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By Gina Spigarelli
I walked a path I had not yet walked across a rushing river with huge flat boulders. I tried to keep his morning pace through banana fields and over jungle logs. For a moment, I had this feeling that the dense jungle went on forever and ever and ever. That where we were was all there was. Sometimes the jungle does seem that immense. Sometimes life does seem that intense. Read more
 For 10 years, FOR volunteers have been accompanying the San José Peace Community in Colombia every single day. Through births and deaths, celebrations and tribulations, we have stood in the way of death and protected life. We believe in the Peace Community's struggle, and we believe in accompaniment: the power of ordinary people whose presence and political work protects others from death, displacement or exile. Read more
By Susana Pimiento
There are signs that it’s possible to advance the drug reform debate in Latin America. Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos surprised many on November 12 when he told the British newspaper The Observer that he favors rethinking the war on drugs and that he would consider legalizing marihuana and cocaine. He warned that he was not ready to take the lead in promoting the change: “What I won’t do is to become the vanguard of that movement because then I will be crucified. But I would gladly participate in those discussions.” Read more
 By Susana Pimiento
On October 7, as the Occupy Wall Street movement was starting to get media attention in the United States, Colombian students held a big mobilization, inaugurating a series of massive nationwide protests and events. Despite a government smear campaign that was echoed by the media and the actions of a few violent provocateurs, the students’ protests succeeded, offering a powerful lesson on the power of nonviolence to achieve social change. Read more
From Semana magazine, November 5, 2011: Detectives with the Colombian Department of Administrative Security, or DAS – the Colombian equivalent of the FBI and Secret Service - spent money donated by the US embassy and other foreign governments on parties, advance payments and family vacations. Read more
Twenty-five non-governmental organizations from across Canada, the United States and Mexico signed statements and letters of support on November 21 for the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective (CCAJAR) and the Inter-American Human Rights System in response to troubling statements questioning the credibility of CCAJAR and the Inter-American system made by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and other high-ranking Colombian officials. Read more
Upcoming Speaking Tours
March 2012 - Colombian Conscientious Objector
José Luis Peña Rueda is a conscientious objector from Bogota, Colombia. In 2008, while walking with his family in dowtown Bogota, he was asked for his military service card as part of an illegal street round-up. Since he had not fulfilled his obligatory service, he was taken immediately by the Colombian military to the army barracks. This began a three year battle in which he was trained by the military, filed a court case to be recognized as an objector, was arrested by Colombia’s internal security organization for having deserted, and was flown to the southern-most point of Colombia in the Amazon jungle, where he refused to take part in any military activities. After much pressure in Colombia and internationally, he was finally released, but his case has not been resolved, and he is still not recognized as an objector. You can hear part of his story here. You can let us know that you are interested in organizing a tour stop here.
Everyday Solidarity
 Winter tour | Mid-west and east coast | January 15 - 30
Isaac Beachy has recently returned to the U.S. after two years accompanying and living with threatened communities and organizations in Colombia. With experience fresh in his mind and heart, he will be traveling the eastern United States to speak to groups about his experience and the power of accompaniment as a tool of solidarity in the context of our government’s support of the militarization of Colombia. His travel plans include the states of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and the D.C. area from January 15 until the 31st. If you would like to know a bit more about Isaac or what setting up a tour stop entails, please contact him at isaacbeachy@gmail.com.
Briefs - The U.S. Office on Colombia released a report on the struggle for land rights in Colombia, Against All Odds: The Deadly Struggle of Land Rights Leaders in Colombia. ... Colombian scholar Jorge Hernández Lara has written an analysis of the nonviolence experiences of the San José Peace Community and of the Nasa Indigenous Council (ACIN), in "La práctica de la no violencia y su costo en dos episodios" (pdf file).
Thousands of people remembered Latin Americans killed by graduates of the School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, Georgia, November 20.
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Could Colombia Make Peace in the War on Drugs?
