A CRY FOR COLOMBIA
By Amparo
Jaramillo-Restrepo
Dear
friends:
I’ve been asked to
sign a petition to the USA Congress to cancel or at least change the
Plan Colombia, which gives Colombian government money to buy arms (
as we didn’t have enough), to fight the guerrillas, which everybody
in the US press call the leftist fighters, even that most of those
fighters are children or illiterate peasants who had joined the
armed groups out of poverty or intimidation, but don’t have any
political ideals.
They also ask me to talk with my friends and relatives,
most of them Colombians, to reject the military intervention and the
criminal spray of pesticides which destroy not only the coca and
poppy plants, but crops vital for our people’s nourishment. But the
fact is that most people in Colombia are fed up with the abuses of
the FARC, the ELN and the paramilitary groups. Thousands of
Colombians have been kidnapped; their business ruined, suffered the
death of a dear relative, or had to abandon their towns and farms.
Some of them want revenge or at least justice and reparation. They
look at Mr. Uribe as their only hope, for because of the strong
military presence they can now travel to their country houses and
feel safe in their homes.
I don’t like the
military aid, which benefit mainly the American weapon dealers, for
I’m convinced that the only way to obtain peace is by Social Justice
as John XXIII wisely said. Some times I wonder how can some of my
Colombian fellows continue to live apparently normal lives
regardless the massacres in remote places against innocent
civilians; I’ve noticed that many people don’t even read the papers
and think that the problem is what they call “mala prensa” (bad
press) against Colombia. But at the same time, who am I to judge
them? They have to give their children a normal life and instill in
them dreams and hope in the future. That’s why there is still,
music, laughter, carnivals, festivals…a lot of prayers, and
an incredible high level of happiness and pride among most
Colombians.
And yes, there are corruption and human rights violations
in part of the army. I regret that. But on the other hand, the
guerrilla fighters randomly commit terrible acts against innocent
civilians, destroy bridges, electric plants, police stations,
churches and schools, because they have tons of money, and
especially because there are a lot of countries ready to sell them
all kinds of sophisticated weapons. What can the government and
especially the Army do? Colombia is a country at war. And
unfortunately, human right violations are common during war times.
Remember Abu Grabi and Guantamano.
That’s the sad story about my beautiful country. I think
that unless every government stop making and selling weapons like
candy; unless we change this war mentality which gives citizens the
right to bear arms, but denies them the right to a decent health
program; until we stop trying to impose democracy by force and
instead of building jails for the poor minority children, we make an
effort to improve housing, education, drug rehabilitation and above
all create jobs, there is little hope for peace in the
world.
It’s very easy to demonize Colombia because of the drug
traffic when even some American soldiers or members of the DEA are
dealing in drugs. That’s another war we are losing, and suggesting
as one of the Hollywood actors did to invade our country, to
protect American youth is naive, to say the least. Sadly, our
American children have enough licit and illicit drugs on the
streets. The so called “civilized world” has to use a different
approach to remedy this terrible disease.
Forgive me for this long letter. I’m going to finish with
the words of General Barón, one of the Colombian high army
commanders, a few years ago, answering to the Colombian parliament’s
question, “Why aren’t we winning the war despite all the money we’ve
spent; and why is it that some of our soldiers are guilty of human
right violations?
This was his honest, painful answer: “Ladies and
gentlemen, our army is composed of the poorest and most undeserved
youths in the country. They are not angels, for some of them
have been displaced, homeless, ignored or abused. For those
children or youths, there are only three choices in Colombia: to
join the military if they qualify; to join the guerrilla or
paramilitary forces or to become a hit man”.
That night, I cried
myself to sleep.
(What an
irony that upper class children can enjoy peace and freedom without
risking their lives in the Colombian jungles or mountains, while
the poorest of the poor defend the system).
Note:
I wrote
this article on April l8, 2005 with a few variations. Things haven’t
changed much since then. There is some investment in social programs
and the government has made a big effort to attract members of the
armed forces to civil life. But without job programs there are
disturbing signs that the fight has been moved to the cities where
there’re more bandits and thieves now; we still have more than 2.000
kidnapped Colombians in captivity waiting for a Humanitarian Pact to
rescue them; and the number of misplaced, terrorized people, grows
dramatically day by day.
