Urgent Action: Paramilitaries threaten La Esperanza

A couple of blogs ago I mentioned that the village of La Esperanza was facing some heavy pressure from the illegal armed groups (paramilitaries) in the zone. La Esperanza has always had to contend with guerrilla presence, and since the 1990's with paramilitary and military presence as well. In recent weeks, this pressure has become particularity scary with combats, paramilitary entrances and food blockades.

FOR is joining Amnesty international and other international Human rights organizations is responding to these events by organizing an email campaign to the US embassy in Colombia. The US embassy is particularly powerful in its ability to influence what topics become important in Colombian politics. We aklreayd met the US Human Rights attache yesterday and she has agreed to make some calls to ensure that the right people are aware of the violence occurring. If we can get enough emails to the ambassadors mail box, it would go a long way in getting the Colombian government to take appropriate action to protect the people of La Esperanza.

Click here to take 2 minutes to send an email to Ambassador McKinley.

Thanks, as always, for supporting me and FOR.

Good news from the US

Check out this seemingly big step in the right direction for LGBT rights.

I, obviously, support the fight toward legalizing gay marriage. However, at times I am struck by the gay rights movement's tendency to approach the struggle by always trying to look "normal." Gay relationships are 'normal' and there shouldn't be any legalized distinction between straight and gay couples. However, that doesn't eliminate the fact that gay couples have a different experiences that lead to different world views and different needs. We are not at the stage yet where we can say that a gay person has grown up in the same situation as a straight person. There are still so many aspects of growing up gay that set us apart as a group of people. We are not recognized as equals among everyday citizens and gay youth are still much more likely to be shut out of main stream society and turn to negative things like drugs, alcohol and suicide. It is possible for a society to recognize differences and respect them as equal. We dont have to all be the same to be deserving of equal rights.

This is an article that says it well.

A chance to participate in FOR

So I have been giving you Colombia, and specifically Community Related, information on this blog for the past year. It has been sporadic, and some better than others, but I have earnestly wanted to do this to try and involved the people I care about most in the work that I have come to love to do. Hopefully, it has been satisfying for some of you.

Anyway, FOR has just launched this fund-raising campaign to celebrate both the 15 anniversary of he Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado's struggle for an alternative reality to the violence that surrounds them as well as the 10 year anniversary of FOR's presence in their processes. It is a big deal for us as the last decad of working together has been something quite similar to a marriage. As I go through reading he historical documents (my job right now is to index 10 yeasr of communications and reports) I am struck at how long it takes two groups of people from very different backgrounds to build a relationship truly based on mutual respect, trust and solidarity. FOR has accomplished that, but as the violence arround the community is far from over, so is our job here far from done.

So to celebrate this occasions as well as get us ready to be here for as long as it takes, I am reaching out to you girls, all of whom I know are very socially conscientious and close to me. Chek out the website www.imforfor.org. If you can't donate, no worries. Go to the bottom of the page and become a member of FOR for free to receive the news letters, action alerts and Latin Amercan updates.

Whatever you can do, it will help. Also, equally as important, please shoot me a quick update and let me know where you are in life.

Also, spread the word. If you cant donate now, pass this on to someone who can!

Hope to talk to you all soon

Love Jon

Alot of blogs coming with what might seem like boring reporting. However, really, things are really starting to move here. Since coming to Bogota, I have been living in this world where things in Colombia, while bad in many ways for many people, are almost normal. I was getting to the point where my job seemed like any 9-5er and that life outside the office could be completely separate.

Now, Im feeling like the Human Rights community is getting caught up in this whirl wind. With the breaking of the Mapiripan and Las Pavas cases as well as the justice reform going through, the bubble I feel like I have been living in has kind of burst.

As I mentioned in the last post, the government no longer tries to mince words and is now very blatantly verbally attacking the human rights community, saying things like: "

This is very serious, it’s sad that situations like these, of crooks who can’t be called anything but corrupt, undermine the credibility of the Inter-American Human Rights Court,” said President Santos.
“What has happened weakens the credibility of a respected institution like the Court and the Inter-American human rights system. These are the big losers with the Mapiripán case,” added Vice-President Angelino Garzón.
“If lawyers are involved, it’s even more serious. It is wrong that there exists a minority of lawyers dedicated to these types of activities,” said Justice Minister Juan Carlos Esguerra."

Such attacks would be understandable if they were warranted, however, as I have mentioned before, in the case of Mapiripan, the Colombian government knew about, and signed off on, all of the testimonies and evidence that today they are claiming human rights lawyers had falsified.

Read this report by Adam Isaacsson, a long time blogger on Colombian issues. It gives a good sense about how things, including the Mapiripan case, are tying into larger, more sinister movements occurring.

For those who dont have time to read it, basically Adam talks about how the conservative parties and the president are trying to push through a reform to the justice system that would allow the Military to try its own soldiers for human rights crimes they commit.

This push, he asserts, is an attempt to appease a disgruntled military which, according to some officials is getting so demoralized by that fact that the Constitutional Court is finally convincing high level officials for human rights crimes, that they are no longer able to fight effectively. It is further argued that if the military has to constantly worry about the justice system looking overt heir solider, they cant do their job, especially given that such justice system doesn't understand life in combat.

However, as Adam states, "... the military is not pushing for civilian judges and prosecutors with special training for dealing with combat cases. Instead, they are pushing for the right to try their own personnel even in cases, like “false positives,” which do not involve combat."

Later on, he points out that, "If these claims of “brazos caídos” and “demotivation” are true, they reflect very badly on Colombia’s armed forces. The message is that if they must fight according to internationally recognized human rights standards, then they will not fight. This poisonous message would fly in the face of claims – often made by U.S. officials, citing it as a result of U.S. aid – that the Colombian military’s human rights performance is greatly improved."

Take a look at it and get a good idea of why things feel so tense these days.

Next post are some great pictures from Thanksgiving and vacation.

Tense times

There is a tense and worrisome air in the Colombian human rights world these days. Just a few weeks ago, the Colombian government reopened an investigation into the case of Mapiripan, and called into question the veracity of one of Colombia’s most historically important massacres that clearly shows the collaboration between the paramilitary death squads and the Colombian military. This week, the same government office is claiming that the community of Las Pavas, another high profile case involving state restitution to victims, is another example of victim fraud. Both actions aim to delegitimize victims and their supporters, and both seem to point to a concerted effort to paint the Victims law, and the plan for land restitution, as unrealistic and unsustainable and therefore should be weakened or abolished.

No one denies the massacre of Mapiripan happened, and no one denies that the paramilitaries used a military plane to fly from a military base, arrive at Mapiripan and spend three days killing its citizens. However, the press generated by the re-opening of the investigation has inverted what is important and is focusing on whether the death toll stands at 49 or 13. Of course, it is always important to have the most accurate account of what happened, including the number who died. However, the government is not merely in pursuit of accuracy, but rather they are using it to defame both the Interamerican Court on Human Rights and one of the most respected lawyers collectives in the country, the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective. These entities, according to the government, are responsible for pushing victims to give false testimonies, obstructing justice and twisting the case so as to win more reparations money. In reality, the Colombian government was, from the beginning, fully aware of every bit of information that the NGOs had and even used the witnesses in other state legal cases. Despite this, the government still is doing what it can to cast a shadow of doubt not only on the victims of state violence, but also the Human Rights defenders that support them.

The case of Las Pavas is another example of de-legitimization. As you can read here, Las Pavas is a farm of over 1,000 hectares that has been worked by the community of farmers for the past 13 years. Since they inhabited the land, they have been displaced three times by the paramilitaries and the Colombian police working with the Palm Oil company of Daabon. The fact that they won their land back was a significant victory in the long process of returning displaced communities to their lands. Now, based on the fact that one man has retracted his testimony regarding the displacement of the Las Pavas community, the attorney’s general is citing this case as another example of victim fraud against the state. In doing so, that office is turning the victims of displacement into the victimizers of the state and is turning public opinion away from sympathizing with the community who has suffered so much while instead viewing them (and by extension all the victims claiming state reparations) as suspects of fraud looking only to milk the state of money they don’t deserve.

While it might be too early to tell for sure, with the way that the state is using Las Pavas and Mapiripan to delegitimize the victims, their supporters and the process of land restitution, there is concern that the State might eventually use these cases to argue that land restitution law is too ambitious or food difficult and thus push to weaken it or all together abolish it.

ahhh back from vacation...never a good feeling

My life has been a bit of a whirlwind these days. Last night was the first time in over two weeks where I havent had between 3 or 4 guests sleeping in my bed, on my couches or in any little cubby hole they could find. Dont get me wrong, it has been great. Just tiring. I did get an awesome vacation in with two really good friends from Seattle, Jenny and Emily. We biked through Bogota dodging people and carts, we cook a whole thanksgiving feats and then celebrated with 14 people from 5 countries speaking 4 languages and then took off for four days on a beach that backs into a jungle covered mountain and flows into ocean colored a marble between green and blue. It was amazing by many counts. Pictures to come

Now I am happy to report that the apartment is back to its organized normal, I am back to sleeping in my own bed and things, personally, seem to be calming down a bit.

Things in Colombia, however, are not.

First, the Community.
The big news is the dramatic presence of paramilitaries around two villages a couple hours north of where we live in La Union. While paramilitaries have always been present, they are being much more obvious this time around, and we have actually been there to attest to it. They are forcing the people into meetings and threatening total control and food rationing.

Also, in this same area, there are been series combats between the paramilitaries and the guerrillas. Outside of the fact that combat is always worrisome, this instance in particular is dangerous because it seems like there might be a shit in the balance of power.

Cant give much analysis right now, but it is really worrisome for us and the community.

Second, happendings in the are of irregular military recruitment. Basically, the Constitutional Court ruled that the street round ups the military often does to prove military status are ilegal. I might have explained it already before, but in Colombia, military service is obligatory and every male hast o register with the brigade in his district before he turns 18 so that when he does so, he can immediately start is one to two years of military service. Then the military often goes out into the streets and sets up check points in which they question every young male about their military status. These you havent presented themselves and have to military card, are then borded onto a truck, taken to the nears battalion and immediately tested for suitability and, if deemed fit, incorporated at once into the army.

Human rights organizations have ben fighting for several years now that this be recognized as ilegal detention and in violation of a young mights freedom of movement. The court took a large step toward doing so with this most recent ruling.

The precautions are sever. First, it isn't clear as to whether the ruling is applicable only to those younger than 18. Second, the ruling establishes no disciplinary action for violations; the court views that as the job of the military. In essence, then, no one really expects the round ups to end as their is no incentive for he military to do so.

Coming next is the even more important cases of Las Pavas, which is an continuation of the worries I talked about in the Mapiripan case in the post before last.

Lots of stuff.

Last weekend was one of those weekends where place and people combined to create a moment where you cant imagine being more comfortable.

We had planned the trip in September, when my friend Johanna and I were camping with some friends of hers and we were all commenting on how much we loved camping, but how rarely we did it.

Two months passed and despite being certain that his plans was going to go the way of most well intentioned plans made amongst people will a million commitments; I was sure it wasnt going to happen.

Lo and behold, hours after sending a reminder message, Johanna had suggested a place and Anita, Isaac, Mika and Juanita had all committed to going.

We ended up going to Villa de Leyva in Boyaca, a 4 hour trip north east of Bogota. It was rainy, it was cold and it was by most objective measures pretty shitty weather. However, me being the cold, damp weather person that I am, thought that the Grey skies contrasted with he green mountains serving as a background for the town of all white buildings was pretty damn gorgeous.

So we spent the weekend walking through the woods, seeing ponds turned a milky green-blue by the excess of copper sulfate and wondering how a place that receives so much rain can look so arid in some places.

The nights were spent drinking aguardiente, playing pool and then moving to the plaza where we enjpyed making a bit of a scene playing various games that adults dont normally play. It was one of he more fun nights I have had.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the weekend. I didnt have my camera, but these are from Mika and I am hoping that Johanna and Anita get theirs up soon.



From left to right: MIka, Anita, Isaac, Juanita, me. In front of the water fall we discovered.


One of the streets of Villa de Leyva


Anita and I walking up to the mountain path


Another street


the first brook we found on the mountain hike. I thought it was the coolest thing...until I walked a little further.


Mika with Villa de Leyva in the background


Isaac with Villa de Leyva in the background


Johanna and me on the way to the mountain


the hidden waterfall I found looking for a place to pee without falling off the cliff.


Mika and Isaac enjoying the perfect mushroom from Mario Kart


Town center

US involvment in Colombian scandals

Yesterday I mentioned the US involvement in the scandal surrounding the closure of the Colombian version of the CIA and FBI.

Here is the Washington Post article publish on August 20 on the findings.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/us-aid-implicated-in-abuses-of-power-in-colombia/2011/06/21/gIQABrZpSJ_story.html

Back to reality....

In the previous post I had mentioned talking about more personal, 'light-hearted material.' Well, Turns out that such an approach risks giving my mother a heart attack. So maybe this time around I'll focus again on the more work related topics. The switch is also motivated my the fact that this week, shit has kind of hit the fan.

Below is an excerpt taken from an incident brief released by the Colombian Government in 2005.

"On July 12, 1997, approximately one hundred members of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, AUC) landed at the San José de Guaviare airport. The Colombian Army allowed the planes to land and provided its trucks to transport the paramilitaries to Mapiripán. At dawn on July 15, 1997, more than 100 armed men surrounded Mapiripán by land and river. The paramilitaries wore clothing used exclusively by military forces, carried short- and long-range weapons whose use was restricted to the State, and used high-frequency radios. Upon arrival at Mapiripán, the paramilitary forces took control of the town, the communications, and the public offices, and proceeded to kidnap, kill, and intimidate the inhabitants. The Army collaborated in supplying munitions and communications. The Office of the Attorney General of Colombia concluded that the commanders of Brigade VII and of Mobile Brigade II demonstrated complete functional and operational inactivity despite knowing about the massacre.

The testimonies of the survivors indicate that on July 15, 1997, the AUC separated out 27 individuals who were tortured and dismembered by a member of the AUC known as "Mochacabezas." The paramilitaries stayed in Mapiripán from July 15 to 20, 1997, during which time they impeded the free movement of the municipality's inhabitants and continued to torture, dismember, eviscerate, and decapitate individuals and throw their remains into the Guaviare River. Once the crimes had been committed, the AUC destroyed much of the physical evidence, in order to obstruct the gathering of proof. The Mapiripán massacre was carried out with logistical support from and with collaboration, acquiescence, and omissions on the part of members of the Colombian Army. The Army's omissions included failing to cooperate with the judicial authorities who tried to reach the scene of the crime."

Why is it important now?

Because it is now at the center of a blame game between the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the international legal entity that makes recommendations to the Inter-American Court on Human Rights) and the Colombian state. This argument changes the focus of the horrible event from state sponsored violence, to numbers killed and faulty investigations and calls into question the international mechanisms for the protection of human rights.

After conducting an investigation into the crime, the Inter-American commission on human rights found that 50 people had been tortured, chopped up and thrown in the nearby river. It consequently ordered the Colombian state to pay millions of dollars in reparations to the victims' families...some of which actually has been paid.

Now, the Colombian Attorney General's office has re-investigated the crime using new data and demobilized paramilitary members that have admitted to participating the massacre and have found that there are at least 9 people who where reported as killed in the massacre but who are actually still living or died in other ways.

Juan Manuel Santos, the Colombian President, is now taking this case to the Organization of American States meeting and denouncing it as a flawed investigation that questions the credibility of the Inter-American Court on Human rights.

The Inter-American Court has replied saying that the State had always promoted the same witnesses and victims' testimonies as truth, even using them in future court cases, and that ultimately it is the responsibility of the state to conduct its own internal investigations regarding human rights violations.

It is important to never assume that any entity, including one designed to protect human rights, is incorruptible or infallible. However, I worry (maybe somewhat unnecessarily) that the government will use this to call into question the legitimacy of the Inter-American court system as a whole, thereby damaging the credibility of the institution whose ruling recognizing the validity of the CdP's rupture with the State we as accompaniers rely on heavily to legitimize the community's struggle.

Second, the Mapiripan event has been one of the events that most clearly shows the connection between the Colombian Armed forces and the paramilitaries in heinous massacres that often occurred over the last decade and a half. It would be heartbreaking if this new development were to detract from the guilt the State has for such links.

Third, this development comes at a time when it is finally starting to be realized that despite the fact that Santos represents a softer more enlightened discourse toward human rights, little has improved in terms of their actual protection.

(See also here. It is in Spanish, but the stat he opens with is that in the first semester of 2011, 38 human rights defenders have been killed-more than 6 per month)

I worry that this development used as fodder for the government to assert that civil society, human rights defenders included, can legitimately be excluded from future processes, like, for example a potential peace negotiations with the guerrilla. In other words, Santos says "Look what happened when I gave you respect and gave you space. Now I have no reason to trust you."

We'll see what happens.

In other news, the maximum leader of the FARC, Alfonso Cano, was killed this week in another step in the state strategy at destructing the guerrilla group through attacking its leaders. Makes sense, except for the fact that the guerrillas can replace leaders as if they were toothpicks. Plus, it seems to make equal sense to worry bout the decentralization and scattering that occurs when you cut off the head. Here is an article in English about the topic.

Also, one has to kind of think about how perverse it is that on a global scale (think Osama bin Laden or Gadhafi), societies are treating the deaths of iconic people as momentous victories that should be celebrated. Nothing like hoping for peace through celebrating murder.

Finally, the last few weeks has also seen the official 'dismantling' of the Colombian intelligence agency, the DAS, whose head has been convicted to 25 years of prison for leading the organization through a program of illegal wire tapping and participation in the persecution and murder of human rights defenders and judges. Interestingly, though not too surprisingly, wikileaks has shown that the US embassy had a significant hand in funding some of the worst DAS sections. With over 90% of the current DAS employees keeping their jobs in some other government sector, it is difficult to see this as a real change in how the government as a whole works. Like most things, I guess we'll see.

Completely unrelated to Human Rights

So I have made a promise to myself to write two blog entries a month at least. It would be nice to be more, but we'll start with this modest goal first. And, at the suggestion of a few people, I am try to start using this a bit as a journal as well as a political blog.

While it inst very interesting, what has been on my mind recently are medical school interviews, and medical school in general. Start with med school in general because it ties in a bit with my work here. It is amazing how I feel like my comfort level Bogota has skyrocketed recently. No longer do I look at this city and see a purely temporary holding spot until my real life begins. I have a rhythm. I have friends. I no longer feel like the pollution is killing me. Bogota no longer looks like a gray, ugly city and it's transportation system no longer seems like a maze made to confuse everyone.

Rather I look at Bogota and I see the incredibly acitivity that happens just under the surface. I appreiate the fact that within 10 blocks of my house I have two very active social/cultural centers organized by people ranging from ardent anarchists to progressive professionals. The pollution probably still is killing me, but ive gotten use to it, and now I see the transportation as one that values flexibility and convenience over rules and standards.

In fact, that is the coolest thing about Bogota. Here a person still has influence over things just because she or he is a person...with the ability to talk, to push and convince. Here rules are still just rules, and there is never no option. The flexibility of life here is incredible.

Anyway, the point is that I am starting to feel like I have a place here. I mean, I went out and bought house plants.

This is making the future seem a bit less certain than before. Med school has been the next step since sophomore year of college (except for a stint in Seattle where I thought that dream was over) I mean it still is and I still plan on coming home in the Spring, I am just enjoying the feeling of finally planting roots. Though it is a bit nerve wracking, the combination of planting roots while I am still telling myself that I am leaving in 5 months. It is stupid. But it is making life so much better.

I mean, maybe it is time to get away from the idea that it is necessary to study medicine in the States. Maybe it is time to act my age and push in a different direction, a direction that not only talks about a globalized world, but lives it. Maybe I should accept that the comparative advantage of going to school in the US is getting closer and closer to being based almost exclusively on reputation. Plus, there are serious advantages of going to medical school in a country where they still teach doctors how to use instinct rather than depend completely on an MRI, or where the doctor patient relationship isnt burdened by such an incredibly complex health care system.

To me, one can learn the basic sciences anywhere, and I think anyone would be very hard pressed to say that doctors in the US are better clinical teachers than in other countries. Finally, I can assure you that living in a developing country you see a hell of a wider variety of cases to learn from. The only thing that Colombia lacks that the US has are machines...and they aren't even very far behind on that.

In the end though, giving up the chance to study in the US to study in Bogota would take more courage than I could ever muster. The reputation, the guilt, the what ifs would be just too much.

then again, I havent even been interviewed yet. this post might be getting a bit ahead of myself.

Powerful Slideshow of the Peace Community

Obreros de la PAZ / Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó from Agustin Fernandez Gabard on Vimeo.

Above is a slide show created by an Uruguayn photographer, Augustin Fernandez, whom I had the pleasure to met while he was doing his project in La Holandita. I find it moving, mainly because the pictures seem to do a good job of capturing the strength, resilience and commitment of the community.

Ive recently be in the throws of trying to decide of whether or not to spend a portion or all of my last two months back in the community. The desire to be back in the mix of things working directly with the community and living again in the country-side is strong. However, there is a part of me that feels that if I give up on the last two months in the Bogota office, I would be doing to myself what I wish I hadn't done when I left the community 4 months early: cutting off the time where, after 6 months of getting used to the Bogota office work, getting to know our partners, and understanding the issues at hand, I would actually have a good enough grasp on my job where I could actually start being a real player at the table.

In the end, a combination of my desires and team logistics has me staying in Bogota until my time with FOR is up in the end of March. I am sad that I wont get a chance to reconnect with the community and try to deepen some relationships, but I am glad that I am sticking to one thing long enough to actually feel competent at it.

Goin back into the mix of things

My coworker, Gina, and I met the audiovisual and communications team from the ACA in their office at 10:30 on August 2^nd. Maricella is a tall, dark-haired teenager with broad features, perfect skin, a perfect smile and eyes that always seemed to be smirking at you with that ‘you don’t know shit’ look. She came from a community outside of Dabeiba with her good friend Dyionsys, a short, stocky 15 yr old who combined her grasp of the seriousness of the situation of violence facing her community with a bubbly, flirtatious personality typical of most 15 yr old girls. The only male student, Oscar hailed from a different community in Antioquia, San Francisco, which, as Oscar is quick to tell me from the get go, is a community that has suffered massive displacement (more than half the population) as a result of several killings, threats and presence of different armed actors in the last year. While all three obviously have a passion in documenting their communities’ experience, Oscar seems to be the most serious about it, jumping at the smallest opportunity to handle the camera or carry the fanny pack with all the supplies, always with laugh much bigger than one thought possible from such a skinny teenager.

These three students are studying documentary-film making under the direction of ACA’s veteran film makers, Gustavo and Carlos. (check out some of their films…though in Spanish, you can still get an good idea of their quality and signifance) Both of these teachers are well read, well travelled activists who are skeptical of any kind of authority and though staunchly anti-US, are able to differentiate between the disastrous Colombia-policies of the US government, and the citizens, like Gina and I, who are trying do our part in promoting change. That does not mean, however, that they let us off the hook; we are the only way the US government will change. It is our responsibility to get things moving. Naturally, I think that their self-righteousness is getting a bit out of control, until I remember all the work and difference they are making through their documentaries and audio-visual school.

The seven of us cram into two of Colombia’s typically tiny taxi cabs and get to the terminal with more than enough time to catch the overnight bus heading from Medellin to Popoyan. After an uneventful 10 hour bus ride, Gustavo wakes Gina and me up telling us, “it’s time to get off.” Thinking we were at some bus terminal in Popoyan, Gina and I were a bit surprised when we stepped on to the side of the Pan American highway amidst North Cauca’s rolling-hill countryside. Noticing our surprise, Gustavo told us to hold tight and not to worry. Sure enough after about 5 minutes, and without any phone calls or other communication, two motorcycles pull up along-side us and introduce themselves as Felipe and Gildardo from the Indigenous radio station Pu’yamat based in nearby Santander de Quilichao. As quickly as they appeared, they took off, assuring us that taxis would be by to pick us up. Within two minutes, two taxis came speeding up the high way in the opposite direction, honked twice,did a fast U-turn and slammed on their breaks right before that ran the curb and into our baggage.

Soon enough we were in the Pu’yamat’s office right of the main plaza of Santander de Quilichao. Judging from the recent news, this city has been anything but a pleasant place to live. Five bombings in one month, one would think, would turn any small town into something of a desolate ghost town. This was not Santander, however. Santander is by far the prettiest small town I have yet to see in Colombia. The plaza is full of people and even fuller of huge trees that must have been protected for decades. The weather is perfect with enough sun to keep things warm, but not too much to make things hot. Walking across the plaza, I couldn’t help but quickly forget that this pleasant town has been some of the worst violence (or at least, the most publicized) the country as seen in this summer.

Unfortunately, we only had time to eat a bit of lunch, where we met up with a Colombian who manages the Red Italiana in Colombia and an Italian traveler looking through Colombia for inspiration for her grad school thesis. Together we caught the next bus to the village of Guavito, our final destination, where the ACA was going to participate in the final ceremonies of the Rodolfo Maya film festival as well as the graduation of 20 or so students from the ACIN’s 1.5 year-long audio-visual school.

The ACIN is the (Association of Indigenous Councils of North Cauca) and is the human rights organization that fights for the recognition, respect and protection of the Nasa peoples of North Cauca. Among other programs, they have a 1.5 year-long ‘university’ where they teach activists, both local and non-local, how to make documentaries about their experiences. The idea is that such education will empower people to tell their own stories rather than wait for wealthier documentarians from the US or Europe to come in and tell the story for them. As we all know from the Michael Moore movies, documentaries are one of the most effective ways of eliciting emotion and motivating people to act around an issue. Furthermore, raising such consciousness is one of the best ways toward non-violent protection since no government likes to be known as a human rights violator. Thus, through making their own documentaries, activists, indigenous people and farmers are participating in their own protection and their own solution to their community’s problems.

Guavito is a village in the Lopez Adentro reserve which is a part of the Nasa Indigen

ous community. The Nasa people are inspiring for many reasons, but one of the most significant for me was their Indigenous Guard. The indigenous guard in North Cauca is a civil-guard that is composed of up to 7,000 men, women and children. They are armed only with canes decor

ated with ribbons represented dead ancestors and mother-nature, this civil guard is charged with being present when combat happens or armed groups encroach on civilian territory. Like International Accompaniers, the hope is that through reminding armed actors of human rights and that they are watching and ready to react in the case of violations, they can dissuade armed actors from endangering civilian populations. Most villages have a contingent and those who don’t are monitored by a neighboring village’s guard. Every guard contingent has a guard leader who is equipped with a walkie talkie used for quick notification of events occurring anywhere in the zone. They maintain open dialogue with all sides of the conflict and thus have personal contacts with higher ups of all the armed groups. As such, they were much better prepared than us to respond in emergencies because we have no contact, and thus no dissuasion, with the guerrilla forces.

The guardia was present every day of the festival, always at the end of the driveway making sure to check everyone who entered and left. Being white foreigners, Gina and I weren’t allowed to leave after 6pm. It felt a little weird to be enclosed somewhere, but hearing every day of another murder happing close by, it turned out being more than a bit comforting.

With this indigenous guard there to do any security accompaniment better than we ever could, we realized that we had been invited along more to see how people in this part of the country are organizing themselves and resisting the violence in their way. While we had missed almost the entire actual festival, we were there for the part in which they discussed how they plan on taking this event back to their communities to continue the fight in their respective regions. There were times when things became uncomfortable as the ACIN started asking for commitments from people on what they were going to do back home. They knew that while all the attendees were serious about the movement, they had lives so complicated and so full of uncertainty that unless they did not come up with concrete ideas and action plans there and then, the actions would be sacrificed to raising a family, getting medical treatment or establishing a new home.

Eliciting these proposals was a bit like pulling teeth and required much prodding and encouragement by the ACIN. However, in the end, they filled several wipe boards with small, accomplishable ideas such as organizing local community musicians into a resistance concert, or interviewing 3 or four community members about their personal struggles with Colombian violence. Individually, none was very grand. But that was the point: small, local actions that are initiated and participated in by local people have a much more long –lasting and personal effect than something that reaches the entire nation or even the world but isn’t connected to any local community.

There are certainly times when I have been starting at my computer for 5 hours in one day where I forget what it is like to feel the energy of people organized in pacific resistance to violence. Those days are wrought with headaches. However, it is trips such as this one to Guavito, where I get to know fellow young people like Gustavo and Oscar and see them so impassioned by the idea of empowering a younger generation like Marcelli, Dionysis y Oscar to take control of their own story, that rejuvenate the mind and remind me of how important it is that I do what I can as an international to help that the individual Colombian movements for peace continue.

Gettin some fresh air....and fresh start

Living in the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado, I was surrounded by people who’s mere existence was an act of non violent resistance to Colombia’s human rights and violence issues. As my teammate who just returned from the Community after 13 months attests too, being in such an environment, constantly stimulated and inspired by the people, can also wear you

down, dull your sensibilities and make you lose a bit of that ‘awe’ that we all feel in the beginning and after we leave.

As I move into my 5^th month accompanying from the Bogota offices, I have a hard time relating to my coworkers insight. To me, there are times where I want nothing more than to feel like I am back in the middle of the struggle. In these moments, the modernity, luxury, and ease of life in Bogota seem to almost wash

away any sign of conflict, struggle and resistance. If it weren’t for the mountains, pollution, and Spanish, I would forget that I wasn’t back in the States.

That does not mean that I don’t appreciate working in the Bogota office. Here we are fortunate enough to have access to people and resources those in the community would never dream of having. Within a day I can read four news papers, talk to a human rights lawyer working on some of the most high profile cases in the country and have a meeting with 5 other accompaniment organizations in which, thanks to our joint-broad coverage, we can effectively analyze the changes and differences in paramilitary structure throughout the country. It is an inspiring rush in its own right. However, one cannot evade the sense that we are all outsiders talking about things others are experiencing while we sit in front of computers and write internal documents, organize files and hope that we are being effective.

It is with this in mind that I have appreciated so much a few of the trips Ive gone on recently. First, I got to accompany the Asociacion Campesina de Antioquia (the Antioquia farmers Association) to a village in North Cuaca, one of the most several affected regions by the war. Then I was privileged enough to accompany a large, intense, enthusiastic and accomplished group of former FOR volunteers as they made their rounds to the CdP’s different villages. (for a great description of this, see: http://forusa.org/blogs/liza-smith/homecomings-far-away-places/9491) Finally, and though this took place back in May, I accompanied the Red Juvenil to the most violent barrios of Medellin while they did one of their regular peace and non-violence workshops with children, was one of the most inspiring acts of resistance I have seen since moving to the big city.

Considering the importance of the above events, I would like to take the following posts to highlight them and try to explain in more depth why they impacted me so significantly.

Willie, maybe it is good that bannanas make you vomit....

It is old news that multi-national companies do not put human rights nor any kind of social welfare at the top of their list of priorities. However, the case of Chiquita struck me as one of the most blatant and undeniable cases of a company taking advantage of a situation, making a lot of money, and not seeming to register the horrible impact their actions had on Colombia.

Chiquita has had subsidiaries in Colombia since the 80´s, operating in the parts of the country most affected by paramilitarism, guerillas and drug trafficking. In 2007, a federal court in DC found Chiquita Brands guilty of making payuments to a federally recognized foriegn terrorist organization, the AUC (Aoutdefensas Unidas de Colombia--the umbrella paramilitary organization that was formed in 1997 and is responsible for collaborating with the Military on countless massacres around Colombia, including 2 that occurred in the Community, one in 2001 and the other in 2005)

Chiquita admitted to making payments to the AUC and was fined $25 million. However, Chiquita also made it clear that these payments were extortionary and did not result in any benfits to the company, aside from not being attacked for not making the payment.

In April 2010, the National Security Archive, a research institute at GWU, collaborated with the GWU Law school to collect and publish the newly declassified internal documents from the case. This group argues that these people show beyond a doubt that the payments were not simple exhtorition payments, but rather were mutually beneficial transactions and that Chiquita was actually hiring the AUC to run the company´s security.

The papers do paint a pretty bad picture for Chiquita, including hand written comments about the need for secrecy, the accounting tricks and even the direct comment that the Convivires were paid to provide security to a few of the banana plantations. (Convivires are the government-sanctioned security communities that were run by the AUC. Side note, former president Alaro Uribe, when he was govenor of Antioquia, fully supported these Convivires which are now known to have been involved directly in the Durg trade, arms trade and massacres)

It does bother me that the company seems to have been doing business with the AUC. But what might bothers me more is how the Chiquita managers talked about, and interacted with, the AUC as if they were just the Neighborhod Crime Watchers.

Anyway, read about it all in more detail and better writing here

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB340/index.htm

There once was a man who swallowed a Frog.....

I looked everywhere for another place to land my gaze. I mean, he was standing right in front of me, staring at me, eating the pancake and jam that I had brought, waiting for a response that I was sure he knew I would not be able to give. It infuriated me. We had come to the house for a simple visit with a nice old lady and her daughter and as soon as we entered the dirt floor kitchen, even before we could exchange social niceties with the host and explain the gifts we brought, this short man, shirt unbuttoned, cap sliding to one side, looked at us with eyes wide as half dollar pieces and shouted at me,

¨Have you heard the news! They are paying! They are paying! They are paying families who have lost children in the war! I’ve lost three!¨

To fully understand the complexity of such a statement, (beyond the horrible fact that someone lost 3 children to state violence) one has to be in on a few backstories. First, the payment the man is referring to is a sort of reparations that the Colombian Government is supposedly starting to pay for the several years in which it, in the name of stopping a guerilla insurgency in the Colombian countryside, blatantly allowed militias to kill farmers on the simple assumption that one can never know for sure who is a guerilla.

Second, after many years of death, violence and impunity at the hands of the Colombian State, the community decided that a massacre in 2005 was the last straw and they broke ties officially with all entities of the state. What’s more, since the community´s past is riddled with instances where military has made a list of people labeled as anti government, and therefore targets, there is intense skepticism and fear whenever the military asks for names and personal data. Thus, no member of the community can register for, nor accept, any assistance, monetary or otherwise, from any state agency; a significant commitment for people who barely have the money for diapers and even a bigger deal for this man who is diabetic and requires an operation he can neither afford nor get for free for being elderly.

To make this situation even more uncomfortable for me, my role in the community is a bit difficult to manage. Technically, I am a strictly neutral human rights observer, meaning that I am by no means a member of the community nor am I allowed to take part in any internal policy or action of the community. Moreover, my organization maintains relations with the all branches of the government. Needless to say, my comments and actions within the community are restricted. Nevertheless, I live here, I interact daily with the people, I bring them homemade pancakes and jam and I kiss their kids regardless of how much cow manure they played in earlier. My ¨technical¨ position in the community is often tossed aside and replaced with an attitude that screams ¨sure, you’re a foreigner and a part of a political organization, but c´mon…you see how things are! Commiserate! Bash the unfair rules! Tell me it is O.K. to bend them!

It was with this attitude that the man stood and stared at me munching on his pancake with a look that demanded a response. I hoped in vain that if I just didn’t accept his stare, then the story, and the expectations of some kind of response, would stop. But the room was thick with tension as everyone, recognizing how uncomfortable the situation was, was quiet with their eyes lowered to the floor. I began to panic look for an officially approved response I could dish out

The man was oblivious of the awkward silence he had created, an oblivion that is understandable knowing that he calls himself the frog Singer because he claims to be able to sing wit the voice of a frog he swallowed live. He paused for a good bite of pancake, and then, without finishing chewing, continued on about how badly he needed his surgery and how fortunate it was that the government was finally paying people for their passed losses, and how a soldier promised him that if he only gave him his personal data he could be registered with the health care system and get the operation for free. The entire time, I could only think about what I was going to say that would simultaneously commiserate, but not cross the line into suggesting he bend the rules.

Realizing I was not going to avoid the conversation, I stopped avoiding his stare, started tolerating the masticated food visible in his mouth, and started to listen. I quickly learned that, like many Colombian conversations, he actually needed me to say very little. Frog Singer happened to be a very sexist pig, I just happen to be the only man in the room and he just wanted to vent to someone he thought mattered. I let the man talk, nodded my head, grunted and old Frog Singer was content. So content, in fact, that he flowed right into another story, this one 45 minutes long, about the time he fell off a Cliff and survived.

That night I did not give any good advice nor did I gracefully escape long winded story forced my coworker to miss the news. I did, however, get yet another chance to chastise myself for getting missing the majority of a good story because I was so wrapped up in my own insecurities. People, especially Colombians, often are faced with situations much harder than I could ever understand. I clearly can not commiserate, nor should I every think I’m expected to. My role, rather, is to listen to the story, take it seriously and try to understand the depths of the dilemma discussed. If the person walks away feeling like someone truly heard their story, I´d consider my job ¨well-done.

Video: FOR´s work with conscientious objection

FOR in Colombia is not only focused on the Peace Community of San Jose. The team in Bogota has, among other projects, a focus on protecting and fighting for the rights of Colombian Conscientious objectors.

Colombian males have to pay one year of military service when they turn 18. In order to ensure that all 18 yr old males show up for service, there are military sweeps and checkpoints in many urban areas that ask young men as they pass by o show proof of their service. If they can not do so, and are over 18. they are taken to the base and signed up for service on the spot. There are some serious questions about the legal and moral issues behind such sweeps and, as is the case in any situation where people are pressured to do things, there is always the doubt that human and constitutional rights are not followed.

There is a law allowing for conscientious objection based on personal beliefs, however, the process of proving it is complicated, long, emotionally draining and monetarily out of the reach of lower class citizens. Whats more, while the young man is trying to get through the process of proving his beliefs, he is often separated from family, subjected to intense political pressure and made to feel guilty for not fulfilling his duty to his country.

FOR´s role in this is to work with Colombian organizations to support the young men both practically and emotionally so that they have the strength to follow through with their fight to exercise their right to conscientiously object.

Here is a short, subtitled, inverview with one of the young men resisting the obiligatory military service.

Demilitarize Your Life! from Fellowship of Reconciliation on Vimeo.

Sometimes it´s like talking to a dog about using a fork

The past 2 months since I wrote last has been full of meetings, trips and news that strike at the heart of human rights in the Community of Paz. Personally, it has been a time during which I finally settled in to life in La Union and really started feeling like I have a place here. Clearly, then, I should have been documenting it as it progressed. Sadly, I was not that judicious. As a result, I have decided that, rather than having one extremely long blog entry, I would break it up into several.

TODAY: January and February´s military meetings

1st half of January:

This period wasn’t the easiest for anyone on the team. It is right after the holidays, so those who didn’t go home are still reeling from the experience of Christmas alone and those who did go home are reeling from the shock of being back. Needless to say, January started off with a bang at new years and quickly tapered into something of a general lull for us all. To make matters worse, living in a very rural environment where the only extra-work activities include afternoon soccer, reading, thinking or talking, a person who doesn’t really like soccer and isn’t very good at talking ends up spending a lot of time alone, thinking. This can be great, but as we all know, Navel gazing, as I have grown up calling it, usually results in little more than spinning mental wheels trying get to the absolute root of all their problems, a generally impossible goal.

2nd half of January/First week of February:

Luckily, there was work (and, recently, amateur house planning) to pull me out of myself and into the world above.

Lately, work has been consumed by planning for and carryout meetings with the military, police and state-human rights departments. We do this twice a year every year, but this round was particularly important because January saw a wave of turn overs in the military and police ranks as well as a couple worrying occurrences in both Cordoba and Antioquia (I live in the latter but the community has members in the former) that we needed to mention to the state authorities. Before I get to the meetings themselves, there are a few things I have to clarify.

First, it is important to understand the relationship between the government, including the military and police, and the Community. The history is complex and long as is any history that involves corruption, a 60 year rebellion, three armed groups, murders, drugs and impotent justice system. However, the short of it all is that in 2005 Luis Eduardo Guerra, one of the Community´s most important leaders, his family and several others were murdered in n the same morning in the area around Mulatos, a small village north east of where I live. Since then, despite the fact that several soldiers and commanders have admitted to the military’s involvement in the crime, none of them has ever been prosecuted, much less punished. As a result, the community decided that it could no longer trust the government, including its justice and military systems, to protect them and their rights and thus declared that they were officially and indefinitely rupturing relations.

This means that the Community does not want the government involved in their lives at all. No social services, no social aid and especially no military and police protection. While the guerilla facts DO present a real and serious danger to the community, the community believes that military presence only works to bring the fight closer and is not protective. Instead, they believe that the only way to really protect themselves is to separate themselves completely from the conflict, I .e. adopt a policy of strict pacifism and neutrality. The hope is that if they don’t get involved with any side, no other side will have any reason to attack. To deepen their security peacefully, the community works very hard at creating and strengthening international ties. Here, the idea is that having a large number of citizens of politically powerful countries advocating on the Community´s behalf, any incursion on their rights will be too politically costly for any actor.

This is where we and our meetings are useful. While meeting with brusque military men and listening to same government discourse repeatedly is fun, there are more important reasons for these meetings. One is to remind them that we are here, watching and recording human rights violations and that we are passing them on to higher political authorities life foreign embassies and Colombian government departments. Another, we make sure they are aware of the situation in the zone. Many of the higher ranked officials are disconnected with reality on the ground, and, moreover, many people are jumping on President Santo´s bandwagon declaring that the conflict is coming to an end. We try to clarify that, it is way too early to begin declaring victory, especially when we are still seeing so many violations on a regular basis. Finally, we meet to keep communication lines open and get their personal contact information that we use in cases of emergency.

Now, the summaries. Given the fact that we come from an anti- military stance that is very skeptical of recent assertions that things in Colombia have changed for the better, meetings with military and police are frustrating to say the least. We say that paramilitaries still exist, they say that paramilitaries are groups like firemen and paramedics; we say that the community is threatened and given the history, doesn’t trust the government; they merely repeat that they should go to the government. In general, the meetings feel like little more than a tennis match, each of us volleying back and forth our official discourses, neither appearing to gain any ground.

Meetings with the military are simultaneously exciting, elucidating and frustrating. Exciting because it is one of the few opportunities we have as accompaniers to really exercise our political power. Elucidating because each time we go through the process of refining agendas and analyzing what topics to discuss and how to discuss them, we get a deeper understanding of the subtleties and complexities of the relationship between the government and the community. Despite the power trip and the clarity these meetings lend, one can’t help but walk away from them feeling like nothing was truly accomplished. One can only hope that behind the official discourse, something of what we said, or maybe the mere fact that we are there watching, did sink in and will have an effect.

still truckin

this is not going to be long as I cant seem to get my USB to work and thus cant transfer the entries I have been working on for a while. Plus, while this excuse is a bit cliche, I have been honestly really busy ans January and Feb have been packed with meetings and delegations

But never theless, I wanted to drop in a let you all know that I am a live and kicking.

Blog posts to come:

Report on the round of meetings with the Military in Cordoba and Antioquia.

Description of the trip Im currently waiting to start on. Includes the trimontly asamblea, commnunity elections, commenoration of the 2005 masacre and the next instalment of the Farmer Unversity. It is really going to be an awesome experience.

Anyway, I will get to this soon.

Burning dolls in the Colombian countryside...

I am back in Colombia from a good week up at the farm. The transition back into work and life was a bit more difficult than I imagined. Up until the flight back to Colombia, I had never really been one to get homesick. While I continue to have the usual problems of fitting into a new community, my new year’s celebration this year went a long way toward bringing me back into the fold.
In Colombia, New Years is not just about ushering in the New Year, but saying goodbye to the old. In line with this custom, on Dec 30th they construct huge scare crow like bodies stuffed with old clothes, old newspapers and old mattress stuffing and then sow on a really old, eye-less, marked up cabbage patch doll head. That creepy looking mix between a man and a baby sits on the principle road where everyone who walks past says or does whatever they want to Mr. Old Year. (Many punched, spit or kicked...making it quite obvious that they weren’t to happy with Old Years performance)

The official party starts at around 3pm on the 31st when they slaughter bull and butcher the meat. For the first time in Colombia, I ate meat that wasn’t fried to a crisp. While this meat was certainly cooked way beyond done, it was actually broiled and cooked with herbs as well as a bit of oil. It was delicious. Dinner is served throughout the afternoon. I made the mistake of waiting for everyone to eat together, expecting someone to call me when dinner was served. In reality, the pot of meat is set out next to a pot of boiled yucca and a pot of buñuelos (cheese balls for my family) and people graze for the entire afternoon.
Then at 6pm the kids ´party starts and the adults, except for the unlucky young girls who are in charge of organizing the kids, get ready for the dance. The kids spend about an hour beating a piñata made of a garbage back full of candy until the room as to be cleared for the dance. These gigantic speakers (I have no idea how they carried these things up a hill for two hours) make up the sound system and, starting promptly at 8pm, start pumping out dance songs and doest stop for a full 48 hrs.
At around 9pm the dance starts and people file into the hall and pick partners at begin the marathon. It is incredible how they dance. First, it is absolutely out of the question for a girl to ask a guy, and it seems even more out of place when a girl actually seems happy to be asked. Basically the girls sit long the walls sulking until they are dragged onto the dance floor. Half of the dancers choose to dance a good distance from each other, with contact only between the hands. The other half and this becomes for as the night wears on and the crowd becomes younger and younger, dance as if they are trying to share clothes. Despite their attempts to meld to one another, the couple spends the extraordinarily long song never looking at each other, smiling or talking, and as soon as the dance is over, the couple parts as if they had abhorred every minute of being together. No thank you, no comments on the dance, no jokes.
This continues for a constant 15 hrs with a break only to set Mr Old Year on fire. This year, they forgot the gasoline so after several unsuccesful attempts to set wet cloth on fire, someone finally ran to their hose, go the bottle of used cooking oil they had been saving and drenched the doll and quickly got the blaze going. Everyone them bursts into a frenzy of hugs and kisses for about 15 minutes until the focus turns back to the dance which rages on until noon the next day. This year, my co workers and bet with several other of the community people that we could stay up dancing the entire 15 hours. Well, we did see the first light of the first day of 2011 and we beat out every one else in our betting group, but there was no way we were going to make it the last 5 hours until 12.
Anyway, I woke up at 1145 to hear the last two songs at which time i got up and started making breakfast, when one of the other dances popped into the house with a small pot of the soup. She said that we had made it farther than any other male FOR employee and so our reward was a bowl of soup a piece. Also she informed us that rather than sleep after a 15 hr dance marathon, everyone was making a trip down to the watering hole to swim.
This watering hole is amazing. It is a 30 walked down the mountain to one of the two streams that line La Union. Once toy reach the river, you walk for about 15 minutes downstream until you get to a small water fall that empties into a large hole that then flows into a larger water fall and a larger whole. All of this is surround by a wall of smooth, black rock face and tope with the greenest of jungle vegetation. It is a scene strait out of fern gully. We spent the whole afternoon, dozing on the rocks, sliding down the waterfalls, fighting the waterfalls and eating candies. Despite being more tired than I have been for a while, it was an incredibly good way to celebrate New Year ’s Day.
However, the holiday is not over, as we have yet to celebrate the New Year. Thus that night commenced another dance marathon that, luckily, only lasted until 4am. (I gathered people were happier about the Old Year leaving than the new Year coming). Then, of course, work starts for most the next day at 7am.

It was certainly a New Years I probably won’t, nor really want, to repeat. Not because it wasn’t fun (it was amazing) but more because I can barely walk today, and there is nothing worse that sore legs in a place that requires uphill mud walking not matter which direction you go.

In the end, I danced more than I have in my entire life, slept 7 hours in two days, ate some of the best tasting beef I’ve had, became a hell of a lot closer with some of the people in town and got to watch a huge doll burn as people joyously ran around kissing each other and bidding good riddance to Mr. old year.

Below are some pictures to make it all a little more clear...