Talk of Independence in a Place Claimed by 2 Nations

[Harold F. Schiffman]

February 1, 2008
San Andres Journal

Talk of Independence in a Place Claimed by 2 Nations
By SIMON ROMERO

SAN ANDRES, Colombia Down the road from a neighborhood here called the
Hill, where reggae blares out of weathered houses and parishioners sing
hymns in English at the First Baptist Church, President Alvaro Uribe
recently inaugurated a hospital with a decidedly Colombian name: Amor de
Patria. That translates as Love of the Fatherland for the English-speaking
descendants of African slaves who inhabit this Caribbean archipelago, as
if they needed a sharp reminder that they must be loyal to distant Bogota.

But many Raizals, as the English speakers here are known, feel loyalty
neither to Colombia, a Bush administration ally, nor to Nicaragua, a
supporter of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Nicaragua has claimed San
Andres in a bitter territorial dispute, and while the two countries press
their cases, a nonviolent separatist movement is growing increasingly
vocal here.

This fight is taking place as if it were some abstract matter over
unpopulated atolls, said Enrique Pusey Bent, a director of the Archipelago
Movement for Ethnic Native Self-Determination, which symbolically declared
independence last June by replacing Colombias flags here.

More than distance separates the 35,000 Raizals from the rest of Colombia.
They speak an English-based Creole as well as English, listen to Jamaican
reggae and Trinidadian calypso, worship largely in Protestant churches and
consider as their brethren residents of nearby English-speaking enclaves
like Nicaraguas Mosquito Coast and Panamas Bocas del Toro.

A haven for English slaveholders and pirates since the 17th century, San
Andres Province  this island and others nearby with much smaller
populations  came under Colombias control after independence from Spain in
the 1820s. But the Raizals effectively managed their own affairs for
decades until Colombia reasserted its presence here about a century ago.

A policy of Colombianization ensued, supported by Franciscan monks sent
here to convert the Raizals and enforce the use of Spanish. Migrants from
the mainland were given free passage here. The islands became a duty-free
port in the 1950s, spurring the formation of a merchant class, consisting
largely of mainland Colombians.

Today, Spanish is the dominant language here, and the Raizals account for
just a third of the 100,000 residents.

Step into a shop or a court of law and its almost always the same: no
Raizals work there, said Jairo Rodrguez Davis, an independence advocate.
Its a subtle kind of apartheid, but more cruel than the colonialism
Colombia threw off from Spain.

The Raizals concerns are rarely acknowledged, though, in the barbs
exchanged by Nicaragua and Colombia. President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua
lashed out on Tuesday at naval patrols by Colombia around San Andres,
saying he would complain to the United Nations that they harass Nicaraguan
fishermen.

Colombia won a round in the dispute in December when the International
Court of Justice ruled that a 1928 treaty awarding it the archipelago was
valid.

But Nicaragua also celebrated the courts decision to allow its claim to
the waters around San Andres, rich in fish and, potentially, petroleum, to
move forward. Nicaragua contends that the United States pressured it
militarily to sign the 1928 treaty, making it void.

Faced with Nicaraguas claim, President Uribe sent more than 1,200 troops
to march here in July in a Colombian independence celebration. But Raizal
advocates say the military display was also meant to quell talk of
rebellion.

Colombian officials insist that the separatist movement remains small, and
that the Raizals have few reasons to seek independence. Gov. Pedro
Gallardo Forbes, a Raizal from a prominent political family with ties to
the mainland, agreed. I'm first of all an islander, but I'm also Colombian,
more than 100 percent, Mr. Gallardo said in an interview in soft-spoken
English.

Luis Guillermo Angel, the presidential counselor for San Andres, said
Raizals had representation in local government, enjoyed subsidized health
care and benefited from greater state spending per capita than residents
of any other part of Colombia. No Colombian has more privileges than a
Raizal, Mr. Angel said in an interview in Bogota.

Still, scholars who study the Raizals disagree with such assessments. The
presidential counselor for San Andres is a kind of modern viceroy who
arrogantly refuses to recognize the value of Raizal culture, said Jaime
Arocha, an anthropologist at the National University in Bogota. Why cant a
Raizal occupy that post?

Many Raizals say state spending here focuses on the needs of tourists,
like a recently completed beachfront walkway. A short drive away, past
mansions owned by mainlanders, is a large garbage dump with the unlikely
name Magic Garden where recently a dozen Raizals searched for scrap metal
and discarded food.

I don't see how Nicaragua or Colombia would give me more to eat, said
Janice Bent, 43, who scavenges through trash to feed her four children. If
I can survive doing this, I can survive under independence.

Not all Raizals are sanguine about breaking away. I don't like problems,
said Aldin Leon Robinson, 63, a retired house painter who lives on social
security payments of about $200 a month. I don't want to lose my pension.

Still, many Raizals welcome the dispute between Colombia and Nicaragua, if
only to focus attention on their area.

We live like an isolated island in the Caribbean, having to fly to Bogota
to visit our brethren a short hop away, said Remo Areiza Taylor, 36, a
lawyer. Colombia would be content to just let the world forget about us,
he said, adding, They hold the handle of the knife for now.

Jenny Carolina Gonzalez contributed reporting from Bogota, and Ivet Cruz
from Managua, Nicaragua.


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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/world/americas/01colombia.html?ref=world