The Washington Office of the Presbyterian Church (USA) urges Presbyterians to call members of Congress and ask them to take a position against the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. The collective energy of faith based, human rights and labor groups has stopped the FTA for a year because of the serious situation in Colombia with regards to human rights and labor concerns. A campaign has been launched by the administrations of both the Colombian and U.S. government to push the bill through.

More information for contacting Congress >>

Learn more from the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program >>

Presbyterian Peace Fellowship offers more information and actions on Colombia >>

PPF urges: Take action to stop the U.S.-Colombia FTA

The Presbyterian Peace Fellowship strongly opposes the proposed U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. Our years of work with the people of Colombia and our ongoing relationships there convict us that the FTA will only lead to more poverty, more injustice, and more violence for the people of Colombia. We add our voices to the many people of faith in the U.S. who oppose this agreement. More >>

Stand in Solidarity with the People and Churches of Colombia Calling for an End to the Violence
[3-12-08]

The Rev. Milton Mejia, the former head of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia, is asking people of faith to participate in the Days of Prayer and Action for Colombia.   For the complete invitation, in PDF format >>

On Sunday, April 27 congregations across the country will stand in solidarity with our Colombian brothers and sisters who have endured so much suffering, remembering the victims of Colombia's brutal conflict and praying for a peaceful future in Colombia.

Worship kit, prayers, bulletin inserts, ecumenical resources, and suggestions for planning a local reflection can be found at http://www.peaceincolombia.org/prayerday08.htm

On Monday, April 28 we will take collective action to ask that U.S. policy promote peace and justice in Colombia rather than military involvement and violence. For more information please go to http://www.peaceincolombia.org/actionday08.htm.

General Assembly Guidance:

The 213th General Assembly (2001)

“Calls for the demilitarization of U.S. anti-drug policies in foreign countries, in particular Colombia.

•          Urges that money spent on anti-drug efforts in Colombia should be part of a long-term effort to eliminate the reasons why Colombians turn to the cultivation of illegal crops in the first place. These include a state neglect of rural areas, a nonexistent rule of law, and a lack of economic infrastructure and opportunity.

•          Deplores the rapid growth of armed paramilitary and guerrilla groups in Colombia's countryside, who support themselves through complicity in the drug trade and exercise domination of the people through terror.

•          Decries the record of widespread abuse of human rights by the Colombian military and their documented ties with violent paramilitary groups; and declares it morally repugnant for the U.S. and its allies to grant large amounts of aid to a military with Colombia's grievous human rights record, while waiving the obligation of the Colombian government to meet acceptable standards of human rights, as a condition of continued aid.

•          Laments the July 2000 "Plan Colombia" grant of $1.3 billion in predominantly military aid to Colombia and calls on the U.S. and other nations to shift future aid grants from Colombia's military to debt relief for impoverished nations, humanitarian and self-development aid for the people of Colombia, and drug prevention treatment programs in the United States.”

This comes to us from USLEAP (U.S./Labor Education in the Americas Project)   [9-10-07]

An important victory was won for Colombian trade unionists and human rights defenders last week as the full Senate approved a foreign aid bill that contained significant cuts in military aid to Colombia and an increase in aid for investigations of human rights abuses.

In addition, a larger percentage of the military aid being sent to Colombia will include human rights conditionality. This means that the Colombian government will have to demonstrate some degree of improvement in human rights conditions before receiving a portion of the aid package. While these "improvements" may have limited impact on the ground, it is a step in the right direction in terms of accountability and oversight.

It couldn't have come at a better time. A recent USLEAP analysis of the Colombian government's own data on impunity for trade union murders shows that as of July 2007, there have been only 6 convictions for the 236 murders of union members that happened between 2003 and 2006. For the over 400 murders since Uribe came to office, the government has still only achieved convictions in 12 cases.

The Escuela Nacional Sindical, Colombia's leading labor rights NGO, recently reported that they can already confirm 19 murders of Colombian trade unionists in 2007 alone.

Please see the information below from the Latin America Working Group for more details about the Colombia foreign aid package.

In Solidarity,

Charity Ryerson
Program Coordinator
USLEAP
 

From the Latin America Working Group

September 7, 2007

Dear Colombia Advocates:

We are delighted to tell you that the positive new direction in aid to Colombia emerged unscathed as the foreign aid bill was approved by the full Senate yesterday. Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) attempted to reverse these positive changes by introducing an amendment to increase funding for aerial spraying by $30 million, even though the White House's own drug policy office reported earlier this year that coca cultivation has increased despite record levels of spraying. Fortunately, Senator Martinez eventually backed down and withdrew his amendment.

While the final details will have to be sorted out by the House-Senate conference committee, we now know that these positive changes will stay:

The result, while far from perfect, is a huge step in the right direction. This victory would not have been won without all of your hard work in encouraging your representatives and senators to support a different approach to Colombia. Thank you!

The one wild card is that President Bush has threatened to veto the entire foreign aid bill because of a political dispute over family planning (both the House and Senate bills permit grants of contraceptives to clinics that provide abortion services). If this happens, congressional leaders may be forced to enter negotiations with administration officials to arrive at a final bill.

On to our next effort! During the August recess, Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ) introduced a resolution bringing much needed attention to the plight of Afro-Colombians. Stay tuned for an action alert on this critical human rights issue early next week!

Sincerely,

Travis Wheeler
Lisa Haugaard
Latin America Working Group

To volunteer to accompany, contact Kelly Wesselink at kelly_ppf@yahoo.com .

To join a delegation to the IPC, apply to Parrish.Jones@starpower.net .

A call for action, from the Rev. W. Mark Koenig, Associate for Resources and Publications in the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program     [2-13-06]

New death threats against leaders in the Presbyterian Church of Colombia and other human rights leaders in Colombia have been reported.

On February 10, 2006, the Ecumenical Network of Colombia and the Intereclessial Commission of Justice and Peace in Colombia reported that new death threats have been received against Milton Mejia, General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia (PCC), human rights workers whose offices are on the PCC campus, and Mauricio Avilez, now of Justicia y Paz. Both men are members of the Executive Committee of the Ecumenical Network of Colombia. While specific threats against Mejia and Avilez are enumerated, there are also implied threats against the entire human rights and church community working with the displaced on the north coast of Colombia. Threatened groups include ANDESCOL (the National Association of Displaced Families) and CEDERHNOS, a volunteer organization that is part of the PCC's human rights ministry.

Please consider contacting the Colombian Embassy in Washington DC (information is found below) today if possible Colombia's El Tiempo newspaper has reported reports that President Uribe of Colombia is scheduled to be in Washington on February 13 to lobby agricultural and intellectual property right provisions of the TLC/Free Trade Agreement.

Contact the Embassy and the Vice President of Colombia by phone, fax, or email to express your concern over these recent threats. Advocate that the government of Colombia take the necessary steps to guarantee the protection and safety of those working with the church, the displaced, and in the defense of human rights.

Andres Pastraña Arango, Colombia's Ambassador to the United States

His Excellency Andres Pastraña Arango
2118 Leroy Place, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Telephone: (202) 387-8338
Fax: (202) 232-8643
E-mail: emwas@colombiaemb.org

Salutation: Excellency

Francisco Santos, Vice President of the Republic of Colombia

Dr. Francisco Santos Calderon
Vicepresidente de la Republica de Colombia
Vicepresidencia Carrera 8A No 5-57BogotÁ, Colombia
Telephone: 011.571.334.5077
Fax: 011.571.565.7682
Email: fsantos@presidencia.gov.co

Salutation: Excelentisimo Sr. Vicepresidente/ Dear Vice-President

NOTE: This action alert comes from the Ecumenical Network of Colombia and the Intereclessial Commission of Justice and Peace in Colombia. These organizations thank Gary Cozette (Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America), Carolina Pardo (Justicia y Paz), and others for help in translating and sharing this alert.

The Rev. W. Mark Koenig
Associate for Resources and Publications
Presbyterian Peacemaking Program
100 Witherspoon St., #1624
Louisville, KY 40202
888-728-7228, ext. 5936
www.pcusa.org/peacemaking

Thomas Oliphant reported recently in the Boston Globe about the wide disparity between two different ways to visiting the war-torn land of Colombia. US legislators who serve as cheerleaders for the US war, and get the Administration’s well-designed tour see all the "progress" that is being made in pacification, development, and the "war on drugs." Rep. Jim McGovern takes his own style of tour, visiting with human rights workers, NGOs, and church leaders.

"According to McGovern ... the fruits of American policy through two administrations over the last half-decade have been death, drugs, and oppression. ‘The fact is there is no light at the end of the tunnel as long as we are merely feeding the status quo,’ he said last week."

Read the full article >>

The Presbyterian Washington Office provides very helpful information on the current, critical situation in Colombia, beginning ... 

Plan Colombia is set to expire at the end of this year. Originally a six-year U.S. aid package — approved by Congress in 2000 — to reduce production of drugs and to improve the rule of law in Colombia, the plan has achieved none of its goals, despite spending $4 billion on mostly military aid to this Andean nation amidst its decades-old civil conflict.

The military focus of the assistance is especially troubling, as 80 percent of the aid has gone to Colombian security forces, implicated in numerous human rights violations.

Congress will debate and vote on renewing Plan Colombia at the end of June. You have an opportunity to ask your representative to change course.

Erik J Mason of Santa Fe, NM, returned to the US a month ago after spending 5 weeks in Colombia as part of the PC(USA) effort to provide North American Christians to accompany sisters and brothers in Colombia whose lives are threatened because of their work for peace and human rights.

We have received a note from Len Bjorkman, Co-Moderator of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, inviting people to consider going to Colombia to accompany Presbyterians who face death threats and other dangers because they are working to defend human rights in their deeply conflicted nation.    [10-15-04]

Rick Ufford-Chase, current Moderator of the PC(USA), is reporting on his moderatorial experiences through a web-log (blog). His latest report, on Sept. 18, came from Colombia, where he has been visiting our sister Presbyterian Church. He tells of his conversations with women and men long involved in the struggle for human rights in their strife-torn society. He goes with Milton Mejia to visit the woman who is the regional head of the government prosecutor's office, to talk about the case of Mauricio, another Presbyterian who is now in prison for his human rights work.

During the office visit, Milton receives a call telling him that Alfredo Correa de Andreis, a sociology professor in his mid-forties, has just been assassinated in the street a few blocks from where there are sitting. He had shared a prison room with Mauricio and has worked with Milton for the displaced.

So our Moderator shares in the pain of these people, brings comfort, and joins in worship that affirms hope in the midst of the terrible troubles.

Anne Barstow, recently returned from a Presbyterian delegation to Colombia, reports on a country that is "falling apart," in part because of US actions.

She is seeking Presbyterians fluent in Spanish who could spend several months in Colombia accompanying (and thus offering some protection for) Colombian Presbyterians who are being threatened.   [7-6-04]

Also:  GA acts on Colombia

The 2004 General Assembly passed (by 459 to 20) a strong resolution calling for "ecumenical efforts toward peace in Colombia and call[ing] for the United States to demilitarize its anti-drug policies and support in Colombia." It also committed the PC(USA) to "support and accompany the 'communities of peace and resistance' who reject all military involvement by guerillas, paramilitary and Colombian armed forces."

The Rev. Milton Mejia, the executive secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia, has asked U.S. Christians to mount a letter-writing campaign to protest the government's targeting of church leaders who defend Colombians whose rights have been violated.

Presbyterian delegation returns from Colombia   [4-2-03]

from the Presbyterian Washington Office:

The US-funded anti-drug program aims to eradicate coca crops, but is killing food crops of many indigenous communities, even those that have joined the counter-narcotics effort. Possibilities for action are listed, along with Presbyterian Church policies.

by Anne L. Barstow & Tom F. Driver

[4-20-01]

When Congress voted $1.3 billion last summer to aid Colombia, it said the money was for eradicating drugs. Although "Plan Colombia" had been conceived by that country's President Pastrana primarily as a social development program, Washington beefed up its military aspect. This motivated us and one hundred other U.S. citizens to join a Witness for Peace fact-finding trip, which went to Bogota and four outlying regions between March 13 and 23 this year. Our sub-group of 25 persons went to Florencia, the capital of the Department of Caqueta.

Colombia supplies 80% of the cocaine and 60% of the heroin consumed in the U.S. Our tax money is now being used in a futile attempt to destroy these drugs at their source. Most of the coca and poppies are produced in Caqueta and Putumayo, which today have hundreds of thousands of acres burned-over by aerial fumigation with glyphosate (Roundup Ultra). This poison kills coca, yes, but food crops and farm animals, too, and makes humans sick.

We stayed two nights in a squatters' community of a thousand families. They have fled from the fumigations, or else from the paramilitary forces that kill community leaders and intimidate whole populations, working in conjunction with the Colombian army. These small farmers now live in one-room shacks as internally displaced persons, of whom Colombia now has more than any other country in the world -- about two million. They told us, "We are tired of furnishing the bodies. Stop poisoning our fields. Stop arming our enemies."

Meanwhile, more coca than ever is being produced, because some of the farmers clear and plant new fields in the Amazonian jungle. Local politicians explained: the U.S. has a huge demand for drugs; it also exports its surplus foodstuffs to Colombia; small farmers, deprived of a market for their food crops, find a ready market for coca and poppies.

To make sense of it all, one has to realize that corporate enterprise sees more value in Colombia's land if it is used for "development" instead of agriculture. One big matter is oil. While we were in Colombia, a weekly news magazine named Cambio ran a cover story about George W. Bush's large interest in a U.S. company called Harken Engineering, which is poised to begin oil drilling in Putumayo. If it weren't Harken, it would be somebody else. The small farmers and the coca fields are in the way.

2. It's not about counternarcotics, it's about counterinsurgency

Colombia has one of the biggest gaps between rich and poor in the world. People resist this intolerable situation in many ways. Labor unions, for example, are struggling for workers' rights. When we interviewed labor leaders they said, "We have been waiting for you for fifty years. Where have you been?"

Later, when we held an early-morning vigil in front of the U.S. Embassy, the story ran with pictures in six Bogota newspapers and several TV channels. Witness for Peace got several phone calls from persons who had seen us on TV and called in tears, sobbing out their thanks for our having recognized their suffering and their hope for peace. Wherever we interviewed church, peace, business, peasant, indigenous, and women's groups, we sensed desperation and urgency. All suffer from kidnappings, death threats, and murders, in this most violent of countries. Three thousand labor organizers have been assassinated in the last decade.

The crisis led to the forming forty years ago of a left-wing rebel army, the FARC, since joined by another group, the ELN. Their existence is intolerable to the Colombian elite because they demand land reform and access to social services such as education and health care. Many U.S. companies lobbied Congress to support the Colombian military in order to crush the rebels. Ignoring the efforts of the Colombian government to make peace with the rebels and bring them into the political process, Congress voted $1.3 billion mostly for military aid. It was like putting a match to gasoline -- violence has escalated all over the country.

We visited a Colombian army base where U.S. soldiers are training Colombians in counterinsurgency techniques -- that means, how to kill their own people. In all, the U.S. now has about five hundred soldiers (plus two hundred fifty civilians doing combat tasks) working with the Colombian army. Colombia has sent more military personnel (about 10,000) to the School of the Americas at Ft. Benning, GA, than any other Latin American country. Their record of human rights abuses is notorious.

Four armies are fighting over Colombia: the regular army, its allies the paramilitaries, and the two rebel groups (FARC and ELN). All are major abusers of civilian rights. The last thing the Colombian people need is a fifth army -- a U.S. force. We should eliminate our military presence there.

3. It's not about coca, it's about U.S. military expansion

While nobody in North America is looking, the U.S. is increasing its military foothold in the northwest corner of South America. It now has an air base in Ecuador, and high-tech radar on Aruba. Brazil is so alarmed that for the first time ever it is arming its border with Colombia in the Amazonian forest.

In Bogota, the U. S. Ambassador refused to talk with us although we were a group of one hundred U. S. citizens! Instead she sent six members of her staff. The military attache insisted that "Plan Colombia" is entirely about eradicating drugs. Acknowledging that the aerial fumigations are harming people, he said it was a trade-off -- injuries in Colombia vs. "billions of brain cells of American children." We found this attitude horrifyingly cynical. We have come home adamantly opposed to the spraying of fields and determined that our government should instead focus on reducing addiction at home. Interdiction of drugs does not work at the source, at the national borders, nor at the point of consumption.

Meanwhile, all of South America knows that "Plan Colombia" is really "Plan South America." It is the wedge for U.S. military and economic control of the continent. Trying to expand the U.S. empire, we are likely to overlook matters of social justice and encounter far more resistance than we bargained for. The result could be another Vietnam, or else a fortress America with enemies everywhere.

Witness for Peace shows courage in establishing an office in a country as dangerous as Colombia. Three more delegations are scheduled: in May, in July, and one for legislative aides in August. Thereafter, the organization hopes to send groups regularly until the policy is turned around, joining with Global Exchange and other groups to create a stateside movement for peace in Colombia.

###

NOTE: Tom and Anne have slides and are eager to organize discussions about the situation in Colombia.

Phone: 212-662-8209
Email: tfd3@columbia.edu or annebarstow@juno.com

The authors: Anne Barstow is a member of the National Council of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, and will be helping to lead the Ghost Ranch Seminar on "How Militarism Makes Globalization Possible," August 6 - 13, 2001. Before retirement, she taught European history at SUNY College in Old Westbury. Tom Driver taught at Union Theological Seminary in New York.

NOTE:  A new Reformed University being started in Colombia needs our support -- by contacting our US senators.   [5-28-01]

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