The impact of the April threats to human rights organizations is still evident; several of the team's partners continue to live outside their home communities for safety reasons. The team had opportunities this month to meet with partners who have moved to offer encouragement and to check on their well-being. All of the organizations continue their work despite the displacement of some of their staff.

On team during May were Stewart Vriesinga, Jonathan Stucky, Pierre Shantz, Sandra Rincon, Lisa Hughes, Julian Gutierrez, Nils Dybvig and Michele Braley.

1 May

Shantz and Rincon participated in the opening prayer of the Labor Day march in Barrancabermeja. The CPT team worked together with Pax Cristi to build a cart symbolizing negative aspects of monoculture-the growth of only one culture in a given area-in keeping with the march's theme of monoculture versus food security. The marchers walked past the labor union building where the giant banners displayed by CPT for Days of Prayer and Action were still hanging. (View photos at http://cpt.org/gallery/May1March.)

8-11 May

Rincon and Stucky accompanied the Third Women's Conference of the Southern Bolivar Agricultural-Mining Federation in the village of Paraíso, Simiti. Attendees participated in discussions about identity, historical memory, and territory and watched several cultural presentations that affirmed their struggle for their territory (see 28 May 2008 release, "That Was How it Happened" http://www.cpt.org/cptnet/2008/05/28/colombia-was-how-it-happened.

14-27 May

Gutierrez and Paul Neufeld-Weaver led a delegation of three people to the Southwestern department of Nariño, where CPT has accompanied the Awa people intermittently for two years. Coca cultivation and drug trafficking pushed into the region by Plan Colombia and fumigations in neighboring departments have increased the impact of violence on the indigenous and Afro-Colombian people of this area. The delegates hope to encourage the U.S., Canadian, and Colombian governments to support programs that encourage voluntary eradication of drug crops and the planting of traditional diversified food crops instead of monoculture cash crops.

16 May

CPTers Dybvig, Rincon, Stucky, and Vriesinga attended events in Barrancabermeja commemorating the 16 May 1998 massacre in which seven people were murdered by paramilitaries and twenty-five people were 'disappeared.' These actions marked the beginning of the paramilitary takeover of Barrancabermeja. The events culminated with families of the victims singing, "We still dream, we still wait." The authorities have never prosecuted perpetrators of the massacre and the families of the victims still wait for justice.

16-19 May

Connie Watson, Latin America Bureau correspondent with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), visited the team while she was in Colombia to cover the Canadian Free Trade Agreement. The visit came about because of a comment posted by Pierre Shantz on the CBC website in response to a mining story. The team arranged interviews with community leaders and took Watson to see the 16 May commemoration events.

18-20 May

Hughes and Vriesinga arranged a visit to the communities of Garzal and Nueva Esperanza with Connie Watson from the CBC who interviewed community members about the threat of forced displacement by the oil palm industry, which will benefit from the Canadian Free Trade Agreement. The communities expressed how CPT's accompaniment has led to a decrease in threats and, therefore, fear amongst the people. They continue their legal struggle to seek title to the lands they have farmed for up to forty years.

19-21 May

Braley and Dybvig accompanied farmers returning home to southern Bolivar department after more than two months of living in a university facility in Barrancabermeja to draw attention to the deteriorating security situation in the region. The farmers made the decision to return home after reaching a satisfactory agreement with the government. Doubts began to surface about the government's commitment to fulfill their agreements when, at each stop along the journey to their homes, the food that had been promised by local governments was not ready.

22 May

Rincon and Vriesinga attended a meeting of a delegation of sixteen persons from the European Union with numerous social and civil organizations. The delegates heard first hand from people who have been the subject of threats in recent months. The EU delegates stated their concerns for the human rights situation in Barrancabermeja.

26-30 May

Stucky and Vriesinga visited Micoahumado where the communities reported recent paramilitary threats against miners and a telephone threat to leaders demanding "taxes" for their mining activities. The manual eradication of coca crops without government support for alternative income sources forced half of the residents in the village of Conformidad to displace. Manual eradication of coca continues in the region. Two community trucks providing transportation down the mountain to the port were robbed prior to Stucky and Vriesinga's arrival and residents fear that this type of crime may be increasing as economic conditions in the region deteriorate.

29 May

Shantz attended the Human Rights Workers Forum and listened to an analysis of conditions in Barrancabermeja. According to the mayor's office, 60% of the residents of Barrancabermeja, or 160,000 persons, live on less than two U.S. dollars per day. Seventy thousand of those people live on less than one U.S. dollar per day.

30 May-1 June

Braley and Dybvig accompanied two psychologists to Puerto Matilde in the Valle Cimitarra to conduct a workshop for local residents on responding to grief and fear in a conflict zone. The sessions focused on tools for assessing the fears of others and developing solutions to decrease the causes of the fear, and tools for listening and supporting community members through the grieving process.