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Delegation 2004 to Colombia - First-Hand
Reports
Cacarica: July 18-August 7, 2004
San José de Apartadó: July 18-31, 2004
Organized by
Chicagoans for a Peaceful Colombia
and Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR)
Second Report:
Beinvenidos a Bogota.
We made it!
Tuesday July 20th
Bogota has over 9 millon people (we cannot get
an actual count because people have different opinions about it and because
there are many Colombians
that have been displaced and ended up in Bogota). These desplacados are
sometimes called "los miserables" and they live all around the
edges of the city.
We ventured on a walk around the city when we arrived.
It was independence day so many things were closed including access to
the main plaza that
we were hoping to see. People here say it was "muy militarizado".
Bogota is beautiful. It is surrounded by the Andes mountains and is giganormous.
We walked around the Barrio La Candelaria which is a Bohemian neighborhood
near the center of the city.
We went to La Luz de Luna which is a street theatre group in the barrio
of Girardo, a working class neighborhood. The group does political theatre
and teaches young people to participate in such activities. They are committed
to building community with one another and their neighbors and highlighting
the situation of marginalized people of Colombia. They take risks every
day with their artistic work by speaking out against the oppressions and
violence. When we arrived, they told us they were not allowed to perform
because it was independence day...and no gatherings of people were allowed
(they kept being broken up by police). But we did get to see videos of
their work and they performed for us and the neighborhood the next day.
And it was POWERFUL!
They have incredible commitment and artistic talent.
Their work is a powerful vehicle for engaging us fully by speaking the
truth of suffering in an
emotional way. Luz de Luna says: "We believe that art committed to
humanity transcends." We believe it too.
One more thing that happened during the day was the delegation losing
one another but we found each other. so the lesson we learned is stick
close to your group and pay attention. also, getting lost in the barrio
was quite an experience especially for those of us who are scared of steep
hills and narrow streets with drivers we have not yet been too acquainted
with.
You might not need to know this but the only restaurant available to us
because of independence day was Crepes and Waffles, a very posh restaurant
where the salads were awesome...lots of greens. but we were warned that
we would not be accommodated this way the rest of the trip!. Happy independence
day to us!
But really the most amazing thing was that one of the delegates looked
a this young Colombian woman right behind us at dinner and realized she
was one of the young people in a video about the children's peace movement
in Colombia. This group was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. JJ and Patrick
were ecstatic about meeting her.
Wednesday July 21
Today was the day of listening to people's stories and beginning to understand
the complexity of issues that Colombians face. We met in the offices of
Jose Alveaer Restrepo Lawyers Collective with various human rights organizations
which include some of the following: the Permanent Committee for Human
Rights, Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners, Humanidad Vigente,
ANDAS, Justicia y Vida.
They hardly mentioned anything having to do with
narco-trafficking. They did however tell us about an increase in mass
detentions and torture since
Uribe has become president. Uribe's policy of 'democratic security' means
that there is a collective internal enemy which does not only include the
'guerillas' but anyone in the society that is working for social justice
and change. They spoke about the shortcomings of the current negotiations
between the government and the paramilitaries (which advocates for their
impunity even though they have committed crimes against humanity). These
human rights defenders actively oppose any negotiation that does not include
the victims ability to tell the truth, get justice and receive reparations.
They also emphasized the extreme problems created by the 3 million displaced
people (the third largest displaced population worldwide) on top of the
already existing poverty in the country which was described as a 'bomb
that could explode at anytime."
They talked about "Plan Colombia" and "Plan Patriota" which
refer to the military aid, training and funding provided by the US . This
is being used not just to fumigate the coca fields of poor farmers but
to destroy pasture lands and other crops, to support counter insurgency
against the guerillas, and to help defend the oil pipeline in Eastern Colombia.
By the way, yes, training of Colombian military has been done at the School
of the Americas and now is dispersed in multiple training camps in Colombia.
The proposals that these human rights defenders recommended that we could
do to support their efforts were:
Military solution is not possible, peace with social
justice will only come through honest negotiations; the role we can play
is to have massive
pressure for this in the US with our congress people and with media. The
US could pressure the Colombian government to include the rights of victims
in the negotiations (toward truth, justice and reparations) with the paramilitaries.
We could support their proposal for 'humanitarian exchange'
which refers to the exchange of prisoners between the military and the
guerillas; this
would benefit the whole society because it cuts across all class lines
and it would also open up the possibility for peace negotiations. There was so much more that was shared and only a fraction that we can
represent to you now, which will hopefully compel us as US citizens to
take a more active role to support such efforts.
For lunch we went to a Chocoano Restaurante (Afro Colombian)
and then went directly to meet with AFRODES which is an AfroColombian human
rights
organization. They support displaced AfroColombians toward returning to
their lands, as well as providing education and increasing awareness of
their rights and history that has been invisibilized. Their four main goals
are:
defending human rights
social and economic development
cultural identity and the strengthening of institutions
and within all of these gender and generational issues are central components. They presented a painful history of African Heritage people in Colombia.
Just when AfroColombians were getting the right to collective titles to
their land they became the targets of armed groups who wanted their land.
Massacres, land appropriation and selected assassinations began to take
place. They listed for us a few of the mega projects that would displace
more of their communities in Colombia which include: building another canal
from the Pacific to the Atlantic oceans, like the Panama Canal making the
port of Buena Ventura larger taking wastewater from Cartagena underground
to then be released in Afro-Colombian lands
All of these are examples of the continued discrimination of the AfroColombians
including environmental racism. Hmmm sound familiar???
We started to listen to one of the members of AFRODES talk about the history
of racism which began when Africans were kidnapped 500 years ago (like
the
US) and brought to Colombia. He said that being black in Colombia is associated
with everything bad. We did not have enough time to explore the particularities
of racism here in a way that would help us understand more deeply what
the community faces.
We wish we had this time to really hear their stories. There is difference
in the communities, differences that we understand through the lens of
racialization in the US, not necessarily from the history here. What is
enough time to listen? what does it take to be in alliance with people
with such a brutal history that also are striving for equity, justice,
recognition of their communities, and liberation?
***
____________________________
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 | 
