About CPT Colombia

Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) Colombia works together on grassroots initiatives to expose and transform structures of domination and oppression through active nonviolence in order to make possible the reign of God - a world grounded in respect, justice and love, even of enemies.

The Team is based in and has a long history of working in the Magdalena Medio region (click here to see maps), although in recent years we have also begun to do occasional accompaniment in other parts of the country. Our home and office is located in Barrancabermeja, the unofficial capital of the region. Paramilitaries, the guerrilla, and the state security forces are very active in this strategic area of Colombia. But so too are many local nonviolent social and human rights organizations. We work to support these local peacemakers in building peace with justice. The Magdalena Medio region is typical of most of the country in that it is resource-rich while many of its citizens struggle against cycles of violence and poverty. As in other parts of Colombia, many of the citizens of the region are the victims of violence perpetrated by right-wing armed actors (both paramilitary and military), and to a lesser extent, by the left-wing guerrilla groups.

Much of the violence benefits powerful national and international elites in their efforts to gain and retain control over valuable resources. Civilians are not only caught in the crossfire between the military and paramilitaries and their guerrilla opponents, paramilitaries and/or state security forces often directly target them. These forces are most likely to target civilians if they are politically active and/or occupy land coveted by powerful legal and illegal business interests. As of April 2007, more than three-and-a-half million Colombians have displaced from their lands, homes and livelihoods due to violence and threats of further violence.

Christian Peacemaker Teams provides international accompaniment to threatened communities, organizations and their leaders and documents violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. We actively participate in campaigns and initiatives of local and international organizations and churches working for violence reduction, social justice, grass-roots community development, self-determination and peace. In consultation with our Colombian partners, we also initiate public actions. (We are especially known our "liturgical actions") Through our writings and the hosting of both national and international delegations, we work to visibilize the Colombian struggle for peace nationally and in North America. When we are not in Colombia, CPT Colombia team members are active in our countries of origin, where we do public education, lobby government, organize and/or participate in public actions and demonstrations, and work with our supporters and other North-American-based organizations who share our concern for Colombian victims of injustice and violence. We work to mobilize our supporters to learn more about Colombia and in turn to work to transform public policies from ones that fund military solutions and perpetuate economic dependence to policies that foster nonviolent approaches to conflict, the building of community, and autonomy.

Christian Peacemaker Team in Colombia :

A combination of full-time and reservist trained volunteers from Colombia , Canada and the United States staff the team. Four to ten Spanish-speaking members are serving in Colombia at any given time. A half-time Support Coordinator works in conjunction with CPT's international offices, and oversees participation in the Americas Policy Group in Canada and the Colombia Steering Committee of the Latin America Working Group in the United States. We are here because we feel called to put our faith into action. We live, worship and work in community.

Threatened Communities, Organizations and Their Leadership:

At the invitation of the Mennonite Church of Colombia CPT began its work in Colombia in 2001 accompanying formerly displaced communities in the Opón region just south of Barrancabermeja. Community members had fled their homes due to paramilitary violence, and taken refuge in the city. Out of economic necessity, and despite concerns about their security, they decided to return to their homes and livelihoods - subsistence farming, fishing and logging-on the Opón River and lake. Since that time, the communities have asked CPT to maintain a presence in the area in the hopes that international accompaniment will help in preventing future displacements.

Paramilitaries continue to operate an illegal gasoline cartel in the area, in which state-owned gasoline is stolen from a pipeline for resale in the black market and/or use in the processing of coca leaves in the production of cocaine. Formerly the FARC guerrillas, who also remain active in the area, operated the gasoline cartel. The military engages in frequent counter-guerrilla operations, but community members, very much aware of past collaboration between the paramilitary and military, often consider the military itself to be an additional threat to their security.

CPT continues to spend several days a week in the area, traveling up and down the river visiting community members and asking all armed actors - paramilitary, guerrilla and military-to respect the rights of civilians and not involve them in the conflict. We denounce any violations of the rights of civilians, but, despite our presence, several community members have been assassinated and families have had to displace. Community members tell us, however, that they would have suffered deaths and mass displacements without our accompaniment.

The communities of Micoahumado, a county in the south of Bolivar, have also asked for and receive regular CPT accompaniment. In the past, communities of Micoahumado have displaced for short periods of time due to massacres and other violence. They have been the victims of landmines, aerial spraying which ruins their food crops, and extortion. Though they have successfully dialogued with the military, paramilitary and guerrilla and negotiated an end to armed conflict within their towns and villages, community leaders continue to receive death threats. We have been involved in their anti-landmine campaigns, anti-aerial spraying campaigns, and their primary campaign to be able to stay on and work their land.

Most Colombians living in rural areas hold as their main objective staying on their lands. To support their right to their lands and livelihoods, we also accompany and visit other rural communities and attend events and meetings organized in various parts of Colombia. Apart from expensive military operations, the state invests little in rural areas. For example, many areas are only accessible by mule or on foot, only primary education is available, and very little in the way of health care. Because of the difficulty of bringing their produce to market and low prices, many small farmers have resorted to cultivating coca.

The U.S.-sponsored "War on Drugs" funds aerial spraying of vast areas with powerful herbicides, destroying not only the food crops of the coca cultivators, but often their neighbors' crops as well. Aerial spraying has also caused mass displacement because of crop damage and detrimental health effects. Coca cultivation also attracts the attention of various armed groups, particularly the paramilitary and guerrilla organizations. Coca crops and other economic activity are often "taxed" by whichever illegal (and sometimes legal) armed group is in control of the area.

One economically viable alternative to coca cultivation in the middle Magdalena valley is artisanal mining of gold. Both coca paste and gold, valuable on the market in relatively small amounts, are easily transported by mule or in a backpack. But thousands of artisanal miners operating a wide variety of small gold mines mostly in the Sierra de San Lucas area face a very real possibility of being displaced from their land and dispossessed of their livelihoods as mining rights are being handed over to huge multinational interests. Miners have organized to try to prevent this and have consequently been threatened by both paramilitary and military violence. In September of 2006, the military killed one member of the Small Miners Federation. (To view one of the team's Yahoo Group Urgent Action releases on this topic click here: COLOMBIA: URGENT ACTION REQUEST)

CPT Colombia is currently accompanying the Small Miners Federation. At the same time, we are active in a network of Canadian organizations who are lobbying to change Canadian laws and hold Canadian mining corporations, some of which are active in the south of Bolivar, accountable regarding respect for the human rights of the local population and for the environment.

CPT is also participates actively with a wide variety of Barrancabermeja-based human rights, women's, community development, church, displaced peoples', social justice, victims' rights, peasant, labor and other non-governmental organizations. All of the above have been, and continue to be, targets of paramilitary violence. These organizations ask us to participate with them in events, protests and campaigns; many also participate and support CPT-organized events and protests. Social organizations in Barrancabermeja work in collaboration with one another, and we attend weekly strategic planning meetings in which many of these organizations participate.

Barrancabermeja and the Magdalena Medio Region:

Barrancabermeja is a city of approximately 300,000 inhabitants, and hosts the state-owned Ecopetrol refinery - Colombia's largest oil refinery. The oil and large-scale cattle industries are the largest enterprises in the city. Barrancabermeja is also a major port on the Magdalena River, several hundred kilometres from its mouth in the Caribbean sea , and is the unofficial capital of the Magdalena Medio region.

Paramilitaries took control of Barrancabermeja in 2000 with the tacit support of local security forces, after many years of guerrilla dominance in significant areas of the city. The paramilitaries entered the city committing massacres, extrajudicial killings and forcing civilians to displace. New and reformed paramilitary groups continue to use these same tactics in an effort to terrorize and silence their opponents despite the "official" demobilization of paramilitary organizations in 2005 under President Alvaro Uribe's Peace and Justice Law. (For more information on the Peace and Justice Law see Amnesty International report for Colombia: Justice and Peace Law will guarantee impunity for human rights abusers.)

The Magdalena Medio takes its name from the Magdalena River - Río Magdalena, and refers to the territory along the middle part of the river, including the river flats and parts of the mountain ranges on either side of the river. It is a resource-rich and fertile area, with large cattle ranches, African palm plantations, oil and gas wells, and goldmines in south Bolivar. Coca is also cultivated in various parts of the region, and processed into paste before going to laboratories where the paste is further processed into cocaine. The guerrilla, the military and the paramilitary have targeted some rural communities even more than Barrancabermeja, in their dispute for control of those areas. Rather than engage the guerrilla directly, a common tactic of the two latter groups is to try to eliminate the support-base of the guerrilla by depopulating the area of civilians - to drain the pool so the fish have nowhere to swim. (For a somewhat dated (2001) but more detailed account of the Paramilitary takeover of Barrancabermeja and the Magdalena Region, see the Center for International Policy report: " The New Masters of Barranca " - pdf or for the webpage: " The New Masters of Barranca " - written by Adam Isacson)