James G. Muhammad writes in the Final Call about a recent talk given by Carlos Rosero, founding member of Procesco de Comunidades Negras (PCN, or Black Communities Process). 

"Speaking through various translators, Mr. Rosero said paramilitaries have identified Afro Colombian activists as 'defenders of the guerillas' and thus bona fide military targets. The crimes of the activists, paramilitaries say, are their refusal to allow multi-national corporations to develop the land and the Afro Colombians' alleged collaboration with guerillas who need them to grow coca.

" 'There is a complex tie between the anti-drug and anti-guerilla wars,' Mr. Rosero said. 'The most threatened are the leaders of the Black movements. They are people who are very firm in their conviction that they will not leave the land.'

"The activist said Afro Colombians won title to vast stretches of land as a form of reparations for slavery in Colombia that ended in 1851. The vast mineral wealth under the land has moved President Alvaro Uribe to violate those rights, Mr. Rosero said."