SANTANDER DE QUILICHAO, Colombia - More than 35,000 Colombian Indians marched in a violence-wracked region Tuesday to protest attacks against Indians and a free-trade pact pursued by the United States — forming a column that coiled over the rolling, green countryside.Buen trabajo... esto es muy necesario para su sobrevivencia, y para la sobrevivencia de su democracia. Posted by Kyer at September 16, 2004 05:33 PMColombia's war, now in its 40th year, pits the military and a handful of outlawed right-wing paramilitary groups against two leftist rebel armies. Civilians, including the nation's 800,000 Indians who live in the Andes Mountains and jungles, are often caught in the middle, and pay a price in blood.
Some 3,500 people, most of them civilians, are killed every year. Thousands more are kidnapped. The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia says 57 Indians have been killed and 4,500 forced from their homes in the conflict this year.
Andrade said more than 40,000 Indians were participating in the march, saying he believed it was the largest gathering of Colombia's indigenous people in the country's history. Police put the number of marchers Tuesday at 35,000.
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