San Jose peace community Colombia
This interview was made in February 2014, while representatives of this community were visiting London, and was published in The Prisma Multicultural Newspaper, but was temporarily lost following a hacking attack. It is posted here in full until it can be restored on the newspaper site. These two websites are sources of further information:
https://peacepresence.org/what-we-do/media/publications/
https://www.tamera.org/peace-community-colombia/
Graham Douglas
Is there a lot of interest in your community in other countries?
Yes, in Spain, Portugal, Belgium Germany there are peace communities which support us. They invite many people from Palestine, Africa and Latin America.
I can’t imagine what it’s like to live under siege, how old were you when the troubles began?
I was 21.
How long have these conflicts been going on?
The war between the Farc and the local authorities began around 1975, and there was a very strong presence in our area by the 1980’s , the guerrillas dominated the area, and in 1983 a political movement was created, the Union Patriotica which became very strong, but it was seen as a threat and military groups began to eliminate the people and trade union leaders. They had a very close relationship with the peasants, the schools, health centres etc. I was very young but I saw the meetings.
It must have been difficult for your parents to remain in the area when their children were in danger.
Of course, there was a lot of fear, the military killed our leaders and took young people with them. I was living away from my parents with my fiancée in a farm. By 1997 we were being threatened because they wanted our land. There were battles between the guerrilla and the military, with planes, we could see and hear the fighting happening along 5 or 6km of the hills nearby. My mother said we had to leave, but we were the last, and after 3 days we left. But we had nothing. Then i remembered what the mother said, that we were the last, we left with a small girl who had just been born.
Many people left what was it made you stay?
It was the declaration of neutrality supported by the Red Cross and the Church, we felt safer when they agreed to do that so we began to organise ourselves, with coordinators and committees.
Do know of any other groups that copy your model?
Other similar communities were founded in 1998, in different parts of the country.
Is this a national movement?
No, only small groups of peasants who have suffered these problems, and have decided to stop and be strong, but when you add them all up, we are 1000, but others are much smaller, maybe there are only 10 communities that are still going and that includes many indigenous people.
So some have given up?
They have been divided by the tactics of the State, in our caser the Government tried to infiltrate us, they wanted to use the Social Investment Policy to establish an informers network, arm the peasants, and encourage sowing of Coca. These policies are designed to split communities, but we have been very radical in refusing them, but others have been weak. The strategy has used these policies to take advantage of the needs of the people when they have been displaced, to establish these programmes and bring them into their way of doing things.
How do you deal with the media?
We are well-known in Colombia, but we avoid giving interviews to the Colombian press because they distort or don’t report what we say, in order to push the government line.
Has this changed with social media and the internet?
Yes, we have a webpage with a lot of information on our history, our communal life, the training we provide, as a peace community. A lot of people read our news reports, and we think that some of the people who take most interest are the army and the paramilitaries.
For intelligence gathering?
Yes, and also so they can counter our message by publishing stories in the media that are designed to advance their point of view.
You mentioned that 250 people had been murdered, how many deaths can be attributed to the Colombian State.
Yes, and over 2000 human rights violations, for example illegally detaining of peasants, destruction of crops, military trespassing onto our space. 80% were murdered by the army and the paramilitaries, and 20% to the FARC.
Do women suffer as much as men?
More - because in our society life is very different from that of farmers here. We are always with our women. Women are responsible for the house, looking after the children, cooking, washing clothes, and the men are working in the fields. So if a man is killed the woman is left with a lot of children to look after maybe 8 or 10, totally unprotected, and not knowing how to grow crops, and in many case they have been raped while they have been travelling to other places.
Some people say that by neutrality you lose potential support.
Well it depends where the support comes from. The government has refused to help us with health or education and return to our lands, because of our neutrality. We haven’t received a penny from them, but we have received solidarity internationally, to pay the salary of a teacher, or pay for repairs. So it is because we have declared ourselves neutral that we have received so much support.
What is the long-term solution to the conflict in Colombia?
It is very complicated, the only solution I can see is that the Govt should respect and protect the human rights of the civilian population and stop the abuses, and to ensure their development.
What is stopping that?
There are a lot of interests in mining, natural resources and that is where we the peasants are in their way. So. to get rid of us they use the most violent methods, employing the paramilitaries, so that then they can blame them and say it wasn’t the army, so as to launder their image.
It is a very long-term process because there is a big question over the thousands of hectares of land have been stolen from the peasants, the drug trade is enormous because all the armed groups including the army and politicians are making profits from it. And the question of impunity is huge. Peace is a long way away. So we try to separate ourselves from the fighting. We’ve told the Govt., stop attacking us, we don’t need social investment, our community can progress because our land is very fertile, but what we need is tranquillity. But it doesn’t stop, they keep attacking us.
Are you religious people?
There are 6 or 8 different groups in the community, Pentecostalists, Adventists, Catholics. I’m more or less Catholic, I think we have every right to be neutral, because it is rooted in International Humanitarian Law.
Does religion contribute to your spirit of solidarity?
Yes, because they don’t want to be involved in the conflict. The community is almost a religion in itself, because we don’t carry arms, we don’t want to harm anybody, we don’t drink alcohol, these are Christian principles.
In other countries the Catholic Church has colluded with dictatorships, like Chile and Argentina.
I think the Churches might be in agreement with some government policies, but they can also limit the human rights abuses. There are divisions within religions and the often dispute with each other, and we try to bring them together in a community in which everyone can live together in harmony and share. That’s what we have done.
Which groups give you legal or financial support?
We have a lot of support through a brotherly relationship with Tamera in Portugal, and with two in Spain, in Burgos and in Albuquerque, in Italy, in Belgium there are two. And with Grupo 21 in Madrid. They have helped us to build schools, and people in Switzerland they have helped us to build and stock 3 libraries, and with solar energy, as we don’t have electricity. In Narmi in Italy. And of course, these people help us when we need it, and they make public statements when we are threatened, and they write to the Govt to protest. We have been working with Lush since 2009 which is very important, both economically for selling Cacao, and politically campaigning.
Do you think that British politicians can help?
They can if they decide to, yes. And the media can spread the story, provide information to people.
European groups are not present on the ground, we can’t stop murders
You can help us politically, the Lush campaign has gathered a lot of signatures, to push the Colombian government to comply with what the Constitutional Court has ordered. That kind of support is very important.
Does the Colombian Government worry about their international image?
The British Government has an important partnership with Colombia, and if we communicate the news about human rights violations, it has a negative impact on those relations.