CPT LIGHT AMONG DARKNESS

“The spirits of truth and falsehood struggle within the hearts of people; Truth born out of the spring of Light, Falsehood from the well of darkness. And, according as a human inherits truth, so will he/she avoid darkness”. The Dead Sea Scrolls

Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) is an international organization headquarters in Chicago, IL. They have projects in the occupied territories of Israel/Palestine, Native peoples land of Grassy Narrows, Canada, war-torn Iraq and Barrancabermeja, Colombia. As highly respected internationals, who are trained in nonviolence, peace and justice, they go into these places where they bring the Light of Truth and God to boldly confront the violence, war and evil of Darkness. Many times this immoral Darkness they confront are governments or illegal armed actors. One such place, where I witnessed first hand CPT’s miraculous work was in Colombia May 17-29.

First of all the Light can be seen among the majority of Colombians who abhor drugs, violence and internal war. The majority of Colombians are honest and hardworking people, just as most people in the United States. Many Colombians were small farmers growing legal food cash crops for the marketplace, similar to the U.S. small farmers, yet immoral free trade agreements have squashed them and forced many to sell to large corporate farmers, and being displaced have fled to the overcrowded cities. Colombians want moral leaders, unlike President Uribe, they want guns off the streets, criminals in prison, and police and military they can trust. Yet the overwhelming Darkness exists in Colombia, mainly because their political leaders are ultra-right conservatives who believe in war and violence. They are extremely corrupt, similar to the U.S., yet different in the fact that President Bush is not killing U.S. citizens yet, but is a man very much like President Uribe of Colombia whose self-interests lye in war and corporate protection rather than the common good of the civilians.

Back to the positive Light in Colombia that can be found among the multitude of churches and non-profit organizations, like Justapaz, which works in the areas of conflict resolution, nonviolence and conscientious objection to compulsory military service. They have a program called, “Sanctuaries of Peace”, which recruits for the prevention of violence, to develop economic alternatives, and promote leadership among women and youth.

Another beacon of Light among the Darkness are groups such as a popular women’s group (OFP) or CREDHOS, a local human rights group, and the ACVC, an association for the protection of compesinos, the peasant farmers and poor. Other bastions of hope and Light are the Coca-Cola Union leaders and members in Barranca. Also, there is the CEPALC organization, which filled our minds with useful facts and statistics or an economist, which is in hiding for fear of death. Plus, a conflux of Mennonite church programs lifting up the power of the people in Bogota specifically the displaced.

Yet, among all the groups and organizations working miracles in Colombia, Peace Brigades International and CPT bring an enlightened approach, which has saved lives, and allowed people to return to their land, especially in the Magdalena Medio region. The Magdalena Medio is an area the size of El Salvador, including land in four Colombian Departments, like U.S. States or Canadian Provinces. Those Departments are Santander, Antioquia, Cesar, and Bolivar. Combined they have a population around 780,000. It is one of the richest areas in all of Colombia, producing wealth around $2.6 billion USD, but only 20% of the income remains in the region. U.S. multi-national corporations gobble it all up, leaving behind poor and destitute displaced civilians who are caught in the middle between all the armed actors.

It is this area along the Magdalena River, the equivalent of the United States Mississippi River, (where I’ve personally had the great pleasure to live along in Burlington, Iowa) is where I saw the true Light among the Darkness in Colombia. This is where CPT accompanied compesinos up and down the Magdalena and Opon rivers. This is where CPT’s international presence has made a significant difference in the lives of the simple and poor farming people along the shores of those two rivers. When almost all of the people fled two years ago during the violence and war between the Paramilitary, the Guerrillas, and the Colombian Military, now due in large part to CPT, the compesinos are returning to their land and homes with a feeling of safety and security. Every day out in the jungle of the following communities; La Florida, Los Nieques and the Cienaga del Opon is where CPT volunteer full-timers, reservists and delegations visit without guns and bombs, nonviolently share moments of love and peace with the civilians. This has proven to work over the last two years because the armed actors DO stay away while CPT’ers are visible in the region. This also proves to the skeptics that nonviolence is not passive but active resistance against violence and war. If only we had nonviolent peace armies throughout the world with millions of paid and volunteered soldiers who never lifted a gun or dropped a bomb, then there would truly reign an era of peace on earth among humanity. This is not a dream or fantasy, but a reality proven time and again in places around the globe by people like Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Peace Brigades, and CPT.

It is at this point that I must clarify what the paramilitary and guerrillas are by definition. Guerrillas are illegal armed groups, who tended to help the poor and marginalized within Colombia society. They would be considered leftists politically. They have killed hundreds of civilians who got caught in the middle as I previously mentioned. Today, guerrillas are considered terrorists by the Uribe and Bush Administrations, because they are viewed as a threat to large landowners and large corporate interests, such as oil in particular. This is why President's Uribe and Bush have heavily militarized the areas around the oil pipelines for fears of terrorist attacks by the guerrillas. Yet, much oil and gas are stolen each year by the illegal gas cartels and paramilitary to help fund their illegal activities, but they are not marked as terrorists as are the guerrillas. On the other extreme, you’ll find the paramilitary, which technically are illegal by the Colombian government but are indirectly financed through the Colombian military via the U.S. government by means of “Plan Colombia”. The largest and most deadly of paramilitary is the AUC. Paramilitary were born out of wealthy landowners and multi-national U.S. corporations, such as Texaco and Coca-Cola to protect their interests at any and all costs. The AUC would be considered the armed actors who work for the rich people and corporations and politically fall far to the ultra-right, conservative agenda of globalization and free trade, which kills and destroys the middle, working and poor classes of people worldwide. With documented and verifiable ties to the Colombian military, the paramilitary (AUC) has murdered thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians and have driven out thousands of compesinos from their countryside communities throughout Colombia. The collaboration and cooperation among the paramilitary, Colombian military and government, as well as the U.S. corporations and government through “Plan Colombia” funds have benefited only the rich and powerful in Colombia and the U.S. at the expense of millions of Colombians. Due in large part of all armed actors including the military of Colombia, and both the U.S. and Colombian corrupt government policies and officials, it has allowed the “so-called” democracy of Colombia to actually become a totalitarian form of government with the blessings of U.S. President’s Clinton and Bush. Colombia today, behind the democratic façade are the most egregious and systematic human rights violators in this hemisphere, mainly due to the pursuit of neo-liberal economics, which only benefits the powerful 10% of people in the world who own almost 90% of all the wealth!

Getting back to the Light and away from the Darkness, which includes the U.S. government and corporations, the Colombian richest 400 families and government, and all the armed actors killing Colombian civilians or displacing them is the dwelling place that our God commands us to be among the Light. Going back to the shore’s of the Magdalena/Opon river region is where the Light was magnified by the personal accounts of the compesinos who have returned to their homes. One such story was of a man who remembered back some 15 years earlier, before all the armed actors made the area a battle zone. He said, “It was an idyllic way of life,” prior to the fighting and displacement. Then, for several years their peaceful existence became a ghoulish nightmare. Where he once fished in the Opon, there were human bodies floating down river. Most of the poor farmers were threatened, displaced, disappeared or killed by all armed actors. It sent fear to every community. Then, two years ago, “gringos” in red hats in boats with flags waving CPT starting touring up and down the rivers. At first, most peasants were suspicious, except for one brave compesino with bounds of faith and courage took a chance with these white internationals and started to engage in dialogue with other families. This was a huge risk on the part of this one trusting man, who had no reason to trust, only distrust due to the heavy violence perpetuated on his family and friends in the communities along the rivers. As one CPT'er has stated, “Hate can’t drive out hate, only love can do that”. If only President’s Bush and Uribe could love. It’s ironic, both these leaders are “so-called” Christians, yet fail to follow Jesus in His message of peace and love. Both leaders were in favor of more killing in Iraq for the sake of oil, and now both are still in favor of war and violence for the sake of oil under the false banner of a “War on Drugs”. Especially, since President Uribe has strong connections to the drug trade himself, yet Bush and him are best of buddies! Until all people, especially U.S. citizens realize and embrace nonviolence through an open willingness to take the same risks in the name of peace as by armed soldiers are willing to take for war, most people will always choose the cowards way of violence as the most viable solution to their problems.

In community after community Colombian civilians told us on the delegation to inform our U.S. government to end sending military arms of death and destruction and in exchange send more people that are committed to unarmed peacemaking like CPT. They said, “war creates poverty,” just like in Iraq and numerous other countries around the world. When there is war, the money all goes to weapons, leaving scarce supplies of food, healthcare, education, decent shelter and employment opportunities. Colombian civilians believe that CPT is “getting in the way” in Colombia. It is very clear that CPT is getting in the way of continued violence, unarmed and disarming, modeling faith-based, nonviolent, Christ-like behaviors and alternatives, especially as seen on the faces of countless compesinos who greeted us with enormous smiles, hugs and kisses of appreciation. It was a love-fest on both of our mutual sides!

Like what I hear back in the U.S., many say that Colombia has a “culture of violence”, that no amount of financial aid or military intervention or even human rights advocacy will change things in Colombia. Of all the mutual misperceptions, this is the one I abhor most. For much of its history, even into present day, as a nation, the United States was and continues to be immersed in a “culture of violence” practiced against African-Americans, Native-Americans, Arab-Americans as well as any new immigrants that come to its shores. In general, the U.S. civilian’s perception of Colombians tends to be brutally simple. The U.S. views Colombians as drug traffickers first and foremost. Well, this is just not true! It is a falsehood of propaganda circulated widely by our U.S. government and media conglomerates. The vast majority of Colombians are truly wonderful people who ironically are not addicted to drugs like those silly “gringos” in the U.S., where demand has risen, not diminished over the years of our U.S. government’s “War on Drugs”. If the U.S. government truly cared about eliminating our consumption of cocaine and heroin, they would put the money to good use through strong drug treatment programs, rather than violent counter-insurgency in Colombia. Drug eradication by fumigation has only killed the soil, water, and potential legal food crops in Colombia. It has also created massive sickness and disease among the human and animal population. Plan Colombia is a killer foreign policy, that must end!

Another proud moment of the Light over Darkness came on the evening of May 26^th, 2003 in one of the most dirt poor barrios of Barrancabermeja, (Barranca). A fabulous organization, which I mentioned earlier, the Popular Women’s Movement (OFP) organized with CPT to do a public action or witness. The OFP was given the responsibility to organize and rally the women to turnout for the event. CPT decided on the format or framework in which to show our solidarity with and for the compesinos in Barranca, especially in a area which was high in violence by the paramilitary. CPT chose to do a "Prayer Pilgrimage” to various sites of violence and death located within this destitute barrio. Just to give you an image of this neighborhood, try to visualize the ghettos located in major U.S. cities like Detroit, New York or Los Angeles. Then down grade it significantly to a dirt road full of huge ruts. Their shelters made of tin and wooden shacks not much bigger than a typical outhouse with a family of five or more living in it without any form of welfare or healthcare. Now, you have a better visual of what poverty really means in Colombia. It’s not a pretty or moral picture, thanks to President Uribe and all the other armed actors and filthy rich. Anyway, back to the pilgrimage of Light processing down through the dirt roads of this barrio in Barranca. We (CPT) arrived around 5:30, close to 6:00pm with 100 candles and song sheets to pass out to the participants, which we expected far less due to the fear of reprisals. But, to our amazement and joy there was over 150 women and youth who came to celebrate the Light of Life with us. It was an exhilarating experience to be a part of something much larger than us “gringos”. Together, we walked, prayed and sang songs of joy, of light over darkness, of love and peace for all. As we began lighting the candles one by one, soon the darkness was filled with light. It was glorious! The theme of our pilgrimage was based on the “Beatitudes of Jesus”, guidelines for all true Christians to live by. We carried a 7-meter tall wooden cross through the streets with the beatitudes displayed on it. Those of us CPT’ers also carried small wooden crosses to carry. At each of the four sites of death, we all would stop with a reflection read my Claire and myself, followed by a song, a litany of resistance and more songs. As we gathered at the final site, people began placing their candles in a long row on the street in front of a small church. These candles together were shining as bright as the most brilliant stars lighting up the Darkness where once this place was the site of a monstrous massacre. I read the following reflection, which Pierre kindly translated into Spanish for the crowd. “We reflect on the power of our God to transform our loss of loved ones into becoming peacemakers, even though we all have been persecuted in some way by the constant violence that surrounds us each day. Blessed are the peacemakers, those who see the face of God in every human being and cannot injure, cannot kill, and cannot find any enemy. So, we do meet violence with love, not retaliation, as do immoral governments and armed actors. So, those of us who are persecuted do reach out and risk living the nonviolent gospels of love. All of us together will follow the example of the nonviolent Jesus.” In closing our pilgrimage, we continue our prayers and lift up our voices in remembrance, “All I ask is that I do not become indifferent”.

In many copious ways, the Light of God shone more magnificently than all the Darkness in Colombia. I say this, because everyone and everywhere we talked and traveled, I could see the face of Jesus imprinted on everyone, even those who continue to hurt us. Through my myriad of articles that I write for my God Bless The World website, I knock President Bush and many U.S. foreign policies, because I find him and those policies as immoral. But, I do see the face of Jesus on President Bush’s face too, even if his actions most of the time are driven by the forces of Darkness. For, I love all God’s creation, even George W. Bush, I love the man , but despise his evil actions. This is the same for all armed actors in Colombia, the United States, North Korea, Iran and every point in-between around the world. I do love the soldiers, the men and women of the military, but I despise their actions of killing, especially in wars like Iraq or counter-insurgencies in Colombia. All of us need to learn how to separate the God-created human with the face of Jesus, Buddha, or Muhammad, yet distinguish that some humans actions at times are immoral or even downright evil. Love the person of God, which is you, me and everyone else on earth! Even Padre Juancho, a local parish priest said about politicians, “politicians are not moral at work, except for only at church. The gospels of Jesus have not arrived in their hearts yet”.

In a bleak contrast from the Light, we encountered some Darkness from the Coca-Cola Company. We were very fortunate to have the opportunity to talk to the President of the local Coca-Cola Union in Barranca. He said that Coca-Cola has hired the paramilitary in the past to do its dirty work for them. Some of this dirty work includes the assassination of eight union leaders, 65 threatened employees and 48 displaced Coca-Cola workers. The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, USA wants to close ten of its fifteen plants in Colombia. In addition, they have been trying to bust or "kill” the unions and members for several years now. The multi-national conglomerate Coca-Cola wants to replace the full-time workers with temps, who will get paid only a fraction of what the union members make and eliminate all benefits. The Union President stated, “We must have an option for life, rather than private capital being the boss”. He said that the employees already work extremely long shifts starting as early as 6:00am-10:00pm with absolutely no overtime pay, including reduced pensions and raised quotas. The President believes firmly that this is tied into the Latin American Free Trade Agreement, which Washington “heavy weights” are pushing very hard for to protect the corporations, even the “wishy-washy” Democrats in Congress want it too. Shame on you in Washington, DC, another city veiled under the Darkness! Barranca will face unemployment rates as high as 60%, if Coca-Cola and other corporate “Big Whigs” have their way with busting all the unions. Hello to more profit, goodbye to God-created human life!

Let us go back some one hundred years and learn from the wisdom of the Catholic Christian Social teachings on work. In Latin, “Quadragesimo Anno,” or the Encyclical Letter of His Holiness, Pope Pius XI. First of all, “Capital cannot do without labor, nor labor without capital. It is therefore entirely false to ascribe the results of their combined efforts to either party alone; and it is flagrantly unjust that either should deny the efficacy of the other and seize all the profits.” “The good of the whole community must be safeguarded.” Pay heed Coca-Cola and Occidental Oil, those of you who claim to be Christians, these words are part of your legacy and tradition. You must admit, if honesty resides in your heart, that the vast differences between the few who hold excessive wealth and the majority who live in destitution constitutes a grave evil in modern society! The super abundant riches found in the hands of so few in the world is immoral, that it calls out for fair distribution equitably shared among all the people in this world. In the further words of Pius XI, “the proper ordering of economic affairs cannot be left to the free play of rugged competition. To that end all the institutions of public and social life must be imbued with the spirit of justice, and this justice must above all be truly operative.” All the free trade agreements being signed worldwide by the urging of the U.S. government are not fair with justice for all people. Without stringent government oversight, all the huge corporations will eventually buy up all the smaller, until one day down the road we are only left with a few corporations which will control everything including our former democracies. Hence freedom will no longer exist! Unrestrained free competition is committing suicide right before our eyes, while economic dictatorship has replaced the free market as is the case in Colombia today. We have fallen into a world of paganism, where humanity is corrupted by wealth and power. One last time, allow me to share with you the masterfully crafted words of great wisdom to shed Light on the Darkness of the corporate world here in Barranca specifically, but also around the world today. Pius XI said, “Our heart is filled with profound sadness when we observe, as it were, with our own eyes a wretched spectacle indeed – great masses of workers who, in not a few nations, and even in whole continents, receive too small a return from their labor. Hence, they and their families must live in conditions completely out of accord with human dignity (as I mentioned earlier about the barrios in Barranca). Hence, large sums of money are devoted to armaments ( as is the truth in Colombia and the U.S.).”

Upon reflection of the words of PiusXI, we can see that what the Coca-Cola Union is faced with is highly immoral and evil policies of the Coca-Cola Company. As a direct result, the union is backed into a corner. They have decided and unions throughout the world, including the U.S., will be participating in a worldwide BOYCOTT of all Coca-Cola products. With God and all us poor people worldwide, I fully support and endorse this nonviolent means of redress of grievances and immoral labor practices. The worldwide boycott begins on July 22, 2003 and will last for one year or earlier if Coca-Cola sees the Light, rather than the Darkness. God bless all the workers in this struggle for justice!

Another bright light shining among the darkness is the closing of the Normal Shelter across the street from Barranca’s Municipality. The Normal shelter was open for displaced families over the last few years. It was an abandoned old teacher’s college which housed over 50 displaced families from the Cienaga del Opon, which CPT regularly visits since May of 2001. The paramilitary displaced all these frightened families from their homes. But, when CPT started accompanying these families, they slowly moved back to the Cienaga. By 2002, over half of the displaced families returned home, the others found housing in Barranca and stayed in the city. This is great news to be able to shut down a shelter for the lack of displaced people. In large part, most of the families thank the work of CPT. As Padre Juancho said, “The hope of the future is in groups like CPT”.

More Light into the Darkness solutions could include ending the façade of the “War on Drugs” with the monumental failure of “Plan Colombia”. It is a colossal waste of U.S. taxpayer’s money, which leads our country into the immoral abyss of darkness. In turn, if we really wanted to help the Colombians, we could play a major role in the support for a true negotiated peace process by pressuring the Colombian government to break all ties with the AUC paramilitary. Then, broker a fair deal where the guerrillas and paramilitary lay down all their weapons and control over land. This would end the internal war, and greatly help the majority of innocent Colombians caught in the middle of this evil and deadly war. Moreover, rather than spending those billions of dollars of military aid for destruction, we could apply the money towards alternative development programs to help small farmers transition back from growing prosperous coca and poppy plants to legal cash crops. Then, enable them to compete in fair trade rather than free trade, which is unbalanced and in favor of large and filthy rich corporations. In addition, we could rigorously support for judicial reforms in Colombia, which encourages the rule of law and combats government corruption. Then, here in the U.S., we could divert some of those billions from “Plan Colombia” to really end America’s addiction to drugs through massive and extensive drug treatment programs. The United States is the largest consumer of illegal drugs in the world, so the real problem begins here at home, rather than in the jungles of South America, where we are creating environmental havoc and death. Still, yet, we must end subsidizing the oil companies security costs in Colombia and around the world. Presently, our government with taxpayers money is subsidizing Occidental at a rate of $3.70 per barrel. This is highway robbery of the worse kind! These are real concrete solutions that send us into the Light for the option of life over greed. We must as a country begin this new journey towards the Light of God!

For more detailed information about the war in Colombia, the human rights abuses and our government’s role in it all, I highly recommend the following book by Robin Kirk, which is called, “More Terrible Than Death”. For you Internet junkies, try the following sites: Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), www.cpt.org; Human Rights Watch, www.hrw.org; CREDHOS, www.credhos.org; and Colombia Support Network, www.colombiasupport.net.

God Bless The World!