COLOMBIA: Maybe you shouldn't join our CPT July delegation (but apply immediately if you should)

CPTnet
21 June 2011
COLOMBIA: Maybe you shouldn’t join our CPT July delegation
(but apply immediately if you should)

by Stewart Vriesinga

[NOTE: There are still places available on the July
delegation; apply immediately if interested!]

Maybe you shouldn’t join the Christian Peacemaker Team delegation
to northeast Antioquía. Maybe you
are like those activists I met during my speaking tour in Canada, whom I admire
because they are actively in solidarity with Colombians resisting oppression
and violence without ever even having met any of them. If you are such a person, there is
probably no good reason for you to spend money and contribute to global warming
by taking a flight to Colombia to join a delegation. Your energy and commitment are needed to do work in your home
countries on behalf of victims of violence and neo-colonialism in Colombia.

Speaking for myself, I need to be here in order not to feel
overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem. I know the statistics, and understand the root of the
problem: the violent dispossession and displacement of peoples from their
traditional territory in order to pave the way for the looting of resources by lumber,
oil, agro-industrial, bio-fuel and other corporate interests. But in my case, the cerebral understanding
of the problem only depresses me, and I end up feeling overwhelmed and
powerless. For me, it is my
personal relationships with the victims and witnessing their tireless and
courageous struggle for justice in the face of incredible odds and that keep me
going.

The last delegation to north-east Antioquía that I helped
lead ended up joining our hosts (CAHUCOPANA -a rural grass-roots human rights
organization) in a public action in Puerto Berrío in front of the 14th Brigade.
Soldiers of the 14th Brigade are the unpunished perpetrators of fourteen false
positives in north-east Antioquía—extrajudicial killings of civilians who postmortem were
dressed up in fatigues and presented as guerrillas who had died in combat. When I witness the courageous denunciations
of the perpetrators of these atrocities by people who live and work in the area
and could very well end up becoming the next false positives or the victims of
paramilitary retaliatory killings, that I overcome my own inertia and am able
to resume my activism. When the
people involved become living, breathing human beings whom I have come to care
about, instead of statistics, I can no longer stand and watch.

I know from experience that I cannot sustain my activism
living full-time in Canada. I end
up feeling defeated and overwhelmed and an important part of me dies inside. But after being re-energized by our
Colombian partners, who cannot afford to wallow in despair, I am once again
ready to do what I can, both here in Colombia and during periodic speaking tours
in Canada.

Maybe you are not like me. Maybe you are one of those people with boundless energy who
don’t need to meet the victims in order to hold their oppressors accountable. I admire you.

But maybe you feel that you, too, need to be re-energized;
or feel that you need to experience things for yourself to get a better
understanding of the situation; or feel you would have more credibility if you
visited some of those with whom you are in solidarity, or you are considering
joining Christian Peacemaker Teams. If you fall into one of these latter categories, maybe you should
consider joining the July delegation to northeast Antioquía. It begins on 14 July and continues
through to 27 July 2011. Apply
today.