Fumigations

I went to Micoahumado last week and one of the leaders showed us around this small rural town. It is a community that suffered for a long time because of fighting between the National Liberation Army guerrilla group and the army. The guerrillas mined the road and effectively cut off the town from the rest of the world. Supplies couldn't get in and people couldn't get out. Eventually, community leaders decided to negotiate with all the armed groups. They enlisted the support of many organizations, including CPT, in negotiating with the guerrillas to demine their area and with all parties to stop fighting within the the town limits. Amazingly, they had a lot of success in the negotiations and the ELN became the first insurgency group to ever demine their own landmines. Since then, the people have been developing economic projects to help the community and are now growing and processing cacao and sugarcane.

While our host was showing us around the graveyard where fighting used to be quite common among the armed groups, we saw a number of helicopters and planes flying in. Farmers gathered to watch where they were fumigating. The planes started to douse the fields with herbicide poison. With Plan Colombia money from the US, Colombia has been fumigating the area for a few weeks. Most of the fields do not have coca in them, but instead grow beans, yuca, corn, rice, sugarcane, and cacao and yet they are being heavily fumigated too. Cacao takes 15 years to actually start producing cacao beans and all that work and waiting are destroyed with one dousing of herbicide. So I stood there and watched as a plane paid for with my tax dollars flew in and destroyed the livelihoods of the people standing there. It was disgusting and apalling.

The Crime of Rebellion

I learned recently about a certain Colombian law that is quite disturbing. I've met a few people who have been in prison or are being charged with what is called ''rebellion.'' Basically, as I understand it, it means speaking about or advocating a change in the current system of government. So, if you believe that Uribe is a chump and you say that we need to change to a socialist system, even if you advocate change by nonviolent means, you can be charged with rebellion. This law is being used more and more these days. The government used to (and still does to a lesser extent) use paramilitaries to threaten or kill people organizing for social justice. Today they are also prosecuting these people and putting them in prison for years and years or tying them up in legal battles.
This law seems to me to be highly undemocratic and to be against freedom of speech in the most basic way. What strikes me is that the US government often speaks of Colombia as a model democracy, yet it is the only country with this law in the americas.

Garzal: A New Chapter in the People's Struggle

Garzal and Nueva Espéranza are communities near the Magdalena river a couple hours to the north of Barranca. The area is a lush mix of swamps, savannahs, and farmlands with an abundance of birds and other wildflife. The rest of the the municipio is almost entirely taken up by large oil palm agroindustry projects.
The farmers have lived there for 40-50 years. They do not have titles but according to Colombian law are eligible for titles since they have worked the land for more than 5 years. The Bareto family is a wealthy family that resides in Bogota but claim lands in Garzal. They are heavily implicated in the drug trade and Pablo Escobar was known to fly into their private landing strip in Garzal. For a few years, they have been starting legal processes to try to take possession of the entire area and displace the communities. They claimed, falsely, that guerrillas invaded and the small farmers forcibly stole the lands.
Don Salvador is a pastor for the Foursquare Gospel Church (a Pentecostal denomination) in Garzal. He became very concerned that the entire community would be displaced and felt called by God to organize the people. He called the people together to discuss their strategy and hired a lawyer, Rafael, to represent the communities. Rafael and Don Salvador are a very unusual pair. Rafael has represented many small farmer community processes in the past and is very committed to the people. He also smokes like a chimney and, while very friendly, is known for his frequent cursing, his cynical sense of humor, and at times an amazing irreverence. Yet these two have worked together and accomplished much.
In addition to filing suit against the community, the Baretos got a judge to sign an arrest warrant for 7 community members because they accused them of destroying their property. The judge eventually ordered a mediation between the farmers and the Baretos. Last week, around 30 members of the community piled into the back of an old pickup truck that would take them along the dirt road to Simiti where they would attend the mediation. All had decided not to sell their lands. I, and other CPTers, accompanied them in this journey and arrived at the courthouse with them. We ended up waiting for hours for the Bareto representatives to arrive. When they arrived, the Bareto and Rafaelwent before the judge. Rafael said that they could not discuss anything unless the Baretos knew precisely what lands they were claiming. He also said that the land titles needed to be investigated. Because the Bareto family's titles are false, they weren't ready to have them investigated. Somewhat surprisingly, the judge agreed with Rafael and said that the titles must be investigated and the land claims of the small farmers must also be investigated. This is great news for the community. Rafael ended up being very surprised and pleased. The levels of corruption are so high here that he never thought they would get a fair hearing. The Bareto family may still use intimidation and other methods to take/buy the land, but for now the people are feeling celebratory.

Coming soon to Paul's blog...

What happens when a Pentecostal preacher and a chainsmoking foul-mouthed lawyer team up with a number of small farmers to protect their land from a rich druglord who once rubbed shoulders with the infamous Pablo Escobar?

Tune in later to find out...

On the lighter side...

List of new experiences in Colombia:

Animals I've seen:
-Huge iguanas (one that was probably more than 5 feet long)
-Collared peccaries
-lots of kinds of birds

Foods:
-Lulo
-Guama
-Tomate de Arbol
-Maracuya
-Quail eggs
-Roasted ants with big butts

Games:
-Minitejo (a game kind of like cornhole but with an exploding gunpowder packet in the middle)
-Marbles

Ash Wednesday CPT Action in Barranca

Photos of March for Prisoners held without charge

This steamy week in Barranca: Political Persecution and Fumigations

Andrés Gil

It's been a long steamy week here in the Oil Capital of Colombia, as Barranca is also known. This week, we have been accompanying local Barranca social organizations who are demanding the release of two leaders of the Farmers' Association of the Cimitarra River Valley (ACVC). The authorities arrested the leaders, Andrés Gil and Miguel Gonzaléz Huepa, in August of 2008, and had held them without charge since then. Only yesterday did they finally bring charges and give them a hearing. As far as I can tell, the charges against them are very vague, something like "associating with the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) guerrilla organization." The leaders of the social organizations regard such accusations as extremely suspicious, in part because the majority of them have received similar accusations as well, and in part because they had held them so long without charge. They believe that there is a concerted effort among government forces to silence such groups by detaining them or bogging them down in legal proceedings. Many leaders have also been threatened by paramilitary groups. Before a year a go or so, I would guess that these leaders would have been killed by paramilitaries instead. I surmise that there has been pressure recently from the Colombian government to keep the number of political assassinations down in order to look good as Colombia negotiates a free trade agreement with the US. So this is their alternative form of repression.

We've also been hearing and seeing helicopters above our house recently, which generally means one thing...fumigations. Yes, planes made in the USA with support from helicopters have been spraying herbicides all over the area. They supposedly are trying to kill coca plants, but they're definitely killing a lot of other things too. ACVC actually has a water buffalo project that is financed in part by the European Union. The farm was heavily fumigated on Tuesday and they're afraid the buffalo will get sick or even die.

Do you think President Obama would reconsider Plan Colombia (the US-funded fumigations program)? It's lots of money, doesn't really work, and has been devastating for Colombian small farmers. What do you say? Who's with me? Let's get organized!

Here in Barranca

Oil Christ - Barrancabermeja

I guess it has already been a week since I arrived here. I thought I would let everyone know that I am well. The trip here on the bus from Bogota was long but pretty comfortable. The violent films on the bus made me about as nauseous as the constant turns, but the condition was helped by a little sleep.

For a little background, the CPT team base is in Barrancabermeja, Santander, a city in a very low-lying valley between two mountain ranges along the Magdalena river. It is constantly pretty hot and humid with little breeze to speak of. Around 200,000 people live here in town. The area has attracted large numbers of people to work in the oil industry. As the bus approached Barranca (as it's known for short), I saw many pipelines, oil wells, and refineries scattered about. Barranca itself has a large oil refinery by the river belching smoke and ash out over the city. Parts of the city and many of the surrounding communities were under leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) control until the early 2000s when the right wing paramilitary groups entered the area, assassinating anyone who they suspected of having guerrilla or other leftist ties. The paramilitaries since then gained a high level of control over the oil and coca of the region. Since the Colombian government started the so-called paramilitary demobilizations, the paramilitaries have splintered into gangs and factions, but they are still capable of brutal violence.

Yesterday, we accompanied a funeral procession for Luis "Lucho" Arango Crespo, a fishing union leader who was killed in Barranca. We don't know who killed him or why, but, as the Vanguardia newspaper quoted a fellow fisherman as saying, "Being a good leader brought him to his tomb." He was a brave leader who spoke out against illegal fishing and other practices that destroy the river and the fish population, on which the people depend. I am praying for his mother, wife and children, as well as his whole community in this dark hour.

14 February 2009
COLOMBIA PRAYER REQUEST: Pray for the Awá People

On February 13, CPT Colombia received news of yet another massacre perpetrated against the indigenous community of the Awá of Nariño. The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) affirmed that on February 11 an unknown armed group massacred 10 members of the Awá community while they were trying to flee their ancestral land. This follows the events of February 4, when it appears that members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) murdered 17 members of the indigenous Awá people. In addition to these victims, three more people disappeared and remain missing after they tried to rescue the bodies of their relatives.

These are not isolated cases of aggression against the indigenous peoples of Colombia. In October and November of 2008, the Colombian army attacked the Indigenous Minga, killing three and leaving 130 injured (see http://www.cpt.org/cptnet/2008/12/30/colombia-indigenous-continue-walk). In December 2008, the Colombian army also assassinated the husband of Aida Quilcue, a recognized leader of the indigenous movement.

During recent years CPT Colombia has occasionally accompanied members of the Awá community. In May 2008 a CPT international delegation met with two representative organizations, the Organization of Indigenous Unity for the Awá People (UNIPA) and the Council of Awá Elders of Ricaurte (CAMAWARI).

We ask your continuous prayers and thoughts for this community, upon which different legal and illegal armed actors have harshly trampled. May they continue their struggle and resistance for the right to remain on their ancestral lands.

Welcome

I am about to embark on a trip to Colombia with Christian Peacemaker Teams to accompany communities threatened by violence. I will be posting blogs about my travels when I am able. Please join me.