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Colombian pastor under fire
04081
February 13, 2004

Colombian pastor under fire

Church World Service campaigning for Mennonite peacemaker

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE - Church World Service (CWS) has launched a letter-writing
campaign in defense of a Mennonite pastor the Colombian government has
accused of collaborating with anti-government guerrillas.

The Rev. Ricardo Esquivia, 57, has worked for peace in Colombia in a ministry
that has included development work, food distribution, non-violence training
and conflict mediation. He works through two organizations: the Colombian
Council of Evangelical Churches (CCEC) and Justapaz, the Christian Center for
Justice, Peace and Non-Violent Action of the Mennonite Church of Colombia.

Esquivia is a member of the Christian education and advocacy committee of
CWS, the relief, development and refugee-assistance arm of the National
Council of Churches (NCC). The Presbyterian Church (USA) often works in
partnership with CWS.

Justapaz said it learned in January that Esquivia was to be arrested and
charged with being a member of FARC, the largest guerrilla group in the
war-torn country.

CWS is asking that letters, phone calls and faxes be directed to the
Honorable Luis Alberto Moreno, Colombian Ambassador to the United States,
2118 Leroy Place, NW, Washington, DC 20008; telephone (202) 387-8338; fax
(202) 232-8643. (For a sample letter, click here.)

Colombian church leaders said an arrest would keep Esquivia from assuming
leadership of an ecumenical peacemaking project about to begin in a
politically tense region near the country's Atlantic Coast. They said it also
could cause him to lose the trust of the people of the region and make it
impossible for him to work there.

The government of Colombia often interprets community development efforts in
towns and cities shattered by violence as support for the guerrillas.

"All of the groups - especially the illegal armed groups, and also the army,
benefit from this war," Esquivia said in a telephone interview with the
Presbyterian News Service. "Those who make a living because of the war see
what we're doing as a threat in the region. ... Peace is not good for
business."

Esquivia is planning to move from Bogota, the capital, where he has directed
Justapaz, to the mountains near Cartagena on the coast, to take the reins of
an ecumenical peacemaking project funded by to assume leadership of an
ecumenical peacemaking funded by CCEC.

In that region, which is home to several guerrilla groups and right-wing
militias as well as government forces, one Protestant pastor was killed last
year, and another was kidnapped.

"This (rumored arrest of Esquivia) is unconfirmed, through-the-grapevine
information ... that there is a move afoot to arrest him," said Lisa Wright,
an analyst employed by CWS.

Wright said the government of Colombian President Alvara Uribe has stepped up
pressure on human-rights workers, and violence against church workers in
particular seems to be increasing.

Justapaz said it got wind of a plot to have former guerrilla combatants
testify against Esquivia and to "doctor" a video tape digitally to make it
look as if he presided at a FARC meeting.

To Wright, the irony is that Esquivia belongs to the Mennonite Church, a
denomination of pacifists.

That is one of the points CWS Executive Director John L. McCullough made in a
recent letter to Uribe.

"We understand that Mr. Esquivia is in grave danger of being accused of
membership in FARC, the guerrilla movement, and as such is subject to
arrest," he wrote, although "his membership in the Mennonite Church would
preclude his partaking in violent activities."

McCullough said that Esquivia's activities in partnership with CWS include
food distribution, refugee resettlement and support, and efforts to improve
housing and sanitation in refugee camps.

The Presbyterian Church of Colombia has opposed the government's strategy of
indicting and arresting peacemakers and defenders of human rights, who are
"suffering persecution, slander, unjust condemnation, and the very death that
Jesus suffered."

The Rev. Milton Mejia, executive secretary of the Presbyterian Church of
Colombia, said there is intense media coverage when rights workers are
arrested, but none when the charges are dropped months later.

"The idea of the government is to show how successful they are in capturing
guerrillas - that makes a big impact on public opinion," he said. "And it
makes people afraid that those who work for peace will be arrested. In the
religious context, it is very scary."

Esquivia said of the government: "They know I am a Mennonite. And they also
know that the FARC killed a person from our group (Rev. Gabriel Montes) in
this same region. ...

"In the past year, 45 pastors have been assassinated in Colombia."

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