¡Adelante! Peace with Justice for ALL Colombians

This post is also available in: Spanish

By Rebekah Sears, Policy Educator and Advocacy Worker for MCC Colombia.

It is that time of year again: Days of Prayer and Action for Colombia (DOPA). From April 4-7 churches, organizations, communities and individuals from the United States, Canada, Colombia and other parts of the world will be praying, acting and standing in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Colombia.

In 2012 the Colombian Government and the largest guerilla group, the FARC entered into peace talks, seeking to bring an end to 50 years of internal armed conflict in the country.

It is now 2014, and the talks continue, with several agreements being reached at the negotiating table. As the process carries on, we continue to pray for the negotiators and the country as a whole and advocate for policies that reflect peace and justice. But we also pray for and support peace at the community level, standing in solidarity with the hope that genuine peace and justice will become a reality on the ground and in the lives of all Colombians and not just peace on paper.

How can we support? Here are two great resources for worship, pray and action:

• Worship and Prayer: http://washingtonmemo.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/dopaworship2014.pdf
• Action: http://washingtonmemo.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/actionpacket2014.pdf
• Remember Colombia and the current context in your church services and stand in solidarity, standing behind policies and actions that support peace, development and reconstruction, and against policies that may lead to further conflict (knowing where your funding is going)
• Learn more about the current situation in Colombia and the potential role of your government as well as the ways in which they can promote peace at the national and community level
• Call on your government, whether you are Colombian or from another country to take actions to support peace and justice: write letters, speak out, educate and act.

Just peace does not arrive overnight or with the signing of an agreement. It takes years of hard work at the ground level. During DOPA 2014, and throughout the months and years afterwards, we especially think of the work being done for peace and justice by churches, organizations and individuals across the country, in various contexts and situations.

Movements for Peace and Justice on the Atlantic Coast

This year please join us in praying for and supporting the communities of the Montes de Maria region on Colombia’s Atlantic Coast. This region was hit very hard by a string of massacres and hundreds of thousands of forced displacements in the late 1990s and early 2000s and many communities are still struggling to recuperate. Today, community leaders in the region (many of whom have strong connectionns to local churches) continue to face threats, violence and intimidation for their involvement in non-violent movements calling on the government to fulfill their promises of post-conflict reconstruction and land restitution. Let us support these communities and individuals in their work and stand with them as they stay strong in their convictions to pursue peace and justice through non-violent actions.

Choco: Building Peace through Food Security:

We also remember the communities along the San Juan River in Chocó on Colombia’s Pacific Coast. A region rich in natural resources but also prominent in illegal coca production, communities are often caught in the middle of multiple armed groups. In response to this violence the social wing of the local Mennonite Brethren churches developed an agricultural project, helping families and communities find alternatives to coca, thereby escaping the threats that come with it, and sustaining their families through food production.

Today the region continues to be volatile and the project has faced several acute challenges, including a recent fumigation of rice and fruit crops as part of the government’s attempt to eradicate nearby coca crops. Much of the funding for such actions has come from the US government under Plan Colombia, a multibillion dollar aid program over 10 years which directed approximately 70% of the funds to military aid. Let us support the communities and churches to remain strong and let’s stand with them as they continue their courageous work to bring peace and food security within their communities.

Looking to the Future: Urban Centres

Finally, let us remember in prayer the churches and organizations in urban centres, working alongside children, youth and and families, often in unpredictable situations. In the marginalized areas of Cali and Medellin, Baranquilla, Bogota and Soacha, gangs and illegal armed groups often seem like the only survival option for children and youth. In these areas many churches and social organizations are reaching, out to those at risk: showing love, encouraging them in their abilities, teaching them principles of love, peace, and justice, and believing that these youth are Colombia’s future. Let us pray for and support the many projects that seek to transform communities by transforming the children and youth through the power of prayer and service and the people working within such projects.

There is much hope in the courage of those working for peace and justice- let us pray and support such efforts and let us move forward (or Adelante in Spanish), for peace with justice for ALL Colombians.

US Military Spending in Colombia and the Region:

Carlsen, Laura, “Latin America Gains Momentum against U.S. Backed War on Drugs” Huffington Post, October, 2013.

Dyer, Chelsey, “50 Years of US Intervention in Colombia” Colombia Reports, October 2013.

Latin American Working Group: Letter signed by 62 members of U.S. Congress on new approaches to aid in Colombia, focusing on land restoration and not military aid, April 2013.

Latin American Working Group, “Time to Listen: Trends in U.S. Security Assistance to Latin America and the Caribbean,” September 2013

Sears, Rebekah and Adrienne Wiebe, “Colombian Anti-Narcotics Police Destroy Crops in Church MCC Project” MCC Latin American and the Caribbean Advocacy blog.

Vogt, Anna. “Letter from a Colombian Jail,” MCC Latin American and the Caribbean Advocacy blog.