Many religious leaders are increasingly concerned about U.S. policy towards Colombia.
Yet reports from the United Nations, the U.S. Department of State, independent human rights organizations, and Colombian judicial authorities point to continuing ties between the Colombian security forces and brutal paramilitary groups responsible for massacres, assassinations of community leaders and human rights defenders, and over 70 percent of Colombia's human rights abuses. Colombia's internal conflict has produced 1.6 million internal displaced persons, more than Kosovo or East Timor, and an increasing number of refugees fleeing to Panama and Venezuela. In February, six people from the UCC's Central Atlantic and Connecticut Conferences went to Colombia as part of a three-way partnership between the two conferences and the Mennonite Church in Colombia. We have to dig deep to find the faith, the community, the commitment to keep opposing war and building peace. It is a country that does not have a good reputation.