The protest was a part of a Global Mobilisation for Mother Earth called on the anniversary of Columbus landing on Abya Yala (the Americas), 517 years ago by the Coordinadora Andina de Organizaciones Indigenas (CAOI). In London the action supporting the 'Minga'- the collective mobilisation of people from along the Andes - Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru - marching together in their refusal to accept the destruction of their land was organised by the Coordinadora Latino-Americana which unites a number of Latin American solidarity groups here. It was in particular directed against the European Union's Free Trade agreements with Latin American countries which will allow multinational companies to exploit resources on favourable terms, with deals by Colombia and Peru that will destroy the ancestral territorial rights of indigenous peoples and also isolate the more progressive governments in the area, but at each of the embassies it called at there were also specific demands related to the situation in each country.

The UK, through former EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and his replacement Cathy Ashton, have played a leading role in these agreements. The UK government, while allowing Vestas producing wind turbines to close and failing to support other green manufacturing in areas such as solar energy, is diverting large amounts of funding meant for renewable energy projects to the production of agro-fuels which worsen global warming and threaten food security around the world. Land in Latin America - as elsewhere in the South - is being taken over by multinationals for their production, displacing the inhabitants, and introducing monoculture that destroys biodiversity and rapidly exhausts the soil.

The protest started with around 30 people at the Colombian embassy, where they called for an end to human rights violations by state agents and the violent repression of peaceful protest, as well as a halt on projects with high environmental impact. They called for the state to respect the rights of the indigenous peoples and to put them and the land first over economic interests, and in particular for the government to stop promoting the cultivation of African palm for bio-fuel and to produce crops to feed the Colombian people. A letter was delivered to the embassy.

The protest then moved on to the Peruvian Embassy, where we listened to a clear exposition of the link between opposition to agro-fuels and the indigenous struggles in Peru by eco-socialist Derek Wall of Green Left, before another letter was read and delivered to the embassy.

By the time the protest had reached the Spanish embassy it had roughly doubled in size and more were coming to join it. At this point I left to go to a protest against Agro-fuels at the Department for Energy and Climate Change, which the other protesters would join later, after another protest outside the Foreign Office in Whitehall.

More pictures on Demotix:
 http://www.demotix.com/news/london-mobilisation-mother-earth
and shortly on My London Diary:
 http://mylondondiary.co.uk/2009/10/oct.htm