Worries

A.J. gives volunteer leadership to displaced peoples now living in Atlanticó (Department). He’s a farmer, displaced twice. He’s been unemployed the last 2 years.
Today he received news that a long awaited family subsidy* arrived but was returned to Bogotá. He was advised not to contact the Bogotá office before Jan. 15 due to holidays.

ANDESCOL, The national association of displaced people of Colombia functions through the goodwill, passion, and volunteerism of thousands, from Human Rights lawyers to the many community leaders throughout the country who are the displaced.
Community leaders such as A.J. stay in touch through cell phones which can receive calls at no cost. One can make a quick call for equivalent of 10 cents from the multitude of street vendors.

I heard these worries in our conversation today:
• There’s no food in the house
• Christmas is coming; his 3 children don’t have shoes
• In a generation’s time the knowledge of family and community based agriculture may be lost. A generation of displaced farmers –Afro Colombians, indigenous people, and others, are in urban zones, separated from the work they know. Their children are growing up in urban settings, and will not know how to till the soil.
• Few people know their rights as citizens, or International Humanitarian laws, or Colombia’s laws regarding reparations for civilians displaced by war,and their right to lands that were –and are still being, confiscated.
• Where to get funds to carry out education workshops (capacitaciónes) to teach people their rights. The government funds many workshops for the displaced to learn new work skills, i.e., welding, furniture or soy yogurt making, etc., through contracts with training entities. Sadly, the people A.J.knows have not been able to find or generate income related to their various trainings.

*United Nations Development Office is highly critical that humanitarian aid for civilian displacement victims in Colombia requires an onerous registration process which obligates registrants to support and cooperate with government policies. (Recuperación military bajo la piel de lo social. Alianza de organizaciones socials y afines. Mayo 2008. Para publicación en “Hechos del callejon” del PNUD.)


“The [OT] prophets take us to the slums.” Rabbi Joshua Abraham Heschel

Advent – Hearing

Advent – Hearing
Here's the link to an Advent meditation by Richard Williams who very recently joined the Colombian Presbytery for as a "permanent" accompanier -for 3 years.  His refers to a worship service we attended in Sincelejo, Colombia.

More Than A Headache

Mounting analysis and opinion reports the US use of Colombian Military bases has become a headache for President Uribe even before the bases are fully operational. This Military plan isolates Colombia within the continent --Peru and Mexico who have not spoken against the bases simply stay quiet, the US government refers to the plan publicly as a “bureaucratic error” and the FARC (guerilla group) has found a new voice “unimagined in its most golden dreams.” 

Initially claims were the stepped up US military presence was essential to control “narcoterrorists” since Plan Colombia is “decaying.”  (fails to stem the flow of cocaine to US markets)  However Colombia’s neighbor,Venezuelan President Chavez, has maintained that the US has bigger plans, including to overthrow him, and to use military force against the social movement he leads in Latin America.  FARC leaders are incorporating into this social movement Bolivariana which many progressive leaders regard as extremist, anachronistic and out of step with the times,  But as details of the US Military agreement become know, Chavez’s views gain ground, credence and international attention. 

From the high hill, rugged and dry in Piojo where displaced families now live we looked down at the wide expanse of flat agricultural lands and the broad river flowing into the Pacific.  This agricultural land is sited for a new international airport.  The existing Barranquilla airport is slated to transform to exclusive use by Colombian and US Militaries. The new civilian airport would provide easier access for potential new owners of yet-to-be built condos and hotels along the Pacific. 

What kind of development brings peace? What is justice?  And Human Rights for the Displaced?

Not so complicated

“Es muy complicado” is a semi-humorous code to denote “there’s more than meets the eye in this situation” or the presence of particular risks in particular places.

"I’d like to go for a walk. Response: “It’s very complicated”

However some things are not so complicated.  Here are two:

1. Regions with the highest displacements are the areas that have strategic natural resource wealth.  Coal, for example.

In La Guajira (Department) Cerrejón, a consortium of 3 international partners operates the world’s largest export open pit mine. In César Department Drummond, headquartered in Arkansas, is on course to be even bigger.  Both operations are expanding at breakneck pace in the Caribbean region of Colombia.  Simply put, paramilitary forces* have ways to move people and communities who are in the way of large scale resource exploitation.

Both Departments have significant Indian and Afro-Colombian populations who for generations have lived in traditional ways, relatively isolated from national influence, practicing small scale agriculture,  They are the displaced of Colombia. 

A growing number of threatened groups are organizing to resist the pressures and tactics to force them from their land.  Several communities are acting to reclaim their land after fleeing violence. They are designated as “Peace Communities” and “Communities of Resistance.” They prohibit armed individuals or groups –Police, Military,  Paramilitaries or Guerillas to enter their communities.  At great cost they are beacons of Peace.

2.  US and Colombia governments signed a pact for US military use of 7 Colombian military bases.  There is not a shred of evidence that military force solves the deep socioeconomic problems that beset Colombia or the US.  Simply put, the US greatly underestimated the continent-wide outrage against more US military operations in Latin America.  The history of US military intervention is long and horrific.  Latin America governments, with the serious exception of Colombia, no longer trust military forces to resolve longstanding injustices.  Much less to bring peace.

The Teusaquilla Mennonite Church hosted a 2 day Study and Vigil of Indignation for the Installation of US Military  Bases in Colombia. (Análisis y vigilia de indignación por la instalación de bases militares estadounidenses en Colombia.)   Many are speaking out against the military plan imposed on both Colombia, Latin America and the US without official involvement of either Colombian or US Congress or Courts. 

*Paramilitary: Those in charge to do dirty work (i.e., illegal actions).

view from church comprised of displaced people, including pastor.

How do you think peace can be achieved with more than 4 million people displaced through violence? Even as displacement, as a terror tactic, continues?

"We never lacked pure water:" displacement and loss

“I lived in the mountains of Magdalena where crystal clear, cold, uncontaminated water flowed in abundant streams.  We never lacked pure water. When I heard about this place above Piojo  two years ago I imagined it would be like the place I lived in Magdalena.”

“Piojo is not anything like Magdalena. Now I bathe, wash clothes and dishes in water I carry from a stagnant pond the cattle use.  A burro carries jugs of drinking water  from the town below the mountain.”

 The land, the mountains around Piojo are tropical dry forest, a biome that receives no rain many months of the year. Dry forests support flora and fauna completely different than wetter regions in the tropical regions of the world.  Adding to the challenge, climate scientists as well as Colombian campesinos are keenly aware of changing weather patterns.  Planting times and crop development is disrupted.

In 2009 the small group of 8 households who moved to Piojo experienced severe drought.  Extremely limited rains came during the time rain was expected.  The corn and rice they were accustomed to plant in other regions failed.  Most of the households are sustained economically by young adult children who work in cities.  They eat yucca which tolerates dry soils, and occasionally kill a chicken. It's costly to buy them feed. 

Colombia has a beautiful law that promises land to those who have been displaced from their lands by violence.  But not the same land they fled after massacres and disappearances by the paramilitary forces.  Angelina’s land and her neighbors' rapidly became an african palm oil plantation with a corporate owner.

 ANDESCOL (Association of Displaced Colombians) accompanied by international and national humans rights group, and churches presses the government to comply with the law.  Their success is extremely limited though government land scandals have been revealed.

 “We are country people and do not feel well in cities.  We have a right to live.  We need land to feed our families and a safe place to live.”

APOLOGIES! Cultural transmission goes awry

Catholics (and many others) likely are either incredulous or simply wondering  how – when - where Noche de las Velitas, which is the celebration of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, became an expression of Mennonite peace theology.  (Dec. 7 post)

las velitas at doorstep

Thanks Richard for teaching me the Catholic meaning for this important Dec. 8 tradition.

Dec. 8 at Principal Cathedral in Barranquilla

Bring healing, Bring peace

Today we are preparing for noche de las velitas, a beautiful fiesta of light, to prepare the way to Bethlehem where the Prince of Peace is being born.  

A low-flying helicopter showered Barranquilla with thousands of 3.5"x5" papers with the message "I accept to live without firearms..because I believe in the institutions of my government."

Impunity for crimes committed by armed actors, legal -police and military, and illegal -paramilitary groups and guerilla forces, is a tremendous obstacle to peace in Colombia.

Two days ago I was in an international observer role as human rights lawyers presented cases to police, military, and government officers. The media daily presents a daily stream of abuses.

Peace Park at noon, December 7

8" crucifixion image tied to street tree near Peace Park in Barranquilla

though you are small*

church sign Bolivar neighborhood, Sincelejo, Colombia

Bolivar, at periphery of Sincelejo, was formed 20+ years ago by land invasion by people fleeing violence. Shelters become stable dwellings, piece by piece, over time.  Shopping cart (rt) brings conveninent shopping to the poor by the poor.

presenting 2010 church budget

among the youngest members, 18 months

*But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.  Micah 2:5

During Advent -patience, faith and prayer

the rice, lentils, beans, milk available every 20 days for a displaced household

Some facts and figures from Colombia: New displacement continues.

Who is Responsible?

·      Illegal armed groups, principally paramilitary groups have become the single greatest cause of internal displacement.

·      Human rights violations by government forces, including systematic extra-judicial executions.

·      Aerial fumigations of illegal crops also destroys other crops and provokes displacement due to food insecurity. (US Plan Colombia)

Threats are used to intimidate the civilian population and maintain the domination

of illegal groups over certain areas, and also as a tool to drive small farmers from

land to develop legal and illegal crops.

Displacement figures 

380,000 people were newly displaced in 2008, bringing the total number of IDPs

to over 4.6 million. In 2008 the number of people newly displaced was 24 per cent higher than in 2007. The rate of displacement per 100,000 inhabitants increased from 713 in 2007 to 888 in 2008

Patterns of displacement

Individual displacement continues to be the dominant pattern of displacement  (89%) Only 11% of new IDPs included were displaced in mass incidents in 2008. There were 82

mass displacements in 19 Colombian departments,

92% of the displaced population have been originally displaced from rural areas, and

only 8% from small and mid- size towns. Of those displaced from rural

areas, 93% fled to an urban area and only 7% to a rural area This pattern is contributing to rapid urbanization throughout the country.

Profile of the displaced population

Displacement’s impact on indigenous people and Afro-Colombians is particularly intense. About 13,500 indigenous people were displaced in 2008, Currently, between 17 and 23 per cent of the displaced population is Afro-Colombian For both groups, the rates of displacement have increased steadily over time.

Women comprise 48% of IDPs; 63% of the displaced population are under 25 years of age.

Roughly half had land before they were displaced, and 94% of those families were

forced to abandon that land. Likewise, about half had livestock and 92% of them lost it.

Up to 22,000,000 acres of land (9% of national territory) has been left behind by the

displaced population. Land and livestock left behind have generally been appropriated by the agents of displacement.

Land Mines – Colombia facts

63% of municipalities have land contaminated by landmines.

544 Colombians are new victims of land mines in 2009

35% are civilians; 65% are members of Colombian military

89% of the victims are children and young adults

Guerilla (antigovernment) forces have used landmines as a defenseive weapon in their struggle to control territories. Increasingly mines are also used as an offensive weapon -to trigger an explosion against specific targets.  Land mines are used by all sides of the conflict -military, paramilitary, and guerilla.

Today in Cartagena, Colombia 1000 delegates from the 156 countries who have ratified the International treaty to ban land mines are meeting.    The US, Russia, and China are among 39 countries who have not signed the treaty.  

Several days ago President Obama announced the US will not change its position on land mines; the US will not join all countries of NATO who have already signed the treaty.  Do you agree with US land mines policy?

restore hope for peace

May our hands be your hands and our purposes your own -a prayer

Monday at the beach, which for Barranquilla is Carribean coast.   Row or swim due north to arrive at the south tip of Cuba.  A coconut oil massage after a swim, dinner with friends,  a hammock represent tranquility and refreshment.  

Arrival back at campus brings another reality into focus:

·      Milton sent an email carrying the statement from a leader in the Baptist church of Colombia, announcing his departure from Colombia with his family. For more than a year he was aware that he was a military target; the State would not guarantee his safety despite many efforts with government agencies and the U.N.  When his children were detained for questioning the family decided it was time to leave. He worked with World Vision and the Evangelical Council of Colombia Commission for Restoration and Peace (CEDECOL)  He is a sociologist who works in conflict resolution, and with the displaced population.  

·      Semana, a Colombian type of Newsweek, brings a detailed report this week of the regrouping of paramilitary groups which disbanded 2+ years ago with much government support and acclaim of progress.  One guerilla group (ELN) thought to be nearly extinct, has resurged.

·      Medellín, a world-acclaimed city for its impressive transformation more than 10 years ago from domain of a drug cartel to an enjoyable place to live and visit, in 2009 is on track to have a murder rate double 2008 figures.  

Semana details three major “eyes” of militarized conflict, each of the three involving 2 or more Departments/Provinces of Colombia.

Accompaniment:  Mamie, the last of 3 of us to get a massage, thought this woman who'd been working hard taking care of us needed to sit down and receive some care herself.  The woman quickly agreed, shared drops from her bottle of oil and Mamie, an ordained minister, took action. Today the beach was very empty of people -making it delightful for our visit, but hard for an entrepeneur needing income.   

mysteries

too much cut & paste creates google havoc beyond my capacity to repair.  11-22 entry reports an amazing trip...so have patience to scroll past the odd, long blank spots.

Leaving that retreat site (11-22 entry) on a deeply rutted path, with even deeper slippery mud, one jeep of the caravan of five rolled onto its side.  Fortunately no one was seriously injured.  At a rest - recover stop once we'd all passed through the mud, the musicians among us  helped restore spirits.

Commitment

Leonardo, high school math teacher M-F, is designated youth leader of Presbyterian Church in Barranquilla. This young adult team prepared a list of questions they'll ask as they go door-to-door Saturday afternoon in a local neighborhood to learn about violence and young children.    

Young adults take lots of initiative in local congregations. They are determined to find ways to change the violent activity they see "at all levels in the society," he says.

Commencement

Like graduations everywhere, speeches were made, music played, finally diplomas were awarded, lots of cameras flashed.

 dad with daughters

Today marks the second commencement of the newly established Universidad Reformada owned by the Presbyterian Church of Colombia.  12 completed the theology degree, 1 received a psychology degree.  Music is the newest established major, and 5 more majors/programs are in some stage of readiness to become accredited programs in Colombia. 

The beautiful colonial style campus was formerly a girls’ high school.  

classroom door

door posting

good choice

Vigil at Peace Park

Tonight several hundred people gathered for a vigil at Parque de la Paz (Peace Park) in Barranquilla observing International Day To End Violence Against Women.  Groups from the President’s office’s, the Govenor’s, the mayor’s offices, NGOs such as World Vision, and Churches were among the organizers and supporters.  How remarkable so many abhor violence against women!

Domestic violence statistics in Colombia are disturbingly high –as everyplace where violence is the star policy tool that dominates at national and local levels. Not only war, but also poverty, and too few jobs are policies of violence.

Parque de la Paz symbolically represents the hard work of peace.  It’s possibly the largest slab of solid concrete I’ve ever seen –exception being highways and runways. A thin border of trees outline the park, but not a flower, plant, bench, children's slide, or water in the Peace Park. Barranquilla day temperatures range between 88 and 97 degrees farenheit!  The concrete slab is mostly vacant by day.  After sundown food vendors set up their grills and fruit stands in one corner where commuters pass. Precarious lanterns on several carts provide light. This evening scene reminds me of fragile and small acts that are part of constructing peace; of transforming the massive, hard and impervious into space for friendly interaction around common needs and interests.

The music and poems on the stage at tonight's Vigil brought laments, determination, and hope.  An angel with arms outstretched to wave large gauze wings walked the concrete slab on dangerously high stilts. 

hear our prayer for nations at war

“Here’s where the ___ River, fed by a hot spring, enters the ___ River.  Want to stop?”  We were enroute to Debeibe in Antioquia, with Executive Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia.  Six of us scrambled down the steep embankment to check out a favorite take-a-break-swim spot for DH, the only one traveling in swimming gear. 

Four soldiers were under the bridge bathing.  Their heavy gear, guns, boots, and uniforms strewn on the rocks.  Exchanging greetings with the soldiers and comments on the refreshing water during a hot afternoon, DH jumped in to swim.  We fellow travelers began wading.  Three soldiers quickly strapped on their gear, climbed the embankment and took positions on the bridge and observed our river visit.  The fourth soldier dressed, put on his gear and remained on the rocks. A brief swim, a longer time to show our respective talents for launching pebbles to skip over the water’s surface, and our trip to Debeibe continued.  The soldiers were not in sight.

We were traveling in an area where all of the armed groups of Colombia are engaged in frightful activities.  Today the Comision Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz issued a lengthy account of military and paramilitary actions and victims in their “social cleansing” in and around Debeibe. 

I’m seeing powerful lessons in ways to “love your enemies.”  I see the deep respect and kindness toward everyone, including soldiers and paramilitaries, creating space for a new society.

See, I send you out as sheep among wolves. Be then as wise as snakes, and as gentle as doves. Matthew 10:16

Joyous praise instead of a faint spirit

Urubá:

·      Rainiest area in South America,

·      Where Panama and Colombia connect on map though no road has ever been built.

·      Region of displacements by paramilitary groups

·      Site of Urubá Presbytery retreat Nov. 13-16, hosted by local churches deeply impacted by all of above.

serving tables and kitchen area for 145 adults and 30 children

part of rhythm section

• 
• lots of borojo to drink
• 
• grating coconut to cook with rice
• 
  
• 
• women pastors meet
• 
  

By jeep caravan, motorcycles, and boots people from Urubá (a peninsula part of wealthy Antioquia Department of Colombia arrived at a remote piece of land called Los Angles California. (Land long held by the Presbyterian Church).  

We passed Maconda!  Note sign.

In the last 5 months men from this California and surrounding area contributed the materials and constructed a lodge, kitchen, a well, brought in a generator, the whole works for this exciting, unprecedented gathering of believers in an area fraught with displacements, now “calm” under the tight control of paramilitary forces. Paramilitaries were present at many of the activities. 

Many of the attendees from towns of Urubá were experiencing their first visit to this rural, isolated area,. --Yet not isolated in terms of economic exploitation.  The valuable trees were cut 60 years ago by a transnational company. Locals say that newly formed corporations formed by paramilitary groups own the land which has rapidly converted to cattle growing.  The cattle operation is the primary source of employment in Los Angles California and surrounding area for the families that remain. 
How extravagantly they welcomed and hosted us!

Those who were sad will be called

Oaks of Justice, planted by God

to rebuild what has been destroyed

to rebuild what has been in ruins

for many generations. Isaiah 61:3

Camelot Upside Down

Not the knights of King Arthur at a round table.  However the displaced people in today’s Camelot, located 30 minutes outside the major Colombian city of Barranquilla, do sit together and imagine a different world.  They strategize. Then they take action. 

Their children lack access to public education.  So families of 50 elementary age children are paying a Colombian bank rent for one tiny house which they use for their education efforts. 

There are no textbooks for the 50 children who crowd into the space from 7 a.m. to noon each day. The tiny space becomes a kindergarten in the afternoon; on the weekend it’s an adult education classroom. The adults are continuously in contact with the Education Ministry to make Renacer a public school with textbooks and teachers. 

There’s no fancy castle in today’s Camelot. People live in very close quarters, tiny one-room dwellings in some stage of construction on sun-baked, eroded soil. 

“You can meet people from all parts of Colombia with a visit to Camelot” according to Luisa, a community leader, who with her husband and children fled home and land in the mountains of a distant Province.  People who did not know each other until their common fate brought them together share common dreams:

Adequate food

Education

Employment

A health clinic

Community kitchen

Space for children to play.

Community leaders are planning a workshop to help neighbors understand a law passed by the Colombian Congress in April 2008 granting land and reparations to displaced people.

Raising pet iguana

visions of .... far North?

Militarized Planet, local reality

Thinking the violence in Colombia is an internal matter? Here’s an excellent, accurate, quick read article about a hugely significant part of the current political violence in Colombia. 

Note how the symbolic “drug war” in which US regularly extradites guys to the US for trial on drug charges works directly against the cry of Colombians to hold these same individuals responsible for the torture, disappearances, assassinations, massacres, rape, and forced displacements from land which paramilitary groups continue to carry out. 

A corps of dedicated people in every part of Colombia assiduously and methodically documents human rights violations associated with political violence.  I'm writing today while seated next to such a person, a lawyer who oversees documentation efforts in the Atlantic Region. 

Every 6 months a record of each documented violation, organized by Province, municipality, by date, type of violation, and armed group responsible, is published.  This cumulative data bank is a memorial to victims, and some day will be part of national reconciliation and reparations for victims.  The documentation is done within the framework of international law and is financed by the European Union. 

The number of documented cases for January through June 2009 total is 917. 

my apartment at La Universidad Reformada

Today I'm grateful for
• Brilliant blue skies, sun, and fragrant air after a day of copious rains;
• An apartment on the beautiful campus of La Universidad Reformada. The ambiance speaks tranquility and industriousness;
• The generous acts, love, humor, values, and sociopolitical analysis of the men and women leaders of the IPC (Colombian Presbyterian Church);
• The privilege to collaborate with J. who documents human rights violations
• J.A., twice displaced from land, unemployed, who serves as President of the Atlantic Region of the Association of Displace People in Colombia;
• Participants from around Barranquilla who are part of a global advocacy network for just wages and decent work in a globalized economy. The IPC is a member of the network which held a local forum Thursday;
• La comida costeña.

In the face of all our realities:
we are the people who heal each other,
who grow strong together,
who name the truth,
who know what it means
to live in community,
moving towards a common dream
for a new heaven and a new earth
in the power of the love of God.
(#200, Sing the Story)

Acompáñanos

“Acompáñame a la pulpa,” a neighbor child in San José, Costa Rica often said to my daughter when she needed to walk to the store to buy bread or an egg. Throughout Latin America the verb “acompañar” (to accompany) has a much broader use and meaning than we have given it in English and over many years I have been impressed by the power of the simple acts of requesting and giving companionship. “Acompañamiento” (accompanying) – a word used constantly in daily life as well as professional and church settings – is a concept rooted in a strong cultural belief in need for companionship through any situation – whether a simple task that’s enlivened by a friend’s company or through the much bigger joys and sorrows of life.

After my decision to volunteer as an “accompanier” with the Colombian Presbyterian Church I began to notice hymn texts we sing at College Mennonite that describe the Spanish verb acompañar.

We are pilgrims on a journey, we are trave’lers on the road. We are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.

I will hold the Christ-light for you in the nighttime of your fear. I will hold my hand out to you, speak the peace you long to hear. Hymnal 307

….Sons and daughters of the Lord, serving one another, a new covenant of peace binds us all together. Hymnal 407

When a Presbyterian church member, a law student who documented human rights abuses, was jailed four years ago there were difficulties to learn the charges or effect his release. The Colombian Church called the Moderator of Presbyterian Church USA. ¡Acompáñanos!

Milton Mejía, and his US counterpart, Rick Ufford-Chase, developed a project in which U.S. volunteers accompany Presbyterian churches in and around the major port city of Barranquilla in the Northern region of the Pacific and Caribbean coasts.

At times an international witness may provide a modicum of influence or safety in a life threatening situation. However accompaniment’s true purpose is to remind us all that we are members one of another, and the Colombian church faces hard circumstances. Paramilitary violence and killings in the region produce large-scale displacement of people and entire communities, and alarming risks for leaders who speak out.

During this ecumenical journey I'll describe how people of faith are constructing peace in a country where the government is banking on military solutions.