Letter from Colombian Peace Community By Gina Spigarelli On some days in La Unión, the war is a faint pulse in the background — a far-off helicopter heard but not seen, or a military troop walking by on their way to a distant destination. On those days, to an...
Peace and Nonviolence
Why accompaniment in Colombia? Peace community members speak
Posted by FOR Colombia For 10 years, FOR volunteers have been accompanying the Peace Community in Colombia every single day. Our previous anniversary video included interviews of former FOR volunteers who had returned to Colombia in August 2011 to visit the peace...
Living into Each Others’ Stories
Letter from San José de Apartadó: By Charlotte Melly There is an old woman in our village who is possibly the most affectionate person I have ever met. Her skin is soft and wrinkled. Her warmth is effortless and comforting. She strokes my arm as we sit for hours...
Life and the War Go On
By Gina Spigarelli, FOR Colombia Team Member I have been back in the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó for a couple of weeks now, but in some ways it seems like I never left. The stresses of life in the city were effortlessly exchanged for those in the jungle:...
Peace Talks in Colombia and the Challenges Ahead
By Charlotte Melly, FOR Colombia Team Member Elements of the Colombian peace process that begins October 8 in Oslo indisputably distinguish these negotiations from prior attempts to put an end to Colombia’s five decade-long conflict. The insistence on learning from...
Threats Against Cauca Indigenous Communities Continue
September 2012 - We reported in July on the Nasa indigenous mobilization to collectively evict armed groups from their territories in the southwestern Cauca department. In dramatic actions, unarmed Nasa indigenous guards carried soldiers from a post on a sacred site,...
Winds of Peace in Colombia and the Fate of Paramilitary Structures
By Susana Pimiento On August 27, the buzz about the peace talks between the Colombian government and the leftist FARC guerrillas grew exponentially, as Telesur reported early in the morning that an initial agreement has been reached to start a dialogue that would...
Urgent action for safety of a Colombia Peace Community
By FOR Threatening phone calls. Illegal detentions. And a family’s home burned down. That’s what members of the San José de Apartadó Peace Community in Colombia have had to face just in the past month. Join us in calling on the U.S. Ambassador to Colombia to demand a...