Stand by Colombia's Victims of Violence

Over the last couple weeks, from Tempe, Arizona to Duluth, Minnesota, Olympia, Washington to Jackson Heights, New York, people like you have been creating hundreds of portraits of our Colombian sisters and brothers and have been showcasing them in your community centers, churches and city streets. And people are paying attention!

But to make a real impact, we need Washington to get in on the conversation, too.

The National Days of Action for Colombia have begun! As we write you this update, people all across the country are gathering their materials, friends, and families, and are preparing to "face the displaced." Are you?

Click here to get involved!

If this is the first time you're hearing about it, don't worry; it's not too late. Here are four ways you can get involved in the movement to stand with those working for peace in Colombia.

Until two years ago, José Goyes had lived in the indigenous community of Honduras in Cauca, Colombia. But his life came under threat because of his role as a leader in his community's struggle for land rights in the face of abuses committed by a multinational corporation that owns a dam in their area. The threats got worse and worse until finally on July 5, 2008, as he was leaving his office, hitmen fired 4 shots at him. Luckily, he survived, but he was forced to flee to Bogotá.

 
           
With over 4.9 million Colombians forcibly displaced from their homes by a debilitating war, Colombia is now the second worst internal displacement crisis in the world.  Between now and April 30, tens of thousands across the U.S. and Colombia will participate in this year’s National Days of Action for Colombia to call for a much-needed shift in U.S. policies toward the war-torn country.  Please join us!

Click here for photos, stories, instructions, factsheets, and more!

This year, the National Days of Action will focus on the displacement crisis, but in a different way than last year when we made thousands of paper dolls to symbolize the number of IDPs in Colombia. This year we’re asking you to go a step further than just understanding what is happening, and start talking about why in a campaign we’re calling “Face the Displaced – Colombia: Our Hemisphere’s Hidden Humanitarian Crisis.”


Community action: Once we’ve made these posters, we’re going to need your help organizing public events and church services all over the country where we can display these faces and teach about the displacement crisis in Colombia. Even if you can’t do a poster making party, if you can join the hundreds of grassroots groups and churches both in the United States and in Colombia that will be educating their communities throughout April and praying for peace in Colombia on the weekend of April 16-19th, it will make a huge difference. Click here for more information on organizing a demonstration.

This year we created a central site where everyone will be registering their events across the country so we can really see how much is going on. Please click here to sign up! Or if you're interested in organizing through your church, click here for a faith-based organizing resources.

Legislative change: We’ll work with you during April and beyond to ensure that Washington feels the force of the movement calling for change in U.S. policies towards Colombia. First, they’ll hear from you on the National Call-In Day on April 19th. Then, once you’ve displayed these faces in your cities, send the materials to Washington in May where we’ll be doing some last big displays before taking the faces with to Congress and the Administration to deliver your message. We’ll post more info on these actions soon!


And if you have any questions or need any help organizing, email Vanessa at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Spring is coming and major grassroots action for peace in Colombia is near! Soon communities all across the country will start preparing for Days of Prayer and Action, when we will join in solidarity with our Colombian sisters and brothers and show policymakers the real size of the movement for change in U.S.-Colombia policy.

We want to make sure we can count on you to get involved because right now the stakes are higher than ever before.

In January, I traveled to Colombia on a delegation with Witness for Peace to meet with communities resisting displacement in Northern Cauca and with communities of internally displaced people near Bogotá and Cali. Since I got back, I’ve viewed my work differently, and here’s why:

I realized that in our advocacy we talk so much about “victims,” when the word we really should be using is “heroes.”

In a decisive ruling for democracy, Colombia’s Constitutional Court determined February 26th that a law authorizing a referendum to change the constitution to permit a second consecutive reelection of President Álvaro Uribe would be unconstitutional. President Uribe immediately accepted the decision.

We thought you should hear this story from Lisa Bonds, with our partner Lutheran World Relief in Colombia.  See LWR’s blog on Colombia and other topics by clicking here.

“I joined my Lutheran World Relief colleagues and Rosario Montoya, the Director of Fundacion Infancia Feliz, in a visit to the ‘Finca la Alemania,’ the German farm… As we drove to the farm, Rosario briefed us on the farm's history and the people who had recently returned to the farm after having been displaced by one of the most feared paramilitary leaders, called ‘the Chain,’ in the state of Cordoba...

Did you have a restful holiday? We hope you did because now that the new year is here we're going to be putting you back to work in pushing for real change in U.S. policies towards Colombia.

As we pointed out in a recent blog post reflecting on "Obama's First Year," although the administration promised us a foreign policy that would bring us hope and change, Colombia policy is still falling far short.  Giving Colombia a free pass on the human rights conditions, signing military base agreements, continuing high levels of military aid—these actions are a bitter disappointment.  Yet we have seen some good signs, especially when President Obama raised real concerns about human rights and democracy when Colombian President Uribe came to visit the White House.  This year, no excuses:  We want our government to use both words and deeds to say that respect for human rights does matter.