gracias! y progress?

The past few weeks have been unrelenting in pace but, at times, hopeful in content. We have had a whirlwind of Colombian Senate, press, Embassy, police and Attorney General meetings in response to the June 2nd robbery at our house/office. Since FOR is the first international NGO to have an apaparently politically-motivated break-in, and since the timing of the beak-in dovetailed with Uribe's visit to the US lobbying for the support of the Free Trade Agreement, national and international organizations have taken notice in a way that has surprised us, and which we hope will make us, other international NGOs and the people we accompany safer. Click here to read about my alter ego, Yanisse Galagher's, response to the robbery in Spanish)

After this intense response, we were hoping to get back to the work we would like to concentrate on - working with Colombian peace organizations, supporting the peace community, and trying to improve US foreign policy towards Colombia. Instead, there was another break-in at an organization we work closely with. The offices of JustaPaz, which are about a 20-minute walk from our offices, were robbed. Again computers were taken and other valuables were left in plain sight. This same building also houses Witness for Peace, where most of my good friends in Colombia work, and which brings US delegations to Colombia to learn about US foreign policy here.

The computers taken from JustaPaz
contained sensitive information on people and churches that are active in work for peace and human dignity, and on people from churches that are victims and witnesses to human rights violations...The perpetrators passed by 9 other computers, telephones, a safe, etc., and removed two specific computers located at the other end of the office. They also broke into the desk of the coordinator for a program for protection of persons at risk. (For JustaPaz's complete statement, go to their website)

That this happened 12 days after our break-in is troubling. We had brought our last delegation to JustaPaz and have had contact with them since coming beginning the program, so this felt like another indirect attack on our work here, and against the people we all work with. Because of this, the letters people wrote to the Colombian Vice President's office and to the US Embassy are all the more important!! And they do make a difference - this week, we got a meeting with both offices which are usually hard, if not impossible, to get (OK, the VP's office cancelled at the last minute because he is traveling, but we will reschedule!). For those of you who wrote to the Embassy, you probably got this response
Dear Mr./Ms.xxx,
Thank you for writing.
?? Yes. That was it. No signature - nada. But we are meeting with human rights officials within the US government that we haven't before, and that is a result of the pressure that has been brought regarding this case and others. So thank you to all who wrote.

Conscientious Objector Hip Hop
This past weekend, Camila (my co-worker and superstar roommate) and I took a needed break from all the craziness and happenings in Bogotá here, and we headed to Cali, the salsa and party capital of Colombia to visit/accompany a hip hop group called Suporte Klan that we met at the Conscienctious Objectors conference in Medellin. They live in an AfroColombian community Villa Rica, about an hour outside Cali, and they do innovative skits about resisting participation in the war, US imperialism, and the lingering effects of racism in Colombia. The rap, really well, about pacifism, and have gained immense popularity in Colombia. And, to boot, they are good guys.

Vacation!
My sister comes today with her partner, and my parents come next week, to visit me in Colombia. I am beyond excited, and am looking forward to a break after a long, intense stretch of work. We are heading to the island paradise of San Andrés, closer to Nicaragua than Colombia, for some blissful beach time.

US Policy Update: From teammate AJ's blog
I was gooing to write abouit this, but AJ already did! Here is what's up:
More news from the land of the free indicates that the Foreign Affairs subcommittee of the House (the very same subcommittee I bemoaned in this here web space back in April) has decided to shift money away from Plan Colombia military aid and towards humanitarian aid. The house bill now contains a 55%-45% military-humanitarian aid split. Once taking into account the extra $150 million that goes to Colombian military aid out of the Defense Budget appropriations, that scores: Military Aid 65%, Humanitarian Aid 35%. Last year, also taking into account both the Foreign Ops and Defense appropriations, the military percentage was up at 83% and this year the administration requested 81% military aid. This seems a good time to reference the title of my blog. This is, I guess, some form of justice, limping very, very, very slowly. I remain skeptical and hesitate to call this piddling offering any kind of victory for human rights in Colombia.

For those of you back in the states, keep your ear to the ground as this legislation under the Foreign Aid Bill is set to hit the floor as early as today. Call or email your Representative and urge them to keep the 55-45 split intact. Republican Representatives are already rumored to be preparing a counter-amendment to rectify the perceived “imbalance”. In fact, my old pal, Dan Burton (R-IN), ranking republican of the Foreign Affairs subcommittee is at the front of the line, probably planning on introducing just such an amendment.

robbed

In the midst of our team retreat in paradisical Santa Fe de Antioquia this weekend, we got a call early Sunday morning that jarred us out of whatever tranquility we had found in the charming colonial town: our compañera Sarah called us from Bogotá to let us know that she had arrived at the house, and that all was not well.

She found the door to the apartment carefully splintered around the now-broken lock, and upon entering the apartment realized immediately that the two office computers had been taken, while curiously my passport and credit card had been laid carefully on my bed, almost as if on display. The television, the computer monitor, the fax and printer and other valuables were left, and at first we thought no valuables were taken...until we realized, curiously, that most of Camila's clothes and some US dollars were also stolen. All suitcases and smelly dirty clothes had been emptied throughout the house, and things were generally chaotic. Sarah related the scene to us, and we left our retreat immediately and headed home (we flew!).

This is scary for many reasons, primary of which is that it doesn't seem like just a normal robbery - they found and displayed valuables on my bed instead of taking them, they stole the things (computers) which clearly had the most information about FOR and our work, and they took a lot of care to steal very little of value - they disconnected the doorbell, took out the light bulbs from the hallway, and came at a time when almost no one was around the building...all presumably to lessen the possibility that they would be interrupted.

Because it appears that this was politically motivated, this has to have a political reaction. We, as FOR, need to respond in a way which shows whoever did this that there are large political costs to attacking an international human rights organization in this way.

So...what now? The theory behind our work here is that there is a large political cost to harming internationals, and specifically harming international human rights workers. Now is the time, then, to demonstrate that. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe arrives to the US tomorrow, and we want him to hear about this case during his visits with Congress people. We also want him to hear from US citizens that this type of attack on international human rights organizations is unacceptable.


So please, if you have a minute, send an email to Colombian Vice President and the US Embassy expressing
- your concern for the attack on FOR and for the security of the Colombian groups FOR accompanies;
- your desire for the authorities to carry out a prompt and complete investigation of the violation and to punish those responsible;
- the necessity of having the Colombian government publicly support the work of national and international human rights organizations in Colombia by issuing a presidential directive on human rights organizations (which would update an older, similar directive: Directive 7 of 2001 issued by President Andrés Pastrana.)

Their email addresses are:
Francisco Santos, Vice President of Colombia: fsantos@presidencia.gov.co
Milton Drucker, Chargé d' Affaires at the US Embassy in Colombia: AmbassadorB@state.gov

If you are a cut-and-paster, below are sample emails to each of them. These are two of the key contacts for FOR here in Colombia and therefore for improving ours and others' security, and receiving emails from everyone who reads this blog would really make a huge difference to our work here.

Thank you for your support...
Janice

To US Embassy:
Dear Milton Drucker,
I am writing to express my grave concern for the US-based Human Rights Organization FOR, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, which works to support human rights in Colombia. This past Saturday, June 2nd, their house/office was robbed in Bogotá. Although all burglaries are troubling, this one is particularly so because computers with sensitive information were taken, specifically about the work FOR does to support the peace community of San Jose de Apartado.

As a concerned US citizen and support of human rights, I would ask you to to urge the Colombian government to:
1) Do whatever possible to ensure the safety and respect for the work of FOR, their partner
organizations and the other national and international groups in Colombia who are working for human rights.
2) Carry out a thorough investigation into the FOR robbery.
3) Publicly support the work of national and international human rights organizations in Colombia by issuing a presidential directive on human rights organizations (which would update an older, similar directive: Directive 7 of 2001 issued by President Andrés Pastrana.)

Thank you for your attention in this matter,


To Francisco Santos:
Dear Vice President Santos,
I am writing to express my grave concern for the international Human Rights Organization FOR, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, which works to support human rights in Colombia. This past Saturday, June 2nd, their house/office was robbed in Bogotá. Although all burglaries are troubling, this one is particularly so because computers with sensitive information were taken, specifically about the work FOR does to support the peace community of San Jose de Apartado.

As a concerned US citizen and support of human rights,
I would ask you to:
1) Do whatever possible to ensure the safety and respect for the work of FOR, their partner
organizations and the other national and international groups in Colombia who are working for human rights.
2) To carry out a thorough investigation into the FOR robbery.
3) To publicly support the work of national and international human rights organizations in Colombia by issuing a presidential directive on human rights organizations (which would update an older, similar directive: Directive 7 of 2001 issued by President Andrés Pastrana.)

Thank you for your attention in this matter,


Here is FOR's statement:

Action Alert:
International Human Rights Group Records Stolen in Colombia

The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) denounces what appears to have been a politically motivated attack on its offices on June 2 in Bogotá, Colombia.

According to people who live in the same building as FOR, unknown persons forcibly entered the FOR house/office in Bogotá between 6 pm and 7 pm on June 2, breaking the lock and part of the door. The individuals stole the FOR’s two central computers that contain the organization’s records, including information on the accompaniment of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó. This community has been the target of attacks by the all the armed groups and is covered by protective measures issued by the Inter-American Court for Human Rights.

Recently, FOR has worked on delicate issues such as the murder of a member and ex-leader of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, Francisco Puerta; the use of demobilized combatants in army operations; and the presence of and threats by paramilitaries in the San José de Apartadó district. Additionally, given the documented collaboration between Colombian military and civilian officials at the highest levels and paramilitaries, FOR has led efforts to end United States military aid to the Colombian Army, and has been active in opposing the Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Colombia.

The individuals destroyed electronic equipment, including part of a satellite phone, stole clothing and cash but took out and did not steal a credit card and the passport of an FOR team members; as well as a television and other items of value that were in plain sight. In the days before the break-in, individuals had been observed watching the house on several occasions.

This incident constitutes a serious violation against an international human rights organization that gives protective unarmed accompaniment to threatened Colombians. The violation occurs in the context of threats against other human rights organizations working in Colombia, such as the Corporation for Juridical Liberty, which resulted in an urgent action alert issued by Amnesty International. Such a climate of intolerance is reflected in statements issued by Vice-President Francisco Santos at the Council of the Americas during his recent visit to Washington. According to the daily newspaper El Tiempo (May 25, 2007), the vice-president accused human rights organizations of being motivated by purely economic interests. The organizations refuse to recognize the Uribe administration’s efforts “perhaps because if they do the donor will withdraw large amounts of money. This is a business too and they would be without a job,” Santos said.

FOR continues its work of accompaniment of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, the Antioquia Peasant Association, the Youth Network of Medellín, and other Colombian groups that work for justice and peace using nonviolent means.

Click here for more info on who to contact, or here to see this in Spanish

CO article

Struggling to have the Freedom of Conscience respected amidst civil war:
The Colombian Conscientious Objectors’ movement

By Janice Gallagher

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. Without returning to his house, he was 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 which 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 Medellín 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.”

The reality for youth in Colombia today
In Colombia, forcibly recruiting youth to be involved in the over 40-year civil war has been regarded as just another tragic effect of the armed conflict. Over the past several years, however, an organized youth movement has emerged to challenge this aspect of the war. The movement’s premises are simple: they want the right to say no to participating in Colombia’s cycles of violence. Or, as Katedrá, a dancer with the Villarica Conscientious Objector hip hop group Soporte Klan explained “for me, liberty is the most important thing. I am awakened to do something in spite of all the difficulties we will face because today we are not free.”

Forced recruitment, or obligatory service, is carried out by every armed group within the Colombian civil war – the paramilitaries, the guerillas, and the “official” state army. While resisting recruitment by the “illegal armed actors” (the paramilitaries and guerrillas) is difficult, since by definition the groups and all of their activities are already illegal, the Conscientious Objectors have begun to seriously challenge the Colombian government’s right to obligate men over 18 to serve in the military.

Currently, all men over 18 must serve in the military unless they are displaced, indigenous, high school students, physically incapable of serving, heads of family themselves or the only child of their parents. Despite regulations guaranteeing youth the right to prove they are exempt from service, the most common form of military recruitment entails rounding up boys at places where they are likely to meet: at schools, parks, or dance and billiard halls, and whisking them off for their service without the opportunity (or, most likely, the information) to file for an exemption form service. Youth may “buy” their way out of military service for about $200, but this is not an option for many poor youth, and accordingly, poor youth make up the bulk of those that actually serve in the military.

Those who don’t succeed in obtaining the coveted libreta militar, or military service card, are denied opportunities for education and employment. Without the libreta, one cannot graduate from University or get a job with any private or public company, leaving only informal or illegal sector employment open to them.

As is true with many things in Colombia, there are written norms, regulations and laws, and then there is the way things really work. Often, youth never have a chance to prove that they are exempt. Often officials can be bribed into giving over the coveted libreta militar. And sometimes, officials decide to make an example of one person: In one case, a youth was displaced, the primary breadwinner in the family, a declared Conscientious Objector, and he was recruited illegally. He was recruited in November, and remains in the military despite numerous legal challenges on clearly valid grounds. After linking up with a local CO group to push his case, his mother has since asked that it be left alone, for fear of further repercussions against her son and her family.

Conscientious Objection in Colombia: A legal right?
There are two contradictory provisions in the 1991 Colombian Constitution: Article 18 in the section on fundamental rights guarantees that “nobody will be obligated to act against their conscience.” Article 216, in the section on the state forces, states “All Colombians are obligated to take up arms when the public interest necessitates in order to defend national independence and public institutions.” The Colombian Constitutional Court has ruled that there is no right to Conscientious Objection under Colombian law, citing Article 216. While this has obviously closed doors in the Colombian legal system, it has led the Colombian COs to look towards international law.

The UN’s Commission and Committee on Human Rights have long recognized the right of conscientious objection to military service “as part of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion enshrined in Article 18 of both the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. ” In January of 2007, however, the UN Human Rights Committee, the legal body that rules on UN human rights, more strongly affirmed this right than ever before: they decided that South Korea had violated Article 18 by not providing for conscientious objection to military service for two Jehovah’s Witnesses (in the case of Mr. Yeo-Bum Yoon and Mr. Myung-Jin Choi v Republic of Korea),

Why should Colombia listen to the UN? Well, Colombia is a “party to both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ratified 29 October 1969),” it recognizes in its constitution the legitimacy of international law over domestic law when they contradict, and it also signed something called the “First Optional Protocol” with the UN, which means individuals can bring cases directly to the UN when they feel Colombian law is contradicting international law.
Since the Colombian Constitutional Court clearly demonstrated that there are no more legal remedies in Colombia, the door is open at the Committee on Human rights to consider the Colombian case. In 2004, they already indicated what they thought about Colombia’s view of COs stating “The Committee notes with concern that the legislation of the State [Colombia] party does not allow conscientious objection to military service.
The State party should guarantee that conscientious objectors are able to opt for alternative service whose duration would not have punitive effects. ”

At this CO conference, participants discussed possible test cases to bring to the UN Human Rights Committee. In one case, a declared Conscientious Objector has been denied his diploma despite finishing his university coursework because he has not completed his military service. According to another recognized UN statute, this is discrimination based on CO status, which is illegal. The hope is that with a ruling against the Colombian CO position, Colombia would be pressured to change its legal ruling.

CO movement in Colombia:
What everyone at the conference recognized, and what officials said the next week when faced with the clear legal case for the recognition of Conscientious Objection in Colombia, was that without a strong Colombian and international lobbying effort for this right, there would not be sufficient political will to push this change. It was with this knowledge that last week’s conference participants shared their individual organizing strategies, developed ways for expanding their movement, and took to the streets on the final day to spread their message.

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 Medellín 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.

The Conscientious Objector Movement was born in 1988 in Colombia, and has started to build steam in the past several years, hosting four national conferences, and hosting their first international conference in June 2006. They have met since to arrive at their legal strategy and to bring together the thinking of the diverse group that makes up the COs.

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 knoiw 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.

colombian anti-privatization, buddhist poem, and COs

As has started to be the trend, the last couple weeks have been more intense than any to date. The Buddhists left, and that same day I flew up to Medellin and attended a weeklong Consciencious Objector conference (thanks to the generous sponsorship of one of the Buddhists who is also a Veteran for Peace and supporter of Consciencious Objectors). Consciencious Objection is not a recognized right in Colombia, though under the Constitution it should be. I am working on a long article about their efforts which I hope to have done in a couple days.

In the meantime, I returned to Bogotá, had lots of meetings with Embassies and Colombian officials concerning the safety of the community, particularly the humanitarian zones, and our concern about ongoing paramilitary-military cooperation. I droppped in on a HUGE national protest against privatization (specifically of the educational system and the TLC) and then Sunday I go to Medellín, where I will be doing a week-long accompaniment of the Campesino Association here.









This is a compilation of a series of poems the Buddhist delegation wrote. Have I mentioned that you should come on the August delegation?? Email me for more info.

Colombia is searching for a way of peace
Roosters make themselves known all day and night.
I was expecting rain but not this! Not this crash-bang-flash-smash-gush-rush or a flood-storm!
And after, it’s that horse sweat-river water-human-mud smell again
Slimy mango dribbles down my chin and I’d let it stay there forever
These fingers and eyes so open, softer than the rain
Still feeling the heat of the sun on my face, rain falls once more
I won’t forget that I speak this language, this world, with my whole heart
“I won’t forget you,” I said, “I swear”—and I don’t know her name or remember her story but it was not a lie.
Crumbling brick, shiny new high-rises
I learned that nothing is black and white.

Sign online Petition against Colombian Free Trade Agreement! Please

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/no_way_us-colombia_fta/index.html

found photos

Symptom of how hectic this month has been: My camera ran out of batteries two weeks ago, and today I had time to buy and put new batteries in, and discovered I had some pretty good pictures of things I had almost forgotten I had seen. For example, I saw crabs for sale on a rope while in Apartadó. So, gracias to my camera, here are some more memories from April...and a little of May.

Villavicencio: About 3 hours South East of Bogotá, gateway to the plains, home to my friend Toni, and famous for carne janera, a special tender kind of slow-roasted meat.


Mireille and I eating raw cacao, the seed you make chocolate out of. You actually just suck on the white fuzzy stuff on the outside of the seed, and then spit out the seed, because it is really bitter until it is roasted, ground, and then combined with sugar.
The Peace Community makes amazing cacao, and if anyone is, by any chance looking to import tons (literally) of cacao which is awaiting organic certification, or knows anyone who is, let me know. seriously.

A river crossing in Suesca, the paradise about an hour north of Bogotá where I try to go on the weekends.

A really really big ant in the Peace Community. There were lots of them, and they were as big as quarters. I don't think they bite, though I didn't test this theory.

A cross overlooking La Unión in the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, where I have spent a total of about two months.

As promised, crabs on ropes waiting to be sold in "downtown" Apartadó. The crabs are caught in the very dirty river that runs through town. I don't know if they are good...I have somehow restrained myself from trying them yet.

Cute puppies at Toni's house.

buddha rocks, uribe doesn't

a zen delegation

Of all things you might imagine me doing here...this blog update finds me in the middle of the amazingly quaint and historic Colombian town of Villa de Leyva on a Zen Buddhist retreat. Former FOR team member Sarah Weintraub organized a Buddhist delegation together with her mother, who is the former Abbess of the San Francisco Zen Center, and they have been here for the past couple of weeks meditating in the mornings and having a whirlwind of meetings and intensive exposure to the many sides of the Colombian peace movement and conflict for the remaining 12-16 hours a day. Meeting with the different groups, especially the families of victims of the violence, has been, as always, overwhelming, terribly sad, inspiring, confusing and educational all at once.

Buddhists eating at Crepes and Waffles, my favorite restaurant

For me, it has been a wonderful opportunity to learn from Sarah, who was in Colombia for over three years, who founded the Bogotá office almost two years ago, and is an experienced delegation leader. It has also been amazingly positive for me to have the opportunity to meditate and process this experience with the delegation. I have now been here almost six months, and especially in the last month of running around, I feel I almost haven't had time to breather, bathe, and sleep, much less really take time to process, integrate and feel all I am experiencing. For me, meditating has been like going out to coffee with myself many days in a row - I have taken time to really listen to what I am thinking for the first time in a long time.

I also have been missing the Unitarian Church and community, and after an attempt at the Mennonite church (good people! looong service, with an evangelical feel that felt very, umm, foreign to me), being with Buddhists has felt surprisingly like home. Their focus, at least in my eyes, is on being present and mindful, and on doing what you can to make the world a

Sarah at a restaurant in Bogotá. She
is indeed sitting under a converted
salon hair dryer, now lamp, facing a picture of Jesus

better, more peaceful place without needing to be attached to the results. The Delegation also met up with welcoming and warm Buddhist sanghas, or communities, in Bogota and Medellin, and I plan to stay in touch with these sanghas, and even go once in a while. Having a bastion of peace and serenity seems like a good thing while I'm doing this work.

During this retreat, I have finally had some time to write and reflect. A couple things in particular have stuck with me:
((This picture doesn't really fit here...but I took it while at the top of Montserrate with the delegation. It's Jesus. Holding a cross. On a mountain.))

Knowing enough to know you know nothing...
At a visit at the Canadian Embassy, the head of their Political Section told us that when he was training to come to Colombia, he was reading a lot, getting briefed by country experts, and that after about 18 hours of this one day, his superior said to him “you look a bit overwhelmed.” He nodded, and his superior said something like: “Remember this feeling. This is the height of your confidence about your knowledge of Colombia.”

I have found in these past two weeks how much more I knew than I realized I did, and how I know almost absolutely nothing about this conflict and this country. I know now that the big issues are...
*displacement (of over 3 million Colombians, mainly Afro-Colombian, indigenous and rural communities to the cities, and then the multitude of issues that come up around what to do with these millions of people),
*the para-political scandal (ie, the ties between government officials and terrorist “para-military” groups that have come to light recently. Paramilitary groups have brutalized the entire country since the 1980s, but especially human rights activists, community leaders, progressive politicians, and labor union leaders),
* the demobilization process <-- click here for a really interesting Amnesty International cartoon illustrating the basic flaws of this process. (the process of former paramilitaries receiving immunity in return for supposedly disarming and telling the truth, and the questions that have been raised about whether they’re really disarming, really telling the truth, and really going to stop brutalizing the country)

...but I have little grasp of where actual power lies, who is directing the violence, and which side or sides people/organizations and groups can be lumped together in. I don’t understand how the interrelationship between all the various groups and armed actors were formed, and I have no idea if anything is really being done or can be done to break the ties of people who for so long have conspired to spill so much blood. And finally, I don’t really understand how people – who look, feel, act and feel pain like the rest of us – have systematically kept up such staggering levels of violence.

In terms of my actions in respect to what I have learned, my belief that the protective and political accompaniment work FOR does is vital to the situation here has been reaffirmed: I am more convinced that in a situation as complex and historically entangled as the Colombian situation, my role as an American can not be to come here and tell people, in any way, how to fix their situation. However, if there is a way that I can make “space” for groups committed to peace to do their work more safely, and to also let people in the US know about their work, I am also convinced that these are important ingredients to an eventual peace. It feels right, in other words, to act by simply being present – to bear witness to the situation here.

The importance of good friends...again:

I have already written the blog entry where I talk about how the people really make the experience, that without dear friends to experience and talk with, it is hard for me to make meaning of some of what I am seeing...blah blah blah. But, it bares repeating. A good friend of mine, Toni, has recently moved to Colombia, essentially because the planets aligned and the world is good. She had planned to go to Chile, but at the last moment, ended up working with a new UN Refugee Agency in Colombia, not too far from Bogota. So, I have managed to see her almost every weekend during this crazy month, and shared good time in Villavicencio, another beautiful colonial town which sits on the edge of the mountains and the plains, and which is famous for it's rockin' special brand of Colombian music...which is characterized by harp plucking.


URIBE: Loved or Hated?
Uribe was in the US recently, as you may have heard, and he received some serious questions from Democrats about the para-political scandal, an appropriately chilly reception from Nanacy Pelosi, and also particularly received some flac regarding the veracity of his favorable poll numbers. One thing we have been talking about a lot on this delegation is how polling is done: Polling in Colombia is done by telephone, usually within the three biggest cities: Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali, which inherently leaves out a considerable chunk of the rural and non-telephoned city dwellers...all of whom are statistically not as economically well-off, and relatedly not as pro-Uribe, as the telephoned urban residents. Uribe seems stunned that with poll numbers "as high a 75%" (as the US Embassy quoted to us this week) in Colombia, he is getting such a hard time in the US. But since those poll numbers have a flawed base...clinging to his impressive poll numbers as evidence of his success and popularity seems to make a less compelling case for him that it might first appear.

My (kinda lack of) fears
Before coming here, I did an exercise with my minister to address my worst fears about being here: I talked about my fear of being physically harmed doing this work and what that would do to my loved ones, I talked about not being able to prevent harm being done to those I worked with, and about seeing atrocities happen in front of me.

After six months here, the delegation I have been helping to lead brainstormed their fears, and I also took time to think about what I was scared about. I said I was scared of not being able to translate well during meetings, of not being able to provide people deep enough insight into the conflict, and scared that I/them would be too sick to be fully present on the delegation. These are, of course, a far cry from the fears I had coming in here.

Why? Most obviously, Bogotá, Medellín and the Peace Community have been, knock on wood, experiencing a relatively safe period, compared with things even a year ago. In my last entry, I talked about there being a logic behind almost all of the violence that happens here, (save common street crime) and according to that logic, I am not a target. I am not living in one of the “hot” zones in the country, and so I have not been near combat, and when I do travel to these zones, all the military (and, it can be guessed, paramilitary leaders) know I am coming as a member of FOR, and I think this makes a difference. When I came I was reluctant to go to the community because of safety concerns, and now I am trying to figure out how to get back there for more time.

The current FOR team...the fabulous female five. Men are allowed...they just didn't make the cut this time!

Gabi, one of my dearest friends who I have traveled with and lived with on four continents, warned me about letting my guard down after being here for a while. She emphasized that when you live for long enough in a dangerous context, you can become desensitized to the danger. I think that, unavoidably, this has happened to me to some extent. That despite her warning, I am getting comfortable. I hope I am also becoming better-informed and more able to make decisions that will keep me and my teammates safe. What I know, however, is that I am not walking around scared. I feel aware and alert, especially in new areas or areas I know to be difficult, but I am not spending sleepless nights...even when I am in the community. I hope that this comfort is not numbness. knock on wood.

sickness

Get your shots:
I ended up staying in the community and/or Apartadó for almost an extra two weeks in order to accompany my teammate AJ while she made daily visits to the hospital for injections to treat leptospirosis, typhoid fever and bacteria. AJ has been in Colombia since mid-November, about two weeks longer than I have, but has spent nearly the entire time in the community. She appears to be on the mend, and is now on vacation in the US, but her sickness was a reminder that simply surviving in the community is a major task. Mayra, who arrived just over a month and a half ago and has been in the community for just a month, now also has leptospirosis.
(here are the women of FOR representing at AJ's bedside. That is an iv of leptospirosis-typhoidfever-fighting-rehydrating-stuff in her arm)


Political Violence:
When I first got here and started to read about the almost never-ending violence in Colombia, and to talk with those most affected by this violence, the mothers of the disappeared, people who have had to flee their homes, I often thought: well, at least the US doesn’t have this level of violence. This was reflected in my father’s column he wrote about my work here, where he commented that though there had been some mud-slinging in the Hilary Clinton Senate reelection campaign, a least no one is physically harmed.

When I read Stephen Dudley’s book “Walking Ghosts,” which details the genocide conducted in the 1990s against the leftist political party “Unidad Popular,” or Popular Unity, in which over 3,000 members, organizers and politicians were killed, what struck me was that when the genocide started, the party didn’t notice what was happening, because political violence has become so common. Can you imagine in the US it going “under the radar” that 10s then 100s of, say, Green Party members are being killed?

It is an easy, and I think almost natural, gut reaction to think that something must be wrong with Colombia and maybe even Colombians, that this violence is so rampant. It feels like the value on human life has been degraded so thoroughly that there must be something broken in the social fabric of the country.

But then...you dig a little deeper, read a couple articles, and turns out that this source of this violence, those who literally contracted killings, sold arms, provided trainings to these killers, are Americans. The most recent revelations indicate that two American companies, Drummond and Chiquita, are behind much of the violence. Chiquita, formerly known as United Fruit Company, is implicated specifically in Urabá, the area where San José de Apartadó is located. They are accused of paying to have union leaders disappeared, and directly paying off the paramilitary groups to do their bidding. So, though our soil goes largely untouched in terms of political violence, we are effectively exporting it.

Reflections on Virginia Tech
Almost a month ago I started this blog entry contrasting the violence in Colombia to that in the United States, and talking about how the US, while peaceful overall, has actually introduced and escalated much of the violence in Colombia and in other parts of the world, so that why we don’t have to see it on a daily basis, we have participated in it nonetheless. And then, just as I was about to post it, I heard about the tragic Virginia Tech massacre, and decided to wait.

In Colombia, there is a war that causes the staggering violence, so even though there is no end in sight to the violence here, it does feel like it at least has a logic. That there is political pressure that can be mounted to end the violence, that systems of accountability can be designed by strengthening institutions - somehow makes it feel ultimately surmountable. The Virginia Tech massacre feels scarier in some ways because it is not clear how or if the causes can be addressed.

Ultimately, though, the violence in these two places does feel linked to me. To me, US policy both actively and passively promotes violence, and exacerbates already difficult situations. Would the Virginia Tech massacre have happened if we had strict gun laws which prohibited the gunman from attaining those guns? Maybe, but his easy access to so many weapons and ammo certainly facilitated the carnage. Would Colombians still be engaged in a civil war without the US government funding and training one side? And without Americans’ consumption of cocaine, which gives money to both sides of the conflict? Probably, but again the levels of violence and the loss of human life would certainly not be as devastating.

technological oblivion

somehow, time has gotten away from me in the past month...and if I have faithful readers, I apologize profusely for the dry spell in blog entries. It has been a long, frustrating month, punctuated by every technological gadget I touch turning to dust. Upon returning from the community to Bogota, I found I had no hot shower, no phone, no internet, no gas to cook with, that my computer no longer connects to the internet, that my cell phone wouldn´t charge, and that my ipod only liked to play 2 songs before ¨resting.¨ And why you ask did all these things happen? For absolutely no discernable reason. I am reminded daily that there are much worse fates than the gods and goddesses of technology telling you not-so-subtley that it is time to take a technological hiatus, but it has been frustrating to be cut off from friends and family...and has been made worse by the fact that this month we have been in high gear planning for a delegation of Buddhists. This means that if you had been in Bogota in April, you would have seen Janice and her teammates wandering fairly aimlessly between internet cafes and telephone places setting up a a 2 and 1-2 week trip for this group. They are here now, I am again camped out at an internet cafe, and will write soon when I have more than 5 minutes to spare about the many many things going on here. Big abrazos...

Progress(?) in 2005 Peace Community Massacre Investigation

A journalist and photographer from the Chicago Tribune visited us right before the international encuentro in the peace community. They wanted to know whether peace community members hailed the tentative steps forward the Attorney General had taken in the investigation into the 2005 massacre as a sign that impunity is coming to an end. Here is what they found...

Click here to see the photo essay the did with teammate AJ!

Fighting impunity in Colombia
The massacre sparked international outrage and could jeopardize U.S. aid. Will security forces finally be brought to justice?

By Gary Marx
Tribune foreign correspondent
Published April 1, 2007

LA UNION, Colombia -- Two years ago, 17-year-old Bellanira Areiza and seven other peasants were hacked to death with machetes in the lush hills outside this picturesque hamlet in northwest Colombia.

Community leaders say five residents saw men in Colombian army uniforms take away the victims, and nine others later heard soldiers bragging about the killings. But, until now, the Colombian government's investigation into the massacre went nowhere.

Atty. Gen. Mario Iguaran announced in late February that 69 members of the army's 17th Brigade were being called in for questioning about the killings, which continue to spark international outrage and could jeopardize U.S. aid to Colombia.

Some observers hailed the announcement as a tentative step toward ending the near impunity enjoyed by Colombian security forces that have committed murders and other crimes during this nation's decades-long civil conflict

"We've always kept hope that one day justice will be served for all the blows that we've had to endure," said Renato Areiza, 28, Bellanira's brother and a community leader in La Union. "But we are afraid that this will end in impunity, as always."

The investigation is complicated by the fact that witnesses are in hiding and refuse to cooperate. At least four residents who provided information to investigators about other atrocities have been killed, Areiza said.

Iguaran acknowledged the community's distrust but vowed to press ahead. "I can't say what this means for the country, but at least for the attorney general's office it's a sign that we are trying to demonstrate that we have clarity and determination in the fight against impunity," he said in a recent interview.

The investigation comes as Colombian President Alvaro Uribe suffers his worst political crisis since taking office in 2002.

To read the entire article, click here

10-year Anniversary Celebration

In the short time I have spent in the community, I have become accustomed to seeing members of the community on an everyday basis. I talk with them about their cacao harvest, when their next trip down to San Josesito will be, their health and how their children are. Sometimes people tell me their stories of what they have been through during the war, giving me one person´s perspective through which to see the community´s history of nonviolent resistance. Our awareness of this history in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds has brought me, to some extent, to Colombia to do this work.

During the international celebration of the 10th anniversary of the peace community, however, this history lived in a way which I have not seen before. The community came together and invited the participants to join them in remembering ten years full of both triumph and almost unimaginable loss and violence. They held a silent march through downtown Apartado, an eight mile walk from the community. On this march, each community member and some internationals carried small coffins with the name of one of the 178 community members that has been killed in the last ten years. They left these coffins at the foot of the Attorney General´s office in silent protest of the fact that every one of these murders has remained unpunished. The night before, they held a mass and candlelight vigil over these same coffins. On the return from the march, the 50 or so internationals and the other Colombians, together with the community members, mounted crosses along the road from San Jose to Apartado to mark places where community members had been killed.

Along with memorializing those that have died in this stuggle, the community celebrated what they have accomplaished and imagined what the future will hold. During the 5-day event, they talked about how they, together with 15 other communities who are committed to non-violent resistance to the armed conflict, will continue to build the “Universidad Campesina” which will focus on developing an educational model that liberates the children of these communities and sharing best practices around agricultural production, the possibilities of producing for the fair trade market, and marketing amongst other things. They had a workshop on better understanding the so-called “Justice and Peace” Law, which in fact guarantees that the vast majority of paramilitaries will never be punished for the human rights atrocities they have committed, and talked about the implications of this. And then the children danced in celebration of their culture, others played the anthem of the community, and we all ate the rich, wonderful food made in the community from crops they themselves had raised. And throughout, the community members talked, to the representatives from Colombian indigenous communities, to the Belgian government officials, to the international accompaniers, and to the other rural communities, about how to build on what they had already accomplished.

The team felt that we were privileged to be accompanying this event, and also to be part of the process of thinking through how we will continue to support the project of the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado in the future.




Community Members in front of a school in San Jose de Apartado, the community which they had to leave in 2005 when a police post was established here. The
sheet they are holding says:
"The principles: The Community Freely commits to:
1) Participating in Community Work
2) Saying no to injustice and impunity
3) Not participating in the war directly or indirectly, nor carrying any weapons
4) Not giving any information to any armed actor

Anniversary of Peace Community

A week after Bush's visit, and things have settled down. I am off to the Peace Community to accompany their ten-year anniversary. A new teammate, Mayra Moreno, has arrived, and after exciting meetings in Medellin this week and in Bogota, where we met with youth organized to be consciencious objectors, we are happy to be in Apartadó.

Bush comes to Bogotá

Bush came to Colombia today for six hours to meet with embattled Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. In the midst of scandal over many Uribe political allies' involvement with paramilitary groups, who are accused of horrendous human rights violations, Bush met with Uribe to discuss the Free Trade Agreement pending in Congress and the "progress" that has been made under Plan Colombia.

Bogotanos, in return, took to the street. From Wednesday through today protests took place throughout the city against Bush's visit. This week has demonstrated to me the broad-based opposition to Bush's policies in Colombia, and also brought into sharp relief how a small number of violent (anti-Bush) protestors can undermine and endanger collective peaceful resistance. What perhaps you have already seen on the news are the images of protestors kicking, throwing things, etc. What I saw today were about 2,000 non-violent protestors, including kids with their mothers, a man who is about to lose his job at a telephone company because of neoliberalism, a 24-year old who talked to me about the natural and cultural richness of her country, and a high school teacher who objects to Uribe, Colombia's president, being put into power by paramilitary forces and the US, not by the pueblo - the people. There were also a 100 or so violent youth throwing rocks amidst the rest of the non-violent protestors. As a result, police dispersed the protest after less than two hours with tear gas, and then later water hoses. Here are some pictures of what I saw:



Bush out of all of the galaxy




















Do you know why he came? He came to "mess with" you






street theatre, enacting the misery that Bush causes in Colombia, following the tear gassing and dispersion of the march









Demon Bush, Assassin & Terrorist: Out! Out! Out! of our Colombia! We want to be free!














Bush out of Colombia and out of Latin America

Anti-Bush protests day 2

"Out of Colombia...Bush is a terrorist to liberty."

The protests picked up today, with at least 5 tanks, 300 police and 200 "hooded" students throwing rocks and small explosives at the police around the corner from my apartment. I live next to the National University, the largest and best university in the country and, I was informed, Latin America. After seeing a friend to the airport, I took the bus back only to find the road to my house closed and teargas spilling down the street. I know now why they call it tear gas...as I teared for a while at the fumes. There was no confusion today at what was being protested, as students chanted "resistence! down with imperialism," and American flags were burned in downtown Bogotá. Things reportedly will only continue to pick up until Sunday, when Bush arrives.

It is intense, and I would say inspiring to see so many students out protesting (though the rock-throwing is, well, the opposite of inspiring). The vast majority of students attending the rally were peaceful, and unlike some protests I've been to in the US, when I "interviewed" protest onlookers for this blog, all students at the National University, they all knew why they were there, and wanted to let me know: some excerpts:

- We are here protesting the TLC (the pending Free Trade Agreement with Colombia) becuase it will destroy our economy, use up our natural resources, and eliminate indigenous communities.


- We know that Plan Colombia is really a counter-insurgency plan more than having anything to do with helping our country out socially. The money goes to help the armed forces, who 1 year ago killed a student, Oscar Salas, in one of these demonstrations. We are indignant that Bush is coming to a place where he is just destroying society, which is what the US has always done here...

- Diana, 18, National University student studying law: We are against the policy of armed conquering that the US carries out in colombia, against the repression that is carried out here.

- Christian, 18, National University student studying law: This is also a protest against Uribe [Colombian president and close Bush ally], who is in the middle of selling this country, and worsening the existing inequality

Bush comes to Colombia

Well, today was a nice and normal day in the office. I woke up early and finished a translation about how the Free Trade Agreement, or TLC by its Spanish acronym, would hurt the working standards and environment of Colombia. Then I finished some notes about the meetings we had been in last week, and then I went to lunch with a friend. On the way back from lunch, I noticed there were students lining my street, tanks in front of the entrance to the National University, which is the largest university in the country and also around the corner from my house, and that people all had their faces covered because they were running away from tear gas. Hmmm...not normal to me, I noted, but after speaking with several people, who looked amazingly unperturbed at what was happening, they assured me that this was nothing; that it was a relatively small, tranquilo protest.

See, the 50-or-so students, all wearing hoods to cover their faces from the tear gas but also to hide their identities, were mainly throwing rocks, not “papas,” or potatoes, homemade small bombs, and the riot police were using a high-powered hose and tear gas to control the student protesters, not live ammunition. There were no injuries reported on either side.

I then spent a surreal hour standing with the gathered students. Apart from sometimes lobbing more rocks and cement over the fence of the university so that the students inside the fence would have more ammo, they just looked on, occasionally running if the police came closer and threw tear gas our way, sometimes hooting to let the students know that the police were sneaking around the back of the tank to get nearer to them and throw tear gas grenades (not the technical term) at them. I asked a couple people what was going on, and the first answer I got was that tomorrow is International Women’s Day, and this was a...protest/celebration of that? Didn’t make sense to me either, so the next three people confirmed that this was in anticipation of President Bush’s Sunday visit.

This picture reads "The United States provides the money, Colombia provides the dead - No to Plan Colombia"

Bush will be in Colombia for about 6 hours this Sunday, and there are said to be at least 21,000 Colombian police preparing for his visit, which will entail army checkpoints and closing down some of the roads in Bogotá. There is a large protest planned in central Bogotá by the opposition political party. Colombians are particularly focused on opposing the Free Trade Agreement right now, as it will be voted on by Congress in the four months or so. Among other issues, like NAFTA and CAFTA (the Central American version), the Free Trade Agreement with Colombia would make small farmers unable to compete with US agrobusinesses, make medicine unaffordable to all but the very richest portion of society, and have the effect of futher concentrating wealth in the hands of the few. Here are some excerpts from our website which give some details of why it is so bad for

Farmers, indigenous people, Afro-Colombians...
*Agriculture is the third most important sector in terms of employment in Colombia, with 22.7% (almost double the figures for employment in the industrial sector, which generates 13.%), and provides 11.4% of GDP. Given that 12 years of NAFTA and the resulting flood of low-cost corn, wheat and beef imports from the U.S. that has been a major contributor to the displacement of 1.7 million small scale Mexican farmers, the potential negative impact on Colombian peasants, indigenous and Afro-Colombians is real. For example, significantly privileged under the agreement is Colombian palm oil -- the very same crop that is promoting violence and displacement among Afro-Colombian communities in the Chocó region. Since opening Colombia’s market to compete with the U.S. will actually lead to more human insecurity, U.S. trade policy in Colombia is inconsistent with the stated goals of the U.S. government’s drug war policy.

Human Rights... The picture below reads: Yankees out of Colombia, and out of the whole world! See, everyone hates the Yankees

* The U.S.-Colombia FTA lacks meaningful provisions to strengthen human rights protections. With regard to labor rights, the FTA only requires countries to effectively enforce their own labor laws, with no incentive to bring weak laws and enforcement up to the International Labor Organization (ILO) core labor standards. The enforcement and penalty mechanisms in the labor chapter of the U.S.-Colombia FTA are so weak that they provide no credible influence over the multinational corporations or Colombian government. Meanwhile, Colombia continues to be the most violent place in the world for trade unionists. According to the National Labor School (ENS) in Colombia, 70 trade unionists were murdered in 2005. Wages and working conditions in all countries will be hurt if trade pacts continue to encourage corporations to race to the bottom in workers’ rights.

People who think differently than Bush/Uribe...* In this picture, to the right of a crossed out Uncle Sam, President Bush is drawn with Colombian President Alvaro Urbe's head on his knee.



The conflict in Colombia is deeply rooted in economic, social, and political inequalities. Wealth and land remain concentrated in the hands of a few and Colombia’s political system neglects the needs of the majority of the population...Political and economic marginalization has already stoked widespread protests and political insecurity. However, dissent has been met with harsh repression. For example, on May 15, 2006 a national summit was called by Afro-Colombians and Indigenous leaders across fourteen provinces in Colombia to protest against the FTA and militarization. Tens of thousands of people who came out were met with severe repression, resulting in many deaths.




A Colombian eating a sandwich, taking in the protest and awaiting some movement by the riot police.