Newsletters

Date: February 27th 2008

As I write about serious issues in Colombia related to human rights, I hope the story of the people's optimism can shine through as well.

Currently I'm asking questions related to these points: 1) We are a people that have the freedom to question our government. 2) Should our international policy towards other countries be solely our own economic self-interest or should it go beyond that? 3) What are the best ideas for international policy regarding Colombia?

Before I left for Colombia, people asked, "What exactly are you going to be doing in Colombia? Are you going to build something? Are you going to teach or do some sort of project?" In the United States I was used to hearing about poor people who needed assistance. I heard about starving children because of famine. I heard of Rotary International working to eradicate diseases. I led a youth group to help finish a building on a Native American Reservation. All over the world there are poor families—even in the U.S. What's so unique about Colombia? Helping the social services needs of the poor is valid. However, the people here are able to provide social services, do their own building, and do work with their own people. My objective here was always meant to be different. Deeper questions had been asked. Why are these people poor? Are they being treated fairly?

My work here is to accompany people who are standing up for the poor. This means I am spending time with them as they ask the tough questions related to the questions I listed above. I am befriending church workers, lawyers, and college student advocates to listen to their stories. They are asking their own questions. What is our organization's role in the conflict in Colombia? What is our social role? What is our civic duty? Should we question our leaders? Can we question the policy of our government? I confess I have taken this freedom for granted in the United States. This freedom was important to our founding fathers in the new democracy. They sacrificed to bring us that freedom. What if our lives were threatened because we questioned our government? What if we were in danger because we advocated for a change in the way our nation did things?

Before I came to Colombia, I had visions of myself surrounded by green jungle next to military warriors in fatigues sleeping in a small room over a shabby non-profit office. Over the last 4 weeks, the reality is that I am in a major city, on a beautiful university campus, getting to know hip people that I would love hanging out with in the United States. They are university professors, lawyers, teachers, college kids, and educated church and human rights leaders.
As I examine these issues, I have been able to visit places and people that are directly affected by many military and political forces at play here in Colombia. Like most conflicts in life, the cause of the problems here are multidimensional. When I ask people what they think about their situation, each person starts their answer with "Es muy complicado.—It's very complicated." There are no easy answers.

My first days here, I was overwhelmed with a sense that this was an opportunity of a lifetime. Of course, I've had fun enjoying "Carnaval," other parties, great new friends, the nightlife here, gorgeous weather (what a winter to miss!), and advancing my Spanish skills. But these aspects, plus the opportunity to learn the public policy in the country and with such bright minds, have come together as a gift I will always cherish. I have the opportunity to hear stories and information of the people and their struggle for freedom here in Colombia.

One of these men I'll call Santiago began this story: "It is very sad what I see and know. It is very sad the story of them." It's hard for the people to tell him their stories because they are reliving those experiences. He continues, "I am able to tell one story of one woman in 1997 that lived in a mountain of the state of Antioquia." One afternoon, one group of paramilitaries came to her house, and killed her husband and her two older boys. They told her she better leave because her family collaborated with the guerillas. They had not really, but that's what they were accused of. She came to live close to Santiago's house with her other four children. The smallest one was still in her arms. She had lived 15 days in the area, when the chief of one of the armed actors came with the army. They told her she had to leave and she could never come back. She went to Santiago and asked him to take her to a nearby bigger city. She had noth ing. Only her children. And a lot of fear. That year, Santiago was driving an ambulance. He had to decide if he would help her and take a chance that he too would be assassinated. That was the only way of taking people from that place was by ambulance. If they left another way they would be attacked. Santiago finally decided to take her in the night with her kids and nothing else. She would leave with absolutely nothing—no food and no clothing. They arrived in the city at 1:00 in the morning in the morning of a wintry rainstorm. It was a very sad moment for Santiago because they had no place to go. When he dropped them off, they didn't know the city. He let them out and they went under a bridge to protect themselves during the winter storm. He never heard of them since. He hopes they are alive. While here in Colombia, he and others have told me there are many, many stories like this.

Who would target these human rights workers? Why would anyone want to threaten and kill church workers? What group is cutting down people who stand for freedom of speech, freedom of petition, and the democracy we espouse in the United States?

Santiago told me, "In my pueblo both the FARC (rebel group) and the AUC (paramilitary) have left victims." It would be real easy to say the problem is only the FARC. On February 4th, there was a march "NO MAS FARC!"-- No more FARC! He continued, "My position is that the church needs to march in the defense of life, there are no other marches, but in defense of life."

Here is where it gets complicated. The two groups are fighting over land and the rural farmers are caught in the middle. Let's pretend it's group A fighting with Paramilitary group B. One group will come to the farmers under threat of a gun and force them to give them something that helps their group. Group B will come and accuse that farmer and say that that farmer helped group A or vice versa. The farmer and/or family will be killed or intimidated and will have to flee to a city or somewhere to get help. A pastor, human rights worker, or lawyer will try to help the farmer with their rights and their livelihood. The pastor, human rights worker, or lawyer will then be targeted and/or intimidated by the group (usually the paramilitary) and accused of being a terrorist and helping terrorists. Seven lawyers were assassinated in 2007 in Barranquilla (a city of 2 million people).

The leaders here allege that the paramilitary is supported and tied to the government. If a social justice worker does anything to stand up for the displaced person, they too are labeled as a terrorist, threatened and/or killed. At the very least, anything done against the social justice worker by the paramilitary is ignored by the government.

It would be nice for me to report that the government and paramilitary is a shining example of first amendment freedoms. It would be nice to report that the guerilla groups are the bad guys and the government is the good guy in this story. However, the people here give a different account. It seems incredible to me that a government would be linked in with displacing its own people. Why would a government allow murder, intimidations, and threats to continue?

But my eyes do not deceive me. I see a group of 120 displaced families trying to farm and survive after leaving their homes. I read newspaper articles of a government that has promised to help the displaced to find new farms and new lives and then turn around and then try to give those new farms to large agribusinesses instead. I read non-profit web sites in the U.S. that confirm the stories that are being told. It's weird to have dinner with a friend, who is risking his life to help the displaced. It is weird to have a conversation where he tells you that his friend was killed 2 weeks ago in the kind of scenario I described above. The people I am talking with are leaders, and they are trying to courageously stand up for the rights of the poor here in Colombia.