Again, War Here Is Not the Answer
By William R. Northrup
This is the tenth day of my immersion into the Colombian society as part of the FOR two-week delegation. I’m sure you would find the work of those here for this organization, advocating for peace and justice, impressive. Colombia, while exceptionally impressive in many ways, is a complex, difficult society with a multi-faceted, tragic configuration to its struggles that takes time to understand, to appreciate, and to love. Clearly the staff here and the volunteers have arrived at this valuable place and are effecting modest, peaceful changes. Many people are thankful for the FOR presence and depend on the FOR staff to accompany them when they feel threatened by the military, which continually harasses, threatens, apprehends, and worse in a seemingly willy-nilly fashion.
Today we are in a tiny town of about 150-160 people, high in the hills of the Andes Mountains. The place reminds me a bit of an old church camp in its simplicity. Chickens, ducks, pigs, horses, cows, and dogs mingle on the paths with loving responsive children and courteous adults. There is electricity for radios, a few televisions, cell phones, and one computer of the FOR staff to connect those here to the outside world. The trip here was by mule (some walking) taking about two hours through three rapid streams, up and down steep slopes, through stony, mud-filled puddles in the driving rain. Clearly it will be into the unforeseen future before a car ever arrives.
Colombia, however, is a powerful, luxurious country driven by urban, cosmopolitan values much as are we in the United States. We have spent a week between Bogotá and Medellín, both of which are bustling, beautiful cities, thoroughly enjoyable and compelling for visitors. At first glance, millions of people are living in what we at home are coming to realize may be ultimately unsustainable. The economy here too is running on deficits. And that seems to be the main source of the war against the mountain people, which is causing death, disappearance, and displacement in a relentless way.
We have sat in high and low places from the United Nations headquarters for human rights to the community leaders of this most humble community established strictly on principles of peace and nonviolence. (As such, they have set themselves apart from the state government, which they describe as victimizing in multiple ways. Many here have been driven from their original home to form this small village. They call themselves La Union.) Everywhere we have met people who verify the violence being perpetrated by the central government, which forces people from their homes and land. Some do return to find homes and land devastated. There are intimidating, armed military guards most everywhere. Estimates are that about four million have been displaced from their land and homes. The word genocide has been used to describe the work of the military.
I met one woman, the sister of a nun with whom we stayed, who had been uprooted three times. Though persecution of the indigenous population has been brutal for a very long time, now much of the lower, marginalized, disempowered are being pinched out of existence. The government wants their land to build dams and agro-businesses (bananas, palm oil, and cocoa).
North Americans are complicit in that our government supports the Colombian government mainly with enormous military investments””about 500 million dollars per year from the United States. Most of us, I think, have not kept track of our government’s involvements around the world. More than that is the shocking probability that the U.S. is on the brink of building seven new military bases in this country. [Ed. Note: The proposal is not to build new military bases, but for the U.S. military to use existing Colombian base structures for U.S. military purposes.] Colombians are aware here that the U.S. is driving the conflict here with its heavy support of the military in the name of the wars on drugs and terrorists. Again, war here is not the answer.
Please do what you can to get Hillary, Barack, and your representatives to alter their plans for Colombia and her neighbors.
Feel free to contact me at 1914 Wildwood Avenue, Nashville, Tennessee 37212, phone: 615-385-3982, E-mail: WNorthrup@peoplepc.com
