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Colombia Commentary
by Jim Fitz
We pulled our boat up to a checkpoint
on the Opon River. Half a dozen illegal, right-wing paramilitaries, also
known as paras, signaled with their guns for us to go ashore. We disembarked
with our weapons: prayers, pens, notebooks, eyes, ears, and our presence.
Things were tense as we announced our mission to report any human rights
abuses they might commit.
We watched the paras detain a group of
farmer families. They searched the boats and confiscated anything they considered
beyond their immediate needs. The paras also checked the farmers' IDs to
see if they they were on their death list. If they found any suspects, they
would probably kill them.
The paras questioned and intimidated the
farmers for an hour-and-a-half. They accused them of helping left-wing guerrillas
and tried to persuade them to tell on their neighbors. People are stopped
on their way home from town, their belongings are confiscated, their
friends and family disappear. These days,
that's the common experience of Colombian farmers.
Paras have strong, under-the-table
connections with the Colombian armed forces. As a result, they're
above the law and do a lot of the Colombian army's dirty work. Amnesty
International says that paras commit over 70 percent of politically-motivated
murders and kidnappings in Colombia. What gripes me is that my taxes are
used to supply them with guns and ammunition.
The U.S. supplies weapons and herbicide
to Colombia to combat the drug trade. However, the Colombian army often sells
these weapons on the black market to other armed groups. It also uses the
herbicide to destroy crops other than coca. One farmer we met was full
of sores from when a surprise fumigation destroyed all his food crops.
Many friends I made in Colombia were threatened
by paras, left-wing guerrillas, and official armed forces. Last year, 340-thousand
people were forced to flee their homes and communities. Many more disappeared
or were killed. One day, we watched paras burn farmers' houses to the ground.
I wonder what I would do if I were forced to leave my home here in Bureau
County, then returned to find nothing but ashes.
U.S. military aid to Colombia is supposed
to fight cocaine traffic. More correctly, it's tearing Colombian society
apart at the roots. The guns and ammunition we supply are only fueling
the fire of violence in Colombia.
Good is stronger than evil. Join the march
to the light.
Please, on behalf of Colombian farmers,
pray for peace and call your Congressional representatives. Tell them to
oppose the current bill to increase military aid to Colombia. And ask them
to support humanitarian aid and funding for alternative crops.
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