Four Million Displaced in Colombia

Each day last year nearly 1,500 Colombians were violently forced from their homes and some indigenous groups are facing extinction. Colombia has approximately 4 million Internally Displaced People, more than any country in the world, including Sudan.

A Day of Prayer and Action is planned to bring attention to this humanitarian crisis and urge the Obama administration to change U.S. policy in Colombia.

• Sunday, April 19^th, churches around the world will pray for peace in Colombia.
• Monday, April 20^th, people in a half-dozen cities across the U.S. will publicly present 4,000 paper cut-out dolls to their congressional representatives. Each doll represents 1,000 of Colombia’s four million internally displaced persons.

Caused by conflict between the military and guerilla forces, violent displacement is fueled by cocaine production and the drug trade. Over 9 years and $6 billion after the U.S. launched “Plan Colombia” to thwart the drug trade and quell violence, little has changed and the escalating crisis is driving many Colombians from their homes.

U.S. policy on drugs in Colombia focuses on eradicating poor farmers’ crops in rural ungoverned areas. The spraying of herbicides, largely financed by the U.S., has left many small farmers desperate and has done little to eradicate coca and poppy production. Would it be more effective to provide economic opportunities and food security?

Because of the amount of aid the U.S. gives Colombia, we are in a unique position to influence events in the country by shifting our current policies. The U.S. can:

• Actively support overtures for peace and expansion of the government’s civilian presence in the countryside;
  
• Address poverty and inequality in rural zones and restructure the Colombian aid package to strengthen civilian government, promote alternative development programs, and expand access to justice for rural civilians;
  
• Insist that the Colombian government dismantle paramilitary networks and that the military respect the distinction between combatants and civilians;
  
• Urge the Colombian government to insist on the return of land illegally held by demobilized ex-combatants;
  
• Stop paying for the inhumane and disastrously ineffective aerial herbicide spray program to eradicate cocaine in Colombia.
  

In addition, any trade agreements should protect the livelihoods of Colombia’s small farmers and make reduction of poverty a central goal, thus ensuring that the agreement will not undermine policy goals, such as reducing small farmers’ dependence on coca and poppy crops, helping the government establish better governance in the countryside and ending conflict.

How has U.S. Policy in Colombia contributed to this humanitarian crisis? What steps can we take to end the conflict and create lasting security for its people?