In January, the Colombian Constitutional court handed down a ruling advancing the Peace Community's right to truth and justice, and ordering the Colombian government to take concrete steps to end the impunity for the crimes committed against the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó since its formation ten years ago. (Download the ruling as an RTF/text document.)

The high court was reviewing a Peace Community's writ of protection demanding that the Colombian Ministry of Defense disclose the names of the military personnel involved in military operations on specific dates when violations against the Peace Community took place. For years, the Ministry of Defense had refused to disclose such information, alleging that it would compromise any criminal or disciplinary investigations. Siding with the Peace Community, the Court rejected the Defense Ministry's assertion saying that revealing the names of the military personnel would not compromise the integrity of such procedures, but instead it was essential to the Peace Community's right to pursue justice, including within the international system.

The protest against the FARC February 4 was impressive, no doubt. Considering the fact that the government gave public employees the day off and cut the school schedule in half, it is not surprising that so many people were able to make their "no more FARC" voices heard. Days before the protest, human rights organizations in Colombia issued comuniques to their networks encouraging them not to participate in any kind of counter-protest; some held a mass instead.

Here in San Francisco about 300 people mobilized: many wore the official t-shirt, held Colombian flags and roses were distributed to all. The protesters listened to speakers and marched around Civic Center square a number of times.

from the Lowell Sun Times
By Bridget Scrimenti, 01/14/2008

They planned to harvest cocoa beans.

About eight men, women and children were going to work in the fields. Some even started a seven-hour hike into Colombia's countryside.

But their attempt to gather food came to a sudden and violent end.

The families were viciously attacked and killed by men yielding machetes.

"They killed eight people, three of whom were children, with machetes," said Janice Gallagher. "For me as a U.S. citizen -- if I could do anything to stop that from happening again, I felt a moral imperative to do so."

Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Original available here
Translated by Dan Whitesell

At the beginning of 2007 the Colombian government presented the Strategy to Strengthen Democracy and Social Development 2007-2013, better known as Phase II of Plan Colombia. The goal of this strategy is to seek support from the international community for the consolidation of what the (Colombian) government considers the achievements of both Plan Colombia I (1999-2006) and the policy of Democratic Security.

By Liza Smith

On November 23, approximately 5,500 Colombian and Ecuadorian women marched for demilitarization, to end violence against women, to construct peace with dignity and social justice and for a negotiated solution to the conflict. Their celebration was to mark November 25, the International Day to End Violence Against Women. This was the seventh year that women from all over Colombia mobilized “to make visible” an area of conflict in the country and specifically, how that conflict impacts women.

October 2007

President Álvaro Uribe’s ties to Medellín cartel drug lord Pablo Escobar surfaced again in October in the newly released autobiography of Escobar’s former mistress and one-time TV diva Virginia Vallejo. According to Vallejo’s memoirs, Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar, Uribe was central to Pablo Escobar’s success in drug trafficking. From his position as director of the Aviation National Agency, Uribe “granted dozens of licences for landing strips and hundreds for aircraft and helicopters on which the drug trafficking infrastructure was built”. She went on to recall that when Uribe’s father was killed in a 1983 aborted kidnapping attempt by FARC in Northeastern Antioquia, Escobar lend him one of his helicopters to bring Uribe’s brother, also wounded in the attack and the deceased father to Medellín.

Thousands of Campesinos Gather in Arauca to Give Testimony

By Mayra Moreno, CPP team

Located on Colombia’s mid-eastern border with Venezuela, Arauca is known as one of the most volatile departments (or states) in the country. The presence of oil companies and illegal armed groups, and its location in a geographic region that is strategic for war purposes leads to it being one of the most militarized areas of the country. The high levels of violence coincide with extremely high rates of poverty, despite Arauca’s abundance of natural resources.

Thousands of people attended a large public hearing in Saravena, Arauca on September 27. That Thursday, individuals were invited to speak out against the crimes against humanity that they either experienced firsthand or witnessed. It was also an opportunity for individuals to actually document, with the assistance of lawyers, those experiences that would otherwise remain only in their memory, separate from any judicial process. In a country with staggering levels of impunity, having an official record of a human rights violation is the first step in trying to diminish the invisibility that engulfs such abuses.

The Colombian armed forces committed 955 extrajudicial executions between July 2002 and June 2007, according an investigation carried out by a coalition of 11 Colombian human rights organizations and released in October. Of these killings only two have resulted in a judicial conviction.

The number of killings by Colombia’s armed forces represents a 65% increase over the previous five-year period from 1997 to 2002. Since the last five years represent the most intense period of US training for the Colombian military, the study raises serious questions about the reasons for such a dramatic hike in killing by the US military’s trainees. A number of the military units charged in the report with killing civilians have been “vetted” (approved) for US training and other assistance.