Report of the Ecumenical Delegation to Colombia

by Kent Siladi

Kent Siladi

Seven members of our conference were part of an Ecumenical delegation to Colombia this past June 26-July 8th. Our delegation included: Davida Crabtree, Sarah Dowling, Hugh and Kate Mclean, Lyn Shaw, myself and Jerry Streets.

"In church, we were all busy singing and dancing. The war forced us to ask, 'Is this what God wants us to do?'"

"War never brings peace, only more war. In June, a pastor was taken out of his church during a prayer and killed. Why are the armed groups against churches? Because we don't participate in their activities, they attack us to force us to take sides."

These words from pastors in Colombia confronted our delegation with that fact that in Colombia, faith means praying and serving in the face of great danger. The church in Colombia is under attack by all of the armed groups, with nearly 20 pastors killed in the first 7 months of this year, and hundreds of churches closed.

The Delegation was co-sponsored by Witness for Peace, the United Church of Christ, and Justapaz, the social justice agency of the Colombian Mennonite Church and our mission partner. The group of 35 included representatives of the UCC including two conference ministers and two national staff persons; Mennonites; Friends, Disciples, Presbyterian and Methodist churches.

Pastors from all over Colombia came to the first Colombia Church Consultation held at the Teusaquillo Mennonite Church in Bogota. They spoke to us of the pain and fear in their work, and we heard of their faithful efforts to build community in spite of violence and threats. We heave of schools created with few resources, of food distributed, of farms that provide both work and food, and of prayers and Bibles given to members of the armed groups.

The pastors who gathered for the consultation are part of CEDECOL, the Colombia Council of Christian Churches. They work under constant threat from armed groups competing for resources and members. The churches' efforts to keep young people out of armed groups have led to kidnappings and death. In 2002, at least 18 Protestant church leaders have been assassinated, and others have been kidnapped and threatened. More than 400 churches have been closed and hundreds of church families have joined the 2.5 million who have been displaced. The displaced live in extreme poverty in barrios around most of the major cities in Colombia.

The pastors asked for prayer from North American Christians, and "no more arms, no more arms." In the words of one leader, US military aid adds fuel to the raging fire that is burning through Colombia today.

We visited Soacha, a displaced community of approximately 400,000 perched on the barren hillsides south of Bogotá. Few services are available to the growing number of residents, who build homes from scraps and the few available supplies, and must travel for hours to the closest jobs. We worshipped with a pastor who saw our unplanned arrival among his small congregation as an answer to prayer, and we talked with another leader who dreams of building a community center.

We ate lunch in Soacha with AFRODES, a group of displaced Afro-Colombians who were forced to leave their ancestral coastlands in 1996 and now find themselves doubly discriminated against in the cities because they are displaced and Afro Colombian. We saw a day care center they are slowly building with donated supplies, so that parents are able to search for work. Community teenagers danced with life and joy, preserving their culture even in this place that lacks the most basic needs. AFRODES community leaders work to help young people find hope and avoid the lure of gangs and armed groups.

Half of our delegation visited Quibdo in Choco, a state that is predominanantly Afro-Colombian and is caught in the crossfire of armed groups from the area for drug and arms trafficking. The group visited displaced persons from Bojaya the site of a May massacre of 119 people who were taking refuge in a church to escape a battle between guerillas and the paramilitary. The Colombian military failed to respond to the build-up of armed groups in the area, although repeatedly warned of the danger faced by the community.

According to one Choco leader, "no one knows why they became victims of violence. If we do nothing or if we do something, the war comes to us." Everywhere in Choco, there is evidence that the government has long ignored the needs of the people, and poverty and lack of security leaves them especially vulnerable to war. Afro Colombians comprise about 30% of the population, but 65% of the 2.5 million displaced persons.

Other delegates visited Sincelejo in Sucre, where Justapaz Caribe has organized a school and feeding program that daily serves about 570 children, gathered from the displaced communities that surround the city. Many of the children and their parents are emotionally devastated by loss and war, and the school provides counseling as well as education.

According to a pastor in Sincelejo, "The civil population is caught in the middle...the economy is in shambles...Rural areas are abandoned because almost everyone has been moved off their land...what is the church doing? Everything! We used to be busy doing 'churchy' things, but now we must see the reality around us."

Roman Catholics and Protestants work together in a Sincelejo school near another displaced community, and among the social workers is a former guerrilla whose words were clear: "power can't be won through arms, peace can't be won through weapons. My life has been much richer in civil life." Even so, returning to civil society is not easy, and those who work to build community often become targets.

Gabriel Montes, a farmer and Justapaz volunteer who told the delegation of his efforts to mediate between armed groups and his threatened community outside Sincelejo, was assassinated in his village just weeks after he met with us (July 27). Last month, Sincelejo was declared a closed "security zone" with increased restrictions for travel and public gathering.

Everywhere, the delegation heard that the development aid, promised through Plan Colombia for rural development had not arrived. There have been promises of money to encourage alternative crops to coca, but even those farmers who signed onto that program say that they have received nothing. The fumigation has killed food crops and has not stopped the pressure of the armed groups. The Agriculture Minister of Sucre told the delegation that the development aid is "in Bogota."

In Merroa, an artisan community in the Montes de Maria in Sucre, we were told, "as long as there is poverty there will be war." Military solutions fit the pattern of Colombian history over the past 100 years, but they have not brought lasting peaces. Arms fit the strategy of US policy, but cannot bring peace in a nation with so many displaced and millions more living in sheer poverty. Even in Merroa, the place where our partnership blanket was made by Nelcy Perez, the beautiful weaving in traditional styles cannot be marketed, and an armed group blew up the mayor's house last year.

Officials at the US Embassy in Bogotá briefed the delegation with an assurance that coca is being destroyed through fumigation, even though the CIA reports that the amount of cocaine has increased by 20% in spite of spending $1.3 billion to fight the "drug war." Embassy spokesmen said that US Aid in Colombia, now freed for fighting guerillas and protecting oil company pipelines, as well as for spraying coca, would stop the war in Colombia within 15-20 years, following the model of the secret war in El Salvador.

In response to all we saw and heard in our time in Colombia, we have committed ourselves to working with our brothers and sisters in Colombia. We were urged by Ricardo Esquivia, the leader of Justapaz and Cedecol and a speaker at our Annual Meeting several years ago, to talk about the hope and peace that we saw - he reminded us to see how a mango tree grows - you don't have to see the tree - you have to feel the flavor of the mango in your mouth. The most obvious sign of hope we witnessed was in those who are working for peace - our partners in Justapaz and many other Colombians dedicated to transforming their culture of violence to a culture of peace. We saw hope in the power of organization among the people to build a new society and to join as one voice in crying out to an end to violence. In Ricardo's words "Peace work is the work of the church. We dream of a better life based on the Gospels, on God's own words. There is no force on earth that can make that dream die." Following that dream takes courage and solidarity. To have courage is to not be overcome by fear. We need to see little pieces of hope in every action. As we work to strengthen the body of Christ in Colombia, so we also will strengthen the body of Christ in the United States. Ultimately we will end up working for the same issues in both countries."

We commit then to: strengthen the partnership between Justapaz and our Conference and continue to encourage our Connecticut churches to become involved in the Sister Church program; to work to restrict and eventually eliminate US military aid to Colombia; to work to channel aid through humanitarian organizations; to work for drug policies in this country that focus on education and treatment; to encourage accompaniment with our sisters and brothers in Colombia and to pray unceasingly for an end to the greed that is the root of war and death.

Song

We are walking in the light of God,
we are working in the Light of God,
we are praying in the Light of God.