David Janna, Andres Reina, Christopher Daniell January 19/2010 Politics in La Guajira Other than a governor and 15 mayors there isn’t any other type of presence from politics in La Guajira. This place consists of 681.575 people which 45% represents the Wayuu culture. Guajira is located in Colombia and it works via a self local government. The Wayuu tribe is the supreme power in this place. Evidence supporting this is a really high rate of smuggling or contraband. This makes clear the idea of the Guajira being a place with not that much presence from the government. The Colombian president Alvaro Uribe doesn’t go more than twice a year to this part of the country. President Uribe has never won a presidential election in La Guajira, still most of the Wayuu people support him and 45 % of the Guajiran population is Wayuu. The Colombian government is owner of great things from here, for example the salt mines which in fact produce most of the salt consumed around the entire country is taken from this region of Colombia. The Colombian government in the year 2000 gave a few acres of the salt mines to native people so that they could do substation farming. There is another natural resourceful industry that the Guajirans and Colmbians in general is the Cerrejon; here coal is extracted from the land and exported nationally and internationally. We had the wonderful opportunity to be able to experience this naturally stable and built location but aside from this it has become a profit industry, people from all over the world come to see this immense coal mine. This company issues over 5.1 million dollars per major project. Every day 5,500 tons of coal is extracted per hour, taking that these people work from 6 in the morning to around 8 in the afternoon that estimates to around 82,500 tons of coal each day. We could keep going with these great and abnormal statistics but unfortunately 15% is given to us Colombians. The other 85 % is for the majors of the company which are a group of South African and British showman. This prolific industry will come into Colombian hands in the year 2040 by then the coal would be completely exploited and nothing will be left for us. This happened because in the beginning of this Cerrejon major project; there wasn’t enough resources economically or material wise, so we had to obtain international aid. Another very interesting topic and fact that we learned while in our excursion in the Guajira was that the “Guerilla” (Gorilla Soldiers) had much interference with these Guajiros and in turn with the Wayuu population. We found out that there was once en epoch that the Wayuu had to arm themselves of weapons and fight off the Guerilla because they were trying to exploit them for their natural resources, labor, and land. Keep in mind that all this took place before Alvaro Uribe rose to his presidency. Once in power, he issued a sort of doctrine to take those bandit soldiers out of that region. With this executed, the Guajiros economy rose dramatically, so did the rest of the country. This also helped and lead further to the establishment of the Guajiros government because they didn’t have to worry about the Gorillas. A noteworthy fact that we learned while down in the Guajira was the way they handle and negotiate their disputes, mourning rituals, and problems. Instead of consoling another person with money and other goods after committing a crime, these Wayuu people follow a distinct law which is give “chivos” or a type of goat. For example, if a mans wife is killed by another man, that man will go to his shaman and ask for guidance and will ask the shaman to supply him with one of two answers, either kill the other man, revenge, or ask for a reimbursement of 175 “chivos” and the other man will accept the consequence, over time his family will have to pay that compensation.
January 19/2010
Politics in La Guajira
Other than a governor and 15 mayors there isn’t any other type of presence from politics in La Guajira. This place consists of 681.575 people which 45% represents the Wayuu culture. Guajira is located in Colombia and it works via a self local government. The Wayuu tribe is the supreme power in this place. Evidence supporting this is a really high rate of smuggling or contraband. This makes clear the idea of the Guajira being a place with not that much presence from the government. The Colombian president Alvaro Uribe doesn’t go more than twice a year to this part of the country. President Uribe has never won a presidential election in La Guajira, still most of the Wayuu people support him and 45 % of the Guajiran population is Wayuu. The Colombian government is owner of great things from here, for example the salt mines which in fact produce most of the salt consumed around the entire country is taken from this region of Colombia. The Colombian government in the year 2000 gave a few acres of the salt mines to native people so that they could do substation farming. There is another natural resourceful industry that the Guajirans and Colmbians in general is the Cerrejon; here coal is extracted from the land and exported nationally and internationally. We had the wonderful opportunity to be able to experience this naturally stable and built location but aside from this it has become a profit industry, people from all over the world come to see this immense coal mine. This company issues over 5.1 million dollars per major project. Every day 5,500 tons of coal is extracted per hour, taking that these people work from 6 in the morning to around 8 in the afternoon that estimates to around 82,500 tons of coal each day. We could keep going with these great and abnormal statistics but unfortunately 15% is given to us Colombians. The other 85 % is for the majors of the company which are a group of South African and British showman. This prolific industry will come into Colombian hands in the year 2040 by then the coal would be completely exploited and nothing will be left for us. This happened because in the beginning of this Cerrejon major project; there wasn’t enough resources economically or material wise, so we had to obtain international aid.
Another very interesting topic and fact that we learned while in our excursion in the Guajira was that the “Guerilla” (Gorilla Soldiers) had much interference with these Guajiros and in turn with the Wayuu population. We found out that there was once en epoch that the Wayuu had to arm themselves of weapons and fight off the Guerilla because they were trying to exploit them for their natural resources, labor, and land. Keep in mind that all this took place before Alvaro Uribe rose to his presidency. Once in power, he issued a sort of doctrine to take those bandit soldiers out of that region. With this executed, the Guajiros economy rose dramatically, so did the rest of the country. This also helped and lead further to the establishment of the Guajiros government because they didn’t have to worry about the Gorillas. A noteworthy fact that we learned while down in the Guajira was the way they handle and negotiate their disputes, mourning rituals, and problems. Instead of consoling another person with money and other goods after committing a crime, these Wayuu people follow a distinct law which is give “chivos” or a type of goat. For example, if a mans wife is killed by another man, that man will go to his shaman and ask for guidance and will ask the shaman to supply him with one of two answers, either kill the other man, revenge, or ask for a reimbursement of 175 “chivos” and the other man will accept the consequence, over time his family will have to pay that compensation.