Movimiento Armado Quintin Lame
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The Quintin Lame Armed Movement ( es, link=yes, Movimiento Armado Quintin Lame, MAQL) was an indigenous guerrilla group active from 1984 to May 1991 as the participant in the Colombian Armed Conflict.


General info

Quintin Lame Armed Movement (Movimiento Armado Quintin Lame, MAQL) was founded in 1984 as an indigenous guerrilla movement that operated in the department of Cauca, a province in south central
Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
that is 40 percent indigenous and characterized by large landholdings, unequal land tenure, and conflict between indigenous reservations and landowners. The Quintin Lame was initially organized as a movement to extend indigenous lands through land invasions and to defend indigenous communities from hostile attacks from landowners, the military, government officials, and other guerrilla movements. The group negotiated with the
Gaviria Gaviria is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Alejandro Gaviria Uribe (born 1966), Colombian economist and politician *Alfonso Araújo Gaviria (1902–1961), Colombian lawyer and diplomat * Aníbal Gaviria Correa (born 1966), Col ...
administration from August 1990 to May 1991, leading to its demobilisation and simultaneous participation in the Constituent Assembly. Their presence in the Assembly contributed to the fact that indigenous issues were prominently addressed, and major concessions and rights were incorporated into the Constitution of 1991.


History

In 1974 in the south of Colombia, an indigenous peasant group known as
Quintín Lame Manuel Quintín Lame Chantre (1880–1967) was a Colombian indigenous rebel from the early 20th century who tried to form an independent indigenous republic. He was born in El Borbollón, Cauca, son of Mariano Lame, of Paez origin, and Dolo ...
(CQL) emerged. This group, which received military training from the Marxist–Leninist Communist Party (PC-ML), was formed after the killing of regional indigenous leaders in Cauca by repressive forces of the state and large landowners. The CQL was thus constituted as a military selfdefense group. Thanks to an organization created years earlier by the indigenous leader Manuel Quintín Lame (1880–1967), the group had the support of many indigenous communities in the region of the Valle del Cauca, Huila, Tolima, and parts of the departments of
Meta Meta (from the Greek μετά, '' meta'', meaning "after" or "beyond") is a prefix meaning "more comprehensive" or "transcending". In modern nomenclature, ''meta''- can also serve as a prefix meaning self-referential, as a field of study or ende ...
and
Caquetá Department Caquetá Department () is a department of Colombia. Located in the Amazonas region, Caquetá borders with the departments of Cauca and Huila to the west, the department of Meta to the north, the department of Guaviare to the northeast, the d ...
. The founders of the Quintín Lame armed group distinguished themselves from other armed groups of the time by their multicultural approach. The group included
mestizo (; ; fem. ) is a term used for racial classification to refer to a person of mixed Ethnic groups in Europe, European and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous American ancestry. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also r ...
s such as Gustavo Mejía, Pedro León Rodríguez, and Edgar Londoño; foreigners such as the Hungarian Pablo Tattay, Gabriel Soler from Argentina, and Teresa Tomish from Chile; and indigenous people from different ethnic communities in the south of the country. Until the early 1980s the CQL acted in self-defense of traditional territories and only used arms when territorial and political autonomy was threatened. The group's first military offensive took place in 1984 with an assault on
Castilla Castile, Castille or Castilla may refer to: Places Spain *Castile (historical region), a vaguely defined historical region of Spain covering most of Castile and León, all of the Community of Madrid and most of Castilla–La Mancha *Kingdom of ...
, a small town in the Cauca department, and the takeover of the village of Santander de Quilichao. The Quintin Lame were involved in the
Simón Bolívar Guerrilla Coordinating Board The Simón Bolívar Guerrilla Coordinating Board ( es, Coordinadora Guerrillera Simón Bolívar or CGSB) was an umbrella group of guerrilla organizations in Colombia from 1987 to the early 1990s. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the 1 ...


Demobilisation

During May 1991, following negotiation with the government, the Quintin Lame Armed Movement leadership decided to enter into the process of demobilisation, during which some 130 fighters of that guerrilla group surrendered their weapons, in exchange for government's promise of giving group one vote in the Assembly and a grant to pay each of its fighters $128 a month during a six-month period of adjustment to civilian life, as well as a promise of government investment to develop their communities. The treaty between Quintin Lame and government was signed by Jesus Antonio Bejarano, a government negotiator, at an Indian guerrilla camp near the southern town of Caldono.Richard Bourdreaux, Colombia Moves a Step Closer to Peace, Los Angeles Times, May 28, 1991, http://articles.latimes.com/1991-05-28/news/mn-2568_1_political-party


Notes

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Further reading

*Cynthia Arnson, Comparative peace processes in Latin America, Stanford University Press, 1999 *Kay B. Warren, Jean Elizabeth Jackson, Indigenous movements, self-representation, and the state in Latin America, University of Texas Press, 2002 Colombian guerrilla movements Colombian conflict Left-wing militant groups