Harassment of Colombian church workers intensifies

Law student arrested less than a month after Mejia asks for PC(USA) help

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE — Less than one month after Colombian church official Milton Mejia asked for U.S. accompaniment to help stave off harassment of church workers, a young law student has been arrested who staffs a human rights office on the Presbyterian Church in Colombia’s (PCC) campus.

      Military officers dressed in plain clothes arrested Maurico Avilez Alvarez, 24,on June 10. He is currently jailed and is accused of collaborating with the FARC, a guerrilla group, in a series of December bombings in downtown Barranquilla that injured 74 people.

      According to church officials, Avilez’ arrest is part of a government campaign to squash dissent by threatening civic leaders who oppose the security measures imposed by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s administration in its attempt to curb the violence that has ravaged Colombia for 50 years, spawning left- and right-wing insurgencies.

      The PCC says the charges are trumped up in order to stop Avilez’ human rights work, to scare his colleagues into silence and to end the church’s work with Colombia’s displaced persons.

      In recent speeches, Uribe has likened the work of union leaders, human rights activists and non-governmental organizations to terrorism, prompting the Colombian religious community to testify before the U.S. Congress that its democratically elected government is jeopardizing the lives of church workers.

      Warrants have been issued for the arrest of two other staffers — Guillermo Larios and Anton Castro — in the human rights office, an agency that is operated by an umbrella group of non-governmental organizations, including the PCC. The office is housed on the church’s Barranquilla campus.

      Avilez’ arrest is the latest in a string of detentions of those who frequent the campus of the North Coast Presbytery, located in Barranquilla, a seaport on the Caribbean. Eleven displaced men who’ve sought help from the presbytery to apply for government assistance and church revolving credit programs were arrested in mid-May. They are also accused of terrorism.

      All of the defendants, including Avilez, have been questioned about the work of the church and particularly the work of Mejia, the Presbyterian Church of Colombia’s executive secretary. The government threats are why Mejia asked the Presbyterian Church (USA) for accompaniment of human rights workers.

      The PCC learned that that its offices were under video surveillance by security forces when several defendants were shown the tapes during interrogations.

      The PCUSA is considering the PCC’s accompaniment request now. Mejia sent a formal job description last week to Maria Arroyo, the denomination’s liaison to Latin America. (Link to Risky Business)

      He said that the request is more urgent now than ever. “I think they are trying to find a connection between us and the FARC,” Mejia told the Presbyterian News Service shortly after Avilez’ arrest.

      The FARC is a powerful guerrilla group of approximately 17,000 fighters that controls more than 40 percent of Colombia. “As you can see, when the state security forces are asking about us, they have a goal in mind,” Mejia said. “This is where we need your solidarity.”

      Mejia said the church is suspect because it has opposed government excesses in rounding up accused terrorists, often using methods that undermine basic civil rights, including a massive network of paid informants assist both the police and the military in detaining increasing numbers of civilians.

      Often, according to Mejia, individuals are arrested amidst media hype, and are later released quietly when no evidence exists to support the charges.

      “The lawyers who are working with Maurico say there is no evidence for this accusation,” Mejia told the Presbyterian News Service. He said that he has known Avilez, who will soon finish law school, since he was a small boy.

      The church is suspect, according to Mejia, because gatherings on its campus cross the traditional social boundaries between Colombia’s poor and other classes. Poor farmers displaced by Colombia’s violence represent that social chasm like no other group.

      In its vocal opposition to human rights abuses, Mejia insisted, the church endorses democratic methods and rejects armed conflict.

      While the Colombian Embassy to the United States had no comment on this case, its press officer referred the Presbyterian News Service to the office of Francisco Santos, the vice president of Colombia. The office is closed today because of a national holiday.

      The PCC’s legal representative, the Rev. Jairo Barriga Jaraba, has told high-ranking military officers that the denomination will appear before the appropriate judicial authorities if the army will tell church officials what concrete accusations are spurring this apparent investigation of the church’s ministries.

      He protested the video surveillance of the church office and of repeated questioning of the arrested men about the denomination’s work, particularly the work of Mejia.

      According to the Information Network of the Americas, Uribe — whose father was killed by the FARC — has ties to right-wing self-defense groups dating back to his tenure as governor of the Colombian province of Antioquia.

      International human rights groups have identified links between right-wing paramilitaries, such as the AUC, and factions within the Colombian military. Currently the military is the recipient of a multi-billion-dollar aid package, developed by the Clinton administration and continued by the Bush government.