A fantastic new video from Witness for Peace...
Shoveling Water from Witness For Peace on Vimeo.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Pastor Still Missing - Urgent Action Requested
“Rouse yourself, rouse yourself! Stand up...” (Isaiah 51:17a)
A Pastor Disappears
I first heard of Idia and her missing husband, Pastor William Reyes – of the Light and Truth Interamerican Church of Maicao, La Guajira, on the morning of September 27th a little more than 24 hours after the pastor disappeared on a rural Colombian highway. I was roused by an early morning phone call from the National Coordinator of the Peace Commission of the Evangelical Council of Colombia (CEDECOL), with whom I work; “A pastor has been disappeared. We need to tell the international family of faith; we need them to take action,” he told me as I mentally refocused my energy on this new pressing task. We put out a call for urgent action the next day, asking the international community to contact the Colombian Attorney General’s office as well as the Governor of La Guajira – the northwestern province where Pastor Reyes had previously lived.
Unfortunately, Colombia continues to be a dangerous place to follow the Prince of Peace. In 2007 the Documentation Program of Justapaz and the CEDECOL Peace Commission documented 324 violations against church members. Colombia has over 4 million internally displaced persons – more than any other country – and 1,500 more are forced from their homes every day. Approximately 3,000 people die every year because of the violence.
Pastor Reyes ministered in a highly conflictive area of northern Colombia on the border with Venezuela where leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, Colombian military and police, narco-traffickers and smugglers make for a dizzying context of lawlessness, extortion and violence. When Pastor Reyes did not return home on the evening of September 25th, it was anybody’s guess as to who may have taken him. Both the local pastor’s association and his family had been targets of extortion requests and multiple death threats in the months prior to his disappearance; such are the costs of being a leader, religious or secular, in Maicao.
When I first met with Idia three weeks later I came away impressed with her strength. She spoke of her gratitude for church members around the world who had responded to the alert and urged the Colombian government to investigate her husband’s disappearance. She shared that she found comfort in the words of Isaiah 51, and spoke of her faith that her husband was still alive. Was her mentioning of verse twelve an indication she knew this might no longer be the case? I am he who comforts you; why then are you afraid of a mere mortal who must die, a human being who fades like grass, Isaiah 51:12.
New Threats
Things took a turn for the worse in January of this year. On January 15, 2009, an unidentified man came to the church and asked for Idia. When the church receptionist told him she wasn’t there, he asked for her address and cell phone number, which she also refused to give him. He stated that it was “In [Mrs. Miranda’s] best interest to get in touch with him, than for him to have to find her”—hardly a veiled threat.
On January 21, 2009, Mrs. Miranda’s eldest daughter (Luz Nelly, age 16) was approached by an unidentified man on the street who told her if she wanted to see her dad she should come with him. When he attempted to grab her by the arm Luz Nelly fled. On February 19, armed men entered another Christian church, just a few blocks from the Light and Truth Church, and forcibly removed a female parishioner who has not been seen since.
When Idia shared these disturbing new developments with me, she broke down and cried, “I wanted to stay... but this changes everything. They tried to take my daughter! They can torment me, but I can´t bear the harassment of my children. If something were to happen to them… I want to leave.”
No Progress
Unfortunately not much has changed over the past six months. Despite our repeated efforts, the Colombian Attorney General’s Office still reports no progress in investigating Pastor Reyes disappearance. As of our last communication, an investigator still had not been assigned to the case.
As the six-month anniversary of Pastor Reyes’ disappearance draws near we’re asking for your help once again. Please see the urgent action request below.
Just as the words of Isaiah 51 comfort Idia, may they challenge us.
“Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness, you that seek the Lord... Rouse yourself, rouse yourself! Stand up...” (Isaiah 51:1a, 17a).
Urgent Action
Commission for Restoration, Life and Peace and Justapaz
On Thursday, September 25, at 10:00am Pastor William Reyes departed Valledupar, Cesar, for his home in Maicao, La Guajira. He never arrived and has not been heard from since.
On Saturday, October 4 2008, thousands of Maicao residents marched through the streets of Maicao calling for Pastor Reyes’ safe return. After the march, Pastor Reyes’ identification documents were found in a wallet that had been left just inside the Light and Truth Church.
On Thursday, January 15, 2009, an unidentified man came to the church and asked for Mrs. Miranda. When he was told she wasn’t there, he asked for her address and cell phone number, which were also not given to him. He stated that it was “In [Mrs. Miranda’s] best interest to get in touch with him, than for him to have to find her.”
After over five months of hearing nothing regarding her husband’s case and the renewed threats, Mrs. Miranda fears for her family’s safety. Despite repeated attempts, we have yet to receive report of any progress in investigating Pastor Reyes’ disappearance from the Colombian Attorney General’s office.
Ask that the Attorney General:
• Ensure a timely investigation into Pastor William Reyes’ disappearance.
• Communicate the status of their investigations to Ricardo Esquivia (National Coordinator of the Commission for Restoration, Life and Peace) and Jenny Neme (Director of Justapaz).
• For the safety of Pastor William Reyes and his family.
• For the safety of the members of the Fraternity of Evangelical Pastors of Maicao.
• Repentance of the material and intellectual authors of the crimes.
Fiscalía General de la Nación
Dr. Mario Iguarán
Diagonal 22 B No.52-01, Fax: (+571)570-2000
Bogotá D.C. Colombia
E-mail: luzhelena.morales@fiscalia.gov.co
I am writing to express my deep concern for the safety of Pastor William Reyes, his family and the members of the Fraternity of Evangelical Ministers of Maicao (Fraternidad de Ministros Evangélicos de Maicao - FRAMEM). Pastor Reyes pastors the Light and Truth Church (Iglesia Luz y Verdad de la denominación Iglesia Evangélica Interamericana de Colombia) of Maicao and is a member of FRAMEM – which has received repeated threats from illegal armed groups since March of last year.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Urgent Action: Pastor William Reyes Disappeared
Commission for Restoration, Life and Peace and Justapaz
Urgent Action
Human rights violations of church people, and of the civilian population at large, are ongoing in
We ask you to send letters to:
- Express your concern;
- Request government action to locate Pastor Reyes and
- Solicit protection for Pastor Reyes’s family and the members of FRAME.
- Carry out a timely investigation and take the necessary steps to bring to justice both the material and intellectual authors of William’s disappearance.
- Carry out a timely investigation and take the necessary steps to bring to justice those responsible for the threats against FRAME.
- Well-being of Pastor William Reyes and his family.
- Safety of the members of the Fraternity of Evangelical Pastors of Maicao.
- Wisdom in discerning next steps in the midst of violence and a politically adverse climate.
- Recognition of the error of their ways, repentance and reparations of damage committed on the part of the responsible parties.
--------------------------------
We ask that you take all steps necessary to locate Pastor Reyes and to protect his family and the members of FRAME. We also ask that you ensure swift and thorough investigations of the threats against FRAME. Those responsible should be held accountable for their crimes.
--------------------------------
Fiscal General (Attorney General)
Mario Iguaran
Fax: 011-571-570-2000 ext. 2017
Email: denuncias@fiscalia.gov.co
Jorge Perez Bernier
Fax: 011-575-727-5007 (ask for fax)
Emails can be sent directly from here.
General Mario Montoya Uribe
Fax: 011-571-297-3107
Maria del Pilar Hurtado Afanador
Fax: 011-571-408-8400
Email: quejas@das.gov.co
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Yuby Oyola: I Only Worry about What God Thinks of Me
Just over a year ago, on July 9, 2007, I wrote about the tragic murder of pastors Joel Cruz and José Humberto Mendez. In the days following the murders, six families (all related to pastor Cruz) fled to the city of Pastor Daniel Vargas of the Protestant Peace Commission took me to visit with them. He had coordinated efforts to support these newly-displaced families, finding emergency, and then long-term housing for the families. Of the six families that initially displaced, three have decided to move to a town closer to the farm where they all used to live. “It’s still too dangerous for us to go back to our farm because the army has come in and are building a base near our farm, and the FARC are saying that we asked for the army’s presence... they could kill any of us for this,” stated Rosember, Joel’s brother. Those that have returned nearby have done so in the hopes of renting out the farmland to others and avoid losing the farm. They are afraid that it could be taken over by others, or expropriated by the state if it lies fallow for too long. Returning to the area with these tensions in the air is risky-business, but adapting to city life has been very hard on those who have stayed in Ibagué.
The three families lived in a cramped space in a peripheral neighborhood in Ibagué, the type of place where everyone is struggling just to get by. The women tried making and selling tamales for a while, but couldn’t sell enough most days to cover their costs. The men work sporadically as day laborers, usually in construction, sometimes they bring enough home to buy some groceries and pay a few bills, most days they don’t. Yuby’s sister in law is taking an industrial machinery technician course, and hopes to land a job in that area soon, if she can scrape together the 15 dollars she needs to buy the safety glasses that are required to finish the course. Yuby traveled to
It was clear that the family had rallied around Yuby and Lilly. Yuby’s brother spoke of their father's decision to leave the family farm he had lived on his whole life to make sure his daughter was safe. As he spoke, the father quietly wept in the corner. Yuby’s strength and determination, despite what she has lived through over the past year, was impressive. When I asked her about her desire to return to the countryside where her husband was killed she responded, “I don’t harbor any anger towards the men who killed Joel. I’d like to talk to them. I’m not afraid of them, because I haven’t done anything to them and I don’t owe them anything... Nor am I worried about people’s comments; I only worry about what God thinks of me.”
Friday, May 30, 2008
A Tale of Two Computers
"It seems to me outrageous that the computers of the guerrilla Raul Reyes can survive a Colombian military bombardment in a foreign country in the middle of the night while the computers of the paramilitaries can't survive an inspection by INPEC (prison authorities) in a maximum-security prison."Claudia Lopez, Colombian political analyst
[Full story]
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Colombian Churches Document Their Suffering and Their Hope
A few months ago the Peace Commission of the Protestant and Evangelical Council of Churches and Justapaz released the second edition of A Prophetic Call [pdf] which documents human rights abuses suffered by the protestant and evangelical churches in Colombia in 2006. Below is a short video presentation of the report.For far too long, protestant and evangelical Colombians, roughly 10% of the Colombian population, have been a nearly invisible minority. Courageously, they have begun to document their suffering as well as their hope-filled response to the violence in Colombia.
Monday, February 18, 2008
...Bono Too
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