San José de Apartadó: Community Leaders and Others Killed
On February 23, we received terrible news from the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó. On February 21 or 22, three members of thee peace community and a neighboring family were brutally murdered.
The dead include Luis Eduardo Guerra, member of the Peace Community's internal council, his 11-year-old son Deiner Andrés Guerra, Bellanira Areiza Guzmán, a member of the peace community, and a family from another hamlet in the district of San José: Alfonso Bolivar Tuberquia Graciano, Sandra Milena Muñoz Pozo and their children, Santiago Tuberquia Muñoz and Natalia Andrea Tuberquia Muñoz, aged 2 and 6 years old respectively.
According to the human rights organization Corporación Jurídica Libertad (CJL), the group was detained in the settlement of Los Mulatos (part of San José district) by the 11th Army Brigade on February 21. The dismembered body of Deiner was found in what seemed to be a mass grave the following day.
CJL stated that "at this point we don't know the whereabouts of Louis Eduardo Guerra and the other people detained illegally and arbitrarily. With the information and evidence that is available, we can assume that a cruel massacre has been carried out against members of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó."
"The pain overwhelms us so deeply we can only cry," the Peace Community wrote. "Luis Eduardo, great friend and great leader, human rights defender, founder of our community. His death envelops us in an indescribable grief, and the circumstances of his murder and that of the people who were massacred along with him fills us with outrage and indignation. Luis Eduardo, your memory, your commitment, your clarity, your friendship give us strength in the midst of this pain. As always we reflect on this, we will not step back from our principles even if the [Colombian] State, with their paramilitaries, do away with us."
The community organized a commission of community members, national and international observers and governmental officials to pick up the bodies on February 25.
If you would like to write messages of condolence and solidarity to the Peace Community, please write in Spanish and email them to <cdpsanjose@hotmail.com>
In its statement, CJL demands that:
1) The National Government does everything possible to ensure that the Human Rights Unit of the National Attorney General's office and personnel specialized in forensic medicine initiate the investigation into these serious events.
2) That the National Inspector General appoint a group of advisors to begin a disciplinary investigation.
3) That under no circumstances should personnel of the Colombian Army’s 11th Brigade be allowed to participate in the judicial investigation, to avoid manipulation of the crime scene."
We will issue a statement and action alert with more information, context and specific requests for international supporters of the Peace Community in the next few days.
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Protestors in Cartagena: "Free Trade Agreements Should Be Decided in a Referendum"
By Jaqueline Rhenals Acuña, Colombia Indymedia. Translation by Rebekah Waldron
Between speeches and chants, the huge mobilization against the Free Trade Agreement culminated on February 10 in Cartagena where the seventh round of negotiations between the United States and Colombia was taking place. Protestors demanded a referendum so that Colombians could decide by popular vote if they want negotiations to continue with the United States.
Although many of the protestors dispersed upon arrival at the march¹s destination, in front of the monument Los Zapatos Viejos, a number of representatives, senators and leaders of the opposition got on the microphones, this time to throw the epithet of coward in the face of president Álvaro Uribe.
"If [the President] was so macho he would come here to explain to the people what the Free Trade Agreement is about," said Wilson Borja, a Colombian House representative, who assured listeners that he had invited the minister of commerce, Jorge Botero, to participate in the march.
Free Trade; rising imports
Senator Jorge Robledo appeared in front of protestors and pointed out that the Free Trade Agreement was a solidification of the economic policies promoted during the presidency of Cesar Gaviria, that allowed agricultural imports to increase from 700,000 tons to 7 million, an amount that, according to Robledo, will increase to 11 million after the Free Trade Agreement is ratified.
"And the agricultural sector will not be the only sector that will be impacted. Other industries have already realized that the Free Trade Agreement, the way it is planned now, does not benefit their products," the senator added, criticizing the position of the national government in confronting the opposition not "with ideas but with the public forces."
But the deciding factor of the Free Trade Agreement, even if signed by the national government, will be the discussion in the Congress, where legislators will have to choose, according to Borja, between "the patronage of their clients" and "the well-being of their regions."
If the agreement gets approved by the legislators, it will then have to be reviewed in the Constitutional Court, where Senator Robledo hopes that the agreement's violations of the constitution will be determined. He stated that the decision would set a precedent for any law that is up for approval in the future.
Mayor abused his authority
During this intervention in front of the participants in the "massive mobilization against the Free Trade Agreement," Representative Wilson Borja was up in arms against Mayor Alberto Barboza for having placed restrictions on marches in the city center.
Borja called the decision "an abuse of authority" on the part of Barboza, whom he also accused of corruption and of having ties to the paramilitaries, like the majority of officials in the region.
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Resistance Unarmed: FOR Photography Exhibitions Opens in New York
The Fellowship of Reconciliation is proud to announce the opening of Resistance Unarmed, a photography exhibition featuring images from three Colombian communities creating models of non-violent resistance to the armed conflict.
Resistance Unarmed will be showing at the CUNY Graduate Center at 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street in Manhattan from March 17-April 14. There will be a reception on Thursday, March 17 from 6-8 p.m. Renata Rendón, a recently returned FOR human rights worker in Colombia, and Mary Roldán, author of Blood and Fire: La Violencia in Antioquia will speak at the reception.
The event is sponsored by the CUNY Association of Latino and Latin American Students, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and Project Disarm. For more information call 212-817-7866.
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Ecumenical Advocacy Days: Make All Things New
Make All Things New is the theme of the third annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days gathering in Washington, D.C. addressing urgent global issues. It takes place in the context of a new presidential term, a new Congress and a new opportunity for people of faith to learn together and raise their voices in advocacy for a more just and peaceful world. The event takes place March 11-14.
Advocacy Days will highlight the urgency of pursuing wise and peaceful solutions to conflicts and the need for aid, debt and trade policies that benefit our impoverished brothers and sisters throughout the world.
Participants will examine U.S. policy regarding the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America, as well as global economic justice, global security, eco-justice and U.S. domestic issues. There will be challenging speakers, issue briefings and training in advocacy. Participants will visit their members of Congress or policy staff on Monday, following the briefings and training.
Sign up for the Latin America track! The Latin America Track will focus on the growing militarization of U.S. policy towards the region, with an overview of U.S. military programs and an emphasis on the U.S./Mexico border and policy towards Colombia. Policy analysis will be coupled with testimonies and success stories of church and civil society partners working together for peace and development, despite great obstacles. Gain insights into congressional advocacy and learn what peacemaking looks like from our Latin American brothers and sisters, who show that peace is truly possible.
Workshops and plenaries cover immigration, border issues, Plan Colombia II, grassroots initiatives for peace in Colombia, and CAFTA and AFTA trade agreements.
To register for the conference, go to
http://www.advocacydays.org/2005/2005_registration.html
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Letter from the field: A trip to the Heartland of the U'wa struggle
By Ana María Murillo, Executive Director of the U'wa Defense Project (UDP)
What most impacts me is the strength. And alongside that strength is the preciousness of life, the sacredness of a way of life, of a political process, of a whole society, with ancestral values that is now faced with new challenges, as the U'wa Tribe of 5,000 confronts encroaching armed conflict, multinational oil interests, and different forms of low intensity warfare.
I am a Colombian woman of indigenous ancestry, working from San Francisco as Executive Director of the U'wa Defense Project (UDP). The UDP provides moral, organizational and international support to the U'wa tribe, as well as fundraising and funding for U'wa grassroots efforts.
Founded in 1997, it is UDP's mission to provide legal, community development, advocacy, and research support to the Indigenous U'wa people in Colombia as they work to defend their life, land and cultural autonomy. UDP has been directed by the U'wa to take a stand against violence and environmental catastrophe in Colombia by strengthening their tribal leadership through women's leadership, education, legal action and international alliance building as the tribe resists oil exploitation in their sacred U'wa lands.
In the four years that I have been working with UDP, this is the very first time that I have been able to go to the U'wa resguardo (Indigenous reservation or territory). After the tragic deaths of our founder, Terrence Freitas, and dear colleagues Ingrid Washinawatok and Lahe'ena'e Gay, murdered by the FARC guerillas in 1999, we made the organizational decision to not travel to the rural territory, but meet with U'wa leaders in urban Bogota. But after hiring U'wa and Indigenous women as staff last year, we began to see our other Colombia-based staff traveling deep into the heart of the territory, sometimes having to walk for two full days, up mountains, in icy rain, in hot sun, all to meet with the traditional people and conduct grassroots leadership trainings.
I never felt safe going to the territory because of the intensity of the armed conflict in the regions of Boyacá, Arauca, and Santander, where the U'wa are located. Because we have U'wa staff, I now feel the responsibility is shared and I can now make the trip. And I did. I boarded the plane to Saravena Arauca in the Bogota airport, standing in line behind big burly men from the Unite States, knowing they were some sort of U.S.-trained military men.
I arrived in Saravena to be met by a delegation of 20 U'wa men, women, youth and elders, who came to escort me as we made the hour-long trip on the unpaved road to Cubará Boyacá, where the U'wa have their tribal offices. When I arrived, I saw oil workers in their yellow jumpsuits walking around the tiny town, just as I saw pairs of Colombian military with big guns posted every two blocks or so. These were all new sights in the last few years, much of it a result of U.S. military funding of Plan Colombia to protect corporate oil interests.
A few days later, we embarked on another journey to El Chuscal, now officially entering the U'wa resguardo. As we began to meet, everyone sat on the floor, most were barefoot, and only about half understood Spanish. I began to really feel the people that I work with. I was fascinated at the unique way that the U'wa made decisions, the way they organized and their complex political process. To confront oil companies, and the violence of the armed actors that surround them, they organize their 17 communities and family clans by bringing the tribe together 4 times a year. Whole families arrive barefoot and sit on the ground to listen to the Cabildo's (tribal government) reports.
As their meetings are conducted in three languages (Spanish, U'wa northern dialect and U'wa southern dialect) they meet for days and often deep into the night, making strong and direct clarifications and demands. At night, I would lie awake, thinking about how difficult this work is, the physical distance between the U'wa and my office, the fundraising challenges, the armed conflict, the Colombian and foreign oil companies, the Colombian laws. But as we woke up, and walked down to bathe in the river, I knew that this work is worth it. I knew that it is a blessing to be able to contribute my life, my intellect and my heart to my U'wa relatives.
The last day, we got word that 30 armed actors had marched through the same river we bathed in that morning.
At lunch, as we ate our boiled plantains, I talked with an U'wa friend and I asked how the community, the traditional people in their straw huts, deal with the armed actors trooping through their yards, through their fields. She responded that one of the main things that protect them is the international support. She began to tell me about how she had been stopped at a guerilla roadblock, and when the ELN guerillas realized that they were U'wa community members, they allowed them to pass through the roadblock, and wanted them to pass quickly, saying " we don't want you to have the entire international community alerted and all over us."
I had heard rumors about this, but it wasn't until I was there, with my feet firmly planted on their territory, having bathed in their river that morning, and feeling the fear in my body to think that those boots, guns and bullets had been so close to me just that morning, that I realized the value and the help that we are, as people who live and work in the United States.
I am clear that we are not saviors doing charity work, and that our success as an international organization comes directly from the strength of the political organizing that the U'wa do. And they always say that the strength of their political process is guided by their medicine people, or autoridades tradicionales. This, I saw in my trip. I began to understand how they make decisions based on their own spirituality and also based on the external political forces that affect them. In their travels to the United States, they always talk about their way of life, about their spirituality and the cultural significance of oil, not as a commodity to be sold, but as the blood of our mother earth.
And this understanding is what makes them U'wa, from a complex society that has lived on that land sustainably for thousands of years. Of the 85 tribes in Colombia, the U'wa are among the most traditional, the ones that, despite ten years of heavy oil exploration in and around their territory, despite violence and militarization, have survived and flourished.
The U'wa have successfully and consistently maintained their stance as non-violent and neutral actors. They have been able to stay unified in their unanimous stance against any petroleum exploration in their sacred lands. Of course, today U'wa land is no utopia. U'wa grassroots and political organizing is not easy. But knowing that the work on the ground is led by strong, compassionate Indigenous women, rooted in their years of leadership and in their spiritual identity, I know our work has reached a new level of being effective.
The moment we hired U'wa staff, and they represented UDP doing trainings deep in the community, we began to be accountable to the grassroots men and women. I realize we aren't just accountable to our funders, our activist base, and the tribal government, but also to the traditional women, men, elders and children deep in the mountains. Our U'wa staff now discuss our work plan with the elders, who now participate actively, because they tell us that there is a deep spiritual reason for U'wa Defense Project to exist as an international organization. Amid the violence, amid the oil drilling, this reason for being is what brings the true strength and beauty to our work.
En paz y lucha,
Ana Maria Murillo
Join us for a Benefit Event and Celebration for the U'wa Defense Project:
Fri. March 25, 2005, 7-10 p.m.
Benefit Event and Celebration for the U'wa Defense Project: With report back from UDP staff on their recent trip to Colombia. Slideshow, short video, celebration, music, light food (Colombian arepas) and Indigenous crafts for sale. With special guests from the East Coast: Chucho Avirama, Kokonuco Indigenous Leader from Colombia, and Cristina Espinel, Founder of the Colombian Human Rights Committee.
Opening blessing with Native American jingle dress dancing. $5-15 Sliding scale. La Solea Café, 3376- 19th S., between Mission and Capp, San Francisco.
Sun. March 20th, 2005, 5:30-9 p.m.
"Cine Club" Indigenous peoples: Colombian film in Spanish (part of Casa Cultural Colombiana's monthly "Cine Club" events). FREE. La Solea Café, 3376 - 19th St between Mission and Capp, San Francisco.
For information on the UDP or on the events, contact: udp@mindspring.com or call 415.561.4518. Events co-sponsored by the U'wa Defense Project and the Casa Cultural Colombiana.
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If you have any further questions about the FOR Colombia program, please contact us. Thank you again for your ongoing support.
In Peace
Jutta Meier-Wiedenbach
Colombia Program Coordinator
________________________
Fellowship of Reconciliation
Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean
2017 Mission St. #305 San Francisco, CA 94110
Phone: (415) 495-6334, fax: (415) 495-5628
www.forusa.org
©2004 Fellowship of Reconciliation
