THE fight to save London’s only Latin Market, and the Wards Corner building in Haringey which houses it, has been long and arduous. 

Put under threat by redevelopment, we, the traders, have campaigned publicly and lobbied the council, the development company Grainger and Transport for London. 

TfL is the owner of most of the land, which is above Seven Sisters Tube station, but under the development agreement it was to be handed over to Grainger to build private flats. Through our struggle we forced Grainger to give legal guarantees on the future of the market.

When Grainger pulled out of the project earlier this year, unable, among other things, to bear the costs of their commitments to the market, this left TfL in control of the market and most of the land. 

But TfL, whose focus is running the capital’s transport system, does not wish to continue administering the market or to develop the site long term.

For me and many of the traders, this is the perfect opportunity for the council to deliver on its community wealth building commitments and take over the project on behalf of the community.

Our vision is for a market where all remain welcome. A market and a building that serves the community and is not simply for economic activity, but for social and cultural activity as well. 

It is why all of us traders were initially very supportive of the community plan to save the market, and why I have been so active in raising funds for the campaign.

But currently, Haringey Council is refusing to step up and ensure that these important public assets stay in public hands. In the absence of the council showing a willingness to insource the running of the market and take a controlling interest in the site, TfL has proposed the creation of an arm’s-length — and unaccountable — “community partnership board” to manage the site.

Astonishingly, the council has refused to even agree to take a seat on this board and is instead backing a body entitled the West Green Road/Seven Sisters Development Trust to take over the management of the site. But who is behind this trust?

The development trust is an unaccountable private body, with three self-appointed directors, only one of whom is a trader at the market.

The traders at Seven Sisters Market are not a united group, and relations have increasingly broken down over the last few years. The largest number among the traders are from Colombia. 

During the Colombian presidential election campaign in 2018, there were two rival political meetings at the market. I was involved in the meeting to support the left candidate, Gustavo Petro. 

Others, who are part of the faction associated with the development trust, organised a meeting to back the hard-line rightwinger and opponent of the Colombian peace process, Ivan Duque.

Due to the desire of this group for control, I have been excluded from the ongoing development of the community plan by a clique who stand to gain from being handed control of the market and the development project. 

Their tactics have involved a whispering campaign to isolate and marginalise me.

I have been called a terrorist and a “guerillera.” These accusations carry terrifying significance in Colombia and among the Colombian diaspora who make up the body of the traders.

In Colombia itself, trade unionists, socialists and human rights activists are marked out as sympathisers with the insurgency which officially ended in 2016. They are subject to murderous violence by paramilitaries associated with the state itself.

It was for these reasons that I was forced to flee Colombia and it chills me to find myself talked about in such a way here in London. 

Colombia’s terrible history mutilates and divides us even here, an ocean away. Before having to move to safety in Britain as a refugee, gaining asylum with the support of the trade union movement in Britain, I was a lawyer acting on behalf of peasant farmers in a case against British Petroleum. 

It was this activity that made me a target for assassination, and turned me from a lawyer to a refugee. Since 2006 I have rebuilt my life as a trader in Seven Sisters, as well as organising a community centre based in the market, focused on arts, culture, advice and counselling. 

Wards Corner is more than just a development opportunity. For me and others like me, it is life.

The development trust is proposing that a stake of £6 million, 45 per cent of the capital costs of developing the site, will be taken by private-sector investors. 

This in itself is a form of privatisation. These investors, like the “donors” who will allegedly provide the bulk of the remaining funds, are unnamed. We face a continuation of the cycle of insecurity and failure that we have already spent years enduring.

In this context, we need Haringey Council to step up as a democratic and accountable public body to manage the market and take ownership of the site. 

It is not in the interest of any of the traders for the market to fall under the control of one faction or clique. The results of this would be — at best — exclusion from the means of our livelihoods for many of us. At worst it would put us in fear of our personal safety.

Perhaps Haringey Council’s actions so far have been motivated by naivety. I doubt very much it has been motivated by political sympathy with the right-wing “Uribist” elements of the Colombian community, who have manipulated this situation with the aim of personal or family advantage. 

But the council leadership has not taken the trouble to discern what is happening within the community that they claim to support, nor are they standing up to keep this iconic public asset in public hands.

I am demanding, on behalf of myself and many other traders, that we are each able to live our lives in peace and security, and that Wards Corner be developed, in public ownership, on behalf of the whole community. Direct local government control is the only way to achieve that.