Episcopalians: a Struggling Church, a Troubled Land – Visit to Colombia Raises Questions

October 25, 2002
by Jan Nunley

BOGOTA, Colombia – News that a car bomb had exploded outside police headquarters in Bogota, Colombia, on October 22, killing two and wounding 36, saddened but did not surprise Richard Parkins, director of Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM). The killing has been going on for a long time in the countryside and the villages of Colombia. It's only now that cities such as Bogota and Medellin are feeling the pain.

Parkins was part of a delegation from the Standing Commission on Anglican and International Peace with Justice Concerns that went to Colombia this summer to view first-hand the effects of the conflict that has roots going back to the 1950s. The Latin America subcommittee of the commission included Jackie Batjer of Northwest Texas; the Rev. Theodora Brooks of New York; Fred Ellis of Dallas; and Bishop Gary Gloster of North Carolina. The group visited camps for "internally displaced persons," or IDPs, with the new bishop of Colombia, Francisco Duque-Gomez.

Gang warfare

It's not easy to explain what's happening in Colombia. What started 40 years ago as a battle of peasants and mostly Marxist "agrarian reformers" versus large landowners and their private armies has morphed into a struggle between equally fierce "narcotraficos." Both narco-guerrillas and narco-paramilitaries fight for the huge profits available from the processing of coca leaves and poppies into cocaine and heroin for export. It's a kind of gang warfare motivated by pure greed, according to Parkins, without a "neat moral or ethical polarity" of good guys versus bad guys.

Caught in the middle are Colombia's most vulnerable populations: members of some 85 indigenous groups ranging from the Achagua to the Zenu, and Afro-Colombians, descendants of Africans brought to Colombia in 1520 as slaves (slavery ended in 1851). Combined, they make up about 6 percent of Colombia's population, and their communally held heartland is at the epicenter of a vicious war between equally powerful drug lords – a war replete with threats, rape, kidnapping, mutilation, torture, massacres, and assassinations.

The result is an epidemic of forced homelessness. Colombia is second only to Sudan in having the highest number of IDPs in the world. Something like 2 million Colombians crowd refugee camps and the suburbs and barrios of cities like Medellin, Cartagena, Cali, and Bogota. Most of them are women and children.

Culturally tied to the land, the indigenous and Afro-Colombians nevertheless are terrified of going home, Parkins said. So they wait for meager government assistance that is almost always too little, too late. Many are afraid to register for assistance at all. Being desplazado is a stigma, and most of those displaced don't trust the government, suspecting that it will misuse the information it gathers. Some have left in such haste that they don't have essential documents. Others don't know where or how they can receive help, and since the government restricts assistance to the first month after displacement, it's often too late before they find out. And the help lasts only three months.

Small church with a big task

Churches and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) try to fill the gap, but the need is enormous – not just for food and temporary shelter, but for housing, services, and a way to make a living.

That's what Bishop Duque-Gomez is trying to do, but with painfully limited resources. On July 7, the day he was installed, Duque inherited a debt load of more than $200,000 incurred by his predecessor, Bernardo Merino-Botero, who served as bishop of Colombia since 1979. The bills include back taxes for buildings constructed without proper permits and assessments for pension funds for his clergy. Duque, representing Province 9 on the Episcopal Church's Executive Council, was heartened to receive an emergency appropriation of $150,000 from the council at its Jackson Hole meeting in October. But without a companion diocese relationship, Colombian Anglicans can only hope to break even in the midst of so much need.

The Episcopal Church in Colombia is small, a mix of rich and poor, many of whom have become disenchanted with their Roman Catholic upbringing and don't wish to join one of the many Pentecostal and charismatic groups in Latin America. Others are expatriate Anglicans from other countries – including the US ambassador to Colombia.

Parkins said Duque has "quite a few" fomrer Roman Catholic priests who are ready to move to the Episcopal Church, but the diocese does not have the resources to support them. Most of his clergy are hold jobs in secular society and some are not compensated at all. Recently the church filed for incorporation. "They understand that they have to create systems and structures" for financial accountability if they are to receive aid from US dioceses and agencies, Parkins said.

Duque wants the Episcopal Church to be relevant to Colombia's many social and economic problems, especially among the young. He's working to establish a transitional home for children of IDPs but, Parkins said, the bishop has to take "a strategic approach because they can't do everything." In addition, Duque must fly everywhere he goes for episcopal visitations – at $500 a trip – because travel by car runs the risk that he will be caught between warring factions.

Addressing the realities

Complicating Colombia's situation is an international aid program called "Plan Colombia," until recently presented as a means for the international community to support the peace process between the Colombian government and armed opposition groups. Plan Colombia currently draws $1.5 billion from the United States of America and some $2 billion from Japan, Canada, the European Union, Switzerland, other western governments and international financial institutions.

Primarily aimed at destroying coca, marijuana, and poppy crops through aerial fumigation using the herbicide "Roundup," the program has been criticized for exacerbating the displacement problem as residents flee disease, destruction of food crops and contamination of soil, livestock, and water caused by the spraying.

There are indications, however, that US-funded support for Plan Colombia is shifting to military training for counterinsurgency and protection of a 500-mile crude oil pipeline owned by Occidental Petroleum of Los Angeles. Special Forces troops are already set to arrive in Colombia next month. In a country whose human rights record is fraught with violations, Parkins said, many are uneasy about strengthening an already corrupt military with shadowy ties to paramilitary groups.

"Plan Colombia doesn't address the realities of Colombia – its education and health care needs, its poverty," Parkins said. "Unless that's a priority, all the other stuff won't make a difference."

An Executive Council resolution, passed at the Wyoming meeting, called for the Episcopal Church to urge the US government to work for a negotiated peace and protection of human rights in Colombia, support for humanitarian and development assistance and aid to IDPs.

Episcopal News Service