Livin’ La Vida Cachaca*

Yikes, it has been a rough week for human rights in rural Colombia – there have been major protests in the southwestern part of the country, near the border with Ecuador. Nearly 7,000 indigenous people from different ethnic groups gathered to block the Pan-American highway to protest the government’s plans for a free trade deal with the US and displacement from their lands. Sadly the government’s response was to send in riot police — as of Wednesday, 2 people were killed and 100 wounded according to this story from CNN.

Justapaz, the Colombian Mennonite peace and justice organization, has put out an alert about the disappearance of a pastor they work with in northern Colombia. He has received many threats from armed groups, so they are very concerned for his safety. Making the government aware that people internationally are concerned about someone who is in danger from armed groups can be helpful in encouraging the government and police to act and actually investigate what happened – a friend who works for the organization describes what happened and provides a model letter and the email addresses or fax numbers where it should go, so it’s very easy to take action, you just have copy and paste – it’s all in English: Click here to read the alert

Additionally, an Afro-Colombian community leader who is from the Pacific Coast – one of the poorest, most remote regions of the country where most of the Afro-Colombian population lives – was murdered this week. Presumably he was killed by paramilitaries because he had been active in testifying against and denouncing paramilitaries who have killed and displaced many, many Afro-Colombians in the area where he lived.

His death provided a sad illustration for a report that Human Rights Watch happened to release this week – they argue that the Colombian government and current presidential administration is creating obstacles to the progress courts are trying to make in investigating and bringing to justice the paramilitary groups that have committed many murders and other atrocities. You can read the press release and look at the whole report here

Hopefully I’ll have a cheerier topic for next time…

Incredible news in Colombia! Apparently 15 FARC hostages were freed today – including Ingrid Betancourt (a French-Colombian who was a presidential candidate – she’s one of the most famous hostages, here’s more explanation on who she is), 3 US military contractors who were captured after a plane crash and 11 other members of the Colombian police and military. It’s a wonderful day for them and their loved ones – all these people have been in captivity for years. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of further releases and good changes in the future. Obviously, we’re also thinking of our friend who has been gone for too long…I hope this news means something good for him and that it will be a source of energy and hope.

There’s not yet a full explanation of how it happened – it was a military rescue, but one that was focused on intelligence and infiltration. It sounds like they were able to infiltrate the FARC to ensure that the hostages were together in a predetermined location and then members of the military were able to persuade the FARC members with the hostages to release them peacefully. Here’s the story from the New York Times

There was an earthquake in Bogotá yesterday afternoon! A 5.7 magnitude, which is plenty strong enough to feel some very thorough shaking, but, fortunately, not enough to cause serious damages. It lasted about a minute which is a long time for an earthquake! The epicenter was about 35 miles away and there were some damages to buildings in that area, but no emergencies. So, a freaky experience, but, all is well.