environmental damage.

The navy has installed its dock near a fishermen's co-op whose own dock was destroyed by Iota, cutting off its members' access. In response, fishermen whose livelihoods are at risk have been protesting for 62 days.

There is a profound difference of vision between the islanders and the mainlanders. The Raizal fear that if the government continues to ignore them, their way of life in Old Providence and Ketlina will be overtaken by the mainland population, as has happened in San Andres. That would be a major violation of the human rights of the Raizal people.

In 2004, when the U.N. Special Rapporteur on racism visited the archipelago, the Raizal communities complained of political discrimination and marginalization from the decisionmaking processes that affected their territory. They also described cultural domination by the mainland, for example, the exclusive use of Spanish as the language of instruction and pressure to convert to Catholicism to be able to advance economically.

More than 15 years later, the Colombian Government persists with many of the same practices that led the Raizal to lodge those human rights complaints.

It is time to change course. It is time to prioritize the human rights of the Raizal people. It is time for the government to recognize the Raizal as legitimate interlocutors and respect their right to protect their ancestral lands.

I urge the Duque government to accelerate reconstruction so that the people have adequate shelter and medical facilities as soon as possible, certainly before the next hurricane season.

I urge the government to stop importing labor from the mainland and, instead, employ local Raizal workers.

I urge the government to remove the navy's new dock, rebuild the co- op's dock instead, and end further militarization of the islands.

I urge a thorough review of any U.S. Government resources used for post-Iota reconstruction to ensure that they were expended in full compliance with requirements of prior consultation.

And I encourage the United Nations and the Inter-American human rights bodies to immediately review the situation of the Raizal people and issue new recommendations to the Colombian Government to ensure that their rights are fully protected going forward.

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