[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 82 (Wednesday, May 12, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H2200-H2201]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        PROTECT THE RAIZAL PEOPLE OF THE SAN ANDRES ARCHIPELAGO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) for 5 minutes.
  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.

                              {time}  1015

  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.

[[Page H2201]]

  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.

                          ____________________