Statement of Witness
Submitted by a member of the Witness for Peace New England delegation to Cuba, August 2004
Report by Martin Lepkowski
Filed Fri 9/3/2004
Dear Friends,
I just got back from Colombia on a Witness for Peace delegation. It was quite intense. Besides having to worry about guerrillas and Para-military groups we got to see first hand what "Plan Colombia" is doing to the country. To date we have sprayed over 600,000 gallons of herbicides on the Amazon Basin. We have sprayed over 132,00 hectors. A hector is about 2.5 acres. We were in the state of Putumayo, the poorest state in Colombia , were 45% of the coca is grown. I was there three years ago and saw great devastation to crops, children & animals. This time I saw a lot of boarded up homes because the people have fled the region; besides coca, we have sprays food crops. One woman said to me that she had to decide whether she would eat a half or a whole banana for breakfast.
In Colombia , they say coca has feet. Since the spraying began over six years ago, (see Bill Clinton) the skies have rained poison, and the poor have taken their seeds with them. Before the implementation of Plan Colombia, coca was found in 12 provinces. Today coca can now be found in 20. So much for the "war on drugs".
I asked the man in charge of the fumigation program, who resides at the US Embassy in Bogata, whether he thought spaying some ones food with deadly herbicides was a human rights violation? Needless to say he danced around the issue. When asked about the boarded up huts he stated that these farmers were living with some family members, probably ( I kid you not) with an "Uncle Wilfredo". This guy was so out of touch. When I was in Colombia three years ago over 2 million people were displaced. Today that number is closer to 3 million. Only the Sudan has more displaced people.
Colombia is bleeding as "chemicals of mass destruction" rain down from heaven. Food crops are being destroyed. To date over 10,000 complaints have been filed at the US Embassy. To date only 16 have been accepted as legitimate claims. We saw fields of banana, yucca, corn pepper, and various fruit trees destroyed. The fumigating plane fly high to avoid gun fire hence when the planes let loose their chemicals it drifts over food crops, schools and all living things below.
And the icing on this cake is that there are armed actors every where. El Tigre, a town I had visited in the past had just experienced another massacre. Seems like one of the town's people was accused of being a guerrilla. He was taken out to the middle of a soccer field while a game was in progress and shot in the head. His body was left there over night. The next day a number of the towns people went to claim the body. The Para-military were waiting. these family members & friends too were executed. The Colombian military happened to be right down the road while all this was going on. They did absolutely nothing. You see the Para's and the Colombian Military are sometimes like cousins, kissing cousins.
Through it all, the Colombian people continue to have hope. Various campasino groups are organizing around what they call a "Plan for Life". I asked Cecelia, a woman who is the president of an organization that support the campasinos, how she continues in the struggle, how she can have hope in such a hopeless situation.
She stated that she believes in the people and that she prays to God. I then asked her if God listened to her. At this her face got quite animated and as her eye caught mine, she spoke to my heart. "Yes", she said, "God listens to me".
There are lessons to learn in Colombia. Our's is to act, to struggle, to not give into fear, to speak plainly no matter the cost, to listen to the Spirit that dwells in us.
Stand.
Love, Martin Lepkowski, Rhode Island
Page last updated: September 18, 2004