In Colombia, an insurgency-counterinsurgency war has left over 200,000 people dead since 1964 and displaced over three million others from their homes. CPT's Colombia delegations will meet with church, human rights and social justice organizers in Bogotá and in Barrancabermeja, the industrial city in the Magdalena Medio region where CPT's full-time team has been based since 2001. In addition, delegates will spend several days in the countryside where communities have been subject to attack and threats by various armed groups. The May delegation will travel to Garzal.

Residents of Garzal, a rural community along the Magdalena River, have been living and working on the land, some for as long as four decades. Recently, a family of wealthy landowners with ties to the drug trade has used their political and economic influence to claim ownership of the land, despite the fact that they have not lived there for over 15 years, and, according to Colombian law, the farmers are entitled to the land after 10 years on a property. The farmers are now concerned that the wealthy landowners will use violence to remove them from their homes. Delegates will meet with the residents who, despite death-threats, are courageously resisting displacement from lands that are rightfully theirs.

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CPT is an ecumenical violence-reduction initiative with support and membership from a range of Catholic and Protestant denominations. CPT has had a continuing presence in the Magdalena Medio region of Colombia since May 2001.

FUNDRAISING EXPECTATION: $2000 US or $2200 Cdn (covers roundtrip airfare).