This post is also available in: Spanish
The Asociación Sembrando Semillas de Paz (Sembrandopaz) emits URGENT ACTION for the physical and judicial security, and the right to a good name and due process for Ricardo Esquivia Ballestas, director of this organization, as well as other leaders of the community process of the High Mountain Zone of El Carmen de Bolívar, Colombia.
Recommended Actions
- Maintain Ricardo Esquivia, the members of the Sembrandopaz team, and the leaders of the High Mountain Zone of El Carmen de Bolívar in prayer.
- Spread broadly this Urgent Action.
- Solicit the Colombian State (find instructions here) to speak out on this issue and take all the necessary measures to assure the respect of life, physical integrity, right to due process, and good name of Ricardo Esquivia, the members of the Sembrandopaz team, and the community leaders of the High Mountain Zone of El Carmen de Bolívar.
- Solicit the Colombian State to speak out on this issue and support the citizen participation and full implementation of the Victims and Land Restitutions Law, and to reject all actions that go against this process.
- To the international community, communicate with their governmental representatives and to the Colombian Embassy in their country to express their concern and solicit their backing to this urgent action.
- Ask the Colombian State to guarantee the rights of a due process and the physical integrity of Jorge Montes in his place of reclusion, so that he is not subjected to torture or mistreatment.
Acts and Antecedents
Trust-worthy sources have confirmed an imminent threat by Colombian authorities against the liberty of Ricardo Esquivia Ballestas and members of the coordinating committee of the Movement of the High Mountain Zone in El Carmen de Bolívar, and against the legitimacy of the Asociación Sembrando Semillas de Paz (Sembrandopaz).
Sembrandopaz was founded under the leadership of Ricardo Esquivia Ballestas in 2005 with the support and sponsorship of the Mennonite Church of Colombia with the goal of accompanying community processes of justice and peace building in the Montes de María and Caribbean region of Colombia. Sembrandopaz is an active expression of the values of nonviolence, solidarity and love of neighbor with which the global Mennonite church has been committed to since it’s beginning in the 16th century. Since his early formation in the Mennonite Church, Ricardo Esquivia has accompanied processes of peace building, human dignity and reconciliation, alongside churches and local communities in the region of Montes de María for approximately 40 years.
One year ago, Sembrandopaz began accompaniment to the movement of the High Mountain Zone of El Carmen de Bolivar, whose communities organized for their rights to integral, transformative reparations, a dignified return to their land, guarantees of no repetition, and state support for the solution to the death of avocado crops in more than 40 rural communities in the Montes de María region.
The community movement of the High Mountain Zone did a Peace March from April 5 to 8 of 2013 to demand a dialogue with local, state and national government, which began in San Jacinto on the 7th of April and continues to the present day. The movement has contributed to promote reconciliation between before-divided and fractioned communities of the High Mountain Zone, and to encourage citizen participation in dialogue.
On September 3 of the current year, leaflets appeared in the High Mountain Zone throughout the communities of Macayepo and Lazaro, threatening various leaders of the movement, including the Coordinator of the movement, Jorge Luis Montes Hernández. This document accuses the leaders of robbery, extortion, and affiliation with the FARC-EP and is signed by a self-defense paramilitary group, “Los Urabeños” and BACRIM.
On September 9, the Prosecutor of El Carmen de Bolívar called the community leader, Jorge Montes, to present himself in their office and there proceeded to follow through on an order to arrest him. In the pre-trial hearing, on September 11, they accused Mr. Jorge Montes of the crimes of belonging to the 35th Front of the FARC-EP, criminal conspiracy, homicide, forced displacement, extortion, and others.
According to trust-worthy sources, the threats against Ricardo are similar to actions and processes begun against him by Colombian authorities in 1989, 1993, and 2004, based on false accusations, which were later suspended due to lack of foundation.
Towards the end of the month of June of the current year, after the accompaniment of Sembrandopaz in the Peace March of the High Mountain Zone, two international members of the Sembrandopaz team, with temporary religious visas under the support of the Mennonite Church of Colombia, Anna Vogt of Canada and Lariza Zehr of the United States, were called to the office of External Relations in Colombia to verify the validity of their migratory status, with the possibility of their deportation. This process has still not resolved.
Sign onto the Petition to Stop Political Persecution of Ricardo Esquivia and Colombian Human Rights Workers using this link: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/stop-political-persecution
Finally, please take a moment to write letter to Colombian officials and important members of the international community.
Colombia Letter Writing Campaign
Reblogged this on Connecting Peoples Honduras and commented:
Please read this information and consider signing the petition (http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/stop-political-persecution) in order to end the political persecution of Ricardo Esquivia (director of Sembrandopaz, a MCC partner organization in Colombia) and community leader Jorge Montes. Please also consider acting in the other ways listed, and praying for Ricardo, Jorge, and all those involved.
Por favor lean esta informacion y firmen la peticion (http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/stop-political-persecution) para acabar con la persecucion politica de Ricardo Esquivia (director de Sembrandopaz, una organizacion asociada con el CCM Colombia) y el lider comunitario Jorge Montes. Tambien consideren las otras acciones sugeridas y mantengan Ricardo, Jorge, y todas las otras personas involucradas en sus oraciones.
This is the call to action in Portuguese: http://gustavofrederico.blogspot.ca/2013/11/peticao-por-ricardo-esquivia-colombia.html . Here is the sample letter in Portuguese: http://sdrv.ms/17EbeBw
[…] on Anna’s personal blog, The Llama Diaries. For background on this situation, check out the Action Request from September or Anna’s recent post The Power of […]
[…] September MCC Colombia staff, Sembrandopaz and other partner organizations have been publishing action requests and updates on the situation in the Montes de Maria on Colombia’s Atlantic Coast. Ricardo […]
I’m not sure the place you are getting your info, however great topic.
I needs to spend a while learning much more or understanding more.
Thank you for wonderful information I used to be searching for this
info for my mission.
Very good post! We will be linking to this particularly great content on our site.
Keep up the great writing.
Greetings from California! I’m bored to tears at work so I decided to check out your
blog on my iphone during lunch break. I love the information you present here and can’t wait to take a look when I
get home. I’m surprised at how quick your blog
loaded on my mobile .. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G ..
Anyhow, fantastic blog!
social empires triche features a substantial part inside Us Culture.
Lots of people are frequently noticed enjoying things to do associated with
social empires hack.
Since the admin of this web page is working, no doubt very rapidly it will be renowned,
due to its feature contents.
Per la maggior parte delle notizie recenti si deve andare
a vedere web e sul web ho trovato questa pagina web come miglior sito per aggiornamenti più recenti .
I think this is one of the most significant information for me.
And i’m glad reading your article. But should remark
on few general things, The web site style is great, the articles is really nice : D.
Good job, cheers
Кeep this goiոg please, great job!
First off I want to say fantastic blog! I had a quick question which
I’d like to ask if you don’t mind. I was interested to find out
how you center yourself and clear your mind prior to writing.
I’ve had a difficult time clearing my thoughts in getting
my thoughts out there. I do enjoy writing but it just seems like the first 10
to 15 minutes tend to be lost just trying to figure out how to begin.
Any recommendations or tips? Many thanks!
What a material of un-ambiguity and preserveness of valuable know-how on the topic of unexpected feelings.
I really like what you guys tend to be up too. This kind of clever work and exposure!
Keep up the fantastic works guys I’ve included you guys to blogroll.
It’s remarkable designed for me to have a web page, which is valuable in support of my experience.
thanks admin