August 2008 Colombia Delegation

The following is a letter from Sara Koopman, recently returned from our August peace delegation to Colombia.

Dear friends and family,

Thanks for all your support vibes last week! Well, I was sweating so much in the tropical hazy heat that there wasn't much danger of me wandering off the path to pee. So, happily I didn't get blown up on the hike up to the peace community, though my stomach, skin and throat did all puff up incredibly - I got miserably sick in several unpleasant ways (thus the delay in this report-back), but I managed to keep it together long enough to be fabulously inspired by the brave folks there who are resisting being displaced from their land (1 in 10 Colombians have been forced to flee their homes and communities - and in the traditionally Afro-Colombian regions it`s more like 1 in 3).

It`s not hard to see why so many different actors want to get their hands on this land - it's stunningly gorgeous incredibly fertile tropical land in mountains that allow for access to a major Caribbean gulf port (that lots of arms and drugs flow in and out of) and access down to several valleys. It's harder to see how the community members have been brave enough to stay, and even serve on the community council, when over a hundred of them have been killed for it. Why are they willing to risk so much to build a peace space in the midst of a hot war zone?

FOR has just concluded another successful delegation to Colombia. Because of connectivity challenges, we didn't receive most of their wonderful photos and written reflections until after the delegates' return. You can see all of their blog entries in this archive and excerpted below (after the jump).

Here are photos from the trip:

We have just returned to Medellin after days in the countryside and jungle region of Uraba, where the peace community lives in different settlements.  Traveling back and forth from urban to rural environments and hearing people's stories of suffering and resistance is a powerful illustration of different facets of state violence, which seems to always effectively hide behind the mask of justification of attributing all violence to the guerrilla.  It is clear how the War on Terror and War on Drugs discourse in both of our countries mirror and legitimize each other.

We are exploring many interconnected facets of impunity and strategies of nonviolent resistance.  Deeping understanding of the tremendous power and bleakness of the forces that create and maintain impunity is overwhelming, and in this context the spaces of hope, courage, persistence, solidarity, inspiration and community shine all the more brightly.  As U.S. citizens we are keeping an eye on the role of the U.S. in the Colombian conflict, and two examples in particular struck me - the flower and banana trades.

This blog entry comes from Warren Ritter, a member of the recently concluded August Peace Delegation to Colombia.

Coming into this delegation I had an understanding of the Colombian war. However this was my first time out of the U.S. and I was definitely excited and nervous at the same time. I left our first meeting as an FOR team confident and eager to begin our journey.

The hard working members of FOR's Colombian Peace Presence provided us with a schedule of events that was anything but dull. In our meetings with various prestigious human rights organizations such as the Yira Castro Lawyers Collective, Cactus, Hijos E Hijas, and human rights defenders like Ivan Cepeda, we were provided a context of the war and testimonies of their life struggles and work experiences.

This blog entry ceoms from Jenny Escobar, a member of the recently concluded August Peace Delegation to Colombia.

We just arrived in San Francisco, a small municipality located in Eastern Antioquia about two hours away from Medellin. San Francisco or San Pacho as the locals call it is located between beautiful mountain ranges surrounded by quiebradas (water falls) that serve to calm the thirst of the rich soil layering this territory. These same quiebradas are also the reason why this region has been an active place of armed conflict and displacement. As our ´tour bus´ struggles to make its way up the hill into the town, people stop and stare at us marking our unusual presence with their dark eyes and thick eyebrows that characterizes the beauty of los paisas.

This piece is from delegate Reggie Hansen, which he was inspired to write and then read aloud to the rural community of La Esperanza, where we heard testimonies of forced displacement, fumigations of farmer's crops as part of Plan Colombia, and forms of community solidarity and resistance.

Impunity is the theme of this 2008 delegation. For me, it's turned into a quest for a proper democracy for Colombia. There is no regard or care for the people of the land. The roads are bad and the way to them are only traversed by mule or foot. Thus, one can only take small loads to the market. Then everyone else takes a piece of the share. From police to buyer. Impunity you say!

Update on our delegations: The Iran trip scheduled to leave August 5th, and then delayed to August 12th, has been denied travel visas.  We are still in negotiations and hope the delegation will be able to leave in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile our delegation to Colombia is well underway and we recently received this blog entry from a delegate:

After many years of not visiting my birth place, I am falling in love with it again.  Being around my family and recognizing glimpses of my childhood within the streets of Cali, I finally got a sense of belongingness.  But having grown up outside of Colombia, I am discovering the essence of the strength and determination of a people living in midst of a prolonged and silenced armed conflict.  

For the last four days, as delegates of FOR, we have heard testimonios of human rights defenders in their struggle against impunity.  Many of them have described the different types of impunity that ensures the continuation of both direct forms of human rights violations as well as structural forms of violations.