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 By Charlotte Melly
Elements of the Colombian peace process that begins October 8 in Oslo indisputably distinguish these negotiations from prior attempts to put an end to Colombia’s five decade-long conflict. The insistence on learning from past mistakes is cause for optimism, and both parties seem to be taking the process seriously. But many challenges remain. Perhaps the “make or break” point of the agenda will be land reform. Read more.
 By Gina Spigarelli
I have been back in the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó for a couple of weeks now, but in some ways it seems like I never left.City streets have been exchanged for jungle paths, high heels for rubber boots, public transportation for mules, and capital metropolis for a village of 30 homes. When a rural teacher was killed in a neighboring village last week, the secretary of education decided not to send teachers to the villages here anymore. And just like that, the students stop studying. Read more.
 The Caravan’s visit to El Paso, Texas was a great example of local organizing and a binational project mutually strengthening each other. When the Caravan’s two large buses arrived in the city’s downtown plaza just after dark on August 20, hundreds of El Pasoans lined the square holding lit candles. El Paso, we remember, has received many thousands of citizens fleeing from violence across the river in Ciudad Juárez, to which it is virtually joined. Read more.
You can also see a review of some of the vivid media coverage of the Caravan.
 In July the Nasa indigenous mobilization collectively evicted armed groups from their territories in the southwestern Cauca department. In dramatic actions, unarmed Nasa indigenous guards carried soldiers from a post on a sacred site, and punished community members that had joined the guerrillas. Charlotte Melly and Elisabeth Rohrmoser give an update. Read more.
 This provocative hour-long radio documentary chronicles the historic journey of the U.S./Mexico Caravan for Peace, which traveled from San Diego to Washington D.C. calling for an end to the war on drugs and bearing witness to the human rights nightmare currently unfolding in Mexico. Producer Chris Moore-Backman joined the caravan for 5 days, examining the connections between the struggle for peace in Mexico and the struggle to end the racist system of mass incarceration in the United States. The show features a dialog between Michelle Alexander (author of The New Jim Crow) and Javier Sicilia, heartbreaking testimonies of mothers of victims, and interviews with activists who helped launched this historic bi-national effort. Listen.
Witness for Peace is offering a FREE four-part webinar series in October to explore the impacts of the U.S. War on Drugs on civil society both internationally and domestically. The first three webinars cover different sides of the Drug War from an international perspective, drawing from the experiences and knowledge of a diverse group of speakers of different backgrounds and from different countries such as Colombia, Mexico, and Honduras. The final webinar focuses on the domestic side of U.S. drug policies, which are sometimes referred to as the New Jim Crow due to their disproportionate effects on communities of color. Read more or sign up. |
