April 2007 Peace Presence Update

National Groups Call for End to Military Aid to Colombia

Dozens of organizations released a letter to Congress on May 1 calling for a complete cessation of U.S. military aid to Colombia as that country’s president, Álvaro Uribe, arrived in Washington seeking support for his military and trade programs.

The letter, signed by more than 40 religious, peace and activist organizations and leaders from throughout the United States, condemns the current U.S. aid policy for failing in its stated aims, reinforcing impunity for human rights violations, and contributing to the displacement of millions of Colombians. Colombia is the largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the world outside the Middle East and Afghanistan. In the light of expanding revelations of Colombian government and army involvement with paramilitary death squads, which are responsible for more than 60% of atrocities committed in the country, the letter calls on Congress to re-cast U.S. policy in Colombia and articulate goals consistent with respect for human rights.

FOR coordinated the letter. Other signers included United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, School of the Americas Watch, Witness for Peace, the Baptist, Buddhist, Episcopal, Lutheran and Presbyterian Peace Fellowships, Christian Peacemaker Teams, and groups from Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, Los Angeles and Westchester County, NY.

Military aid to Colombia is supposed to be contingent upon the Colombian army breaking ties with the death squads, but the organizations argue that current “mechanisms for separating the State from illegal paramilitary groups and protecting human and labor rights do not work.”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last month certified that Colombian armed forces had met human rights conditions for the release of military aid. Less than two weeks before, The Los Angeles Times disclosed a CIA report stating that Colombian Army chief General Mario Montoya Uribe had collaborated with paramilitary groups. The leaders’ letter also cited legal charges against Uribe’s ex-chief of intelligence for paramilitary collaboration, Army executions of peasants who were then dressed as guerrillas, torturing of cadets, and Army involvement in domestic bombings as reasons why military aid should be terminated.

Other prominent organizations, including the AFL-CIO, have also called for terminating U.S. military aid to Colombia. Amnesty International urges “a complete cut off of all US military aid until human rights conditions improve and impunity is tackled.”

Some Democratic lawmakers also have called for steep cuts in military aid. Rep. James McGovern (D-MA) told National Public Radio, "I don't like this current ratio of 80% military and 20% social and economic investment. I think it should be the other way around.... We need to make it clear that we are not a cheap date."

Yet turning off the military spigot to Colombia is made even more difficult by the fact that much assistance is hidden in the Pentagon budget — so that not even lawmakers know how much is there. In previous years, between $100 and $200 million of Plan Colombia funds came through the Defense Department, with the remaining $600 million in the Foreign Operations bill (about three quarters of this is military and police assistance). But the amount from the Pentagon for Colombia last year is not even known, and the proposed military budget for Fiscal Year 2008 does not specify how the amount of funds to Colombia. The US Embassy Military Group in Bogota, in response to an inquiry from FOR, stated on April 4 that the budget request was “unknown, as we’re still submitting requirements for ’08.”

Action: Contact your Representative in Congress, ask for the Foreign Policy aide, and urge that s/he support an end to U.S. aid to the Colombian Army. Let them know that you support the letter from 40 grassroots organizations and leaders who gave the case for ending military aid in their May 1 letter. Ask them to find out how much the Pentagon is requesting in assistance to the Colombian Army, and to get back to you. Please be polite and persistent.
Congressional Switchboard: 202-224-3121.

Days of Prayer and Action on Colombia: Get your community or church involved! Join hundreds of churches in Colombia and the United States on May 21 and May 22 to pray and act for a new U.S. policy on Colombia. Click here for information and resources that can be shared with others.

Back to top

Corruption Back on the Farm
Evidence Disclosed Tying President to Paramilitary Death Squads

“Paramilitarism in Colombia was founded by some sectors of the State,” opposition Senator Gustavo Petro has argued, and to prove this assertion he held a hearing in Congress on April 17. The nationally televised debate lasted over two hours and focused on President Álvaro Uribe’s tenure as governor of Antioquia (1995-1997), using government records and testimonies to maintain that Uribe had willingly supported right-wing paramilitary groups.

Under scrutiny was Uribe’s staunch support of now-outlawed civilian militias known as Convivir. Petro indicated that many of the chiefs of such militias had become top paramilitary bosses, including Salvatore Mancuso and Chepe Barrera. According to evidence presented by Petro, Uribe and other officials were aware that some Convivir units were headed by warlords.

Senator Petro also unveiled President Uribe’s family ties to paramilitary groups. Two of Uribe’s family farms were used as a meeting point to plot killings by a right-wing death squad known as the “Twelve Apostles.” President Uribe’s brother Santiago is alleged to have belonged to the illegal group. Petro showed a picture of Uribe’s brother, posing with renowned drug trafficker and Pablo Escobar’s business partner, Fabio Ochoa. Ochoa is currently serving a 30-year sentence for drug trafficking in a U.S. prison.

The debate also reviewed paramilitary activity in Urabá, scrutinizing Uribe’s main military advisor, Ret. General Rito Alejo del Río. Del Río was commander of the 17th Brigade during the late 1990s, and has been implicated in collaborating with paramilitaries to murder banana union workers and civilians in the Urabá region, including those of the San José Peace Community. Former Attorney General Luis Camilo Osorio fired the attorneys leading the investigation against del Río, and ordered the case against him closed. Osorio, now serving as Colombia’s Ambassador to Mexico, is currently under criminal investigation by the Colombian legislature.

Paramilitary Scandal Reaches New International Dimension
Two days after the hearing, former Vice-President Al Gore shunned Uribe by canceling attendance at an environmental conference in Miami, so as to avoid sharing the stage with the president. In a written statement, Gore called the allegations brought by Senator Petro “deeply troubling” and declared he could not attend the event “until this very serious chapter in history is brought to a close.”

US Embassy in Bogotá had hit man on its payroll
On April 24, Petro announced that he had unveiled a plot to kill him, orchestrated by retired Colonel Julián Villate, who previously served as security consultant for the US embassy in Bogotá. Villate has a murky career: before working for the US Embassy, he was involved in Operation Dragon, a scheme for spying on union leaders, human rights workers and politicians in Cali, apparently to later assassinate them. Villate currently works as security officer for Alabama-based Drummond Coal Company, currently being sued in an Alabama court for reportedly paying paramilitary death squads to murder union members at Drummond affiliates.

Source on Rito Alejo

Back to top

New Evidence in February 2005 Massacre Investigation
Paramilitary Member Worked with 17th Brigade

A former member of the paramilitaries confessed to assisting the Army’s 17th Brigade in murdering Alejandro Perez, one of the eight people killed in the February 2005 massacre in the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó. On April 25, Adriano José Cano, alias Melaza, formerly with the Banana Paramilitary Bloc, told investigators that the Army gave him a weapon and a uniform to participate in operations, and that in one of them he helped in the killing of Alejandro Perez.

Cano gave testimony as part of the demobilization process that requires paramilitary members to confess crimes they committed in order to receive a sentence reduction. The prosecutor and Inspector General investigators working on the massacre’s criminal and disciplinary investigations were expected to follow up with more questions.

Cano’s testimony not only gives further evidence of Army’s responsibility in the massacre, a charge that the Peace Community has made since immediately after it happened. It also underscores the Army’s illegal practice of using non-army personnel (including active and demobilized illegal combatants) in carrying out military operations. While Colombian law allows using these people as informants, acts such as carrying weapons, wearing a uniform and engaging in combat itself are banned.

Source: El Tiempo, 26 April 2007

Back to top

Forced recruitment: An outrage continues
Translation of statement from the Medellí Youth Network

The recruitment procedures that the national army uses are despicable, especially in our particular experiences in different parts of Antioquia state. There the pursuit and recruitment of youth has become a daily occurrence of intimidation and verbal and sometimes even physical violence, which ends with the placement of these youth onto a path to becoming killers.

As evidence of the cruel recruitment situation in our areas, we describe a case that occurred in the municipality of Cisneros, Antioquia:

Saturday, April 8, 2007, at six in the morning, Alejandro de Jesus Gonzalez Duque was driving to the city of Medellí when, just outside the city, the vehicle was stopped by soldiers who made him stop the vehicle and asked for his military papers [which show proof of military service]. Alejandro didn’t have his papers because his service requirement had been resolved the December before by an exemption that the military gives for young people who are completing their university studies.

Alejandro is a youth of 18 in his final year at the Educational Institute Josefina Muñoz Gonzalez and was taking night classes while working during the day.

He explained his situation to the soldiers, but his arguments were in vain. They took him to a nearby base and he was held under the so-called “call to democratic security,” which requires military service to defend the nation. Alejandro González was deprived of his freedom, and his rights to work and education were violated by the Army.

It was not until April 12 that he was set free, thanks to the intervention of a petition filed against the brigade on April 11. A complaint was also filed with the Human Rights Ombudsman and the Attorney General’s office on April 10.

We believe that it is necessary to raise the voice of many young people to express energetically that “Young People Won’t Go To War!” We won’t go; we want to construct a society based on proposals from the community, youth groups, artistic visions, those generating alternatives for life, based on a dream where we can all live in a world without weapons.

The armed forces and forced recruitment—

During the first months of this year, in the urban area of Amalfi (county in northeast Antioquia), the Army detained young people who left their villages to visit the town center. They were put on trucks and forced into military service in the Puerto Berrío Brigade, where they were trained to be rural soldiers.

Since this event, village youths have had to hide on their farms, not going down to the town to shop or sell their goods. They are scared to leave because they don’t want to abandon their families or take up the weapons of any army, even if it’s a legal one.

In addition to seriously affecting the economic well-being of their families, this situation has significantly affected the freedom of these rural youth: their freedom of movement, the freedom to develop their personality, the security of themselves and their immediate family and, in a very open way, their right to due process in recruitment for olbligatory military service.

Nonetheless, we remain convinced that war cannot be the only choice that the Colombian State offers to us young people. We therefore insist that conscientious objection to military service, a human right recognized in international legislation and in Article 18 of the Colombian Constitution, must be applied immediately, even if the recruitment is carried out legally, and even if the basis for the young person’s objection is not religious but political, ideological, moral, or philosophical.

Back to top

News Updates

Ecuador Refuses U.S.-led Military Exercises, Which Are Moved to Colombia
Ecuador’s ministers of foreign relations and national defense, María Fernandez Espinosa and Lorena Escudero, announced May 3 that the country will no longer participate in military exercises with UNITAS, a yearly set of naval exercises involving the United States, Colombia, Peru and Chile. Ecuador was to be the site of the exercises, according to some groups at Washington’s behest. Instead, the exercises will take place in Colombia, in Málaga Bay.

Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s president, confirmed the country’s decision to withdraw, stating that Ecuador wants to retain its sovereignty and dignity. Correa also ordered Ecuador’s air force to intercept fumigation planes belonging to the U.S.-based private military contractor Dyncorp, which fumigate along the Colombia-Ecuador border and often pass over into Ecuadorian airspace.

Ecuador insists that these are military decisions and not political, but they are clear indications that Ecuador does not fully agree with the U.S.-led status quo in Latin America.

Uribe visits Washington to Shore-Up Support Amid Protests and Skepticism
Colombian President Álvaro Uribe visited Washington this week in an effort to influence U.S. Congressional members as they make decisions on the pending U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement and funding for U.S. military and anti-drug aid to Colombia.

While President Bush lauded Uribe as a “friend of the United States,” many legislators expressed skepticism and critics staged protests in the wake of continuing allegations directly linking Uribe and supporters of his government with paramilitary death squads. Protesters staged a die-in, with dozens of people wrapped in white body bags, to symbolize the fate of paramilitary victims.

More information on the visit is in a story from the Miami Herald. This piece from protest organizers contains links to several related stories.

U.S. Congressional Hearings on Military Funding to Colombia Tainted by Inaccuracies
Funding for Plan Colombia, the U.S. legislation that directs U.S. involvement in Colombia’s armed conflict, is up for renewal this year, and on April 24 the House Subcommittee on Western Hemispheric Affairs held the first review hearing.

Reports and analysis from those who attended the hearings describe testimony that was disheartening at best and shockingly inaccurate at worst. Peace Presence team member Amanda Jack, who attended the hearing, recounts that former House Speaker Dennis Hastert spelled Colombia wrong in his submitted testimony, called the guerrilla group ELN the E-lon, and then referred to some other group called the AUL [he probably meant the paramilitary group AUC], while talking dispassionately about how Colombian drugs were killing U.S. children.

Statistics were also grossly misrepresented in the hearing. Charles Shapiro, Acting Assistant Secretary for the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, testified that both the Colombian government and the country’s leading NGO on labor had reported a reduction in the assassinations of trade unionists in 2006, to 25 and 38, respectively. In fact, as reported by the leading labor and human rights group US LEAP, the Colombian government’s data reports that 60 trade unionists were killed, a 50% increase. The National Labor School, Colombia’s leading NGO on labor issues, actually reports 72 deaths, a much higher number. As Steven Coats, executive director of US LEAP, explains, “the State Department is either deliberately misleading the U.S. Congress or is guilty of gross negligence on an issue that is central to the debate about a free trade agreement with Colombia.”

Not only have trade union death rates not improved under Uribe, but impunity in all sorts of violence against civilians remains widespread. This is true despite the disinformation used by State Department officials and Uribe himself as they try to influence U.S Congress during Plan Colombia funding decision-making.

Back to top

Members of the Buddhist Delegation Now in Colombia Report on First Few Days

How much of Colombia can we breathe in in eighteen days? What will we bring back with us in our hearts and minds? How much love and how many tears will we leave behind to enrich the depleting soil growing the African palm for export? How much of our heart will we leave behind?

The first group we met with was Justapaz, on the morning of April 27. The office was filled with women, and two joined us to share their insight and experience. Justapaz works with the ecclesiastical community. They emphasized a methodology of creating humanitarian programs that arise from the needs of the people, rather than imposing one’s own ideas, a practice that resonates with our intention here in Colombia.

To work with a foundation of Biblical justification, as Justapaz does, is to speak the language of the people, and root the (sometimes despairing) struggle in a sense of hope and faith.

On the third day of our delegation we walked up some stairs and entered a small room with pink walls. This was the office of Afrodes, a human rights group that helps displaced Afro-Colombians get back on their feet. They welcomed us, and then began by giving us a condensed version of their people’s struggle starting with the slave trade in the 14th century.

In the 1500’s many Africans were kidnapped from their homeland and brought to Colombia. Once here they helped fight alongside other Colombians for independence from Spain, because they were promised freedom if they won. However, after Colombia gained independence they broke their promise and massacred all of the African leaders. It wasn’t until 1851 that they were finally set free. Reparations were given to the slaveholders but not to the slaves, as if to say that the Africans have the same worth as property. Most Afro-Colombians then moved to the Pacific and Atlantic coasts to start a new life. At this time that land was worth nothing to the State, but now it’s more valuable and the Afro-Colombians are being displaced. Multinational corporations were interested in the natural resources of their land. So the Army, in conjunction with paramilitaries, came into the area and displaced between 15,000 and 17,000 people. Some Afro-Colombians came to Bogotá and started Afrodes to try to start dialogue between those displaced and the government. The government claimed to take their land because of guerillas living there. The struggle isn’t about guerillas, the Afrodes leaders argued, but about land ownership. Land in Colombia equals power.

The next step that Afrodes is working on is getting the displaced back to their homes in a safe, effective way. A few Afrodes leaders accompanied us to one of the barrios (poor neighborhoods) where displaced Afro-Colombians now live. As we entered the barrio the street went from pavement to dirt and the houses also deteriorated in quality. We then met with some women crafting hand-made jewelry in an attempt to make a sustainable living. After lunch we took a walk through the barrio. As we walked they explained to us that there is no police presence in the area, so at night it becomes a central area for paramilitaries and drug dealers. Many of the young boys are taken by one of the armed groups and forced to join their ranks. If they flee, their families are killed. What these people need from the international community, especially the U.S., is not military aid, but basic social aid. Electricity, running water, and sustainable amounts of food are things these people struggle to receive on a daily basis. We’ve seen that in Colombia’s past the conflict has not been solved through the use of arms. It must be solved by addressing the root problems of socio-economic injustice.

On May 1st we accompanied our friends in the Red Juvenil de Medellin (Youth Network of Medellin) in the International Worker’s Day march. As representatives of FOR, we didn’t participate actively in the march but rather walked on the sidewalk to support and accompany our friends. I asked a Colombian Zen friend who had joined us how many people were in the march. He said that the traditional media would probably report 1,000 and the activists might report 100,000.

The energy was electrifying and many shouts and slogans were heard throughout the widely diverse groups. After a couple hours of marching we saw some rocks being thrown at the police and tear gas was set off. At that point, to be overly cautious, we left the march, took the metro back to the hotel, had lunch, rested, and then processed what we had seen and felt with an internal session of the delegation.

Back to top

Announcements

• Colombia Team Openings and Training
  The Fellowship of Reconciliation is seeking qualified applicants for its field teams in Bogotá and San José de Apartadó, for openings in late 2007 and 2008. Team members must be committed to nonviolence and the goals of the FOR Colombia program, speak Spanish with fluency, and be prepared to serve for at least one year.

  Team members in San José provide protective accompaniment to community members and document events of the armed conflict. Team members in Bogotá work with other nonviolent initiatives, support the team and community of San José, and organize delegations.

  All applicants must complete a full application, have an interview, and participate in a six-day training from August 28 — September 2, 2007. Click here for information and an application, or call 415-495-6334. Applications are due June 29.

• August Delegation
  Join us from August 4-18, 2007 as we visit Colombian peace movements, including the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, the Youth Network of Medellin, Antioquia Peasant Association, and more.

  By participating in this trip, you come to have a greater understanding of the peaceful resistance growing in Colombia, the "drug war", and U.S. military intervention. The August delegation will inaugurate new efforts in civilian diplomacy by the Colombia Program, including on-line and teleconference sessions for the month previous to the trip. Our permanent accompaniment work allows FOR to assemble a unique and rich delegation experience. Your chance at meaningful formation awaits you!

  Cost is $1400 from Bogotá.
  For more information/applications, contact: FOR, moira(a)igc.org, 415-495-6334

Back to top