International Projects at 1310 West Main Street, Lexington, KY 40508-2048 US - A Soul-Searing Experience in Colombia
|
A Soul-Searing Experience in Colombia
by Sister Iris Anne Ledden, SSND |
 | Our Global Community | |
| A diocesan department site of Diocese of Lexington |
|
|
September of this past year holds many vivid memories for me that continually challenge my life and my every day decisions because I had the opportunity to travel to Colombia, South America under the sponsorship of Witness for Peace with six other members.
Witness for Peace is an organization founded twenty-five years ago by Jim Wallis. The organization “supports peace, justice and sustainable economies in the Americans through publications, work and travel opportunities and action tools.” My purpose for going was to have the experience of learning from the people about the country’s difficulties and to witness first-hand some of the human rights abuses. The experience, especially of living in a war zone with the poorest of the poor was a profound soul searing experience!
In order to understand the complexity of problems in Colombia one has to look, not at just one problem which is usually drug trafficking, but to realize there are enormous other problems the Colombian people face each day, especially the small farmers. These problems are: the displacement of four million people (greater than Darfur), with forty per cent being Afro-Colombians; the problem of racism; the brutally seizing land from the Afro-Colombians and the indigenous so that African oil palm and sour yucca can be grown and used for fuel which benefits the Colombian government and multinational corporations; fumigations of the coca plant by the United States, causing food crops to turn brown and die plus creating sickness of children and cattle and home to two of the largest open coal pit mines in the world, displacing people and leading to human rights abuses.
Colombia is the world’s twenty-sixth largest nation and the fourth largest country in Latin America with an estimated population of 44,954,279, covering 439,735 square miles. 65% of the population lives in desperate poverty … on less than the equivalent of two dollars a day. 10% of the people control 56% of the wealth with the lower 10% having less than 5% of the wealth. The government is democratic, but due to its violent history of human rights abuses, it is known as a simulated democracy. Colombia has been in conflict for forty years, continually suffering from what is known as “a low-intensity conflict” from rebel guerilla groups, paramilitary, militias, drug trafficking and corruption. The conflict originated around 1964-1966, when the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) were founded and began their guerrilla insurgency campaigns against successive Colombian government administrations. Since that time the country has experienced the highest levels of official and paramilitary violence which includes forced displacement, killing of union labor leaders (the most of any country), journalists and human rights activists.
Since 1997, our government has given more than $3.2 billion in aid to the Colombian military, making it the largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the hemisphere. In order not to lose military aid, our government proposed to the Colombian military that paramilitaries be established who are responsible for most of the massacres and deaths. Some of these paramilitary "self defense" forces are private armies created by oil, gold, fruit, and soft drink companies to protect their investments. The Colombian government organized others, called convivirs (United States and Colombia by Paul Wolf).
The Colombian military in the Choco District we visited are focused on protecting the oil plantations, mining areas and the multinational corporations instead of the people. The military and the paramilitary work together to promote “big business.” In the “big business” three multinational corporations stand out for human rights abuses: Chiquita International (bananas), the Alabama-based Drummond Company (coal exports to the US) and Monsanto (fumigation of the coca plant).
Plan Colombia I and II was described to our delegation as being designed in the US. it was to have international support to strengthen government forces for the fight against drugs. Instead it has become a political and military project which has increased human rights violations and confiscated victims’ property for the growth of Oil Palm and other mono-crops, resulting in this monumental internal displacement, and thousands of murders and massacres. Sad to say, many of our Congressional members approved the Plan, not for humanitarian reasons but because of their interest in US companies operating in Colombia.
After learning these facts while in Bogata from historians, lawyers, Justicia y Paz (the Catholic Peace and Justice Office), and from the Ethics Minister, we traveled to the rain forest (Uraba) for five days. As we entered the jungle, there was no infrastructure and the roads we traveled by jeep were deeply rutted and muddy with large stones. Our first stop was the small community at Cetino where we were warmly welcomed, given supper and shown to our bedrooms – the upper porch floor of a small house! Later in the evening we gathered with the community to listen to the anguishing stories of these courageous people, who in spite of danger, returned to take back their land and to cut down the oil palm. We went to bed that night with tears in our eyes after listening to their stories.
The following day we prepared to hiked four miles in the mud and heat to the next community, Caño Clara, which is located in one of the three humanitarian zones. We spent a couple of days with this community, visiting Andalusia where 300 people had had homes, a school and a church which have now been destroyed. Further up the dirt road, back in the jungle, we visitied the cemetery where the graves of those who had been murdered had been bulldozed and desecrated. We were never alone, always surrounded by the military and the guerillas who lived not far away in the mountains.
Once again we listened to stories, this time told mainly by the women of the community. They told us about trying to escape with their babies and children to the mountains when word came that the paramilitary was planning a raid, on their community. They had nothing except a change of clothes, many of their husbands were assassinated, their babies’ mouths were covered so there would be no sound. Every story we heard was different, but they had one thing in common – violence.
One male member of the community summed up well what happened to all of the small farmers in the area who have been displaced. He reminded us that “Every time you see a palm you need to remember four things:
· We were displaced to plant it
· The tree is a grave marker for many people who died so it could be planted
· The tree represents an attempt to disintegrate our families
· There has been irreparable damage to the land, our lives and families”.
What I have recounted is very inadequate. The stories I heard need to be written in blood and tears. The fact is that the poor of Colombia are only of one of many countries suffering because of profit motivated multi-national corporations, corrupt governments, greed and power. And this is what impacts immigration and causes people to leave their homeland.
I ask you to please stand along side of your Latin American brothers and sisters by pressuring multi-national corporations and also our government to do the right and honorable thing when it comes to passing bills and making decisions. We need to break the cycle of violence and together we can make a difference, and heal some of the painful wounds of our brothers and sisters.