Stand by Colombia's Victims of Violence

For a lot of people, the day after Labor Day is the time to get down to business. For us, it's just September 7th. Why? Because when you're going for change as big as we are on U.S.-Colombia policy, you never stop working hard.

We think you're fantastic.

When we asked you to join in the Days of Prayer and Action for Colombia, you built portraits, staged rallies, and made phone calls that resulted in our most successful year yet! We doubled participation, with 43,850 people from 70 cities across the U.S. and Colombia getting involved. While over 36,000 people were crafting and displaying posters featuring the stories of Colombia's displaced in their communities, 110 U.S. and Colombian congregations joined the call for peace through community education and prayer. If that's not solidarity, we don't know what is.

And now—you know there's always an "and now" with us—we need a little more help from you.

I wanted to write a quick, exciting update on the situation with the Afro-Colombian community La Toma:

We stopped the eviction!

On Tuesday night, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton landed in Colombia; by today she'll be in Barbados. During her 24 hours in Colombia, do you think she heard much about the rise in threats and attacks against Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities in Colombia? Did President Uribe talk with her about the illegal wiretapping that part of his special intelligence service used to sabotage the work of human rights defenders, journalists, and Supreme Court judges? Or would you guess she talked with any of Colombia's almost 5 million internally displaced people about how they have been robbed of their land and forced to live in misery?

We doubt it. But these issues are exactly what she must be thinking about as the State Department prepares to make its most important decision on U.S.-Colombia policy this year.