LOUISVILLE —
Church World Service
(CWS) has launched a letter-writing campaign in defense of a Mennonite
pastor the Colombian government reportedly 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 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.” |
