Newsletters

Date: March 11th 2009

"Removing Masks and Blinders"

A few days ago and with much energy a pastor told us that the Presbyterian Church of Colombia (IPC) sees its role is to walk with the poor and displaced of Colombia. Along with other churches and social service organizations it is called to "take the mask off the government and the blinders off people's eyes." He went on to say, "This is very difficult. The IPC and others get accused of only thinking of the things that are wrong, of being pessimistic, and even of being tied to the terrorists."

On what does the government need to be called? What masks need to be taken off? Here follow a few of the answers that have emerged while we have listened. We know that these answers will be of help to us, and we hope for you, in advocating for greater awareness of fundamental human rights for the poor, dispossessed and victims of violence in Colombia.

• Government Assertion: Violence has been reduced
• Response: Colombian Vice President Santos in his recent visit to the United States spoke of the reduction in violence, and there has been a reduction in the number of kidnappings and assassinations. However, there were still 16,000 people killed in 2008 and this figure does not include those who may have died of malnutrition or preventable illnesses because they did not receive resources to which their Constitution and laws entitle them. The number of displaced persons has grown from around 2 million in 2006 to over 4 million. The living conditions in which many find themselves do great violence to the very fundamentals of social and physical health. Many of these persons are subject to severe delay and blockage in becoming registered as displaced. The day after we arrived in Barranquilla, we learned of a young child who died just days before because his mother lacked the proper papers when she hurried him to the hospital.

• Government Assertion: The paramilitary forces have been successfully disarmed
• Response: In 2006 32,000 paramilitaries turned in their arms and received government benefits under the Justice and Peace Law. However, there are others who have formed new groups and some of those who turned in their arms have returned to the fight.

• Government Assertion: Lands taken illegally by agribusiness have been returned
• Response: There may be instances were this has occurred, but some illegally taken lands are now farmed by paramilitaries or members of the Colombian congress. Additionally the way to petition for return of the land is highly cumbersome, costly and unevenly administered. While at Finca Mora, we encountered one displaced person who had gone through nearly endless hoops in the land restoration process. Another was told merely to write a letter. At this time, neither has received a decision even though their lands were taken from them several years ago.

And what blinders need to be removed from people's eyes?

Response: Many displaced people are unaware of their rights. Article 64 of the Colombian Constitution states that it is the obligation of the State to promote access to land by agricultural workers, individually and collectively, as well as access to education, health care, housing, social security, recreation, credit, communication, marketing, and technical assistance with the goal of increasing the income and bettering the life of the small farmer. A law passed in 1997 (Law 387) specifically applies these constitutional provisions to persons who have been displaced.

When people grow aware of their rights they find they must pass through a many stage process of evaluation and review. Procedures adopted in 2000 require that those displaced must register in order to be eligible for benefits. Registration itself involves interviewing the applicant, the filing of reports on the applicant, evaluation of the applicant by a government office, investigation of the land by the government, determination by the government of the economic feasibility of returning to the land. The process is long and cumbersome. Many displaced persons have receive nothing more than 3 months of food assistance.

The IPC has chosen to walk with displaced people—by educating them about their rights; by providing space—both physical and spiritual, so that they can themselves reclaim their dignity and their rights; by ensuring that others both within Colombia and internationally are aware of the circumstances in which displaced people live, whether they be victims of violence from the paramilitaries, the guerrillas, the military or other government agencies; and by sharing their faith through their love and the bringing or strengthening of hope. In other words the IPC has consciously chosen to be a life giving presence for the victims of violence here in Colombia even though they are sometimes threatened and in the past a few have been kidnapped.

Will we too chose to be life giving in what we do? How can we as U.S. Americans be life giving to our brothers and sisters in Christ here in Colombia? Our sisters and brothers request our assistance in bringing about systemic change by speaking with our representatives and Senators about the following pieces of legislation:

1. Plan Colombia (U.S. multi-billion dollar assistance program) – Currently approximately two-thirds of Plan Colombia dollars go towards security—military equipment, fumigation of coca that also destroys food crops and turns fertile land into a waste land, and police. Imagine if instead that money went to buying farm land so that displaced persons would have the dignity of work rather than the need to beg, as well as education, housing, health care and other social needs. Where there is justice there is peace and where there is peace there is life.

2. Free Trade Agreement –This will enrich the corporations that have taken land from small farmers in order to create large plantations of palm oil and other export crops that provide neither food nor economic benefit for the vast majority of the Colombian people.

3. School of the Americas (Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation)--This training center currently at Fort Benning, GA, has for years trained Latin American military officers who have consistently been found to abuse human rights.

We, on behalf of our brothers and sisters here, urge you to write and/or speak with your representative and senators requesting that their votes be life giving by restricting any monies appropriated in Plan Colombia to social services; that they vote against the Free Trade Agreement which only further impoverishes our brothers and sisters and to close the School of the Americas.

Grace and peace,

Ruth Noel and Steve Doughty (svdoughty@aol.com)