wfn.org | Episcopalians: A struggling church, a troubled land--visit to Colombia raises qu

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

October 25, 2002

2002-250

Episcopalians: A struggling church, a troubled land--visit to 
Colombia raises qu

by Jan Nunley

(ENS) News that a car bomb had exploded outside police 
headquarters in Bogota, Colombia, on October 22, killing two and 
wounding 36, saddened but did not surprise Richard Parkins, 
director of Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM). The killing 
has been going on for a long time in the countryside and the 
villages of Colombia. It's only now that cities such as Bogota 
and Medellin are feeling the pain.

Parkins was part of a delegation from the Standing Commission 
on Anglican and International Peace with Justice Concerns that 
went to Colombia this summer to view first-hand the effects of 
the conflict that has roots going back to the 1950s. The Latin 
America subcommittee of the commission included Jackie Batjer of 
Northwest Texas; the Rev. Theodora Brooks of New York; Fred 
Ellis of Dallas; and Bishop Gary Gloster of North Carolina. The 
group visited camps for "internally displaced persons," or IDPs, 
with the new bishop of Colombia, Francisco Duque-Gomez.

Gang warfare

It's not easy to explain what's happening in Colombia. What 
started 40 years ago as a battle of peasants and mostly Marxist 
"agrarian reformers" versus large landowners and their private 
armies has morphed into a struggle between equally fierce 
"narcotraficos." Both narco-guerrillas and narco-paramilitaries 
fight for the huge profits available from the processing of coca 
leaves and poppies into cocaine and heroin for export. It's a 
kind of gang warfare motivated by pure greed, according to 
Parkins, without a "neat moral or ethical polarity" of good guys 
versus bad guys.

Caught in the middle are Colombia's most vulnerable 
populations: members of some 85 indigenous groups ranging from 
the Achagua to the Zenu, and Afro-Colombians, descendants of 
Africans brought to Colombia in 1520 as slaves (slavery ended in 
1851). Combined, they make up about 6 percent of Colombia's 
population, and their communally held heartland is at the 
epicenter of a vicious war between equally powerful drug 
lords--a war replete with threats, rape, kidnapping, mutilation, 
torture, massacres, and assassinations.

The result is an epidemic of forced homelessness. Colombia is 
second only to Sudan in having the highest number of IDPs in the 
world. Something like 2 million Colombians crowd refugee camps 
and the suburbs and barrios of cities like Medellin, Cartagena, 
Cali, and Bogota. Most of them are women and children.

Culturally tied to the land, the indigenous and 
Afro-Colombians nevertheless are terrified of going home, 
Parkins said. So they wait for meager government assistance that 
is almost always too little, too late. Many are afraid to 
register for assistance at all. Being desplazado is a 
stigma, and most of those displaced don't trust the government, 
suspecting that it will misuse the information it gathers. Some 
have left in such haste that they don't have essential 
documents. Others don't know where or how they can receive help, 
and since the government restricts assistance to the first month 
after displacement, it's often too late before they find out. 
And the help lasts only three months.

Small church with a big task

Churches and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) try 
to fill the gap, but the need is enormous--not just for food and 
temporary shelter, but for housing, services, and a way to make 
a living.

That's what Bishop 
Duque-Gomez is trying to do, but with painfully limited 
resources. On July 7, the day he was installed, Duque inherited 
a debt load of more than $200,000 incurred by his predecessor, 
Bernardo Merino-Botero, who served as bishop of Colombia since 
1979. The bills include back taxes for buildings constructed 
without proper permits and assessments for pension funds for his 
clergy. Duque, representing Province 9 on the Episcopal Church's 
Executive Council, was heartened to receive an emergency 
appropriation of $150,000 from the council at its Jackson Hole 
meeting in October. But without a companion diocese 
relationship, Colombian Anglicans can only hope to break even in 
the midst of so much need.

The Episcopal Church in Colombia is small, a mix of rich and 
poor, many of whom have become disenchanted with their Roman 
Catholic upbringing and don't wish to join one of the many 
Pentecostal and charismatic groups in Latin America. Others are 
expatriate Anglicans from other countries--including the US 
ambassador to Colombia. 

Parkins said Duque has "quite a few" fomrer Roman Catholic 
priests who are ready to move to the Episcopal Church, but the 
diocese does not have the resources to support them. Most of his 
clergy are hold jobs in secular society and some are not 
compensated at all. Recently the church filed for incorporation. 
"They understand that they have to create systems and 
structures" for financial accountability if they are to receive 
aid from US dioceses and agencies, Parkins said.

Duque wants the Episcopal Church to be relevant to Colombia's 
many social and economic problems, especially among the young. 
He's working to establish a transitional home for children of 
IDPs but, Parkins said, the bishop has to take "a strategic 
approach because they can't do everything." In addition, Duque 
must fly everywhere he goes for episcopal visitations--at $500 a 
trip--because travel by car runs the risk that he will be caught 
between warring factions. 

Addressing the realities

Complicating Colombia's situation is an international aid 
program called "Plan Colombia," until recently presented as a 
means for the international community to support the peace 
process between the Colombian government and armed opposition 
groups. Plan Colombia currently draws $1.5 billion from the 
United States of America and some $2 billion from Japan, Canada, 
the European Union, Switzerland, other western governments and 
international financial institutions. 

Primarily aimed at destroying coca, marijuana, and poppy 
crops through aerial fumigation using the herbicide "Roundup," 
the program has been criticized for exacerbating the 
displacement problem as residents flee disease, destruction of 
food crops and contamination of soil, livestock, and water 
caused by the spraying.

There are indications, however, that US-funded support for 
Plan Colombia is shifting to military training for 
counterinsurgency and protection of a 500-mile crude oil 
pipeline owned by Occidental Petroleum of Los Angeles. Special 
Forces troops are already set to arrive in Colombia next month. 
In a country whose human rights record is fraught with 
violations, Parkins said, many are uneasy about strengthening an 
already corrupt military with shadowy ties to paramilitary 
groups.

"Plan Colombia doesn't address the realities of Colombia--its 
education and health care needs, its poverty," Parkins said. 
"Unless that's a priority, all the other stuff won't make a 
difference."

An Executive Council resolution, passed at the Wyoming 
meeting, called for the Episcopal Church to urge the US 
government to work for a negotiated peace and protection of 
human rights in Colombia, support for humanitarian and 
development assistance and aid to IDPs.

------

--The Rev. Jan Nunley is deputy director of Episcopal News 
Service.