Were getting away with it, again

I’m not that unique in my embarrassment of the U.S.’s history of open support for dictators and regimes that destroyed their countries to benefited U.S. interests. Its easy to be so looking back at the U.S.’s relationships with Somoza and the Contras in Nicaragua, the Salvadoran 1980s military, and Pinochet in Chile among others all who were violently repressing their civilian populations and any group that organized for social change. Nowadays the legacies of Somoza, Pinochet and the Right in El Salvador are generally recognized as repressive, which makes it hard for me to imagine how the U.S. government ever got away with so openly supporting such nightmare governments. Especially considering that at the time, the information was there thank you to 1980s activists in the U.S. and in Latin America. But I guess so were the ever so alluring lies about fighting communism. The U.S. populace largely only got around to recognizing that the U.S. was supporting repressive governments out of self-interest after the fact. It must have been so frustrating for those speaking the truth to have the U.S. government and populace continue to support repressive regimes while being told that they were repressive.

But, along with the Rolling Stones’ “Dirty Work” album cover I saw this kind of strategy by our government as something that, like many things in the 80s, was embarrassing, but in the past. Needless to say, living in a community targeted by the Colombian government has affected my view of things. The fact that the U.S. government continues to fund the Colombian military is just as ridiculous as when they funded Pinochet. Just like in the 80s, the information about the Colombian military and government’s approach towards its civilian population is available and recognized by many!

The paramilitaries are merely a branch or strategy of the Colombian military. All the internationals I’ve met here who are working in humanitarian organizations, accompaniment organizations, the United Nations, or just working on their thesis recognize this fact. Daily occurrences attest to this reality to the extent that the Peace Community does not differentiate between Paramilitary and Military troops. Many times the military will sweep through an area threatening campesinos and warning of “those that come behind.” In 2008 the “Black Eagles”, a name used by paramilitary groups countrywide, spread fliers around Apartadó (where we go to buy groceries) warning businesses to close and people to stay off the streets for two days. Guess where the military and police were those to days…nowhere. A town normally chocked full of military and police presence was suddenly without state presence the two days the “Black Eagles” were carrying out their “armed strike.” While the military-paramilitary alliance is obvious to people that can see the evidence in their daily lives, there are also some clear signals for the international community as well. Capitan Gordillo plead guilty of working with paramilitaries to plan and carry out the killing of eight Peace Community members in 2005! The ten soldiers involved in the operation have also been convicted and await their sentence. Even with this information made clear in reports, letters and demonstrations, the U.S. government has chosen to ignore or negate the violence the Colombian military and paramilitaries have jointly brought to the Colombian people by giving the Colombian military 6 billion dollars over the last 10 years.

And whom does the Colombian government threaten and kill with the paramilitaries? The left, those working for social change, anyone that threatens their power, or anyone that disagrees with them. Of course, the government chooses to call them guerrillas, terrorists or communists. The Colombian government targets civil society working for human rights and social change as the enemy! People working to inform communities of their rights are often the most in danger of being accused of 'unpatriotic activities' in a country where such slander often leads to threats and death. After the 2005 massacre in the Peace Community Uribe, the president of Colombia, explained the massacre on national television by accusing the Peace Community of being guerrillas. Among those the Colombian government finds suspicious is FOR! In February 2009 FOR’s phones were revealed to be tapped along with other non-governmental organizations, trade unionists, opposition politicians and Supreme Court justices by the DAS (Administrative Department of Security, which is kind of like the CIA, FBI, and Immigration Services all rolled into one). Now when we make calls to each other we assume someone is listening and we encrypt all our email communication. The Colombian government views those working for human rights or just a life without war as threats and treats them as such.

Colombia is the current day instance of the U.S’s major support of violent repression of social change in Latin America. The U.S. continues to pump money into a system that is known to view human rights defenders as the enemy and a military known for its complicity with the paramilitaries. I bet that ten years from now we’ll look back and wonder how the U.S. was able to get away with supporting a government so clearly repressive.

Beauty and Horror

I had a nice morning a few days ago. After laser frogs woke me up (they sound like bweiw! bweiw!) I read a little bit in the hammock and warmed up some tinto (strong, black and very sweet coffee) that I had made yesterday. Using the customary black rubber boots, I crossed the rain engorged stream between the FOR house and the house of Lucia, a new friend. Maryeli, Lucia’s oldest daughter, was outside getting two horses ready to go the 1.5 hours down to the nearest town. I stayed a while in Lucia’s house trying to maintain conversation and throwing Lucia and her daughters into fits of laughter with my attempts to cook eggs, catch a cat, speak, etc. After coming back to the FOR house, I had just started warming up some more tinto when a large Colombian military helicopter appeared over the hill right behind Lucia’s house. The made-in-the-USA helicopter circled the small community of La Union (where we live) low enough that I could see the faces of the soldiers inside and then disappeared behind a hill further down the mountain from La Union. I, and others who also had come outside, heard it stay there until it reappeared, circled La Union again and flew out of sight. I returned to the house to find I had burnt the tinto.

I’m surrounded by beauty and horror in the peace community. While I relish the prevalence of heavy rains, birdsong, peaceful mornings, budding friendships, shared food, and laughing with strangers I’m also always aware of the horror of threats, loss, fear, and violent death. It’s hard for me to understand or piece together how they can coexist. Its neither beautiful nor horrifying here; its both, depending on the moment you’re in, with the other always lurking, waiting to show itself as the Mr. Hyde of the context. These first two weeks I’ve mostly experienced the beauty of this dynamic. But the horror creeps in or saturates every experience whether it be through rumors of nearby troops, shots heard at night, painful stories of the not so distant past, fears expressed, helicopter fly-overs or just the ever-present knowledge that you live in a community that is threatened by its own government. In the midst of a life of work, rest, and fellowship that I’ve come to enjoy I feel the presence of the military daily as well as the living memory of over 150 community members they’ve been involved in killing.

It’s been about three weeks that I’ve been in the community and I’m very happy to be here but also look forward to maturing in my relationships with people here and with my understanding of the struggle of the community. From my arrival it’s been obvious that my time here will seriously affect me, hopefully more on the beauty side and less on the horror. I hope that all of you are well and able to find or create beauty in your lives wherever you are. In the mean time, enjoy some photos that I’ve posted below.

La Union, looking out our front door

Lucia and one of her daughers (guy at right is Chris, other FOR volunteer)