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Note #8072 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Not so moderate
04022
January 15, 2004

Not so moderate

Commenting on  'Plan for Colombia,' Andrews pulls no punches

by Alexa Smith

BARRANQUILLA, Colombia - During a six-day visit to the Presbyterian Church of
Colombia (PCC), the Rev. Susan Andrews, moderator of the Presbyterian Church
(USA), made a few promises - and got the attention of the Colombian media.

	Andrews promised that the PC(USA) will:

	*Redouble its efforts to stop the millions of dollars in military aid
that the United States is pouring into the controversial "Plan Colombia," a
massive anti-drug program that has been broadened in recent years to include
anti-terrorism efforts;

	*Advocate for an increase in U.S. developmental aid;

	*Join with the United Nations and other non-governmental agencies in
defending the human rights of the Colombian people.

"The polices of the Bush administration are not helping in terms of human
rights, and we want to support other ways to bring about peace," Andrews told
reporters during a press conference here.

	It was a popular message. In Andrews' words, "It seemed to be a
surprise, and a welcome perspective."

	Interviews with Andrews were featured in the country's major
newspapers and on radio. A Barranquilla television station broadcast a
substantive interview about the concerns of the PCC and PC(USA) with Maria
Arroyo, the Worldwide Ministries Division's liaison to Colombia, the only
member of the moderator's delegation who is fluent in Spanish.

	The group also included Ervin Bullock, an associate with the
Presbyterian Peacemaking Program; Lucille Rupe Watt, the executive of
Winnebago Presbytery, which has a partnership with Presbyterians in the
Colombian province of Uraba; and Andrews' 21-year-old daughter, Anna, a
student at Oberlin College.

	During her visit, Andrews spoke with dozens of farmers who have been
driven off their land by violent guerilla forces and paramilitary groups.
Three million or more Colombian farmers are internal refugees. Andrews
visited camps teeming with the displaced  along the northern coast and in
Uraba.

	Colombians say small farmers have been terrorized by paramilitaries
and government-sanctioned confiscation of their land to be developed by major
investors, including oil and fruit companies - intensifying a conflict that
has killed tens of thousands of Colombians.

	In the oil-rich southern provinces and in northern banana fields,
paramilitaries are targeting union leaders for assassination.

	Human rights organizations say the illegal paramilitaries, who are
blamed for 70 percent of human rights abuses in the country, are subsidized
by the Colombian military. And the military is subsidized by Plan Colombia.

Presbyterians in Colombia have been urging the PC(USA) to step up its
opposition to the program and to lobby against it in Washington.

	The United States imports more oil from Colombia and its neighbors
than from all the Persian Gulf countries combined, according to the
Minneapolis-based Resource Center of the Americas.

	Andrews told the Presbyterian News Service that she is frustrated by
the U.S. administration's continued pursuit of a failed military policy when
Colombians' basic needs are not being met. The administration's current
strategy does not address the root causes of the violence, which include
abusive labor practices and grinding poverty, she said.

	"And it is creating a second problem - four million displaced people
who are forced off their land at gunpoint by guerrillas or a paramilitary
groups and who have no place to go," she said. "Nor are there enough
government resources to help them relocate."

	When the moderator pressed a representative of the Barranquilla
mayor's office to say whether humanitarian aid is preferable to military
assistance, he said, "Arms are not going to resolve this problem - unless (it
is decided) to kill all the poor people."

	Refugees are flooding into Barranquilla, where the PCC's synod office
is located.

	Plan Colombia was launched in 2000 when Congress approved a request
from President Bill Clinton for $1.3 billion in aid to Colombia's military as
part of the U.S. "war on drugs." One element of the plan is the fumigation of
coca fields in the south - an area also rich in oil - another reason for
small farmers to flee.

	American military officers have been deployed to train anti-narcotics
units, which critics claim are actually used to fight insurgents.

	The Bush administration has renamed Plan Colombia, which is now known
as the Andean Regional Initiative.

	"The church we represent is not in agreement on this issue," Andrews
told reporters. "There are people who support the Bush administration's
policies, and there are those who don't. But we, as a denomination, made a
statement that peacemaking is a believer's calling."

	She said Christians must struggle to bring alive Biblical texts such
as "Blessed are the peacemakers" and "Love your enemies," and to take to
heart the admonitions of the Hebrew prophets to link peace with justice.

	Andrews is the first PC(USA) moderator to visit Colombia in 30 years.

	Colombian Presbyterians have committed themselves to caring for
refugees from the violence (see related story, "Home sweat home") and taken
risky stands on human-rights issues. It has consistently urged the PC(USA) to
pressure the Clinton and Bush administrations to reconsider the U.S. "war on
drugs."

	Although the CIA estimates that 90 percent of the cocaine and 65
percent of the heroin imported into the United States is from Colombia, the
program's critics say eliminating drug cultivation here would not stop the
flow of drugs into North America; crops would simply be grown in other parts
of South America to meet the demand.

	The PCC's executive, the Rev. Milton Mejia, said Andrews' public
statements "signaled to Colombian society that this church is not alone in
its support for human rights and its work with the poor."

	"Our sister churches are accompanying us in what we are doing," said
Mejia. "I think Susan was clear."

	Mejia has first-hand knowledge of the risks of prophetic work. His
life was threatened repeatedly by paramilitary groups last year. The man
accused of making the threats is still at large. He had been jailed and was
awaiting trial when he somehow obtained a day pass and left.

	Andrews said she will tell the Colombian church's story during her
remaining six months as moderator.

	"I believe the PCC is a model for how to be a holistic church that
has a passionate evangelical fervor for the gospel, a living and faithful
personal relationship with Jesus Christ, a vibrant and intimate community
life, and a clear, focused mission that will not only help the poor in
concrete ways, but public advocacy for healthy political reform and systemic
change," she said.

	Citing the church's youthful leadership (Mejia is 37) and its
approach to mission, Andrews said she admired its clear focus. "You know who
you are and who God has called you to be in Colombia, doing the work of Jesus
in your context," she told PCC officials. "(That focus) runs through
everything that you do: evangelism and justice, stewardship and education,
pastoral ministry.

	"You are putting it all together."

	The 1998 General Assembly called on the Colombian government to
curtail the violence and investigate human-rights abuses. The 2001 Assembly
directed the stated clerk of the PC(USA) to write letters to Congress and
President Bush to urge them to act against human-rights abuses in Colombia.

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