Beginning on the 15th May 2006 more than fifteen thousand representatives of campesino, indigenous and black community groups from across the South West of Colombia began arriving at the Indigenous Reserve of 'La Maria' in the department of Cauca, South West Colombia.  They were there to protest the effects of the Free Trade Agreement signed between Colombia and the United States and to criticise the lack of progress on national and regional agreements to expand land rights to indigenous and black communities in the region.