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by Scott Nicholson, MHRN Organizer

In July of last year, my companera (partner) Isabel and I traveled to Colombia as representatives of the Montana Human Rights Network and spent two weeks accompanying human rights organizations in the city of Barrancabermeja. The organizations in Barranca (as it's called locally) had requested international accompaniment as a way to protect themselves from the paramilitary groups (armed "civilians") operating in the city. The paramilitaries are less likely to capture or kill people in the presence of international witnesses.

Human rights activists in Barranca spent a lot of time explaining to us the horrible consequences of U.S. funding for the Colombian security forces. In the past two years, the U.S. government has given more than $950 million to the Colombian military and police, and will be providing them with another $215 million this year. The military and police maintain relations with the paramilitaries that are responsible for more than three-quarters of all human rights violations committed in the country. The people that we met with described the situation in Colombia as "state terrorism."

Isabel lives in El Salvador and had suffered U.S.-supported repression during the civil war in her country (1980-1992). She was able to share experiences with the people in Barranca who are facing similar repression now. During the war in El Salvador, the U.S. gave more than $5.5 billion to the government and military of El Salvador. Over those twelve years, more than 75,000 people were killed. According to the Truth Commission appointed by the United Nations, the Salvadoran security forces were responsible for the vast majority of human rights abuses committed during the war. Isabel's youngest brother, Reyes, was dragged from their home and killed by the National Guard. She, herself, had to flee the country and spent eight years in a refugee camp in Honduras.

On the same day we arrived in Barranca, Alma Rosa Jaramillo was stopped by the paramilitaries at a checkpoint in Morales (70 miles northwest) and taken away. Alma Rosa was a lawyer who had worked for three years with the Program for Peace and Development in the Middle Magdalena (the organization that facilitated our trip), and was a member of one of their local committees. Two days later, all that was found of her body was the torso. She was the sixth member of a Program committee to be killed by the paramilitaries in the last three years. During our second night in Barranca, paramilitaries broke into the house of Pedro Ospino and shot him to death. Pedro was a community leader who had denounced the collaboration between the police and the paramilitaries. He lived just one block from where we were staying.

Isabel said that the repression in Barranca reminded her of the worst years of the war in El Salvador. She concisely described the similarities between what took place in El Salvador and what's currently occurring in Colombia with these words: "They're cut from the same cloth. They use the same tactics. It's the same shit!"

Since we left Barranca, three of our friends have had to flee the city. Carlos and Gladys are the coordinators of the Regional Board of Permanent Work for Peace in the Middle Magdalena (the organization that we accompanied), which works with peasant communities in the region. In October, orders were issued for their arrest on the charge of "rebellion," and they had to go into hiding. Juan Carlos is a leader in the National Food Industry Workers Union, which is developing a campaign against Coca-Cola because of the murder and repression of union activists at the bottling plants in Colombia. Juan Carlos had to flee Barranca because of threats against his life.

The Network has been responding to human rights alerts from Colombia and is sponsoring a visit by Isabel to Montana in April. She will be giving presentations about her experiences during the war in El Salvador and our visit to Colombia.