Delegations to Colombia: July 21-August 4, 2012

What is a delegation?

A delegation is a learning tour.  It is a first-hand opportunity to gain a profound and personal understanding of the complexities of what we see in the news.  It is a chance to interact and share with people and communities in a way that you would not be able to do if you were to visit Colombia on your own or as a tourist.  A delegation is two weeks traveling with and learning from your fellow delegates as together we get a glimpse into the hopes, worries, and lives of those affected by U.S. foreign policy. 

FOR 2012 Delegation to Colombia Highlights:

• Travel to the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó
  The San Jose de Apartado Peace Community in Urabá in Northwest Colombia, is a group of about 1,200 campesinos resisting violent displacement that many other communities in the area have experienced. In 1997 the community claimed  their territory as a neutral civilian community and refused to cooperate with any armed group of any form (including military or police). The community has since survived threats, killings, massacres, disappearances, food blocades, and arbitrary detentions.  Despite violent pressure from armed groups, the people of the San Jose Peace Community remain committed to building a community based on democracy, respect for plurality, and community work as an alternative to the violence that surrounds them.  Since 2002 FOR has maintained a permanent team of volunteers that live in the peace community.  Get to know more about the peace community by watching this short video, visiting the community’s website (in Spanish) or looking through FOR’s accompaniment page to see blogs of current volunteers that live in the community.

• Visit farming communities resisting the presence of U.S. backed military bases.
  Despite a Colombian Supreme Court decision in August of 2010 to strike down plans to build seven new U.S.-Colombia military bases, the Pentagon has initiated unprecedented levels of construction on at least three bases - Bahía Malaga, Tolemaida and Larandia.  The community of El Nilo lives under the direct influence of one of these bases, Tolemaida, the largest military base in Latin America.  The base of Tolemaida claims the land the community inhabits as their own although the community has lived on that land since before the base was built.  Over the past sixty years they have been resisting pressure from the military base to displace.  Colombia has the largest active military in Latin America and the experience of the people of El Nilo represent the struggle of many communities throughout Colombia who are resisting the militarization that comes from Colombian and U.S. military bases.  For more information see this article on another community’s resistance to the Palenquero Air Force Base.

• Meet youth activists who courageously and creatively challenge military spending and advocate for their right to be not dragged into the war.
  Students and young people are a powerful force in Colombia.  Student marches in late 2011 successfully stopped an initiative of the Colombian government to privatize education.  Many youth around the country are also organizing to resist Colombia’s obligatory  military service.  Unfortunately, young people in Colombia are not only being recruited by illegal armed groups, but are also victims of illegal and irregular recruitment practices carried out by the Colombian military. A 2009 Constitutional Court ruling affirms the right to object to obligatory military service, yet conscientious objectors continue to go unrecognized by military authorities and are frequently denied jobs and university degrees because of their refusal to take part in the war.  In 2004, FOR began working with a number of conscientious objector collectives including the Red Juvenil.  See testimonies from Colombian conscientious objectors Daniel Serna Hernao and José Luis Peña Rueda.

• 

  Meet women, labor, students, and human rights activists that successfully organized opposing US military bases in their country

• Experience unparalleled access to understand how Colombian groups continue in their quest for peace and social justice 

• Find how you can be part of a global effort to build a better world. 

Past Delegations

• Participants report from delegation to San Jose Peace Community, Medellin and Eastern Antioquia August 15-29, 2009
• “Remembering is a commitment to the future,” article by August 2006 delegate
• Building a Culture of Peace: Report from February 2006 Delegation
• Report from 2004 delegation of FOR and Chicagoans for Peaceful Colombia
• Report from November 2002 delegation to Colombia

FOR-USA also offers delegations to Iran and Israel-Palestine (through Interfaith Peace Builders).