Colombia Reports

Introduction Letter

Jim Fitz is a member of Plow Creek Mennonite Church, in Tiskilwa, Illinois. He works full time in peacemaking, which includes about 3 months a year with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in Barrancabermeja, (Barranca for short) Colombia. In the Barranca area, CPT there provides protection from the threats to and killing of various armed groups by being a nonviolent presence and witness for about 100 farm families. Jim will be in Barranca area Oct.1- Dec. 22.

During the application process for Christian Peacemaker Teams, one of the first things that the CPT interviewer said to Jim, " Do you realize this is a very dangerous situation and do you have a bunch of people who can pray for you?" This gave Jim some hesitation but upon some reflection, he felt that he had a church full of people who would pray for him. He also felt a clear call to this work. He felt he was ready to try to risk his life for peace in the same way soldiers risk their lives for war.

I thought I would give people some background on the situation in Barrancabermeja, Colombia. It is a city of 250,000. It has a large oil refinery and for protection from the Paramilitaries and Guerrillas is surrounded by a Colombia Army and Navy Barracks. CPT team provides protection for about 100 farm families who live in an area call the Opon. The Paramilitaries, Guerrillas, and Colombian Armed Forces, who all want to control the farmers, oil, and drug traffic in the area, continually accuse the farmers of siding with and helping their opponents. CPT simply rides around in a motorized boat looking for any of the armed groups. When we find them, we talk to them, trying to convince the soldiers to give up their arms. We trying to persuade them that making peace with guns just doesn't work. As they are often at someone's home, we stay there until they leave. When we are there they are not very likely to threaten and kill the farmers, because we will tell on them. We do this by putting it in the news media there and sending email reports back to the States to supporters, like you, whom we ask to pray and to let our political leaders know what US military aid is enabling to happen in
Colombia.

Our analysis is that because of all the corruption in the Colombian government, the US military aid to Colombia is sold to each of the other armed groups under the table, and than they use it to fight each other and threaten the farmers. It seems we are just fueling the fire of war. For the most part the farmers, who just want to farm and are tired of 40 years of war, are the ones on the other end of the gun.

According to numerous reputable human rights groups, including Amnesty International, the Paramilitaries commit about 80% of the human rights abuses. They are a right wing illegal group that overtly claims no relationship to the government; however, CPT personnel have witnessed cordial interactions between the Paramilitaries and Columbia Armed Forces. US government reports have also acknowledged this connection between Paramilitaries and Columbian armed forces. The Paramilitaries and FARC are on the US list of terrorist organizations. They are heavily dependent on the drug traffic and are often associated with big business and large land owners.

The Colombian Army and Navy committed another 10% of the human rights abuses. Because of all the corruption they are involved in drug traffic also.

The Guerrillas commit the other 10% of the human rights abuses. They are fighting the above two groups for control. They are the largest guerrilla group in the world. Reports are that they control about 40% of Colombia. The FARC is the main guerrilla group. They are somewhat dependent on the drug trade also.

In the main area in which we work, all the people live along the Opon river and its tributaries. Transportation is almost exclusively by boat. We have two boats which we use to travel amongst the communities. We have a office and house in Barranca from which we work when we are not in the country.