Witness To The Arriving Christ
by Caldwell 'Carlos' Manners

Life stands as the central theme in John's gospel (John 20:31), and it is in and through the incarnate Christ that this life of abundance is manifest and brought  into reality (John10:10). It is in this overarching theme that the narrator compels us into a world of contesting powers --  transports us through time to the beginning, when all things came into being. The one journeying from heaven to earth is rejected by his own and is forced to embark on conferring childhood rights to all those who believe in him- -- stirring contrasting images: the violator and the violated, the powerful and the powerless, the colonizers and colonized. It is in these spaces and dimensions of travel, as it unfolds throughout the gospel that we like John are witnesses. 

CPT has been accompanying the community of Las Pavas in southern Bolivar since 123 families were displaced from their land in 2009 by state security forces. Last April, CPT joined in celebrating what has been called “The Miracle of Las Pavas” when the families, with the support of many national and international allies, defied threats of violence and returned to their land. Their prospects of obtaining official titles to those lands looked good. All of that is now in jeopardy.

On the 30th of November the Colombia's Prosecutor General’s Office accused Las Pavas farmers of having lied about being displaced and that their claims for restitution were unjustified. The Office called for a reinvestigation of the case on the assumption of "false victims" and also a probe into the organizations that have supported the community through the process.

CPTnet
1 December 2011
COLOMBIA: CPT-Colombia releases video of partner communities along the Magdalena river

CPT’s Colombia team has released a video depicting the communities along the Magdalena River with which it works:http://vimeo.com/32471479 .

The Struggle On The River Continues from CPT/ECAP Colombia on Vimeo.

In its accompanying text, the team writes,

The Holy Margins
by Julie Myers  

 Mark wastes no time in telling his readers that God's work is not happening in the city centers or places of power.  It is happening in the "wilderness," far from the sophisticated temples or important decision makers.  And “all the people of Jerusalem” knew it then—they were coming from "the whole Judean countryside."  Imagine what the elite thought about their temples emptied because a man dressed in camel's hair who ate locusts was baptizing their followers.   

 And the people know it now.  Here in Colombia, too, the people are gathering—not in places of power but in the campo, or countryside.  CPT recently accompanied local partner, ASORVIMM, a victim's rights organization based in Barrancabermeja, on a trip to facilitate workshops on communal land titling.  They called out to students, campesinos, indigenous folks, victims of displacement, young, old, women, men, and children, who gathered in San Lorenzo, a small village overlooking a beautiful lake.  Some people traveled two days to get there.  The gathering was anything but the "center" in the eyes of society.  

 San Lorenzo, in the department of Bolívar   

"You will see the coming of the Human One... in Colombia" 

by Alix Lozano

 The story of the coming of the Human One is located in the center of this type of eschatological discourse [studies of the end of times].  The cosmic shock is typical of apocalyptic prophecy and used to introduce the great acts of God and give a twist to the story.  The Parousia (presence) is presented as the day of the great gathering of all the people of God; therefore, it cannot be a day of fear but of joy.

Whether we are ready or not, Christmas is coming in six weeks.  Lucky for you, the CPT Colombia team has made its wish list early!  Give the gift of solidarity this season by supporting CPT and local peacemaking initiatives.

Here are six quick things you can do:

Gold is the new way for illegal armed groups in Colombia to finance themselves, according to a recent Bloomberg Weekly report.  However, both paramilitary and rebel guerrilla groups have profited from gold mining in Colombia for years.  It has only come to public attention now because large mining companies have begun to stake claim to Colombia’s reserves, some of the largest in the world, and small-scale artisan miners stand in their way.

  On the last day of our Christian Peacemaker Teams delegation, we wanted to do a public action in response to the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement recently passed by Congress.  We brainstormed, we strategized, and we agonized over the best time and place and finally, we planned the street theater—a scene of two tables tin front of the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá.  One table was the world of free trade, based on stories we heard during the delegation, stories of violence and displacement fueled by multinational companies robbing the resources of Colombia.  The other table was supposed to be God's table, a table marked by equality, mutuality, and abundance.  With this vision in our minds, we spent hours assembling costumes, writing prayers, and calling Colombian partner organizations.

Colombia’s people of the land—peasants, farmers and artisanal miners, the indigenous— are calling out for an end to the exploitation and environmental destruction of their territories and homes.  They call out for a restoration of their livelihoods.  Greed and violence leaves them dead, disappeared, or disenfranchised members of one of the world's largest number of internally displaced people.  These human rights abuses take place in a country that the United States has showered with billions of dollars in military and foreign aid in the past ten years. 

On Tuesday, 4 October 2011, at 2:30 P.M. members of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in Colombia and CPT delegates will hold a public action to speak out against the proposed U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement at the United States Embassy in Bogota

 CPT invites the public to join the delegation in denouncing the pending U.S. Free Trade Agreement, and in support of the Colombian social movements working for peace and human rights.