Colombia: Call to action and update

The Araucan provincial government official chuckled, then sighed, when I read this excerpt from a U.S. government report to him. He has heard it all before and can read through the rhetoric. The current Colombian and U.S. administrations posture "security" as justification for imposing military might-a painful truth many civilians have had the learn the hard way.

"The intensification of conflict does not bring peace," he said sadly. "I fully agree that we need security-we need food security, social security, secure employment…we need to have the security of freedom of expression. The military does not offer these social guarantees…"

The U.S. Administration sees things differently. "Sometimes," said a U.S. Embassy official in Bogota, "you have to start small fires in order to stop the big one."

FY 2003 Budget Bill Approved

The United States policies in Colombia clearly illustrate these inclinations. Last month the House and the Senate approved up to $773 million in aid for the Andean region as a part of the federal budget for 2003. The portion designated for Colombia is overwhelmingly military in nature and will be used for aerial spraying, reportedly to kill crops of illicit use, and to fight Colombia's war. The budget bills were lumped into a massive package and approved without any debate on the Colombia issue.

Pipeline Protection in Arauca

One of the controversial aspects of the policy is being implemented in the northeastern department (state) of Arauca-site of the Cano Limon Pipeline. Congress approved USD $88 million to guard the pipeline, owned in part by Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum, and train the Colombian military. Congress jump-started the pipeline protection project with $6 million in early 2002. The official reports claim that 150 U.S. military advisors have arrived in Arauca and are training the Colombian army. Approximately half of them are located in the Saravena, the battered town where 17 politically motivated deaths occurred during the last week of February alone. But these soldiers are just a portion of the growing U.S. military presence in Colombia.

Alarming Increase of U.S. Military Presence

On February 13, 2003, a military plane reportedly crashed in southern Colombia. The Revolutionary Armed Group of Colombia, the guerrilla group better known as the FARC, killed one and captured three U.S. Americans contracted by the Pentagon. By law, a maximum of 400 U.S. military personnel and 400 private contractors can be present in Colombia at a given time, except in cases of special rescue missions, such as this one. Official news reports put the number of U.S. military personnel currently in Colombia at 411, supposedly the highest number ever stationed here. Colombian editorials, however, speculate the number of combined military and private contractors could be up to 3,000. The reality is likely somewhere in between, representing an unprecedented and alarming increase in U.S. military related presence, U.S. Americans who could become directly engaged in Colombia's war.

The well-used "slippery slope" metaphor, employed to articulate concern over increasing U.S. involvement in Vietnam, looks increasingly appropriate in Colombia. Last year the United States government expanded its mission beyond counter narcotics to include the war on terror-which, in practice in Colombia, means counter-insurgency.

Even as the U.S. government grows more willing to become enmeshed in Colombia's messy, prolonged war, the noble motives claimed by U.S. reports are questionable. The reported "facts" and "situations" certainly hide the truth.

Aerial Spray of Illicit Crops

In late February 2003, Bush administration officials applauded the aerial spraying offensive, boasting that anti-drug forces had reduced the amount of coca grown for the first time. Citing the evidence that coca production fell by 15 percent last year, the director of national drug control strategy said, "Our antidrug efforts in Colombia are paying off, and we believe that this represents a turning point." Indeed, Colombian President Uribe lifted restrictions on the spraying and redoubled crop-duster flights over some of the high coca-producing regions.

"I wish it were true (here)," (referring to the U.S. report), said the governor of the southern province of Nariño. " In Nariño the crops have grown. Of the 64 municipalities of the province, 50 have coca. This demonstrates that fumigations moved Putumayo's problem to Nariño, and that this strategy is not the solution."

The amount of coca in Colombia has tripled since the U.S. began its spray campaign in 1996, despite having fumigated more than1 million acres. As the cocaleros, or coca-farmers, are displaced from their homelands by the harmful aerial spray, so is the coca--their livelihood. The government has even fumigated the alternative crop projects meant to be the alternative to coca production, discrediting the national leadership in the eyes of civilians. Moreover, as the economic crisis deepens, more economically desperate people turn to cultivating coca and poppies. "When it comes down to watching my children go hungry or raising (coca), I'll break the law," said one rural farmer in the heartland of coca production. The spraying does not get rid of the coca; it merely pushes it around to different locations within and outside the country, with devastating social, health and environmental costs.

Nevertheless, the U.S. Administration plans to use some of the fiscal year 2003 funds to expand the spraying. It also plans to do large-scale spraying of opium-the raw material for heroin, in addition to coca.

Social Spending

The United States provided USD $225 million for social assistance to the Andean Region in fiscal year 2003. While a step in the right direction, the effect of this aid will unfortunately be overwhelmed by the tremendous pre-existing need, as well as damage brought on by U.S. sponsored fumigation and warfare. We insist that military solutions can never bring peace to Colombia, as they can never do anywhere in the world. Although it appears to fall on deaf ears, United States citizens must echo the voices of the victims: security is not found at the end of a gun. U.S. military intervention --in terms of fumigations, military advisors, weapons, and helicopters --does not put food on the table, provide sustainable employment, lessen the fear encouraging millions of Colombians to arm themselves, or resolve age-old grudges.

Until governmental and other powers find real solutions to the fundamental problems underlying Colombia's 38-year-old civil war, peace will not come. Violent repression will not resolve issues of physical and economic insecurity. Rather, as Christians who seek to be faithful to Christ's way of peace, we attempt to give voice to victims calling for non-violent change.

We continue to support a negotiated solution to the armed conflict. We insist that judicial reforms are necessary in Colombia, a state with a 98 percent impunity rate for criminal acts. We encourage the Colombian government to take responsibility for the 3 million internally displaced people within its borders, victims of its own war. For U.S. citizens, we implore our own government to stop militarizing the Andean Region under the false pretense of fighting drugs and terror and, instead, channel our tax dollars toward the creation of life-giving-- rather than death-dealing -- relationships with Colombia.

Presidential Request for 2004 Budget:

President Bush released his budget request for FY 2004 in February. The 2004 request continues the disturbing trend articulated by the U.S. embassy official-more fuel for the fire. The request includes about the same amount of military aid as requested in 2003 and less money for social and humanitarian assistance.

About 80 percent of the total money proposed for the Andean region in '04 would go to the military and police. The majority of the aid would be used for counter-drug activities, but there is also additional funding to protect the oil pipeline in Arauca and for general military activities.

What You Can Do

Congress will begin to take action on the President's budget request in May or June of this year, and it is critical that they hear from constituents opposed to sending more military aid to the Andean region.

On March 24, the National Mobilization on Colombia is sponsoring events in four locations across the United States. The Mobilization, which is made up of a broad coalition of groups, including the MCC Washington Office, hold events in St. Louis, Los Angeles, Hartford, CT and Atlanta, protesting the role of corporations who support U.S. military aid to Colombia.

Then, on March 25, the Mobilization is calling for a congressional call-in day, to let your representative and senators know how you feel about military aid to Colombia. Or, you can join with others in your area to visit the district or state office of your congressional representatives during the week of March 24-28. For more information on any of these activities, see www.colombiamobilization.org.

Also, worship resources are available from the MCC Washington Office, to be used in conjunction with the Colombia Mobilization actions. They are online at www.mcc.org/us/washington.

To contact your congressional representatives, call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 or write them at: Representative (name), U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515; Senator (name), U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20510. To find fax numbers or email addresses for individual offices, see www.congress.org. To find your U.S. House Representative, http://www.house.gov/writerep Even if you cannot participate in the mobilization events march 24-28, it is still important to share your position and concerns with your Congressional representatives.