Some on our email list are asking about what is going on with the situation with Colombia and how we are doing in Quito right now. So, I want to write about it. I understand that many are not going to appreciate my viewpoint on this and the way I express it, and it is much more information than you might have wanted, if you wanted any. Please know that the view is solely my own.
As many of you know by now, Colombian planes entered about 5 miles into Ecuador on Saturday and, 1 mile within Ecuador, killed at least 24 people associated with FARC, a rebel group that has been in a civil war with the Colombian government for the last 40 years. Colombia did this with U.S.-acquired technology while the group was sleeping, and then the army went in and carried 2 of the bodies out. Three women who were with FARC were injured in the attack and left for the Ecuadorian army to find later. This was done a week after FARC released 4 hostages and as they, with help from Ecuador and Venezuela, were nearing the end of negotiations to release more. In addition to the attack being an act of war, the timing is being interpreted as the Colombian government’s action to thwart a peace process. There are many marches and actions planned, and occurring, in Ecuador to protest Colombia's invasion.
Yesterday night we received a warning from the U.S. embassy in Quito that this could have repercussions on U.S. citizens in Ecuador and we should keep a “low profile”. We don’t feel threatened in any way, but it is not difficult for people here to make the coherent connection between Colombia’s aggression and the United States. Colombia is the fifth-greatest recipient of U.S. aid. What is often called “humanitarian aid” (and is thus used as evidence that the U.S. is such a magnanimous and generous country) is sent in order to arm the Colombian government in the midst of the civil war and to further “Plan Colombia” which spreads poison on fields, villages, and water supplies in order to kill the coca plants.
There is direct connection between Colombia’s unilateral and brief invasion of Ecuador a few days ago and the United States’ aid and its own aggression. This is reinforced when the U.S. government immediately stepped in and took Colombia’s side in this. This is reinforced when, yesterday, George Bush states his “complete support” for Colombia’s President Uribe. And when, with typical but still incredible hypocrisy and deceit, he says that he is “opposed to any act of aggression that could destabilize the region;” which means anything that Ecuador or Venezuela do but certainly does not include Colombia which, apparently with the U.S.’s full support, went into Ecuadorian territory to assassinate the other side of the Colombian civil war in their pajamas.
Colombia’s government now says that a seized laptop shows information linking the governments of Ecuador and Venezuela to FARC. At this point, this sounds (to me and to many here in Quito) like a much-needed fabrication and manipulation by Colombia, well-learned from the success that the U.S. had in manipulating opinion 5 years ago by falsely claiming that there were WMDs and Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Many people here understand far better than we do what is going on, and they make these astute connections. Fortunately, in general we have found that people here have an incredible capacity to separate their judgment of us from their knowledge of our government.
As Trish (who has no responsibility for this message) in her work with Colombian refugees can attest, there is no doubt that FARC has used deceit, aggression, kidnapping, and murder to achieve their ends. It cannot be emphasized enough, though, that the Colombian government and its paramilitary forces have repeatedly used the same tactics and committed equal atrocities. Both FARC and the government are involved in cocaine production and trafficking. FARC is not on the ‘right’ or official side of the conflict, and so when they use violence it is “terrorism”, while when Colombia and the U.S. use the same violence it is to combat “evil” and they are fighting for “freedom” and a “drug-free world”.
Just like the war on terror, the war on drugs has been a fear-inducing and hypnotic deception that helps us think, vote and favor in a certain way. It also allows many of us to continue to live the way that we want.
The Colombian government and its paramilitary are as adept at violence, kidnapping, and drug-smuggling as FARC. And, as was heard on the radio yesterday, everyone knows who buys the cocaine (our own president has been quite the connoisseur), and so people here, unlike so many of us in the U.S., know exactly who bears so much of the blame for the continual violence.
Pray for us and our safety, which I really don’t believe is any danger. Please pray for peace, with justice, here in the region. And, I think that while you do, you should pray for yourself and for our country (for those of us from the United States). We are not good peacemakers. In fact, we are quite the opposite. I believe that this not only has severe repercussions for us as a nation and for those who we influence and destroy, but also for us as individuals and in our communities. We are psychologically and spiritually disfigured by our nation’s violence and there are myriad ways that we are nurtured and supported by it. We should humbly pray for ourselves and our conversion.
In peace,
Chris
