Why travel with Witness for Peace to Colombia, when other parts of the world are in the headlines? The Colombians we interviewed will explain why their country matters, now, in the global picture.

On Sunday March 23, as some United States congregations prayed for swift victory over Iraq and others prayed that God would forgive us our rapacity, the nineteen members of the "Presbyterians Concerned About Colombia" delegation were welcomed by a Presbyterian congregation in Barranquilla. The packed church heard Rev. Milton Mejia preach a strong anti-war sermon, in which he defined the mission of the church as teaching peacemaking and overcoming violence, both military and economic. Speaking to Colombian Christians who live with the threat of death and forced removal from their homes, and who struggle with poverty, his message to "live peace" sounded more challenging than ever.

Later Rev. Mejia told us of Presbyterians' disappointment during the last three or four years of extreme violence, that no groups had come to support them from the PCUSA. "Lutherans and Mennonites come; do Presbyterians have more fear than our sister churches?" Yes, the nineteen of us - fifteen Presbyterians and four from other faith groups - had fear, and for good reason. Colombia is convulsed by a forty-year war that is now being intensified by U. S. counter terrorism military aid. Every family in Colombia has been affected by the violence. But finally, organized by Witness for Peace, we came this spring to stand with our fellow Presbyterians and to learn all that we could about the effects of U. S. military policies on this tortured land.

KILOMETER 7

Our immersion into the human pain of Colombia's war was our visit to a refugee camp that does not even have a proper name; its inhabitants call it "Kilometer 7" for its distance outside Barranquilla. There 250 families live in wood-frame one-room houses, whose walls are of plastic. They have little water, no sanitation, and not enough food. Some of the children have terrible skin diseases - because they cannot wash. Many of the marriages broke up when the families had to flee, leaving the women as the sole head of family.

They have fled to this hellhole because a member of their family was murdered or received a death threat. They do not dare leave for fear of being killed. To keep them terrorized, masked men entered the village and killed four of their community organizers. We saw masked men practicing at a target range near the entrance to the village, a constant warning to its inhabitants.

They were all farmers, who claim that they took no part in the violent armed groups that control a large part of Colombia: "We are victims of the conflict without being actors in it." They are of the small-farmer class whom no one wants anymore. The government has washed its hands of them and sends no aid. They have been "warehoused" in this compound; meanwhile, the armed groups who drove them here -- the FARC and the paramilitaries, guerilla armies of the left and the right -- now have the use of their land.

As we were leaving, a small girl ran to one of our group and said, "Take me with you." When the woman demurred, the girl argued, "My mother said that I will be better off with you." They are so desperate that they are trying to give away their children! There are between 2.5 and 3 million displaced persons in Colombia today.

LIFE IN SOUTH AMERICA'S OLDEST DEMOCRACY

Colombia is a rich country, exporting oil, coal, gold, coffee, cocaine and heroin; it has half a dozen beautiful cities. Yet 65% of its people live in dire poverty. Its ruling class is proud that it elects civilian presidents. How much democracy there has ever been is nonetheless a question. Every move to broaden the political base, to allow in the poor, has been crushed by violence.

We kept coming across ways in which this violence plays out today for ordinary people. For example,

• The Human Rights worker who accompanied us to Cartagena, who received a death threat four months ago, has been given no government protection, yet continues her work.
• The Presbyterian former seminary head who wept when she described how "they" had pulled one of her students off a bus and murdered him --"He was our most promising student"--now works with displaced women, who have lost "their homes, husbands, their identities."
• The young pastor, caught in a massacre in his village, who escaped when an attacker befriended him, then nearly starved in the woods. He returned in time to help bury the 25 or 30 members of his congregation who were massacred. For a time he lost his faith, but finally asked himself, "What has God saved me for?" Now he ministers to displaced persons.
• The woman who as mayor of Apartardo got up early each morning to remove the dead bodies from the roads so that children would not see them on their way to school. She has now returned from exile to continue speaking out for human rights.

All of these people have been crushed by violence and yet have refused to be silenced.

THE U. S. CONNECTION

Colombians are quick to connect the U. S. invasion of Iraq with Colombia's future. They see now that one nation can decide the future of another, arbitrarily and even against the will of the U. N. They fear that Colombia will be next, that it has been chosen to be the springboard for U. S. control of South America. Why Colombia? Because it alone of all the South American nations is not becoming progressive but has in fact just elected a very authoritarian president, Uribe, who has invited U.S. military forces to come to Colombia when they are finished in Iraq.

Because it already has a system of violence in place: its poor will not cause trouble when U. S. corporations begin carrying out their mega-projects -- millions of the poor are already being warehoused in refugee camps. Because at the School of the Americas the U. S. Army has already trained many of the Colombian army, more from Colombia than from any other Latin American country, and can count on them to cooperate with us. At our interview at the U. S. Embassy, four bright young men told us enthusiastically that "our military attaché gets lots of cooperation from the Colombian forces." During that interview, as they described the various USAID projects planned for Colombia, never once did they pause to consider whether Colombians want the changes that the U. S. plans for them. No wonder Colombians identify with Iraqis.

WHAT NEXT?

As we drove away from Kilometer 7, several people asked us, "When will you be back?" We are determined not to be "one-timers," people who just drive through in order to look at their misery. Although these nineteen people may not be able to return, we have vowed that others will come. The Presbyterians told us, "You help us know that we are not alone." If you can participate in a delegation to Colombia, or if you are interested in leading one, contact Betty Kersting <sfkerst@cybermesa.com> or Anne Barstow <annebarstow@peoplepc.com>.

Witness for Peace sends about 8 delegations a year to Colombia. A new one has just been announced from our area, sponsored by New York City Presbytery; it will go next winter.