Peasant Farmers call on Government to Negotiate in Good Faith
Agricultural sector negotiators have condemned the government’s lack of action during talks held between the two sides in order to resolve the agrarian crisis in Colombia.
On September 19 the Colombian government agreed to sit down and negotiate with the MIA, the national peasant roundtable that was set up to represent the agricultural sector during the recent national strike. These negotiations were meant to create agreement based on a list of measures issued by the agricultural organisations as preliminary measures through which the crisis in agriculture could be addressed. However, despite ongoing meetings since September, meetings that have been held across the country, in Bogota, Popayan, Villavicencio, Puerto Asis, Florencia and Medellin; no agreement has been forthcoming, leading to a growing sense of frustration.