Dispatches from Colombia Reportback

Alix Lozano, leader of the Mennonite church of Colombia, along with Eloy Garcia and Christopher Knestrick, members of the Christian Peacemaker Team in Colombia, spoke about their work and the situation in the South American country at the October meeting of the Rochester Committee on Latin America.

The Christian Peacemaker Team has been doing accompaniment work in Colombia and international political education and advocacy for the Colombian people since 2000. CPT’s presence is concentrated in the north-central Magdalena River region, and in the ten years that they have been on the ground there, the United States government has sent the country more than $6 billion in aid under the dirty war called “Plan Colombia” while 5 million people have been displaced from their land. It is the most dangerous place in the world to be a union organizer; more than 300 Colombian activists were assassinated in 2009 alone.

Despite mineral riches, good farm land, and ports on both oceans, most Colombians have not benefited from their country’s development in recent decades. If they are lucky enough to still have land at all, many campesinos still live without basic sanitation, health care, and infrastructure. The vast majority of the billions of dollars of aid that flow from the US go to the military and toward protecting natural resource extraction industries, benefiting only the elite.

The US forced Colombia to release its title to Panama in 1903, and has maintained a constant heavy military presence there ever since. Our government’s direct involvement in the politics and economy of Central and South America has been most explicit and deplorable since the 1950s, when the CIA arranged a coup d'état in Guatemala to overthrow a democratically elected leader whose land reform and economic programs threatened the interests of wealthy Americans. That critical event initiated an era in which hundreds of thousands of people throughout the hemisphere have been tortured, raped, disappeared, and murdered at the behest of the US government.

Alix Lozano, Colombian pastor and peace activist, emphasized the toll that these decades of terror have had on her country, saying “three generations of my family have lived in the context of war.” She showed us a map of her country marked with seven military bases placed strategically near oil and mineral reserves. The bases are all in the process of being opened to further use by the United States under an agreement coordinated by the Obama and Uribe administrations. Under the deal, millions more US tax dollars would be spent on the bases, and US military personnel would use them for at least ten years. The pact was legally stalled in August because President Uribe failed to send it through Congress to get approval, but as the US presses the Santos government to push it through, Colombian civil society and other countries in the region raise their voices in opposition. On the 23rd of August, more than 3000 women held a vigil outside Palenquero—the largest of the seven bases, and for which the US Congress has already approved $46 million in funds—condemning the effects of increased military presence in their communities. The women’s demonstration raised particular concern over the legal immunity granted to all US military personnel and private contractors for any crime committed within the country. Blanket immunity from any crime. Colombian women rightfully denounce this outrageous violation of their rights, and as sexual violence escalates amid a war funded by US tax dollars, we have the obligation to support them in every way we can.

The leaders of every other nation in South America also oppose intensified US military presence in Colombia, demonstrating growing unity among their populist governments and willingness to stand up against the US superpower. The bases in Colombia serve to maintain tension on a continent over which the US is quickly losing influence. CPT member Eloy Garcia put it this way: “Colombia is like Israel in the Middle East—a way to project US hegemonic interests into the rest of the region.”

Obama’s administration has been clear: there will be no change in foreign policy relating to Colombia. However, a report released this summer by the Fellowship on Reconciliation may complicate that stance. It documents that human rights abuses and illegal military killings correlate directly with US military aid. In the military units where aid increases, killings increase; where aid decreases, killings also decrease. Under the US Leahy Law, military units that commit human rights abuses with impunity cannot receive US government funds. Recently exposed, these violations could have an impact on US foreign policy in Colombia. A longtime local peace activist who attended the CPT presentation implored us to educate ourselves and our political representatives about the situation, “becoming a nuisance” at our congressional offices and persisting in our demands until our foreign policy changes and Colombians have justice.

Audience members asked the team what they think the recent election of a new President means for the country. Alvaro Uribe’s replacement is Manuel Santos, and so far he has not differentiated himself from his predecessor in many aspects. Santos presents himself more diplomatically than Uribe, but his support comes from the same large landowners and upper class, and he carries the same hard-line military mindset. His wealthy, well-connected family published the nation’s largest newspaper for decades; his great-uncle was President from 1938-1942, and his cousin served as Uribe’s vice president for two terms.

With less than three months in office, his government has made aggressive moves to bring down the FARC guerillas, killing the military commander Mono Jojoy. And his Attorney General ousted long time peace activist and Nobel peace prize nominee Senator Piedad Cordoba for allegedly aiding the FARC, banning her from holding public office for 18 years, and slamming shut the door of peace through negotiation and mediation.

Focused on expanding the GDP, Santos has taken some steps to revive relationships with neighboring countries, normalizing trade with Venezuela and vowing to sign a free-trade agreement with the US after the November elections.

Much of the economic growth that the country is experiencing happens at the expense of the land and naturaleza. Mining is the most obvious big, dangerous, and destructive business. But Colombian companies are also cashing in on the boom in palm oil: catastrophic to forests throughout the world. The oil, used in countless ways, from high-end beauty products to food and biofuel, is produced on huge tree plantations that often displace subsistence farming communities.

One such community, Las Pavas, is at the center of a CPT campaign. In mid-2009, Colombia’s largest palm oil production company, Daabon, forcibly evicted 123 families from their land to plant trees for palm oil. The company was the primary supplier of palm oil for The Body Shop, which markets itself as a cruelty-free retailer. The people of Las Pavas asked CPT to wage a nonviolent campaign to reclaim their land, and their efforts are working! Under pressure, The Body Shop stopped doing business with Daabon, and the families of Las Pavas are one step closer to returning.

While this is a small victory, the activists who visited emphasized it as a sign of hope and power. The injustices that the people of Colombia suffer are tremendous. Their continued survival and struggle to fight for human rights and land rights provide the rest of the world with inspiration to keep up our own battles: we are all connected. Thanks to the informative, moving work of CPT and Alix Lozano, Colombian peoples’ stories have given at least one demoralized activist new hope.