Building partnerships to transform violence and oppression.

COLOMBIA ELECTION ANALYSIS: Peace won?

June 26th, 2014
in:

We read and hear in the media people declaring that “Peace Won” in Colombia on Sunday, June 15.  However, I have yet to hear someone without power and money say the same.  Here on the CPT-Colombia team, we are all just breathing a collective sigh of relief that presidential candidate Oscar Ivan Zuluaga walked away from Sunday’s second round election the loser.

Current President Juan Manuel Santos won the election with just 51% of the vote, but enough to keep alive the negotiations to end Colombia’s sixty-year conflict between the Colombian government and the FARC (Colombia’s largest guerrilla army).  Santos bet his entire election on maintaining the negotiation process begun in Havana in 2012, upping the ante five days before the election with the announcement that he would begin parallel talks with the ELN (Colombia’s second largest guerrilla army). 



Election posters of candidate Zuluaga, who would have ended negotiations, at the Las Pavas farm with palm oil corporation
Aportes San Isidro security guards/ Las Pavas community harassers in the background.

Upcoming CPT Events

Title Start: End:
Colombia Delegation Tue, 06/24/2014 Tue, 07/08/2014
Peacemaker Corps Training Fri, 07/11/2014 Mon, 08/11/2014
Aboriginal Justice Delegation Fri, 08/01/2014 Mon, 08/11/2014
Colombia Delegation Fri, 08/01/2014 Fri, 08/15/2014
Palestine/Israel Delegation Fri, 08/01/2014 Thu, 08/14/2014
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Video Introduction to Christian Peacemaker Teams

 

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About CPT

Partnering with nonviolent movements around the world, CPT seeks to embody an inclusive, ecumenical and diverse community of God's love.  We believe we can transform war and occupation, our own lives, and the wider Christian world through:

  • the nonviolent power of God's truth
  • partnership with local peacemakers
  • bold action

CPT places teams at the invitation of local peacemaking communities that are confronting situations of lethal conflict.  These teams seek to follow God's Spirit as it works through local peacemakers who risk injury and death by waging nonviolent direct action to confront systems of violence and oppression. 

CPT understands violence to be rooted in systemic structures of oppression. We are committed to undoing oppressions, starting within our own lives and in the practices of our organization.

Featured CPT Partner

Colombia: Federación Agrominera del Sur de Bolivar (FEDEAGROMISBOL) / Southern Bolivar Agricultural-Mining Federation

The small-scale miners and farmers of FEDEAGROMISBOL have organized to defend their rights to life and land in the Sierra San Lucas Mountain Range. Their resource-rich land is targeted by multinational companies seeking to extract gold. FEDEAGROMISBOL has attempted to dialogue with the authorities, but the Colombian government has not complied with their agreements. Instead the government has continued to militarize the region and persecute the FEDEAGROMISBOL leaders, who are harassed and assassinated by both paramilitary and military forces.

CPT’s Work: CPT Colombia has been accompanying FEDEAGROMISOBOL since 2006 in their struggle for life and to remain on the land.