Background

I am going to Colombia sometime in October and will be living in La Union for a year. La Union is one town in the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado in the region of Uraba and the department of Antioquia. To the left is a map. Underneath the city Turbo, you'll see "San Jose de Apartado." That is the main city in the Peace Community Region. Outside of San Jose there are many tiny towns such as San Josecito, La Union and others.

Now that we got location down, here are some more in-depth explanations of places, terms and organizations.

San Jose de Apartado- This is a group of small towns in Northwest Colombia that collectively declared themselves a Peace Community in 1997. Farmers settled this region in the 1960's but were forced out by escalating violence through the 80's and 90's. Today, these farmers are attempting to resettle their land, but have been frequent targets of violence from the government police force, the paramilitaries and the FARC. Recognizing that violence comes from all sides, the Peace Community adopted a stance of complete neutrality and pacifism. As a result, they reject any presence of government police or any other group that utilizes weapons.

Fellowship of Reconciliation- FOR is an international organization founded in 1917 in anticipation of WWI. It has chapters all over Europe and the US chapter was founded in 1918. It is a pacifist organization dedicated to peaceful resolutions of all conflicts. Since 1917, FOR has fought for the rights of conscientious objectors, aided Jews during the Holocaust, worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and taken an active role in opposing nuclear proliferation. It's members have included academics, politicians and activists including Albert Einstein, Coretta Scott King and Tich Nhat Hanh.
For more info see: www.forusa.org

FOR Colombia Project- This is the specific part of FOR that organizes the project I will be working on. For details see: www.forcolombia.org. FOR was invited by the Peace Community in 2002 to be representatives of the international community and to make a statement that human rights violations will not go unnoticed. Since then, FOR has had a permanent presence in San Jose de Apartado and works to put political pressure on the Colombian and US governments to stop attacks on the community and punish perpetrators of previous human rights violations.

The Colombian Conflict- Starting in the 1940's after the assassination of populist president Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, the conflict has its roots in competition for land and power. It continues today and is centered around the Government and paramilitary troops against the FARC.

FARC/Guerrilla groups- These groups arose in the 1960's in response to the growing centralization of land and power in the hands of the country's elite. While there have been several different groups, both urban and rural, the FARC is the most prominent. In the 1980's the FARC attempted to join mainstream politics through the formation of the national political party, the UP. However, after wining wide-spread support, many, if not all, of the party's leadership was assassinated. As a result, the FARC lost it's moderate/intellectual core and became an underground organization operating through criminal means. The guerillas have historically been responsbile for a considerable part of the violence that Colombia has faced. Today, their ranks and violations have diminished significantly.

Paramilitaries/AUC--these are private militias that were formed by the landed elites to stop the encroachment of the guerrillas. The AUC became the umbrella organization for most of these militias and became increasingly connected and utilized by the Colombian military. After many reports citing egregious human rights violations at the hands of these paramilitary groups, President Uribe, attempting to clean up Colombia's international image, announced in 2006 that these groups were officially disbanding. As they disbanded, many paramilitary fighters said that they had been working closely with the Colombian military, thereby calling into question the President's vocal dedication to protecting human rights. Further, many of these groups did not, in fact disband, but ended up refroming into new paramilitary groups under different names. Today, these new paramilitary groups are funded, in large part, by the drug trade and continue to be responsible for up to 80% of human rights violations in Colombia. Most of the violence against the Peace Community, including a 2005 mass murder, has been attributed to the paramilitaries.

Plan Colombia-An US Aid package to Colombia that started under President Clinton as an effort in the War on Drugs. President Bush expanded the aims of the program to be included as part of the War on Terror by giving additional funding to fight FARC and other guerrilla groups.

Former President Alvaro Uribe-championed the Plan Colombia and made the eradication of the FARC as well as cocain production his central political platform. He is incredibly popular in Colombia, especially with the urban populations, as much of Colombia's drastic increase in safety is attributed to his policies. However, his tenure as president is tainted by several scandals dealing with extrajudicial killings (killings by the military that don't result in any legal action), wiretapping cases and strong links to the paramilitary forces. He has recently been replaced by Mr Santos who has promised to maintain his predecessor's line of politics.