May 2007 Peace Presence Update

Former Humanitarian Zone leader killed by Paramilitaries

On May 13th, Francisco Puerta was gunned down by two paramilitary members in the city of Apartadó. Three weeks ago, two paramilitary members reportedly went to the residence of one of Mr Puerta’s close relatives in Apartadó asking of his whereabouts and making threatening remarks about him. Mr Puerta was in outlying Miramar district at the time. The two men loitered near the house for the rest of the day, leaving just before Puerta showed up that night.

Francisco Puerta lived Miramar, a village associated with the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, and had participated in the 1997 founding of the Community. After a brief time away from the area, Mr. Puerta returned to San José and in helped coordinate the establishment in Miramar of a Humanitarian Zone — an initiative promoted by the Peace Community to build clearly marked places of refuge where civilians can take refuge from combat. In 2005 he was named an alternate member of the Internal Council of the Peace Community, representing the Humanitarian Zones.

Puerta is the third Peace Community leader involved in the Humanitarian Zones initiative to be killed in the last 18 months. On November 17th, 2005 Arlen Salas, the leader of the Arenas Altas Humanitarian Zone, was killed by a XVII Brigade hand grenade. On January 11th, 2006 Edilberto Vásquez Cardona, who was appointed to replace Mr Salas, was also killed by XVII Brigade, which reported Cardona as a guerrilla killed in combat.

By providing noncombatant civilians with a clearly marked place of refuge during combat, humanitarian zones utilize the International Humanitarian Law principle of discrimination between combatants and noncombatants and of protecting innocent civilians, particularly children, from being military targets.

Mr. Puerta’s assassination follows recent intimidation by the Black Eagles (Aguilas Negras) paramilitaries against the Peace Community. For instance, on May 9th, three women traveling to the Peace Community were stopped at paramilitary checkpoint in El Mongolo, outside of the city Apartadó. The heavily armed paramilitary men, who identified themselves as Black Eagles, demanded that the women show their identification card. After radioing their commander to confirm that the women were not among those the paramilitaries sought, they were allowed to proceed; but not before having their pictures taken.

The Fellowship of Reconciliation is deeply concerned about the persistent presence and action of paramilitaries in the San José de Apartadó region, in collaboration with the XVII Brigade, despite the demobilization program undertaken by President Uribe’s administration. FOR is also troubled by the targeting of leaders of the Peace Community involved in protecting non-combatant civilians through the Humanitarian Zones initiative.

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Secret and deadly Free Trade Agreement deal

As you may have heard in the news recently, Democratic leaders recently deal with the Bush administration that added some shadow environmental and labor protections to pending Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Peru and Panama, in an effort to push through adoption of the FTAs. While this agreement did not include movement on the pending Colombia FTA, the willingness of Democratic leaders to negotiate with the Bush administration signals that they will likely push for passage of the Colombia FTA as well.

Despite the Democratic leadership's position, other House and Senate Democrats, many who ran on fair — not free — trade platforms have expressed great reservations about the agreement. They cite lack of teeth in the proposed labor and environmental protections, not to mention the inherent problems in the FTAs that tend to allow U.S. jobs to be sent overseas and further impoverish the marginalized in other countries. In the case of Colombia, an FTA is additionally problematic because of the long history of violence against union leaders and members, This violence continues, although President Uribe has tried to claim Colombia is now safe for unions. A recent statement by a Colombian lawyer’s collective explains that Uribe’s government has distorted statistics, and that in fact anti-union violence is still widespread.

The FOR has taken a stand against a Free Trade Agreement between the U.S. and Colombia because of union violence and because such an agreement would only serve to strengthen the interests of those in power who continue to commit violence with impunity.

For more information on problems with Free Trade Agreements, see this overview, this piece on environmental implications, and this article about effects on campesino communities.

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President Uribe proposes "get out of jail free card" for death squad supporters
Parapolitica Update

As the para-politica scandal reaches colossal proportions and touches Colombia’s vice president and Defense Minister, President Uribe tells Colombians and the world that it is time to free the politicians charged for links to paramilitaries. Not just those currently behind bars, he says, but anyone charged with ties to paramilitaries: politicians, military, heads of corporations. “We have to be prepared to give the benefit of parole to whoever confesses the truth [about links with paramilitary death squads],” demands Uribe.

While some have painted Uribe’s plan as a step forward, there are many serious problems with the proposal. First, it amounts to political interference with judicial investigations and process, in an already politicized and dangerous climate. Before becoming Attorney General, Mario Iguaran was Uribe’s Deputy Minister of Justice and played a prominent role in the passing of the Justice and Peace Law, viewed by many as extremely lenient towards the paramilitary militias. The law’s legitimacy has come into question now that many of its promoters in Congress are now behind bars as a result of the parapolitica scandal. As evidence of his political ties, a few weeks ago, Iguaran came to Washington and participated in Uribe’s lobbying efforts with the US Congress. By siding with the criminals, Uribe’s proposal exacerbates the already precarious security of those conducting the investigations: various Supreme Court Justices have announced receiving numerous threats against themselves and their families.

Secondly, the charges for which congress members are being held are extremely serious. Those include ordering the assassination of political opponents, of union leaders and election officials; kidnapping of opponents; planning massacres and fixing elections. With impunity in Colombia so rampant, how can the country and the international community permit a free pass to such high level crimes?

Third, Uribe and his supporters argue that such proposal is positive because jail time for those accused in the scandal could get in the way of peace process with the guerillas. Such reasoning ignores the diametrical difference between the political crimes that would be considered in a peace negotiation with the guerrilla and those of which the parapolitica defenders are accused, namely the hiring death squads in order to secure election results, to grab lands, to relieve an industry from a bothersome labor union or to silence human right defenders.

May, a dark month for President Uribe
May has not been a good month for president Uibe and his supporters: Colombian jails are quickly filling with parapolitical supects: 13 members of Congress are now in jail, another accused member has fled, and two province governors are also behind bars. Many more are being investigated, including president Uribe’s cousin, Senator Mario Uribe, in part thanks to the explosive confessions by paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso. In confession process required under the Justice and Peace Law, Mancuso accused vice president Francisco Santos and minister of defense Santos of planning deals with paramilitaries, and described the deep involvement of the army in the preparing, supporting and coordinating with paramilitary death squads, specifically naming generals who have headed the XVII Brigade. Mancuso’s confession also reached the private sector: he asserted that all the banana companies, not only Chiquita but also Dole, had been involved in paramilitary activities. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Colombian weekly Semana unveiled a massive spying operation being carried out by the government’s secret police through illegal wire tapping of opposition leaders, journalists, public servants.

Protecting Uribe’s Family and Inner Circle
According to Semana, the proposal of freeing those jailed in parapolitica scandal originated during a visit by the Interior Minister to the Members of Congress jailed in Bogota. During the meeting, they told the Minister that they resented that, so far, only politicians from the Caribbean coast region have been targeted and perceived a double standard in the Uribe administration: when accusations reached members of the Bogota and Antioquia elites (vice president, minister of defense and Uribe’s cousin), “there were many voices saying that those criminals [those accusing the officials] could not be believed,”

Colombian Interior minister has told the press that “some impunity is necessary to obtain truth.” Considering that US Democratic Congressional Representatives have insisted that there would be no deal on free trade with Colombia until those linked to paramilitaries are punished, it remains to be seen whether they would give Uribe a free pass accepting what amounts to the institutionalization of impunity.

Take Action: Call legislators on June 6!

Colombia President Álvaro Uribe will visit the U.S. again next week in the hopes of convincing U.S. legislators to pass the FTA and extend military aid. We can’t let our legislators be fooled by Uribe’s sweet-talking!

On June 6, call your legislators and urge them to do 3 things (call the Capital switchboard toll-free at 1-800-839-5276 and ask to be connected to your member of Congress):

1. Vote NO on the FTA with Colombia, which not only threatens U.S. jobs and environmental protections, but endangers Colombia unionists, among others.
2. End U.S. military aid to Colombia, so that the U.S. stops supporting a military that collaborates with paramilitary death squads.
3. Demand that Uribe’s government investigate the death of former Humanitarian zone leader Francisco Puerta.

Check the FOR Colombia Take Action webpage next week for a script!

You can also sign this petition opposing the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

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Letter from the Field
Struggling to have the Freedom of Conscience respected amidst civil war
The Colombian Conscientious Objectors’ movement
by Janice Gallagher

This is an excerpt from a longer piece, which can be read in full here.

Carlos Andres Hincapie, 18, had gone out to the store to buy eggs for his family’s breakfast when he ran into the military, who asked for his military identification card, certifying he had completed his military service. He told them he didn’t have one, and didn’t agree with military service. He was promptly loaded onto the back of a military truck and taken to the military barracks. He could not call his parents, and the next day was whisked off for “training” several hours away. Within two weeks, he was engaged in active duty military service. He signed a statement two months later certifying that he was a Conscientious Objector, and in return received harsh physical treatment at the hands of the military.

That was in August of 2006. Today, Carlos Andres remains in the military, where he has been forced to perform his military service despite his moral objections to the use of violence.

His case and hundreds of like his have inspired a youth movement in Colombia that is challenging the State’s right to force them to participate in Colombia’s bloody civil war. This May, over 70 youth from all corners of Colombia, along with international supporters from 7 different countries, came together for a week-long conference in which they debated, danced, organized and educated others about the prospect of resisting military service based on a personal commitment to non-violence.

Sandra Grisales, an organizer with the Red Juvenil, or Youth Network, of Medellí explained “We are here as a group of young people imagining that a different world is possible...because we think the same way, and because we are celebrating our right to think freely. For me, injustice doesn’t help me at all, and I will not be part of continuing it.”

—.

Conference participants told of how they were creatively spreading the idea of conscientious objection in their home communities: In Sincelejo, the CO group has succeeded in using a government education department provision requiring that students be educated about alternatives to war to attain a permanent presence in four high schools. They give weekly classes educating students about their rights in the face of recruitment, and ask them to think critically about whether to serve in the military. In Villarica, a group of young COs have come together in a hip hop group where they sing, rap and dance about their commitment to non-violence and non-participation in the armed conflict. In Barranca, I heard about their efforts to assist youth who have been recruited illegally or against their will, and their legal and political fight to have them freed from service. In Medellí they told of courageous young men who have gone to the local army Brigade, presented their declaration as Conscientious Objectors, and are putting themselves on the line in order to build a legal case and precedence for the legalization of CO status.

As a group, the COs choreographed and performed compelling street theatre on some of the busiest corners in Medellin: they first walked around freely, and then silently paired off. They joined hands with their partner and pulled opposite ways, both desperately trying to go their own way, to symbolize forced military recruitment against their will. They then let go of each other’s hands, both falling to the floor, demonstrating that after this recruitment against their will, everyone falls, everyone loses, and suffers. After a rapped mantra narrating the injustice of forced recruitment and the right to conscientious objection, the 70 corpses of the participants were simultaneously resuscitated, and they broke into song and dance, celebrating the life-giving power of the freedom of thought and the right to follow their conscience. They danced and sang their way down the streets of Medellin to the next metro stop, where they repeated their performance, and then publicly read their mission statement.

—..

Their hopes as a group are diverse, but nearly all of them recognize that it will be a long struggle. Freed Molina, a declared Conscientious Objector from Sincelejo said “I know the struggle will be long, but I would like for Conscientious Objection to turn into a way of life...I hope that the demilitarization we are advocating for isn’t only legal, but that it extends to all acts and creates a pacifist revolution in a person’s being.”

They have realized as a group how vital international support is to their movement, and are arranging for international trips for many of their members. The idea is to find groups of people who will support their struggle for the recognition of CO status from outside the country by applying political pressure when a youth is recruited. If you are interested, please send an email to FOR Bogota at presenciaparalapaz@yahoo.com. We are currently gathering signatures to try and get Carlos Andres Hinacapie released from his unwilling military service.

Read the full article here.

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Apply Now: Peace Presence Team & August delegation
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, click here.

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