By Shannan Vance-Ocampo Presbyterian accompaniment in Colombia “In a culture of death, we choose to live the Resurrection.” This is the phrase we hear over and over again from our church partners in Colombia as they describe how to live in a country of rampant...
colombia
The Racialization of Accompaniment
Can Privilege Be Used Transparently? By Sara Koopman Accompaniers often say that they “make space for peace.” I recently finished a Ph.D. in human geography, which is the study of the relationship between society and space – so my dissertation is an attempt to think...
Cargill Illegal Land Grabs Implicate Colombia Presidency
By Jake Van Jenzen A century of neglect, drug trafficking, and civil wars had made the “wild-east” Colombian department of Vichada a publicly designated “wasteland”. By the 1990’s, however, reduced hostilities allowed the government to open it up in specially...
Walking Toward Peace Amid the War
By Emily Schmitz On July 4, 2013, FOR accompanied the Colombian Association of Conscientious Objectors, ACOOC, during the release of Juan Carlos Poveda Camaro from the army base in Villavicencio, where he had been held, as a declared conscientious objector, for...
Protecting San José: Follow-up on combat
By Gina Spigarelli Thanks to everyone who participated in our urgent action appeal this Spring in response to combat in La Unión and other dangerous army practices in and near the Peace Community. While fighting is regularly and unnecessarily staged in civilian...
A Flurry of Activity for Peace in Colombia
By Gina Spigarelli On April 9, the National Day for Memory and Solidarity with Victims in Colombia, a massive march for peace was organized and carried out by the Marcha Patriotica social movement. According to many accounts, the march had more than a million...
State Retracts Peace Community Smear – But President Doesn’t Show
By FOR Colombia Wednesday, June 5, 2013, 10:41am By Emily Schmitz The brutal massacre that took the lives of eight civilians, including three children on February 21, 2005 in the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartadó, has become an emblematic case of government...
Colombia Peace Process Update
By Adam Isacson, Washington Office on Latin America This update is cross-posted with the Washington Office on Latin America blog. The first bit of news to emerge after our last Colombia Peace Process Update (March 27) gave cause for concern. The seventh round of talks...