Old Providence Oral History Project

Transcription

1 Interviewee: Josefina Huffington Interviewer: Leon Sultan Location of Interview: Miss Elma s Restaurant, Fresh Water Bay, Providence Island Interview Date: July 8, 2010 Interviewee Biography: Josefina was born on Providence in the section of Southwest Bay. She was raised there by her grandparents, then left the island to attend high school in mainland Colombia in the city of Barranquilla. Following high school she attend college in Bogota and complete training to become a nurse. She then worked for two years as a nurse in Bogota before returning permanently to Providence to live. She became very socially conscious and politically aware upon her return and has been a community activist and leader ever since. In the early 1990s, she was part of a group that blocked the construction of several large foreign owned hotels on Providence. She has two children and currently runs Miss Elma s restaurant in Fresh Water Bay. She continues to be active in the preservation of island culture and protection of incursions from the outside. She is also one of the activists leading the fight to stop the planned oil exploration outside of Providence. Interview Summary: In this 53 minute long interview Josefina discusses her early life and decision to relocate to Providence following her education and career as a nurse. She then explains the roots of her civic activism and talks about the fight in the early 1990s against a planned 400 room hotel, as well as a fight against a planned coast guard base on the island. Josefina explains how much of her activism is based upon laws set forth in the Colombian constitution to guarantee the rights of ethnic groups to a level of sovereignty over their land. Finally she discusses her hopes for the future of the island as well as the current plans to begin oil exploration. Interview Transcript: Time: 0:00 Leon Sultan: The subject of this interview is Ms. Josefina Huffington and today s date is July 8, This interview is being conducted at Miss Elma s restaurant in Fresh Water Bay on the island of Providencia as part of the Isla Providencia Oral History Project and will be published on the Isla Providencia Oral History Archive Website. I will now begin with the first question. Can you tell me what you remember most about when you were a child growing up on Providencia? Josefina Huffington: We were only then the owner of the island. The peace and tranquility, no music boxes, no noise, no cars, no moto bike, only horses was our transportation. And it was the best part of my life. Time: 1:01 LS: And you grew up in this area, Fresh Water Bay? JH: I was born in Southwest Bay. I lived in Southwest Bay with my grandparents, then after I went to high school on Barranquilla, then after that I went to college in Bogota. Time: 1:25

2 LS: What brought you back to the island after going to live in Colombia for education? JH: Living in Colombia was only for education. Afortunately, I did not lost my identity among the peoples. Every time I come home to vacation, I didn t want to return, but I had to return because the objective was finish preparation. Then after I finish, I work for two years and I return. Time: 2:01 LS: And what did you do when you were working for those two years? JH: I m a head nurse. And I worked my first year for practicing and additionally I worked a second year, and that was it. I think I had made even a mistake, just to take that profession because the reality health of Colombia is different than the health of this island. Time: 2:36 LS: In what way? JH: In all ways. The first thing I meet upon that wasn t common on this island; prostitution and abortion. I had several nervous broke downs from abortion in the hospitals and finally I took the decision that wasn t my objective for life, so I returned back home. Time: 3:10 LS: What were some of the biggest influences on you when you were growing up? Who or what do you think influenced you when you were young? JH: I think I didn t have influence from no side because I born with a strong character and personality. And I always do what I wanted, but in the terms of what I know was correct Time: 3:36 LS: Were you brought up in the church? JH: Yes. I was brought up in the Catholic church and when we were kid, everything was different from now. We had bible class, we had catechism, and I think was the best orientation that human being have to follow walking a road in life, to be straight and to be correct. Time: 4:13 LS: How did you first become active in civic issues, political and social on the island? JH: Well being from 40 years ago I remember what San Andres was. 40 years ago San Andres was just like how Providence is today and after I start coming back home on vacation, going back and forth, back and forth to Bogota, I start seeing how the people them were lost and losing the island little by little, little by little, little by little. And even in Bogota there was no option if you don t have no money. To live there, to eat, to sleep the only insurance you had was money. On this island it different. If you don t have money, you eat, if you don t have money, you sleep, and if you don t have money, you re still respected as a person. And that s what make we, the people of this island different from the rest of the whole entire planet. Here we are not a number, we are a human on the Earth first, and we are respected because we are a person and everybody have equal rights. If you have money, you have the same rights of the one that don t have money and that make a different, big different from the city. So from the moment I were living in the city, I knew that wasn t my space. My space is on this island, I m not prepared to live

3 nowhere else and I m not interested to go from here and live nowhere else. Because I m identified with my community, my territory and this is my home. And it cannot be changed for nothing else, not even for gold. Time: 6:33 LS: Can you tell me the story about when the Alcade of Providencia was trying to do some large developments on the island? JH: Yes I became a civic leader before that. LS: So was there an event, or? JH: They give out a lot of license construction that weren t legal. On this island we have an ordering plan. And the different elected major for the period of four years have to follow the development of the island according to the plan that was made by the local people of the island. And whenever they don t follow it and something is outside that not inside of the plan cannot be done. So we had a major that give out 17 licensed construction for mega project and we fight him and we fight the national government along with it, because we have special laws to protect this island Time: 7:45 LS: So who came up with the development plan for the island? JH: The community. LS: In what form? JH: The community decide that their plan was supposed to made by the community, not by the national government, because they don t know our system of living, neither our reality. So the young peoples, the old peoples, the grown peoples, everybody come together along with the local government, and formulate what Providence supposed to be. And that is written in the ordering plan. LS: The ordering plan? JH: Planning? LS: What does that plan say? Or some things in it? JH: You not supposed to build nothing that have more than have two floors. From zero to eight meters height. You re not supposed to build nothing in the sea, in the ocean. Then if you re not from here, if you even buy the whole island, you cannot build nothing. And the local government do not comply with it, so we have to denounce every time someone come by to construct something. We have to keep moving and keep working. So as it not to happen. So they come by and they buy license construction and do things out of order that is going against the will of the people on the island. And I am a leader of this community, I belonging to the civic movement, I m the president of the same one, so I gather up the people and let them know what is taking place and we just go to the law and stop it? Time: 10:05 LS: So who was this Alcalde, what was the name of this guy? JH: Alexander Henry Livingston. LS: How did you find out that he had these plans? I had heard that it was a secret, or? JH: They had it on secret, but it leak out. LS: How did it leak out?

4 JH: You know, this is a small town and small town always turn to be a big headache when things going wrong. There is no special one to say I m going to accuse you, but while you receive the paper with the stamp and the signature from the mayor of this, you know that something s wrong so you start investigation until you get the proof, then after the peoples them start to appear up with materials for construction and try to contract people, the commentary goes around the island in ten minutes. And I always be the first one get informed about what is taking place. Time: 11:20 LS: So you had confirmation that this was going to happen? JH: Sure. LS: What was his plan? JH: Outsiders that not belonging to the island and could not construct here develop 17 big hotels, with 440 rooms on one spot, and we are talking about sustainable development. And that cannot be sustainable development in this island because not even in the section we have 440 peoples! So we ca not permit it on one little space, 440 rooms. And 440 rooms can represent you 1200 peoples. And that is not sustainable development, we don t have sufficient water 24 hours, we have sewage problem, al the public services are deficient. And if it is not sufficient for the local people, it cannot be sufficient for people that come outside, because that mean that it is going to tear down our level of life. Time: 12:45 LS: So when you had confirmation that this was happening, what was your plan of action, or what did you do first? JH: We bring down the defensoria nacional for human rights from Bogota, and we make a big audiencia publica. And they listen to us on our exposition and here all the people says we don t want it. And the Colombian constitution say majority is who rule, the voice of the community is priority. Time: 13:25 LS: Did you have any opposition form other people on the island during this time and can you tell me about that? JH: Whenever the people them are conscious and they go against you they mean know it. And we had representative from over the whole island in the different sections from all the different organization that not belonging to the government, and also ecological organization, everybody was present and everybody say no. Time: 14:02 LS: So after you had all of these presentations and were showing the opposition, did the government, were they still trying to carry out this plan? JH: They couldn t. After the community said no, the community s voice supposed to be respected because we are the directors of our own destiny. The major that is elected to represent us have to govern with the will of the community, not against the will of the community. LS: So what happened to the this man, Livingston? JH: Well he went to jail after his administration. LS: What did he go to jail for? JH: For all the different bad actions that he commit against his community.

5 Time: 15:00 LS: Were you ever threatened? And if so, how? During this time? JH: Written where? LS: Threatened like, amenanzas? JH: Oh yes, I ve been threatened all the time, but I m not scared of that, no. I am still threatened. But that don t worry me, because if you afraid to dead you don t have a right to live, and you was born to dead, and you only can dead one time so I m not afraid of it. And when you are afraid you can t live. You have to be hiding, and I m going to hide from no one because I haven t done nothing wrong. Time: 15:45 LS: During this time specifically, what were they doing to get you to try to stop the campaign? JH: Well they always call me by the telephone in my living house. And all I did, I took out the line I didn t want anymore telephone, because I didn t want to be disturbed. Not because I m afraid. But when they call me, they don t call me to tell me nothing new, they call me to tell me I m going to kill you, I don t care where you are, I m going to find you. Stuff like that, but they still keep repeating. Sometimes during the day I m here and someone ring the telephone and when I go to answer that s what I receive, the conversation that I received, but I m not scared because I get used to it. And if I get scared I m not going to be able to continue to work for the community. I m more willing to die standing, but not to live kneeling. The liberation of slaves finished for more than 160 years ago. We were slaves. And we already payed a very very terrible price just to be here. So I m not going to permit no one to let me be scared to continue be here. And I think that maybe the day that I dead, I go walk to the cemetery, because I m not afraid. Time: 17:30 LS: So was it? Just the phone calls, or? JF: No, people used to call my mother also and tell her that she was to prepare a shovel to come pick me up off the road, stuff like that. But nobody ever didn t come out in front of me and say I m going to kill you. They don t have the sufficient balls to show up and say I m going to kill you. They always doing it by telephone. Time: 18:00 LS: So who else worked with you during this time? Was there any other people? JH: Sure there s Raul Howard, Jennifer Archbold, it s a lot of us in the group. Time: 18:15 LS: So this one was a successful fight. What lessons did you learn from that fight that you had? JH: I think the lesson that I learned was to know that we have a treasure that other people want to have. And we have to keep fighting to keep it for the future generations. Because if it wasn t important, so many people wouldn t be interested to having piece of this island. And we fighting not to let it go. And that s what I tell you. I think this is the only place on the planet that you can live the way you live. But we are not able to share it with everyone that come by. We appreciate everyone visit. But whoever come in have to go back out. And their footprints on the sand shall be the only testimony of their visit on Old Providence.

6 Time:19:38 LS: During that experience, fighting against the plan, what do you think was the biggest challenge, the most difficult part to achieving what you wanted to achieve. JH:I think the most difficult part of the struggling of the fight was to heave down 17 megaprojects in one year (laughs). Because some of the people that were owners of this project was from the narco-traffic of Colombia. And whenever you go to fight these people you know that you can get killed! But for them it s not even easy to come in here and kill someone. We only have two entrance; air and water. And anyone goes out from here someone see them always. Anyone come in everybody see them. And I m still alive. After 32 years fighting. Time: 20:56 LS: Since that experience have there been any other struggles that were similar? JH: Yes with the Colombian Army LS: Can you tell us about that? JH: The Colombian army had a disfrase set up that they was going to build a coast guard base. But the Coast Guard base wasn t a coast guard base. It was a mega-project hotel for the peoples of the army that wanted to come and rest in Providence. Time: 21:30 LS: Where was this project going to be? JH: In Old Town, a place that they call Point. And they didn t even have no land or anything down there, that mean they were going to expropriate the owner of the land to put their project. And we told the President of Colombia came here then, that was Samper, Ernesto Samper Pisan, and we let him know that we wasn t going to permit it, not even over our dead bodies. Because whenever anyone from the national government or the army or anywhere that they come from wanted to have a vacation and stay or sleep in Providence, we have some hotels to sell them, but they re not going to build no type of project here. And that was something that was going to incentivate prostitution in the community, because anywhere the military have something they bring over a bunch of soldiers. And these soldiers don t bring over no wife, so they use the daughter of the community to serve their sexual necessity and leaving their bastard behind here after, that we have to turn back and maintain. And that is what we call creating social impact on the people of the island. And they already done it in San Andres, everything that they holler, they try to do here. But we don t allow it, because San Andres is our experience, an example. Time: 23:30 LS: What other social impacts have you seen in San Andres that you are trying to prevent here? JH: Today after the Raizal were the owner of the island they are minority. They are discriminated, they lost their language, they lost their territory. Here we are still the owner of the land. Here we still have an identity. Here we still have our culture, our language, our food, our territory. San Andres lost everything. The government, Colombian government had program for that to happen, and they put it through. But Providence had been disobedient with their program, so as not to allow them to put it through. Time: 24:24

7 LS: Why do you think it s different in Providence versus San Andres? Where Providence is more successful to resist the program of the Colombian government? JH: The 90% of the people on this island, we are Raizal. The 90% of this people on the island are owner of their house, of their location where they are. The 90% of this people on the island still keep their culture, still talk their language. And we keep our identity and we are very jealous with what we have. The difference in San Andres, you don t see islanders. You see Colombians, you see Turks, you see all nation of the world, and everyone that come by in San Andres is owner of the economy of the island, not the islanders. They have them in the back, dying for hungry. But here we are in the front, no on is in the back. And we already know the strategy that the Colombian government had used to colonize San Andres. Today San Andres is only a colony of Colombia. Time: 26:00 LS: So what is their strategy? JH: The language, education, the economical development that they have down there. The took away everything from the islanders. But here we are the owner of the economy, and they try to keep us down but we survive. The block us off for more than six years, and we still survive. LS: What is the six years that you re talking about? JH: We live off tourism. They leave you without airline, without transportation, without a lot of things, but we still survive. There was no tourist coming by, and that was a strategy for the people them to start selling their hotels, selling their land, but nobody sell nothing. LS: When was this? JH: From 1998 to LS: They stop the? JH: They don t stop it but the peoples we know how to scratch the Earth and live. LS: But the tourism was less during this time? JH: Tourism was less. But here we know to survive without money. The only thing we need money for on this island is to pay our bills. Electricity for example. And some way or the other you get it. We are not going to dead for food because we have the ocean here. And we have also on the land product that we eat; the crabs, that is part of the economy of the island also. And that is the difference from San Andres. The overpopulation that they have down there didn t left nothing on the land for the peoples there. But we still have our own environmental sources, so as not to dead for hunger. Time:28:29 LS: So they had the thing with the 17 mega projects, and then you had the thing with Samper, trying to build the hotel for the army, have there been any other fights? JH: The had the disfase as a base de guarda costa, it had too many rooms and a well developed architectonic building to be a base de guarda costa. LS: When was that? JH: 1994, I think it was. LS: Since then have there been any other big fights that you ve been a part of. JH: We re in a big fight right now. LS: Can you tell me about that? JH: Deep Blue. You could go round there and have a look for yourself and after you come back you give me your opinion and then we talk about it.

8 LS: Deep Blue is? JH: Maracaibo. What we are not allowed to do, strangers come in and do it. And right now we are in a fight against Deep Blue, a big big cement building that is prohibited here. Theres also start building a restaurant on the sea edge, it s not allowed. There s no beach, it s something else, but I prefer that you go look at it and after you go look at it, then we talk. Time: 30:25 LS: Looking back at your civic activism, what principals would you say you were fighting for? JH: Territory, culture, language and the space to leave for the future generation to let they can find some quality of living here. Time: 30:59 LS: What do you think your biggest accomplishment is in terms of your civic activism? JH: Accomplishment? LS: You re biggest success? JH: My biggest what? LS: Success. Su mejor exito. JH: Well I think we never lost a fight and everything that we have done was well done. And we always triumph with what we fight for, because it s not a personal fight, it s a collective fight. Defending the space of the community for the future generation. And in the same terms of the law, we have to continue. We have the covenant 169. LS: Can you explain that? JH: The covenant 169 is a treaty that Colombia signed to respect ethnical groups, and we are an ethnical groups. We are recognized by the Colombian constitution in the article 310 as a ethnical groups that they call Raizales, and for you to be belonging to a ethnical groups you have to have language, territory and culture. And we have both of them, and we have more than three stuff that identify us as an ethnical groups. We came here from 660 years ago and that is what give us the right to keep being who we are, not what other stranger want us to be as a national group. Time:32:53 LS: If you could give advice to the young people on the island today about being engaged or being active, doing civic work like you have done, what advice would you give people, the young people? JH: Well I think we have win a battle, but not the war. We are getting old and the young people are taught to continue, stand fighting and never surrender if they want to survive as an ethnical group, with the privilege and rights that the Colombian constitution give us and do not comply with and the different international treaties that this country signed to respect small ethnical groups. Time:33:56 LS: What are the most positive changes that you have seen on Providencia during your lifetime? JH: The Biosphere Reserve. It was a very very very positive thing for us. The declaration from the UNESCO of the biosphere reserve. Converting us in people that s supposed to be respected for our environmental space that we have. We don t have contamination, it s a lot of stuff that is here that make we rich. Not economical riches, but we have what a lot of different nation in the world would like to have. And that s why a lot of people come here. And when they come here

9 they don t want to leave, they want to stay, and that is the reason why we can t let them stay here, because the space will not be sufficient for our children, grand children, great grand children. People got to be conscious and start understanding that the only thing want is to survive. And the only thing that we ask for is for them to let us continue living in peace. That s the only thing we want, because whenever new people come here and try to stay they are invading our space that we had fight so hard to be protecting. And every space that we lost is an opportunity that we are losing for the future generation. I already done lived, I don t care, I m 56 years old. I passed the best time of my life on this island and believe me, I ve enjoyed it. So if I dead tomorrow, it aren t going to be me worried about it. But if I am going to dead tonight, I m going to worry because it s a lot of things that I know that is not secure. LS: Like what? JH: The local government. They are the first ones who violate our human rights. LS: Like what? JH: Giving out license construction illegal to people from outside that never lives here before. And if we have to have two or three girl in every different administration in 30 years now we are going to have over population and problems. Because they don t come and live alone, they bring their bad custom. The first thing, they have to build a house like how it look in the city. They don t respect our architecture building. Our system of building, they don t respect it. Our system of development they don t respect it. Our language, they don t respect it. They don t respect nothing for us, they come and try to impose their self. And whenever they look at an islander, they look at them as a citizen of third class. So the more of these people come inside here, the more risk we are running for our children and grand children. Time: 38:13 LS: What are your hopes for the future of this island? JH: Oh my god. Independent republic. That s my hopes. LS: For Providencia? Or for Providencia and San Andres? JH: For Providencia and San Andres. LS: Together. JH: Together. Independent to take our own decision, our self determination, and maybe I be dead and gone, but I know it s going to happen and a small ant will crawl to my grave and tell me about it. LS: So you see your hope for the future is no relationship with Colombia? JH: No I didn t say that. LS: Can you explain? JH: Self determination, our autonomy, our independency. LS: So still part of Colombia, but with full autonomy? JH: I prefer not to answer you that question (laughs). But I know it s going to happen and it s going to be something else. Time: 39:40 LS: Can you tell me about the development of Freshwater Bay as the tourist center of the island? It s interesting that most of the facilities are located in this JH: No you have hotel around the whole land. You have Southwest Bay, you have a hotel in Town also. The tourism started here in this section. LS: How did it start?

10 JH: But it s not the only touristical center, because we have Southwest Bay on the next beach that is also a touristical center. You have Hotel Miss Mary, you have Hotel Sirius, you have Hotel Southwest Bay, you have some Posadas also. Tourism was started in this section by my mother. In the same place. What is here, I inherited from my mother. And this was the spot where tourism started in Providence, but it didn t start in the hotel. It start with camping in this area. LS: When was that? JH: 1976, 1977, 1978, In the seventies decade. LS: How did people get here? JH: By boat. The boats them that used to come every ten days, every eight days to bring the food stuff from different places. They always arrive first to San Andres and people the hippies from Canada and from United States, they were the first that came over to this island. LS: When did Colombians start coming here? JH: In the 80s. 88, 89 more or less. Time:41:44 LS: So, what negative changes have you observed, or what is maybe the biggest negative change that you have observed in your lifetime on this island? JH: These license that they give out to people that didn t belonging to the island that come in here and buy space and they are trying to replace the native people on the island in their activities. Because they come here and they build a vacation house and then they end up renting these houses hotel also. So they are stealing the economy from the local people. That s very negative. Time: 42:28 LS: Have you heard about the plans to drill oil near Providence and if so, what do you think of this? JH: I think the Machiavellic mind that had conceived something like this, they are some son of a bitches, because we survive from the sea. Our food is outside there, we survive from tourism. Oil run tourism, oil don t attract tourism. And we have the tercera barrera arecifal most large in the whole entire world. And that is what protect the island. And if they go to drill oil outside there and we have oil in the ocean that s the end of us. From the moment the environmental world that is in bottom of the sea, that is something else, that protect the island is touched by oil, it s going to dead, and that is the end of us. But being these people are looking money, they are not interested in the people that live on the land. They are interested in the riches that the island can produce for them. That s my concept about it. And I don t want to live to see it, because really I know that day I m going to get killed because I m going out there and I m going to fight. And we are going together, and we are going out there and fight! Against it. Providence without oil. It s Old Providence, not Oil Providence (laughs). Time:44:35 LS: Do you think that the history of the island has affected the way that people here see the world, in terms of I don t know, staying together or how they view the land, these kind of things? How you said on the island people view each other as equals, these kind of things? JH: Our history is different from the Colombian history. We have our own history. We came from pirate, from slave and this is what I tell you, we already pay a price to be here and that must be respect. It s an ancestral territory. We know what is our roots, we know what is our item of

11 living, what we perceive for the future, and we have our self identified with each thing. And the island have to continue sustainable development in according to our system of living, nothing that is going too fast cannot be sustainable. We grow slow, and we have to continue slow, not too fast. Because whenever you walk inside here too fast, you going to develop the island, you understand me? You going against the nature of the island. Some of the people have to dead and leave the space for who is coming. That s our philosophy. When you have seven old people dead, you can have seven new born, you understand me? That is sustainable development, but a bunch of people s coming in here, whenever five people dead, you have ten people born. That is what make on unlevel base, leaving no insurance for us and the people from outside having kid more faster than the people from here, and that make it very dangerous. And the people from outside impose their custom here and that s also dangerous. It s not good to be talking Spanish more than one hour for the day. It s not good to be hearing Spanish inside of an islander s home. I don t know if you understand what I mean. We have a level and we have to keep our level if we want to survive in the culture that we are belongs to. Time:47:56 LS: Have you, or is anybody doing anything about doing more to teach the language and to reinforce English at the school. JH: At the Baptist School for example they teach a lot of English. In the school you only listen to the teachers in Spanish, the kids don t speak Spanish in the school either, they only listen in Spanish. And that s a big advantage, because if you have 25 kids in a classroom, you only find two inside there that belongs to outside and only the teacher talking Spanish, the kids them do not talk amongst their self in Spanish. And that s the reason why the language here has been preserved. But if you go to San Andres and you just have to stand by the school yard and you don t hear the kids them speaking English and you don t hear the teacher speaking English, you only hearing Spanish 24 hours of the day. If you go to a bank you hear Spanish, If you go to a hotel you only hear Spanish, and you don t see no islanders in the social jobs them. In San Andres the islanders them are working in the mess room in the areas them that they don t have contact with peoples. But here we are the owners of the business. Time: 49:44 LS: Last time you told me a good story about when you met President Uribe. Can you me that again, I like the story. JH: He told me that the time was up to talk and I let him know my time don t up, I came here not to listen to you, I came here to talk in behalf of the community supporting the community and I m sorry I don t finish yet, and I just continue. And I talk to him until I finish, and they give me three minutes just to talk and I talk 40 minutes. LS: Was this here on the island? JH: The 10 th of May 2005, I think it was. It was a great day. I went there to exact him, an airplane for Providence, that was Sataena. And he brought over the plane and he went and he leave the plane. It s still here. And he gone to shut me up and I let him know I m not going to shut up, I m going to talk until I finish. And I talk until I finish, I talk for 40 long minutes. LS: Did you see him after that? JH: Yeah. LS: And what did he say?

12 JH: When he get off the plane he was looking all around and asking; where is Josefina because he send the Major just to make me a phone call in one week three different occasions, he let me know that he wanted to see me at the airport because he was coming to say goodbye. And I went there and he call all the journalists them and asked them to take a picture with me. And to publish it and he wanted to leave it for history and posterity. I have one of the pictures, after I bring it and show you. Time: 51:51 LS: What do you think of the Colombian government now? The national politics? Do you think they re going to support Providencia s right to keep the oil off, or are you worried? JH: Where do you think the approval of exploring oil come from? It come from the government and we don t trust the government, that s why we are protesting and we are saying no. Because the government have what we call in Spanish, their compromiso that is already signed. Economically that don t represent we nothing, and we are not interested in the economical part either, we don t want it. The only that we want is to continue live here in peace as how we have been doing it for more than 650 years ago. Oil is going to destroy us and we don t want to be destroyed. And the government is pushing it and we are trying to stop it. Because the Colombian constitution law says; the general interest is priority and we are general interest. The government is a couple of people inside there with personal interest and this oil exploration over the whole entire world it s a mafia worse than the narco trafficking. So we hope it s not going to overcome us. What is your concept about it? Time: 53:53 LS: I ll tell you after we turn off the recording. So I ve asked you a lot of questions, you ve talked about a lot of things. Is there anything that I didn t ask that you want to add at the end of the interview? Any last message? JH: We ask the Colombian government for some respect as an ethnical group and to let us continue living in peace, as how we have been doing it from 650 years ago. They already finish away with San Andres. They already did all the damage that they wanted to San Andres, please let Providence float. Nothing else. Time: 54:43 >>>>>>>>>>>End of Interview Transcript<<<<<<<<<<<