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Sample Letter to the Editor
Colombia Peace Presence Update, August 2005
In this Update:
ACTION ALERT: U.S. State Department Rolls Over Victims’ Rights in Colombia.
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Visiting the peace communities: August 2005 report of Colombia delegation
of Human Rights in Colombia
August 3, 2005
Bypassing the opposition of religious leaders, human rights and community groups, and 22 U.S. senators, the U.S. State Department certified Colombia’s human rights record yesterday, releasing more than $70 million in U.S. military aid to Colombia. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's certification came despite persistent ties between the Colombian government and paramilitary forces that have killed thousands of civilians, and despite rampant abuses by members of paramilitary groups and armed forces.
"This certification is very worrisome,” said FOR Executive Director Patricia Clark, who recently visited Colombia and met there with U.S. Ambassador William Wood. “The State Department has chosen to overlook serious human rights violations and to send gunships and training that will further fuel Colombia's ongoing conflict, by far the bloodiest in the hemisphere."
Having received more than $3 billion in U.S. military aid over the past five years, Colombia is the world's largest recipient of U.S. military aid outside the Middle East. The U.S. Congress established the human rights certification process in 2002 to address concerns regarding the Colombian military’s human rights record and its ties to paramilitary death squads. The process requires the U.S. State Department to certify that soldiers alleged to have abused civilians be investigated and prosecuted in civilian courts, and that the army end its collaboration with paramilitary groups, which are responsible for the large majority of political killings in the country.
This year has already been one of the worst for human rights in Colombia. In 2005, paramilitary forces have murdered union leaders, indigenous peoples and unarmed civilians. Most notably, in February, eight members of the San José de Apartadó Peace Community, including three children, were brutally massacred. A witness last saw several of the victims being detained by men in Colombian Army uniforms. Shortly after the massacre, Army soldiers destroyed key evidence in front of community members and journalists. The atrocity provoked numerous grassroots protests in the United States and Colombia, and a letter by 22 U.S. senators citing the case as cause for withholding certification. The Fellowship of Reconciliation maintains a permanent observation team in San José, a small community that has seen more than 150 people killed without a single prosecution.
The certification comes on the eve of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's visit to President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, this Thursday, August 4th. President Uribe is seeking support for his latest efforts to grant easy terms to right-wing paramilitaries, some of whom are wanted in the U.S. for drug trafficking. These efforts include passage of a law that allows paramilitary chiefs, including authors of massacres and drug traffickers, to serve little jail time and that has no requirement of them to confess their crimes.
"Secretary Rice's certification, issued while the U.S. Congress is in recess, serves as a welcoming gift to President Uribe," said Susana Pimiento, coordinator of FOR’s Colombia Program. “It flies in the face of the law and of informed public opinion.”
Contacts:
- Patricia Clark, executive director, Fellowship of Reconciliation: 845-358-4601, pclark@forusa.org
- John Lindsay-Poland, FOR Task Force on Latin America & the Caribbean: 415-495-6334, johnlp@igc.org
- Susana Pimiento, coordinator, FOR Colombia Program: 415-495-6334, forcolombia@igc.org
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Dear Editor:
President Bush’s meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on his Crawford Ranch this week masks a dreadful act. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice certified that Mr. Uribe’s government is fully prosecuting human rights abusers and cutting army links with paramilitary death squads, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
One case that U.S. officials said would serve as a test was the massacre by machete of eight civilians, including three children, in the northern town of San José de Apartadó in February 2005. Local witnesses said the army carried out the killings, which are among more than 150 murders committed against the community, with not a single prosecution. It is hard to think of a better definition of terrorism.
Our nation has real political leverage to help Colombia clean up its act, since it is the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid outside the Middle East. But by certifying the Colombian military’s record of violence, we lost a chance to use that influence. This week, President Bush should tell Uribe to go home and prosecute those on his own payroll who are creating havoc for Colombian civilians.
Sincerely,
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Greetings!
We send this email to you from the most unlikely of places, on top of the Andean mountains in the northwest of Colombia - at the FOR house in La Union, one of the peace settlements that make up the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado.
Our journey began over a week ago and it has been packed full of meetings, visits to barrios and outlying mountain communities in addition to internal reflections and
lots of arepas (wonderful corn tortilla/pancake/disc of delight).
We met in Bogota and began with a day of preparation. The first day in the field consisted of a meeting with AFRODES (Association of Displaced Afro-Colombians) and visiting the barrio to which many Afro-Colombians have been displaced. It didn't take us long to realize that displacement would be the unifying theme of the trip.
Depending on who you talk to, there are between 3-5 million internally displaced Colombians, many of whom are of African and Indigenous descent. Displacement is a consistent threat and reality for Colombians living in resource-rich land. Oftentimes, people are displaced more than once. This, in addition to the ever-present
internal conflict between three major groups of armed actors (the guerilla groups, the national military and the paramilitary who are protected by the state), puts the rural population in the middle of a seemingly endless civil war.
We were also privileged to visit with ONIC (The National Organization of Indigenous Colombians). While Colombia has a relatively small population of Indigenous peoples (around 1 million) they have been severely affected by the on-going armed conflict and race to develop lands for oil extraction and energy production. Both groups,
fighting for basic human rights, are committed to non-violent resistance, are highly organized, and run on mostly volunteer efforts as well as occasional aid from international NGOs.
We then traveled to Medellin, one of Colombia's largest cities in the northern region of Antioquia. There we met with the Red Juvenil (Youth Network of Medellin), a group of young people, working to present peaceful alternatives to their peers in the midst of armed conflict. The Network took us to barrios that seemed to rise up endlessly into the surrounding hills of the city.
In Santo Domingo we participated in a "cooperative game" with the youth of the neighborhood school. These games are aimed at teaching and empowering children to choose peaceful and collaborative solutions as an alternative to the cyclical violence of the barrios. Further up the mountainside in the barrio of Bella Oriente we were introduced to organic community gardening and our first taste of agua panela (a traditional drink of water and sugar cane). That was followed by meeting with another youth group in the Network that worked with young people in various barrios.
The next morning we woke up with the sun (another theme of the trip) and traveled up the winding highway to the town of Cocorna, our first stop in eastern Antioquia. We met up with a human rights lawyer from the CJL (Judicial Liberty Cooperation) who served as our guide for the next two days. This is also the point in our adventures where we naively agreed to board a chivero (a 1960s era truck with a covered
bed and benches lining the sides) only to bounce around the dirt and rock highways of the Paisa mountains.
The bruises that still linger lead us to declare ourselves not just delegation, but an EXTREME DELEGATION. The pueblo of El Molino was our first stop, where community members welcomed us, some having walked for 2 hours in order to meet with us. The community members of El Molino spoke about the almost 50% displacement over the last two years in their region.
Nowhere was this more apparent than in the once commercial hub of Santa Ana, our second stop. The story of Santa Ana is too complex to coherently explain here, suffice to say the once guerilla controlled area was five years ago declared a target by the military. The inevitable clash of guerilla and paramilitary forces displaced or killed almost the entire population. It now serves as a ghostly reminder of the civilian causalities in this armed conflict.
As night fell we finally arrived in Los Medios, a town fighting to live in peace amidst violence and situated in breathtaking mountains. We were received, as always, with generous hospitality and spent the night in the elementary/high school which is run with the help of the Fransiscan accompaniers. The community store of Los Medios, was just opened again in this past year. The communities we have visited have all spoken at length about these community stores. As they refuse to sell to any armed actors, they are put at risk by all armed actors and often find their stores destroyed and their merchandise taken. Usually, it is only with external or international accompaniment that these stores can be reopened and remain neutral.
The next day we hopped back into the chivero and headed down the mountain, where we eventually arrived in the tourist town of Guatape. There we met with an amazing group of women who made up the board of directors of AMOR (Eastern Regional Association of Women). These women astounded us with their devotion to healing the psychological effects of this conflict. Our meeting with them reminded us that
people from every class are affected by this conflict. The mostly middle-class women of AMOR have organized themselves into groups that deal with everything ranging from female citizenship training to political mobilization of women to sexual violence and grief circles.
From Guatape it was back to Medellin and a meeting with ACA (The Association of Campesinos). Representatives of ACA explained the dynamics of the displacement community of La Honda, our next stop. This Medellin barrio was constructed as high up as one can get on the mountainside of the city. We toured community gardens and a school that serves almost 1500 children and then descended down the careening
path towards the city.
The next morning we boarded a flight to Apartado, the city closest to the peace Community of San Jose de Apartado. We hopped into two chivas and headed to the recently established displacement camp of La Hollindita, or San Josecita. We met with the leaders of the community and toured the camp which has literally been constructed in the last 4 months, after a police post moved into the town center of San Jose.
Members of the peace community refuse to live with any armed actors, including those of the state. For this reason, they left all they had built behind and moved 20 minutes down the road to La Hollindita. This decision is a powerful and profound example of peaceful resistance.
The next day, we returned to La Hollindita, loaded up horses and mules with bags and delegates and began the two hour saunter up to La Union. A slow and winding ride through the mountains of Uraba was almost too amazing for words. The community of La Union greeted us warmly and gave us a wonderfully detailed history of the area and the formation of the peace community. And this is from where we write, laughing at how it took a long and winding horse ride to find time with the internet. Tomorrow we mount horses again and head back to Apartado.
In a few days we will be getting on flights back home, full of pictures and stories and a new analysis of the conflict in Colombia and the people who are fighting to create peaceful resistance. We are grateful for our wonderful leaders, Trish and Sarah as well as Denise and Danny who round out the FOR team on the ground here in Colombia.
We've been laughing a lot, too- so prepare yourselves for some stories that you most likely won't find as hilarious as we do. It has been wonderful to be a part of such a well-balanced team of people - it makes for a supportive and loving environment while struggling to absorb and make sense of this complex situation.
take care and we'll see you soon!
con esperanza y amor,
The Extreme Delegates
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In Peace,
Marcie Ley and John Lindsay-Poland
FOR Colombia Peace Program Fellowship of Reconciliation
Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean
2017 Mission St. #305, San Francisco, CA 94110
phone: (415) 495-6334, fax: (415) 495-5628
www.forusa.org
