CPTnet  
4 September 2008
COLOMBIA UPDATE:  July 2008

During July, CPT's Colombia team did multiple accompaniments in Barrancabermeja and the Middle Magdalena region.  Violent deaths continued in Barrancabermeja; six murders occurred during one weekend and the end of July saw the city's fifty-eighth murder.  The Black Eagles (regrouped paramilitary forces) continue to consolidate their power across the region and threaten communities.  Small farmers continue to relocate to urban areas, a trend reflected in the Opón.

3 July
About 200 people, including CPTers Sarah MacDonald, Julián Gutiérrez and Pierre Shantz, attended a neighborhood march and vigil for peace in Barrancabermeja.  Community leaders, local clergy and human rights worker were present.  

8-12 July
Sandra Rincón and Sally Ann Brickner visited Micoahumado.  Community leaders spoke about the regional economic crisis. Prices are so low farmers cannot make a profit and many families have left.  Additionally, the community lost technical and financial support when the Program for Development and Peace in the Middle Magdalena (Programa) funding ended.

Leaders met with the General of the Fifth Brigade because a former-guerrilla-turned-soldier claiming to be a Black Eagle harassed them.  They also denounced GALAN Battalion members for using people's homes, something contrary to military policy and which CPTers observed the Army doing on their trip.  The General asked the community to report further soldier misconduct.

10 July
Scott Nicholson of Lutheran World Federation and CPTers Carol Tyx and William Payne accompanied members of Campesino Association of the Cimitarra Valley (ACVC) to investigate a farmer's death.  The 14th Brigade, Calibio Army Battalion acknowledged killing the man.  The community alleged that the Army then set up a "false positive" by placing a radio, revolver, grenade, and military blanket on his body in order to claim he was a guerrilla.  ACVC members expressed concern, recalling that the same Brigade killed an ACVC leader's son in January 2008.

14 July
Members of the Women's Popular Organization (OFP) and CPTers Sarah MacDonald and William Payne accompanied a local woman who lodged a formal complaint against men who beat her after a traffic accident.   At least one of the men is an alleged demobilized paramilitary.

15-19 July
Julian Gutierrez and Carol Tyx traveled to San Pedro Frio as part of the ongoing accompaniment to the mining community.  Danielle Wegman, of Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN), traveled with the CPTers in order to have current information for CRLN about human rights issues in the mining zone.  Community members talked about challenges rising from the government's protracted investigation of the September 2006 death of leader Alejandro Uribe (See http://www.cpt.org/cptnet/2006/09/29/colombia-cpters-accompany-mining-region-residents-who-demand-justice-after-assassi).  A woman spoke forcefully about not wanting to leave her home, of being rooted in the miner's life, despite the presence of armed groups and the cycle of danger to civilians.

The CPTers spoke with an Army platoon leader about a community concern that a uniformed soldier frightened people in San Pedro Frio by masking his face. The soldier noted that although the practice is illegal, informants enter communities in masks to avoid recognition.

16-29 July
Eleven North Americans began a CPT delegation focused on the mining zone.  Led by CPTers Julie Hart and Nils Dybvig, delegates met with Colombian mining, human rights and social justice organizers in Bogotá, Barrancabermeja and in southern Bolívar's mining zone.

20 July
CPTers and delegates attended a March and Concert for Peace.  The Barrancabermeja march included a larger focus on human rights, displacements and killings than the national military march called for by President Uribe.  A Parade for Life followed, an alternative pubic action organized by the Volunteer Citizens' Network for Active Nonviolence. The parade's slogan, "Where love is key, there is no room for war," was a twist on the city slogan, "Barrancabermeja, where love is key."

21-24 July
The delegation traveled to the mining town of San Pedro Frio.  Some fifty mining leaders spoke at an assembly about the communities' struggles for autonomy in the face of violence and legal strategies to displace them. They also celebrated their successes, including gaining land titles.  Leaders stressed the importance of CPT accompaniment and of people in the US working in solidarity for change.

Approximately twenty Army soldiers entered the town during the assembly.  Julie Hart and William Payne photographed them.  Payne dialogued with the commander about the soldiers' presence increasing the danger of gun battle.  Community members joined in, saying both the guerrillas and the Army adversely affect them, the latter having killed a community leader.  The commander argued that the military’s purpose is to protect civilians but refused to divulge his name.  

22 July
Carol Tyx, Sandra Rincón, and representatives from about twenty social organizations attended vigils for those recently murdered in Barrancabermeja. They held a banner saying "Plegaria por la vida" or "Prayer for Life."  Vigilers painted a candle with the number representing the order in which each death had occurred at the murder sites and burned papers naming hate, violence, and other things the community wants to end.

CPTers learned of the latest threats to human rights workers, which unknown motorcyclists distributed during the previous night.  See 28 July CPTnet prayer request, "Challenging violence in Barrancabermeja" (http://www.cpt.org/cptnet/2008/07/28/colombia-prayer-request-challenging-violence-barrancabermeja.) 

22-24 July
Pierre Shantz and Sally Ann Brickner traveled with a Programa (PDP) lawyer to Garzal and Nueva Esperanza.  A business consortium headed by former Colombian President Ernesto Samper wants to purchase the communities' land and is pressuring members to meet with them.  A woman said, "After all the work we did getting established, it doesn't make sense to sell.  Today money is worthless, but land value here is rising."
 
28 July
The CPT delegation's public action took place in Bogota's principal square behind the President's residence and near many Congressional offices, Delegates declared their support for the right of the communities of southern Bolivar to stay on their land.

28-30 July
Carol Tyx, Sarah MacDonald, Laura Ciaghi visited the Opón and saw no evidence of a recent armed presence.

30 July
Pierre Shantz attended a meeting of the Human Rights Workers Forum (Espacio) regarding the assassination of the president of a local community Action Council.  Many Council presidents are under threat and have asked the mayor of Barrancabermeja for concrete action.  Espacio will hold another Prayer for Life vigil at the site of his death.

31 July
Pierre Shantz and Jenny Dillon attended an evening "Celebration for Life," a neighborhood youth activity organized by the Legion of Affection.  The Legion engages youth in cultural activities as an alternative to the conflict. Their leaflet stated in part, "We want to be vigilant guards of life and sowers of hope… that through our artistic and cultural expressions… we may exorcize murder and raise our voice, demanding that all respect our right to grow into full human beings."