GA and Beyond: Colombia

by Linda Eastwood

In response to a call from the Presbyterian Church of Colombia, the PC(USA) 219th General Assembly passed a resolution in support of peace in Colombia, singling out suspension of the 2009 Uribe-Obama agreement for U.S. use of seven Colombia military bases. The resolution calls on the Stated Clerk to write to the US government requesting suspension of the base agreement, emphasizing that US military presence in Colombia will increase violence and displacement within Colombia and sow distrust between Andean nations. The government is to be asked, instead, to assist negotiation of a peace accord for Colombia. Presbyterian churches are asked to strengthen and broaden initiatives of prayer and action for peace in Colombia, and to visit Colombia to help monitor the impact of the bases.

For PPF, this resolution lends further support to our Colombia Accompaniment Program, walking with our Colombian colleagues in their work with victims of violence and displacement. The resolution also suggests an opportunity to play a significant role in monitoring the humanitarian, environmental and political impacts of Colombian military bases and of U.S. military presence. (PPFer Shannan Vance-Ocampo joined a recent Witness for Peace delegation to do just that.) It asks us to increase our prayer and action for Colombia – and it helps steer our work of advocacy, for which we have an unexpected opportunity!

When the resolution was passed, “suspension of the base agreement” seemed too much to ask, but that has changed. On 17th August, Colombia’s constitutional court ruled that then-president Uribe’s action in signing the military-bases agreement was unconstitutional, failing to meet Uribe’s claim that it was purely an extension of existing treaties. This means that the agreement has to go to Colombia’s Congress for ratification and, by law, that means that it has to go the U.S. Congress too. PPF has a very real opportunity for our advocacy on this subject to count. Let’s make it do so!