Episcopalians: News Briefs - From the Worldwide Faith News archives www.wfn.org
www.wfn.org From dmack@episcopalchurch.org Date Thu, 13 Mar 2003 11:02:12 -0500 March 12, 2003 2003-055
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(ENI) Churches have increasingly become targets of violence perpetrated by both left-wing and right-wing groups in Colombia, said eyewitnesses to the worsening situation in rural areas.
"The churches were once removed from the conflict. But no more," said Luz Marina Gomez, a human rights activist and member of a small independent Protestant church, at a March forum at New York City's Interchurch Center. Gomez and Luis Teodoro Gonzalez Bustacara, a Roman Catholic priest, said increased militarization was raising the level of bloodshed and crippling Colombian society. The activists spoke as the guests of US-based groups active in issues related to Colombia, and echoed concerns made by other Colombian church representatives who have visited the United States in the past year.
In some ways, the war in Colombia today differs from Latin American conflicts of the 1970s and 1980s. In those clashes, activist clergy and church workers influenced by liberation theology, a teaching that included Marxist economic analysis and elements of social activism, were often targets of right-wing groups and military units.
Today various clergy, including pastors of small independent Protestant or Pentecostal churches in rural areas who claim to be apolitical, have become targets of violence from both leftist guerrilla groups and right-wing paramilitary units. Clergy who simply offer safe haven to those fleeing from the intensifying war can be interpreted as taking sides in the conflict, observers say.
The situation is especially tense in Arauca, an oil-rich region in the north bordering Venezuela that is the home province of Gonzalez and Gomez. Leftist forces--most prominently the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which has been labeled terrorist by Washington--have for years been attacking a 500-mile pipeline in Arauca used for US-bound oil. In recent months, FARC has stepped up its military campaign with periods of daily bombing. At the same time, as part of a "counter-terrorism" effort, 70 US Army Special Forces have been training Colombian military personnel to protect the pipeline, which is used by Occidental Petroleum, a US firm.
The militarization has crippled the region, Gomez and Gonzalez said, paralyzing Arauca's economy and forcing people from their homes. "We have two options: either wait for death or leave," Gomez said. The activists called for a renewal of peace negotiations to end the nearly 40-year conflict and a redirection of military funding to assist with education in the region.
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