DPOR'S
COKA-KILLA page
Stop
Killer Coke!
UPDATE
ON LAWSUIT AGAINST
ALABAMA COAL GIANT,
DRUMMOND
Lenten address:
From Violence to Peace (by
Margaret Knapke)
Plan
Colombia (by
Margaret
Knapke)
Daytonians'
Experiences in Colombia
Colombia
Journal, by friends met in Colombia
Colombia
and Corporate Profits
Alabama
Coal Giant Sued Over Three Killings in Colombia
Deforestation:
Colombia's
Rain of Destruction
U.S.
Involvement in Colombia: One Man's Story
Human
Rights Workers Threatened
by Paramilitaries
Interview
with Noam Chomsky
Timeline
-- from NACLA
Further
Analysis from Progressive Periodicals
A
Collection of Older News Stories
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Colombia
and corporate profits
The
Political Economy of a Narco-Terror State
by Rachel Guevera
Exxon-Mobile
Corporation
Drummond, Inc.
Dole Food Company
BP Amoco
Occidentol Petroleum
What do these corporations
have to do with the killing of over 5000 people per year in
Colombia? Read on....
(click
here for full text of article)
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U.S. Involvement in Colombia's War:
One Man's Story
by Barbara Howe
....His name was not printed on our schedule of meetings. He was known
simply as a "human rights activist". When he left us for the evening,
we'd not know his destination but the bed he'd sleep in would not be
the bed he'd sleep in the next night. Or the next, or the next....
....We were amazed that someone who had suffered so much, could still
do the work that he did, speaking out for truth and justice in a
country where paying with one's life was all too often the cost of
doing so. We were sad that we could do nothing to quiet the constant
tremor of his hands. We were angry and shamed that our own government
played a role in his suffering....
Click
here to read full story
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Human
Rights Workers Threatened by Paramilitaries, then Deported
Deportation
Orders Revoked,at
least for now...
Click
here to read full story
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Daytonians
in Colombia
Photographs
from the Trip!
Colombia
Journal (by
friends)
Dayton POR's irrepressible John Ewers returned July
8 from Colombia, where he participated in a joint UCC / Witness for
Peace delegation. Then Joe Kunkel and Margaret Knapke participated
in a joint Witness for Peace / SOA Watch delegation, which headed for Bogota, Colombia on July
31.
In Bogota they met with a wide range of
governmental and nongovernmental representatives, for a variety of perspectives on the current conflict.
Then, Joe and Margaret travelled with their different
"mini-delegations" to Barrancabermeja and the southern Cauca
province, respectively.
"The port city of Barrancabermeja is located on
the Magdalena river in the northern Colombian department of Santander.
With a population of approximately 275,300, it is Colombia's most
important oil refining centre.
"Barranqueños, as the people of
Barrancabermeja are known, have a strong tradition of combative and
organized labor organizations. Since the 1920's, organized, popular
protest and strikes in defense of workers' rights -- in defense of the
sovereignty of Colombia's oil reserves, in particular -- have
characterized the Barranqueños... " (from the Office of the
Americas). More recently, women's and labor and human rights
organizations have had to stand up to a strong paramilitary presence (
which is tolerated and even protected by the Colombian Army).
Margaret's group (consisting of former SOA Watch
Prisoners of Conscience) travelled among the largely indigenous population of the southwestern Cauca province
(above Ecuador).
The indigenous of Colombia number approximately
800,000 and comprise about 25% of the total population. Their
communally-held lands are tremendously rich in mineral resources. They
have experienced great repression, as a result of transnational
corporations who hope to force them into abandoning their lands. The
indigenous people, who have determined to remain neutral and nonviolent in
the current conflict, are experiencing repression from all armed
actors. They have put forward an Alternative Plan Colombia (also called planes
de vida or Plans of Life) which calls for practical alternatives to
the fumigation of coca crops (which poisons their land, food
crops, and water), as
well as other economic and political changes.
Joe and Margaret and company returned via Atlanta and
joined a nonviolent witness at Fort Benning, home of the School of the
Americas, before coming home.
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C o l o m b i a
J o u r n a l
(Janna Bowman is part of a group
that Margaret and John traveled with in Colombia; Margaret calls
them her "beautiful Mennonite friends.")
No tolerance for nonviolence in
Colombia?
by Janna Bowman
On the evening of Colombian Independence Day,
more than 80 people organized by Justapaz and the Conscientious
Objection Collective gathered near La Plaza de Bolivar, the seat of the
national government in Bogotá. Sympathetic passersby, curious street
people, and expressionless armed police peppered the crowd.
With glowing candles, we sang of peace and read
litanies until a congressional event concluded and the senators and
representatives began to leave. We cleared from the street to allow
armored SUVs, filled with soldiers and members of congress, to pass.
Some of us continued to sing while others stood in silence, positioning
the banners to ensure their view was unobstructed.
However, the police and army were growing weary
of our presence. More troops arrived, with heavier armament. About this
time I read a greeting from Boston Mennonite Fellowship, the first of
the solidarity messages sent to us for this event:
On
this Colombian Independence Day, we stand with you in spirit as you
remind each other and all who will listen that peace comes through
peacemaking, not warmaking. We long with you for the day when you, we,
and all people everywhere live together in peace instead of war, with
joyful anticipation instead of fear, with bellies satisfied instead of
hungry or overstuffed, and nurturing instead of plundering the earth.
May you be richly blessed for your creative and courageous efforts
toward this peace.
This message was not well received by the state security forces. Not
only were we organized and public with our peace stance, we had
international support. As the tension mounted, we returned to our song
sheet. Then, to my disbelief, I heard the unmistakable roar of a riot
tank approaching. We were told they were ready to hose us down. For what
- singing prayers of peace? I turned to my friend, who read my question
on my face. "This," she said with tears flooding her eyes,
"is war, Janna."
With the riot tank came additional
reinforcements. One Mennonite pastor called on the riot police not to
use their weapons against the peaceful group. Another urged them, and
all armed groups, to lay down their guns and relinquish faith in
violence, and allow the Prince of Peace to intervene in the Colombian
conflict. The microphone was then passed to Peter Stucky, president of
the Colombian Mennonite Church, and he began to speak. As he did so,
another riot tank arrived, and then another. As this gentle pastor,
deeply committed to nonviolence, prayed for food for the hungry, 10 or
more police in riot gear marched up to him and created a blockade
between him and most of the vigil participants.
Peter looked out at the scene unfolding in
front of him and addressed the gathered assembly, including the riot
police standing at his chest. Except for the occasional revving of the
riot tank engine and subtle street noise, it was quiet as we
listened...and waited. He called for justice where injustice reigns,
freedom for the oppressed, regard for life over lust for money and
power, return of land to landless peasants, safety for Colombia's poor -
those most often robbed of life in this senseless violence, wisdom for
legislators who have not done justice, loved mercy, or walked humbly. He
exhorted the new administration and congress to govern in obedience to
Jesus' teachings of reconciliation, nonviolence, and love.
A fourth and final riot tank rolled up the hill
and stopped just short of the outermost ring of participants.
We sang another song, (what more could we do?)
"Make me an instrument of your peace..." and then Peter
invited us to close in prayer. Defying all instructions ever given at
nonviolent direct action trainings in the U.S., Leticia, Peter's wife,
reached out and placed her hand on the nearest riot policeman as he
stood poised. He returned her gesture, whispering, "May God bless
you."
We once more plead for an end to the bloodshed,
an end to the fear, an end to this war that threatens the freedom and
lives of all who stood and shed tears in longing for peace that night.
Janna Bowman is the coordinator for
International Solidarity Relationships and Political Advocacy for
Justapaz: Christian Center of Justice, Peace, and Nonviolent Action, a
Mennonite Peace and Justice organization based in Bogotá. She has
worked with Justapaz for one and a half years through a term of service
with Mennonite Central Committee. The Conscientious Objection Collective
is an organization born of the Mennonite Church that has grown into
ecumenical and secular circles.
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July 12, 2002
Justin Podur
Interviews
Noam Chomsky on Colombia
Their Fate Lies in Our Hands
At the time of this writing, the municipalities of Toribio and Jambalo
in Northern Cauca are being bombarded by both FARC and the Colombian
government. Northern Cauca is home to one of the most remarkable
experiments in resistance to neoliberalism and in the actual
construction of alternatives in the hemisphere, not to mention a
courageous and unarmed struggle for peace....
...The
indigenous organizations of Cauca have asked for international action
to protect them... and for all armed actors to leave their territory so
they can continue their construction of autonomy.
Noam Chomsky visited Cauca several months ago. He gave his assessment of the situation there in an email interview today....
Click
here for full article
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Colombia's
Rain of Destruction,
by Sanho Tree,
Institute for Policy Studies
Sanho Tree is Director of the IPS's
Drug Policy Project. In this article from November 2000 -- which is
still an excellent resource ! -- he gives a cogent summary and critique
of the U.S.sponsored Drug War in Colombia, including the fumigating of
crops.
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Further
Analysis from Progressive Periodicals
These great articles will round out
your understanding of various aspects of the Colombian situation.
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older
news,
for context:
New York
Times: Alabama Coal Giant Sued Over 3 Killings in Colombia
March 2002: Alabama's largest
mining business, the Drummond Company, has been accused of encouraging the
assassination of three union leaders at its giant coal mine in Colombia.
In a federal lawsuit filed here last week, a union in Colombia and the
families of the dead leaders assert that Drummond's Colombian managers
signaled paramilitary gunmen that they wanted the officials killed...
For the full article, please click on the link above.
Los Angeles Times: Colombian
Village Caught in Cross-Fire
March 2002: The Bombing of
Santo Domingo Shows How Messy U.S. Involvement in the Latin American Drug
War Can Be....
For the full article, please click on the link above.
Washington
Post: Wider U.S. Role in Colombia Sought
February 2002: The Bush administration's fiscal 2003 budget request
for $98 million in new Pentagon training and
equipment for the Colombian military marks the first step
in a wider initiative to move U.S. involvement in the war-racked South
American nation beyond counternarcotics assistance,
administration officials said yesterday....
For
the full article, please click on the link above.
Human
Rights Watch World Report 2002: Colombia
January 2002:
This report is Human Rights Watch's twelfth annual review of human
rights practices around the globe. It addresses developments in sixty-six
countries, covering the period from November 2000 through November 2001.
The report shows that the human rights situation in Colombia deteriorated
markedly over the course of the year, with civilians bearing the brunt of
the country's violent armed conflict.
Please click on the link above to read
the article and information from Human Rights Watch.
Mired
in War in Colombia:
Editorials from The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune
January 2002: Two recent
editorials shed light on the situation in Colombia. Please click on the
link above; for more information, please see www.nytimes.com
and www.chicagotribune.com.
Colombia:
The Traffic of Terror
August 2001: There has been war
for half a century. What are the factions really fighting for? This
special report from the Crimes of War Project provides comprehensive
expert analysis on this and many other topics.
Please click on the link
above to read these articles and commentary.