"Plan Colombia (is a) plan of death...don't kill the hope"
(Photo courtesy of Linda Panetta of SOA Watch NE)

Over 80 percent of the funds are targeted for military purposes, with a shrinking portion used for social and alternative development projects.  After 9-11, the military aid became part of the US war on terrorism, with more of the money being used for counter-insurgency operations rather than anti-narcotics efforts.  More than 10,000 Colombian soldiers have been trained at the US Army School of the Americas, and at least 800 US troops are currently located in Colombia, responsible for training and arming hundreds of soldiers there. 

And it is women who bear the brunt of this war, as with any war, as frequent victims of brutal rapes, kidnappings and murders, as well as being a majority of the millions of displaced within Colombia, who must flee for their lives with their children to try to escape from the conflict. 

But women are also active in numerous peace efforts, reported earlier by FIRE in Spanish, including hosting an International Peace Boat of women in November 2001, and a Women's Peace Consultation in May, 2002.  Then in July, 2002, women organized a massive Women's Peace March in Bogotá.  For the future, women are planning an International Tribunal of Colombian Women with the World Court of Women to be held later this year or early next, as described later in this report.

UN Declares Humanitarian Crisis in Colombia With 2 Million Displaced Persons

Despite massive amounts of funding, military hardware and training, the violence and human rights abuses are escalating, creating an ever more devastating impact on the civilian population. 
 

Economic blockades, abductions, assaults, torture and forced displacement are rampant, and violence against women including rape and forced servitude are systematic and widespread.  In 2001, more than 5,000 persons were murdered in executions and massacres, and today murders average 20 per day in some areas of the country.   Populations of Afro-Colombian and indigenous peoples are being hit the hardest.

 In 2002 an estimated 412,000 people were forced to flee their homes and lands as a result of the conflict, making a total of nearly 2 million displaced persons, 80% of whom are women and children.   Women more often shoulder the burden of forced displacement and as refugees, being mainly responsible for the children.  Many of the displaced families end up in overcrowded urban slums with no money or jobs, and are subject to widespread violence, sexual abuse, and addictions.

(Gladis Zarate of Colombia)

“The reports of the solidarity network include statistics that show are higher than last year’s human rights violations, a 55% increase over the year before, and the most affected are the women. 

"The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women recognized when she went to Colombia, that women are the victims of war because of the collective violations.  It seems as if the war takes place in the bodies of women. 

"Amnesty International publishes in global media the human rights report and the report is very painful to read, and yet, Colombia was just certified by the US for human rights. 

"So you can see that there are other interests at play here.  All of the times I’ve been a political activist and community activist I’ve always heard about those reports, and they are the best reports, but they are only reports. 

"The paramilitaries kill the husbands of the women very brutally, and kidnap and rape their daughters. 

"And women go to be part of the guerilla movements, or part of the paramilitary because any of these two groups give them what they need to survive, including three meals a day, clothing, and money to go visit their families.  When one of these girls falls into the hands of the official military groups, they are forced into prostitution to get information. 

"There is a the testimony of a 6-year-old girl who was raped, supposedly by the guerilla.  She identified the man, and  a paramilitary group killed the man in front of her, and she spent five years without speaking.  Today she is 11 and she was rescued by a women’s organization, and with therapy is beginning to be able to speak again. 

"In reports that I have found in Feminist International Radio Endeavour, because of the work you have done with the Colombian women, the women are right when they say that none of them make the war, but they all live it.  None of the massacres have been promoted by women but we suffer the consequences. 

"An activist of a political group which I was part of, when they wanted to do a process of the wars it was no longer valid for this group or for me or other women who are part of the process.  Gloria Cortez who was one of those who testified, she says that the armed groups stole the revolution from ordinary people.” 

“The issue of narco-trafficking started in the 1970s.  It became strong in the 1980s when the money of the drug dealers became part of the political campaigns for elections, and they introduced themselves into the political parties to be able to handle political power by corrupting the institutions. That was the first step. 

“And that’s what led to the deterioration of the situation and our society.  For example, Pablo Escobar who is very well known worldwide as a Colombian drug dealer, he’s probably more well known than any of the writers or painters or artists that we have in Colombia. 

"Who is Pablo Escobar?  He used to be a very poor person from Medellin.  History says he was a car thief, who began to traffic cocaine.  Drugs imply a lot of money, so what does Pablo Escobar do?  He begins to displace with social programs what the government and Colombian state did not do for people. 

"When Escobar was assassinated, people felt a lot of pain, because he built a lot of public housing, constructed hospitals, and financed many children to go and study. 

"The other part is that in Medillin with the money of the drug dealing the narco-traffickers began to make an army of young kids aged 14-23 and would gather children who had never had opportunities and turn them into the army of Pablo Escobar.  And that is these irregular paramilitary forces came to exist in Colombia. 

“The drug dealing created an underground economy, with a lot of money, too much money, around all of Colombia from drug dealing. 

"For example, a former president, Alfonso Lopez Michelsen met with the drug dealers in Colombia, and they proposed to him that they would pay the external debt of Colombia.  Of course the government did not accept, which was logical, but you can understand the amount of money.  So the drug dealers are very rich.; 

"There are different cartels and the Medellin cartel is just one of them.  And drugs are as common as oil in Colombia.  Simply, what happened is that when the drug dealing money started to appear it provided for the poorest people in the country, but of course in an illegal way. 

"For example, for a young person who is very poor and is offered money for doing certain tasks, it is very appealing.  The common situation is that investment in social projects has always been a necessity but it has been the drug dealers and not the government who have done it. 

"What else can I say about drug dealing?  There are peasants who are involved in it, many thousands of them, because the only thing that they have is to plant coca leaves. 

"For example, the media would interview Carlos Castano, and ask him what they thought about drug dealing and he would say, drug dealing is the best thing that could have happened in the country, because it has allowed us to finance ourselves.  They take care of the lands, they take care of the producers of the coca leaves, and the guerilla groups they do the same. 

“The military have always been involved in scandals, many of which were related to drug dealing. 

"I want to make it clear that the country is divided in many parts.  It is divided by race, because Colombian society has always excluded the black population.  And many of the 49 million people in my country who are poor. 

"The problem of drug dealing is that it is a multimillion dollar business, very exclusive, very lucrative, moreso when they finish with the cartels.  And the money is only for the very rich. 

"Our peasant and black populations, our poor people have been the dupes who are used by these people.  But Colombia is not a country of drug dealers. 

"From 1976 to 1978, the political group UPE, which became a [legalized] political group after an amnesty where the militants were from the old FARC.  Since that amnesty up until today, 4,000 militants of UPE have been assassinated.  But not one person has been detained by the law for these massive assassinations. 

"Let’s go back.  When the UPE accepted amnesty and became legal, and I was very young but I have always followed this, and they were making a proposal for a legalization of the drugs.  And there have been proposals about legalizing drugs, and the whole problem would be over. 

"But these proposals have never [been taken seriously] in the Colombian state or in the world governments.  And for a simple reason--because drug dealing provides a lot of money and a lot of profits, especially in the United States and also for those in Colombia who make the profits. 

"A lot of chemicals are needed for cocaine, and these chemicals are bought in the US.  So while there is a flow of a lot of money and those interests, it is going to be very difficult to break that cycle.

"Plan Colombia was a big pretext.  To say that the money for Plan Colombia is to combat terrorism and drugs, is a big lie.  The money of Plan Colombia has served the purpose of generating more violence and to promote the war. 

'So I feel that the people who are going to listen to these interviews ...[need to know that...the big problem is that we have a diversity [of natural resources] that is needed by the capitalist countries, and we have oil.  So this conflict that we are facing, there are other interests in this conflict. 

The 24th Brigade, which is responsible for all military activities in the Putumayo region,
and is infamous for human rights abuses (photo courtesy of Linda Panetta of SOA Watch NE).

"In some areas of the country this is done, but in other areas, they fumigate, with a fumigation chemical that ruins the land. 

"So they not only ended up with the land destroyed, but they hurt the campesinos because the land is rendered infertile, so we have to buy the agricultural products outside of the country, and it makes the situation worse. And that is what is happening. 

"The Ombudsman Office in Colombia for example, have protested the use of this chemical.  Pregnant women are very affected, children are born blind.  And it is the same chemical that is supposedly used as a fertilizer. 

Drawing by Colombian children in Putumayo of the before and after effects of fumigation on their lands (photo courtesy of Witness for Peace-Colombia).

"The second way—but let’s not put numbers—but another thing that could be done is to explain, to ask, to get informed.  There are many other media that are not the mainstream media who speak the reality of what is happening in our country.  Don’t be afraid of Colombians.  We are living in hell. 

"And the transnational corporations that have been supported by the governments that we have had have taken everything away from us.  The only thing they have not taken away from us is hope. 

"And that is what gives hope and a consistency to life.  And what they say is that if they haven’t robbed the soul from the people, then they haven’t taken everything away from us. 

"Colombians are very warm people, storytellers.  We are something different than what is portrayed in the media.  The way of helping us is that.