Newsletters

Date: July 22nd 2010

Displacement in Colombia: One Community's Story
from Elizabeth Ingraham and Anne Sayre, July 19th 2010.

This week we had a really powerful conversation with an amazing woman. She is the leader of a group working with people who have been displaced, families of victims, and those who are threatened. She herself has been repeatedly threatened and was almost abducted when entering a cab because of the work she is doing for those suffering injustice. Olga's job is overwhelming, but she relentlessly perseveres in the face of heartache and threats to her safety.

Olga was kind enough to sit down with us and tell us about a community in desperate need of help and change.

The community was made up of 52 families. They were a farming community that operated as a successful cooperative. As often happens in Colombia, the families were forcibly removed from their fertile land. Typically, the motivation for these removals is for large land owners to take the land to grow palm oil trees and/or coca. During the invasion, people were killed, disappeared, and women and young girls were raped. The surviving families were moved to an area that lacked basic resources such as water, sewage, and adequate housing.

Eventually, human rights organizations came to their aid, helping the families find courage to speak up, understand their rights, name those who were killed, report rapes, and demand their land back. After 5 years, with help from human rights organizations, they were able to build a strong legal case and reclaim their land.

At the time of their return, the families were told the local paramilitary group had demobilized. However, Olga told us that the demobilization was simply a façade to appease human rights organizations and sway international opinion. The same armed group continues to cause psychological and physical harm to the people. The community's legal representative was killed. As a result of his death, the people are living at the edge of their property and return at night to farm. Recently, the new human rights legal representative has received a threat to his life. To further complicate the issue, the mayor of the town is related to a congressman currently incarcerated for drug trafficking and is no help to the people. This illustrates the complexity of the related systems oppressing the people and demonstrates the importance of identifying not only the perpetrators of the violence, but the people behind the acts.

Olga spoke of how alone the human rights advocates feel, and therefore gave thanks for the work of Presbyterian accompaniers and others who stand in witness to the violence.

Much of what we are telling you is very sad, but we find hope through the constant faith and determination we have seen in so many people. PC(USA) mission co-worker Mamie Broadhurst challenged us with a poignant question: If violence is so great in a place that we are too afraid to travel there, then what are we doing to help those who are living there? To strengthen hope, we can become more informed, educate friends about the situation, and be politically active in addressing US policy in Colombia. Most importantly, we can all pray for the people of Colombia, and the work being done by the partnership between the Colombian and the US Presbyterian Church.

Blessings,
Beth and Anne


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