Nashville Peace Coalition presents: The Courage to Refuse War: A path to promote nonviolence and social justice Colombian youth Sebastián Patiño speaks on refusing to participate in war as a member of Conscientious Objectors’ Collective Action (ACOOC). War and...
human rights
Colombia: Take action to protect peace community
By FOR Colombia “We have always said, and in that we are clear, that until this very day we are resisting. And our work is to continue resisting and defending our rights. We don’t know until when, because the truth we’ve lived in our story is this: today we are here...
The Risky Business of Defending Human Rights
By Susana Pimiento The International Verification Mission and Las Pavas From November 27 until December 2, forty people from 15 countries went to Colombia to look into how safe is to defend human rights in Colombia. The International Verification Mission on the...
Video: “My Mind is not a Military Target!” – ACOOC International Campaign
By Liza Smith Wednesday, September 21, 2011, 5:58pm Irregularities and illegalities in the process of recruitment for compulsory military service are still frequent on a daily basis in Colombia. Members of ACOOC have therefore gone on a tour in six different countries...
The Power of Granting Forgiveness
By Susana Pimiento April 9th marked the seventeenth anniversary of the killing of Manuel Cepeda Vargas, a Colombian Senator with the left-wing political party Union Patriotica (UP). For the first time, this year there was formal recognition of the wrong that occurred...
New Video Blog: The Radio Is the Military’s Biggest Rifle
By Liza Smith “I was in my bed when an explosion rocked our house.” FORColombia Peace Team member Isaac Beachy tells of combat on the edge of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, and analyzes how the Colombian military reported on it. Meanwhile, community kids...
Monument to Impunity: Medellín Judge Acquits Officers Involved in Massacre
By Susana Pimiento Disregarding recent Supreme Court precedents on command responsibility, a judge in Medellin acquitted 10 officers investigated for the February 2005 massacre in which Peace Community members, including 3 children were brutally murdered. The ruling...
Finding a Home in Mulatos
Letter from the Field, October 2007 By Amanda Jack, CPP team “What kind of people would treat a house like this?” This was the simple question asked out loud by one of the women in the work group we had accompanied to Mulatos. The group of 17, mostly men and some...