LAEN JANUARY-APRIL 2011

Latin American Ecumenical News January – April 2011 • No. 1

LAEN

Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence.

Proverb 12,17

Information Service of the Latin American Council of Churches

Bolstering ecumenical peace-building in Colombia

Cacarica, Colombia, is a community of returned displaced people (Sean Hawkey ACT Alliance).

February 26, 2011 (WCC)

A half century of civil conflict fuelled by drug money and corporate hegemony has left Colombia with tens of thousands dead and the second largest population of displaced people (approximately 4 million) in the world. It has also left a country and society aching for justice and peace.

Finding a peaceful alternative to this long-running conflict was the main motivation for the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) to approve a statement calling for an increase in ecumenical peace-building already taking place in the country.

According to the statement, “indigenous people, AfroColombians, farmers, human rights defenders, journalists and church and community leaders seeking land restitution and justice” become victims of incalculable cases of killings, threats, arbitrary arrests and detentions by public officials and nonstate actors are some of the most painful consequences of the conflict in Colombia.

“It is important to see this document connected to our focus on peace and justice, especially as we prepare for the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation” that will take place in Kingston, Jamaica in May, said the moderator of the Central Committee, Rev. Dr Walter Altmann from Brazil, reflecting on the context of the statement’s approval in the life of the WCC. The intention of the statement is to bolster ongoing peace efforts there while it expresses “solidarity and prayers for the Colombian people, especially the families of those who

were killed, disappeared or displaced and expresses deep appreciation to all who have already made Colombian peace initiatives a priority”.

Statements from the WCC Central Committee provide a formal way for the WCC to express itself with a common voice “Churches are not some kind of a lobby group advocating for one or another issue,”said Rev. Aaro Rytkönen, the director of advocacy for Finn Church Aid and a Central Committee member. “Churches are the body of Christ speaking together for a common concern.”

“When there is an issue which is being felt by one or another church on the grassroots level, there is a need for churches together to raise that issue up also on the global platform,” he said.

As an expression of ecumenical support to the Colombian churches, civil society organizations and ecumenical development agencies working in the country, the Colombia statement urges the Colombian government to continue the necessary normative and policy changes “to ensure the investigation, prosecution and punishment” of those responsible “for human rights violations against civilians”.

The document also includes a request to the government of the United States for “an immediate cessation of ‘Plan Colombia’” The Plan Colombia initiative has funnelled millions of dollars into Colombia during the past decade, most going to the military and police and drug eradication.

Continue on page 10

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.

Democracy cannot be built on top of impunity: Adolfo Pérez Esquivel interviewed on Honduras Tegucigalpa, April 11, 2011 (FNRP)

The need to clarify human rights violations during the coup, break the circle of impunity in Honduras as well as the threat that the rupture of constitutional order signifies for Latin America and the role of the United States in this context are some of the themes addressed by the Nobel Peace Prize recipient and representative of the Commission of Truth, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, in an interview with Sirel during his visit to Honduras.

Why did you decide to accept the proposal to join the Commission of Truth that is investigating the crimes committed during the coup?

I am a survivor of a dictatorship and I know that a coup d’état always results in the violation of human rights as a consequence. I agreed to join this Commission because it is a space that is promoted by human rights organizations and society. We cannot accept one single coup d’état in Latin America and we need to work to strengthen democracy and protection of human rights as indivisible values.

Continue on page 9

Wave of water privatization over; Coverage challenge remains in Latin America

By Gonzalo Ortiz Quito, March 22, 2011 (IPS) ow that the wave of water privatization of the 1980s and 1990s has let up, the main challenge facing water utilities in Latin America is expanding coverage of high-quality water services.

In Mexico, water has always been publicly controlled. Each state has its own water system, in charge of supplies and billing.

But in other countries, World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank recommendations in the last two decades of the 20th century drove the privatization of water, whose management was handed over in concession to U.S. and European corporations.

However, the poor performance

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of these companies and soaring water rates rapidly triggered discontent.

One major turning point was the so-called “water war” in Cochabamba, Bolivia’s third-largest city, which broke out in early 2000 with protests against the private management of water services, which were run by the city until a few months earlier.

After receiving the concession from the government of Hugo Banzer (a former dictator in the 1970s who was elected president in 1997), Aguas del Tunari, a consortium led by U.S. water giant Bechtel, raised the minimum water rate to 20 dollars a month – in a country where the minimum wage is less than 100 dollars a month – and threatened to cut off service to cus-

tomers who did not pay.

A state of siege was declared, but despite the brutal crackdown on the protests in which one demonstrator

was killed and around 200 were injured, the uprising continued and the government was forced to cancel the contract.

Indigenous women hauling water in Chiapas, Mexico (Mauricio Ramos IPS)

Another watershed moment was 2006, when the government of Néstor Kirchner in Argentina revoked the concession granted to a consortium led by French utility group Suez, which supplied water and sewage treatment to Buenos Aires and the surrounding suburbs since 1993.

Kirchner cancelled the 30-year contract “for repeated failure by the consortium to meet its contractual obligations,” María Laura Lignini, the head of Espacio Aguas, a nongovernmental group that advocates universal access to water and sanitation as a human right, told IPS. To replace the consortium, the government set up the Agua y Saneamiento Argentinos (AySA) Continue on page 2

LATIN AMERICAN ECUMENICAL NEWS • JANUARY – APRIL 2011

2 Clai News

Latin American Council of Churches Youth Pastoral Ministry seeks to strengthen its work at the continental level over the next triennium Quito, March 23, 2011 (ALC) Meeting from March 2-5 in Quito, the Executive Secretariat of CLAI dealt with different matters having to do with the ecumenical organization’s programs, pastoral ministries, and regional secretariats. Facing the new triennium the Youth Pastoral Ministry plans to position itself as a strategic actor in the Latin American ecumenical youth presence, articulating with other ecumenical and social youth organizations.

The CLAI Youth Pastoral Ministry developed two central thematic axes in the last triennium (2008-2010): the formation of youth leadership for a culture of peace, and formation in sexual health and gender. These central

axes have been crossed by transverse axes, such as ecumenical formation, articulating with other networks, and the search for a greater commitment to transformation with the society.

Outgoing coordinator Nicolás Iglesias pointed out that “matters of high relevancy have been worked on in each national and Latin American context, such as the search for peace and conflict resolution, and a broader knowledge of sexual health rights and gender equity.”

In November 2010, a continental work was carried out for the developing of a “Guide for Youth Workshops on the Millennium Development Goals,” which will shortly be made available to the Latin American public.

new Continental The Coordinator of the CLAI Youth Pastoral Ministry is Nelson Fernando Celis Ángel. Celis was born in Bogotá, Colombia, is 32 years old, and a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Colombia (IELCO). A Basic Partner of the ACJ-YMCA, he has specialized in childhood culture and development, and is a theology graduate with studies in philosophy. Celis is also a professor at the National University of Colombia. Before assuming his new position as Continental Coordinator, he was responsible for the coordination of the Caribbean and Greater Colombia Region of the CLAI Youth Pastoral Ministry.

Four Mapuches are condemned and 13 absolved of terrorism charges in Chile

By Héctor Carrillo Concepcion, February 25, 2011 (ALC)

The Court of Justice of Cañete absolved the 13 indigenous Mapuches accused by the Office of the Prosecutor of the Eighth Region of Chile, of terrorist practices, in the struggle for their rights to their ancestral lands. Four other Mapuches accused continue under arrest. ast year a group of Mapuches carried out a 72 day hunger strike, in protest against their being imprisoned for more than two years without having been sentenced. The Court of Justice of Cañete ordered that 13 of the Mapuches were to be freed immediately. One of those placed in liberty declared that the Office of the Prosecutor did not have sufficient evidence to condemn

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LAEN Latin American Ecumenical News is a quarterly produced by the Communication Department of the Latin American Council of Churches Editor: Christopher Morck Translation: Geoff Reeson, Patricia Morck and Christopher Morck.

Layout and Editorial Coordination: Amparo Salazar Chacón Press service: ALC, Methodist News Service, ENI, Presbyterian News Press, ACNS, Zenit, Factiva, ACPress.

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Jubilant Mapuches in Chilean courtroom (ALC)

them.

The sentence is a hard setback for the prosecution. All of the Mapuches accused of provoking fires in the Lake Lleu Lleu area, burning cottages and trucks, during the period 2005-2008, were released.

They had been placed under preventive detainment for over two years, based on statements by “witnesses without a face” and confessions obtained under police torture.

Such practices were possible because of the application of the controversial Antiterrorist Law, denounced Norberto Parra, one of those absolved.

The spokesperson for those freed, Natividad Llanquileo, said that the continued imprisonment of the remaining four Mapuches accused is a clear manifestation of political persecution. “We will see what can be done with the situation of the four convicted,” she added.

The Coordinator of the Indigenous Pastoral Ministry of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) in Chile, Methodist pastor Hugo Marillán, was present for the handing down of the sentence absolving 13 Mapuches and condemning four others.

The law of Mother Earth:

Behind Bolivia’s historic bill

By Nick Buxton La Paz, April 29, 2011 (Upside Down World)

ndigenous and campesino movements in Bolivia are on the verge of pushing through one of the most radical environmental bills in global history. The "Mother Earth" law under debate in Bolivia's legislature will almost certainly be approved, as it has already been agreed to by the majority governing party, Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS).

The law draws deeply on indige-

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nous concepts that view nature as a sacred home, the Pachamama (Mother Earth) on which we intimately depend. As the law states, “Mother Earth is a living dynamic system made up of the undivided community of all living beings, who are all interconnected, interdependent and complementary, sharing a common destiny.”

The law would give nature legal rights, specifically the rights to life and regeneration, biodiversity, water, clean air, balance, and Continue on page 5

Wave of water privatization…

From page 1

company to serve greater Buenos Aires, home to nearly 10 million people.

In Ecuador, with the exception of two cities – Guayaquil and Machala – water is in the hands of 60 city governments.

Guayaquil, the most populous city in the country, located in the west, granted a concession for drinking water and sewage services to Interagua, a consortium headed by a Spanish company, Proactiva Medio Ambiente. In Machala, in the southwest, the services are run by Triple Oro, made up of the city government and the Empresa Sudamericana de Aguas Oriolsa.

The 2008 constitution establishes that water is a national good for public use, which can only be managed by public or community-run enterprises. The transition of the two companies in question to the new legal framework has not yet been resolved.

“Since the neoliberal government of Sixto Durán Ballén eliminated the Instituto Ecuatoriano de Obras Sanitarias (water and sewage utility) in 1992 as a step previous to the privatization of the service, this has been blocked by the resistance of the municipalities and the population itself,” Antonio Gaybor, the head of a civil society water rights movement, told IPS. Since a draft law discussed by Congress in 2010 sparked roadblocks and protests by indigenous people and peasant farmers, “the bill has basically been shelved,” Gaybor said.

Water, a constitutional right In July 2010, the United Nations declared access to water and sanitation a universal human right.

But several countries in Latin America had already enshrined the right to water in their constitutions.

The pioneer was Uruguay which, parallel to the national elections of 2004, held a referendum in which Uruguayans voted to reform the constitution to make water a national asset for the public good.

The constitution now declares that “water is a natural resource essential to life” and that access to piped water and sanitation services are “fundamental human rights“. It also guarantees civil society participation at every level of management of the country’s water resources.

The referendum was promoted by civil society groups, trade unions and the left-wing Broad Front coalition, which won the elections that year and is still governing the country.

In Ecuador, the constitution that went into force in 2008 states that water is a fundamental human right and a strategic national asset for public use “that is inalienable, permanent, cannot be embargoed and is essential for life.”

Bolivia’s 2009 constitution also enshrines access to safe, sufficient, and affordable water as a basic human right.

Expanding coverage Today, public water utilities in the region are making enormous efforts to live up to these provisions.

But the example of Cochabamba illustrates how some victories have

been wasted. In that highlands city, nearly 50 percent of the population still has no running water, the poor must purchase water from tanker trucks at abusive prices, and the municipal water company is heavily indebted, due to cronyism and corruption.

In Buenos Aires, meanwhile, AySA is working to expand the water and sanitation grid, with the target of reaching universal coverage by 2020. Currently coverage of piped water stands at 87 percent and sanitation at 64 percent of the 9.7 million people in the greater Buenos Aires area.

Major public works are underway, like the Juan Manuel de Rosas water treatment plant, the Del Bicentenario sewage treatment plant and the Virrey del Pino reverse osmosis plant, in the suburbs of Buenos Aires.

In Uruguay, the companies affected by the constitutional reform were the local branches of the Spanish firms Uragua and Aguas de la Costa, which provided water supplies in the southeastern province of Maldonado, and had racked up complaints for poor service and high rates.

“Under pressure to enforce the constitutional reform and because Uragua had failed to live up to its contractual obligations, OSE (the state water company) decided to revoke the contract,” Adriana Preziosi, a technical consultant to the utility’s management, told IPS. Since the Aguas de la Costa contract does not expire until 2018, the state gained control over the service by becoming the majority shareholder.

Uruguay has achieved universal coverage of access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

In Ecuador, coverage of potable water is 96 percent in urban areas and 74 percent in rural areas.

But Ecuador and other countries in the region have two problems: water supplies are intermittent in many urban areas, and coverage levels and quality vary widely between rich and poor sectors.

In Mexico, 10 percent of the population has no piped water supply and 13.6 percent lacks sanitation, according to Conagua, the national water authority.

The biggest challenge facing public water companies is bringing high-quality water services to slums and dispersed rural populations.

In addition, water sources are often polluted, and there is competition for water supplies among different sectors, such as hydroelectric plants.

Technological achievements have also been shared in the region: compact water treatment units developed by the OSE utility in Uruguay have been installed in Quito and other cities in Ecuador.

The treatment units, used in eight other Latin American countries, the United States, the Democratic Republic of Congo and India, “are of excellent quality, and helped us resolve emerging problems,” Jorge Ribera, former operations manager at the Quito municipal water utility, told IPS. With additional reporting by Raúl Pierri in Montevideo, Marcela Valente in Buenos Aires and Emilio Godoy in Mexico City.

Source: Inter Press Service News Agency, IPS http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54935

Clai News 3

By José Aurelio Paz Matanzas, February 7, 2011 (ALC)

One of the most significant agreements at the recently concluded meeting of the Cuba National Table of CLAI held in Matanzas is that of strengthening and supporting the work being carried out in the Area of Diaconal Service of the Council of Churches of Cuba (CIC), and so contributing to the purposes of ACT Alliance.

With the presence of the Reverend Nilton Giese begin_of_the_skype_highlightingend_of_the_skype_highlighting, General Secretary of CLAI, the gathering held at the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Matanzas (SET) looked at the work of the different organizations and Cuban ecumenical centers, pointing out the priorities of both CLAI and the World Council of Churches (WCC) for the next triennium, and set out policies for cooperation between the CLAI Cuba National Table and ACT Alliance, as a strategic form of helping to bring about a more effective witness.

Presided over by María Yi Reina, Coordinator of the Cuba National Table, the meeting brought together leaders from more than a dozen churches and representatives of ecumenical centers, and had as the axis

La Paz, January 21, 2011 (WCC)

The youth of the historical churches in El Salvador, gathered together in FECLAI, expressed their satisfaction in San Salvador, as the national government, through the Ministry of Justice, validated the methodology “Let Us Look for Peace,” presented as an alternative for the fostering of a culture of peace.

This methodology consists of a series of workshops. It is designed for children and youth of the different institutions that want to adopt it, and the proposal is based on discussing matters related to peace in the family, peace in the community, peace

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ome 40 theologians, most of them indigenous and representing different regions of the world, met in La Paz, Bolivia to share their various experiences and theological reflections.

This consultation was a follow-up to the world indigenous consultations called by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Baguio, the Philippines in 2008 and Geneva, Switzerland in 2009.

At the same time this event was unique in being the first of its kind as a “coming together” of Indigenous Peoples‘ spiritual and theological resources with representatives of two major commissions of the WCC, the Commission of Faith and Order and the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME). The goal was to assert that the integrity of life is pivotal to all ecumenical endeavours.

“It is a valuable effort for the indigenous processes of re-constitution of the indigenous nations and the reaffirmation of their spiritual values,” stated Abraham Colque Jimenez, principal of the Andean Ecumenical Higher Institute of Theology (ISEAT).

“The interaction of these three programs of the WCC is a response to the mandate of the WCC Assembly in Porto Alegre in 2006, which called for the fellowship of churches to be informed by indigenous wisdom and theologies,” said María Chávez Quispe, who coordinates the WCC Indigenous Peoples program.

“We expect to open new horizons for the theological dialogue within the churches,” she said.

“But also, we expect to begin a process of dialogue which enables us to respond in a very creative way to the overlapping crises that this world is facing, especially the indigenous communities.”

The consultation facilitated a process of listening and learning about the distinctive indigenous spiritual traditions and resources,

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A group of the participants at the recently concluded CLAI Cuba National Table held in Matanzas (ALC)

of its agenda the current analysis of the economic and political situation of the island nation, so that the strategies correspond within the context of the new reality, as well as with the growth of the Cuban churches.

A detailed analysis of the work and respective contributions of the CIC, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Center, and that of the Christian Center for Reflection and Dialogue was done, as well as of the Evangelical Theological Seminary.

The Forum of Theological and Ecumenical Education was likewise analyzed.

For their part, members of the Area of Diaconal Service of the Council of Churches of Cuba and its Program of Emergency and Humanitarian Aid presented a report on the achievements made possible in the country thanks to the support of ACT since 2001; since becoming a full member in 2004; and, at the pre-

sent time, before the coalition that gave rise to ACT Alliance, of which the Cuban organization has formed a part since its own foundation last year.

The General Secretary of CLAI said that among the purposes of the organization he represents is that of supporting partner organizations such as the Council of Churches of Cuba, and the projects of churches, “when they are new initiatives with an ecumenical opening. Much of ecumenism is made through sharing experiences, and for that reason we share how it is done in other places and how it is done here as well. The ecumenism that we are developing in Latin America is, basically, a practical ecumenism; it is a base ecumenism; coming together around very concrete matters.”

Aymara Cepeda contributed to this news story.

Youth of historical churches in El Salvador offer a methodology for the prevention of violence Susana Barrera San Salvador, February 9, 2011 (ALC)

Indigenous theologians meeting in La Paz, Bolivia, “affirm spiritualities of life”

with Creation, and peace in difficult moments,” explained Carmen Díaz, representative of FECLAI-Youth.

The Central American country of El Salvador, with 5.7 million inhabitants, is one of the most violent nations in the world according to the United Nations.

Police statistics point out that between 11 to 13 murders are committed daily. The majority of the victims are young men.

“We should recover the value of life, we should reconstruct our fabric and this methodology helps us,” said Bishop Martín Barahona of the Anglican Church, who was present at the showing of the methodology.

“The methodology has its theological base in and defines peace as the seeking of the well-being of all, promoting health, and the liberation from injustice. In

Hebrew the word peace is ‘shalom,’ and this is related to a broad concept of integral wellbeing that includes all the dimensions of the person’s life,” detailed Díaz.

The youth of the historical churches, in addition to an attention-calling street activity, insisted that with this methodology they want to contribute to the building of peace, beginning with reflection and concrete actions that promote a true culture in that way.

Also, the methodology will allow the sharing of tools to make it possible that boys and girls and young people, within their families, churches, schools and communities, know the peace that Jesus gives and contribute alternatives that favor the prevention of violence.

by focusing on peoples’ visions of and the capacities to affirm and safeguard life in all its forms.

The group explored ways in which they can strengthen dialogue, contribute to and learn through conversations with partners from the Commission on Faith and Order and the CWME as part of ongoing efforts to discern the content and character of the ecumenical movement in the 21st century.

The consultation hopes to contribute to reflections on the Faith and Order document “Called to be one church” and CWME’s work on “transformative spirituality” towards a new statement on mission to be presented at the next WCC Assembly in 2013.

The gathering took place in the context of the millenary cultures of La Paz’s surrounding Andes and inspired by the mystic rituals of the Aymara people. The international group reflected on the similarities and differences of their spiritual traditions in order to affirm the valuable gift of indigenous spirituality to the church and to enrich the ongoing reflections of the WCC commissions.

Another aim of the gathering was to explore the indigenous traditions of spiritual expression (narratives, symbolism, songs, rituals, textiles etc.) in order to strengthen theological languages that provide an alternative to western civilization’s fundamentally Hellenic rationality which is the usual basis for official and mainstream theological reflections.

The consultation was convened by the WCC Indigenous Peoples program, in partnership with local ecumenical organizations such as the ISEAT, the Indigenous Peoples pastoral office of the Latin American Council of Churches and the Ecumenical Community of Theological Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (CETELA).

Source: World Council of Churches, WCC: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/indigenous-theologians-me.html

At the VI Continental Gathering of Indigenous Theology of Abya Yala, December 2009 (WCC)

LATIN AMERICAN ECUMENICAL NEWS • JANUARY – APRIL 2011

Cuban National Table of the Latin American Council of Churches commits to strengthening the diaconal work of ACT Alliance

LATIN AMERICAN ECUMENICAL NEWS • JANUARY – APRIL 2011

4 Church and Society

Letter by North West Lower Michigan Lutheran Synod Bishop following Honduras visit Tegucigalpa, March 31, 2011 (ELCA) Dear Friends in Christ, or the “Iglesia Cristiana Luterana en Honduras” (ICLH), our companion church in Honduras and a church of the poor, this is a time of crisis.

Prior to the coup on June 28, 2009, violence and insecurity had already reached alarming levels.

Following the coup, the situation worsened and subsequent events have exposed injustice and corruption in the current socioeconomic system. Everything has been deteriorating for the church, except their faith in God and their love for one another.

Violence is a real and present danger for the pastors, national staff, local pastoral teams and members of every ICLH congregation or mission point, without exception. This grim reality is especially true for our brothers and sisters of “El Buen Pastor” congregation in San Pedro Sula where they or their family members have been threatened, raped and murdered, bringing overwhelming grief to families and the disintegration of an entire community.

But the same tragic acts of violence that have terrorized the La Union neighborhood in San Pedro Sula occur on a daily basis in other communities where the ICLH is present. Throughout Honduras, strife is fueled by confrontations between armed groups vying for territorial control, organized drug trafficking, and police and judicial corruption.

Honduras is wracked with systemic poverty, high unemployment and rising prices for food and transportation. Rising social discontent is being suppressed through new laws that perpetuate an unjust economic system and criminalize peaceful protest, combined with repressive police actions. Every key sector of life in Honduras is threatened by these endemic problems The ability of the ICLH and other churches to continue their diaconal ministry is at risk. In a late-night vote in November 2010, the National Legislative Assembly passed a new law (Decree 185-2010) that obligates the ICLH, and all churches other than the Roman Catholic Church, to join and pay dues to a government-sanctioned confederation of churches. The law is seen as a way of controlling churches that work for social justice and could preclude these churches from advocating for human rights.

Sometimes God just calls you to go.

From March 20-24, 2011, a delegation from the North/West Lower Michigan Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) visited Honduras. God’s call, we felt, compelled us to be with the ICLH and to listen to their anguish in the face of this deepening crisis.

Each day we encountered faith and a dogged determination, a convic-

Methodist Church in Uruguay rejects lowering of age for criminal responsibility, reaffirming social responsibility Montevideo, April 11, 2011 (ALC)

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Iglesia Buen Pastor, ICLH (ELCA)

tion to remain steadfast in their witness.

During our visit, public school teachers from around the country came to the capital city of Tegucigalpa to protest. In part, they were protesting the unauthorized withdrawal of millions of dollars from their pension fund in the days following the June 2009 coup. To date, the current government has shown little political will or interest in following up on these accusations.

Furthermore, the government is working to pass a new law that would fundamentally undermine an already beleaguered public education system. The tension was heightened by the March 18 death of a protesting teacher who was knocked unconscious by a tear gas canister and run over by a car.

Public education is one of the few remaining institutions not completely controlled by a handful of powerful men and women, many related to each other, who exert extraordinary influence over the country’s economic and political life including industry, banking, commerce, the media, the distribution of essential goods and services, and the government itself.

For all of us, it was hard to hear about what is and about what seems to be coming.

On more than one occasion, we heard people express concerns about the re-militarization of Honduran society and the possibility of civil war. We heard concern that Honduras is on the verge of becoming a “failed state,” because of the government’s inability to honor and protect the human rights of its citizens. We heard that no one is safe, and that society in general no longer trusts the police to guarantee public safety.

Yet hope is stronger than all these expressions of evil. The laity of the ICLH live out the “priesthood of all believers.” They articulate and practice the theology of the cross as they accompany people in their daily life struggles. In the midst of these struggles, we witnessed how they resist evil with their God-given kindness, laughter and camaraderie. In the words of the apostle Paul: “We are afflicted in every way,

but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10) We traveled to Honduras because we were worried about our ICLH sisters and brothers. We left no less fearful for their physical wellbeing but inspired by their conviction, by the hope within them that will not die.

Having witnessed these events and heard their testimonies, we issue an urgent call to all who read this message, especially Lutherans in our own country and members of Lutheran churches elsewhere in the world, to join with us in the following actions: that we, in the spirit of Isaiah 58, join with our brothers and sisters of the ICLH in a day of prayer and fasting on Sunday, May 29 that we pray with thanksgiving for the courageous witness of the ICLH, other Honduran churches and human rights organizations who proclaim, at significant personal risk, God´s regard for the poor that we also pray, in the spirit of I Timothy 2, for those in power who are called to protect the rights of the most vulnerable members of society that we educate ourselves about the crisis in Honduras and its root causes, guided by the information that we receive from the ICLH and its ecumenical partners that we express our concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation to our respective governmental leaders, in meetings and in writing, so that they better understand the true magnitude of the social conflict in the country that we continue to accompany the ICLH in our prayers and with our presence in a spirit of gentleness, humility and diligent followup Sometimes God just calls you to go – and to act.

Yours in Christ, Bishop John Schleicher North/West Lower Michigan Synod Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)

In the light of the social debate on security and a project to lower the age for criminal responsibility as a measure that would supposedly provide a solution to insecurity, the Methodist Church in Uruguay (IMU) has released a public statement signed by its President, Pastor Raúl Sosa. he statement points out that the concern over security is ever increasing in Uruguay, and undoubtedly this demand is not only legitimate but also, absolutely necessary, so as to be able to bring about a healthy social coexistence, But, it warns: “We need to be very alert so that that desire for greater security does not turn against us, ending up generating a perverse circle of violence that leads us to arm ourselves in self-defense, setting us against each other under the logic of fear, suspicion and prejudice, or the looking for ‘expiatory goats,’ that unfailingly will be found in the places of the greatest social vulnerability, so as to deposit on them the most negative loads and feelings present in society.”

With regard to the initiative of reforming the Constitution and lowering the age for criminal responsibility to 16, the statement asks: “Would we not in that way be falling into a double social

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Pastor Raúl Sosa, President, Methodist Church in Uruguay (IMU)

discourse, where at the same time that we place the children and adolescent offenders in the focus of our condemnation, we show ourselves definitely unable to overcome a law that established the expiration of the punitive pretense of the State having to do with crimes against humanity?”

The Methodist statement considers the reaffirming of the Convention of the Rights of Children as being fundamental, and which lays down that no minor under 18 years can be tried under the same set of laws that apply for adults. It also sets out that it is necessary to reaffirm the Code of Children and Adolescents, by virtue of which minors can be charged and tried for grave crimes according to the legal precepts established in that code.

It continues with the challenge: “With regard to the principle of responsibility, in the same way that the Code of Children and Adolescents demands the responsibility of those over 13 years of age for their acts and behavior as offenders, society should also demand of itself a greater responsibility for children and adolescents.”

“At this time, in the context of the Bicentennial celebration, when we seek to strengthen the bases of our foundation, the challenge of Scripture becomes pressing: the restoring of mistreated children and the giving back to them of their condition of boys and girls, given that that is the greatest force of restoration of a society that aspires to reach greater justice, greater integration and inclusion, and greater security. The sustaining of our children, especially those that suffer the most, guaranteeing them their rights, is the best road toward assuring the life of all Uruguayans,” says the Methodist Church in Uruguay statement.

Church and Society 5

By Gonzalo Ortiz March 27, 2011 (IPS)

The appointment of an ultra-conservative priest as apostolic administrator of the diocese of Sucumbíos, in northeastern Ecuador, triggered open rebellion among a large proportion of the area’s Catholics, with the support of civil society organisations and even of President Rafael Correa himself. he crisis within the Catholic community, which is numerous and influential in this Amazonian province, has stirred up street demonstrations by detractors and partisans of Rafael Ibarguren Schindler, a leading member of the Heralds of the Gospel, a papallyapproved far-right Catholic order.

The priest, born in Argentina in 1952 and ordained in 2005, was appointed apostolic vicar of San Miguel de Sucumbíos on October 30, 2010, as a temporary replacement for outgoing bishop Gonzalo López Marañón, who was highly respected for the social projects he carried out locally for over 40 years until he resigned at 75, the mandatory retirement age under Church rules.

The Vatican’s decision added fresh controversy to the buzzing provincial capital, Nueva Loja, which is not only the center of the Ecuadorian oil industry but also a strategic crossover point for refugees and even undercover guerrillas from civil war-torn Colombia, as it is only 18 kilometers from the Colombian border.

The city had already drawn international attention because of the historic February 14 verdict by judge Nicolás Zambrano of the Sucumbíos Provincial Court, who

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Former Bishop of Sucumbíos, Ecuador, Gonzalo López Marañon (ISAMIS)

ordered multinational oil giant Chevron to pay 9.5 billion dollars for environmental damage, the largest fine ever imposed on an oil company for pollution. Both sides have appealed the decision.

The popular reaction against Ibarguren Schindler led President Correa, a self-declared “leftwing Catholic,” to say he might even veto the appointment, under a clause of the Modus Vivendi, the 1937 treaty between Ecuador and the Vatican that regulates relations between the Catholic Church and the State.

“In the months since the Heralds of the Gospel and the new administrator took over, they have shown that they are determined to wipe out the whole pastoral ministry that was built up over 40 years in Sucumbíos,” Maritza López, secretary of the ISAMIS Assembly, a body created by López Marañón which is being ignored by the new authorities, told IPS. The Assembly of the Church of San Miguel de Sucumbíos (ISAMIS) is made up of 120 delegates from base ecclesial communities, pastoral workers, members of missionary orders, diocesan clergy and provincial social organizations. It operates as a sort of democratic parliament of the region’s Catholic community.

“The founder of the Heralds was

an active member and secretary of the ultra-rightwing Tradition, Family and Property, an association formed (in Brazil) to oppose the left and defend private property against the agrarian reform that was making headway throughout Latin America in the 1960s,” said Maritza López.

In January, by an 80 percent majority, the ISAMIS Assembly voted to ask for Ibarguren Schindler’s resignation.

Since then, the controversy has grown steadily. Members of ISAMIS, who have been holding a vigil since January, started a hunger strike on Sunday, March 20 to demand the removal of the apostolic administrator. Meanwhile, Ibarguren Schindler and eight other priests of the Heralds order are seeking support from those who question the social projects promoted by Bishop López Marañóñ.

“One of the things they do is to go out and celebrate open-air masses for the oil companies, but they won’t agree to carry forward the pastoral plan that has already been approved, nor will they engage in dialogue with the ISAMIS Assembly,” Felisa de Moncayo told IPS. In contrast, Bishop López Marañón “was one of us, alongside us, and would subject new initiatives

Peoples’ Church priest and theologian José Comblin buried in North Eastern Paraibano March 30, 2011 (ALC)

According to his will, the Belgian born priest who died at age 88 in Salvador, Bahía, on March 27, was buried in the Santuário Pé, Ibiapina, in Santa Fé, Municipal District of Solânea, in north eastern rural Paraibano.

There his body will lay at rest, in the same North Eastern soil that received Father Ibiapina, Father Cícero, Margarida Maria Alves, Bishop Hélder Câmara,” wrote the President of the Conference of the Religious of Brazil, Father Edegard Silva Júnior.

Comblin, who had developed heart problems and used a pacemaker, was found dead sitting in his

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room after not appearing in chapel for the morning service.

José Comblin arrived in Brazil in 1958, in response to Pope XII’s call for voluntary priests to serve in regions with a shortage of clergy. He dedicated his life to the poor and to the peoples’ church, especially in Pernambuco, in Paraíba and in Bahía.

He worked with Bishop Hélder Câmara in Olinda and Recife, and was pursued by the military régime, detained and deported, in 1972, when returning from a trip to Europe.

José Comblin was part of the first group of the Theology of Liberation, and of the beginnings of the teams for the formation of seminarians in rural Pernambuco and Paraíba (1969), of the rural seminary of Talca, Chile (1978), and later in Paraíba, in Sierra Redonda (1981).

Those initiatives gave rise to the so

called Theology of the Hoe. He wrote dozens of books, among them “The Ideology of National Security: Military Power in Latin America“ (Río de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 1978).

José Comblin (ALC)

and appointments to discussion,” she said.

On March 9, Correa stressed that Ecuador is a secular state, which means it respects religious freedom.

But he rejected “wiping out the presence of the Discalced Carmelites in Sucumbíos, at the stroke of a pen, and handing over the province to the Heralds of the Gospel, against the opinion of the Catholic base communities.”

He was speaking at a ceremony in Quito where he decorated López Marañón for his distinguished work on behalf of the poor and his defence of human rights during his four decades as bishop of Sucumbíos, as well as his work in education, health and other areas.

The Discalced Carmelites, to which the former bishop of Sucumbíos belongs, has worked in the Amazon jungle region for decades. Among its members are some of Ecuador’s most distinguished progressive church leaders, such as Alberto Luna Tobar, who with others like Leonidas Proaño was actively committed to the cause of the poor in the country.

The president said the missionary work of López Marañón was a lasting contribution, and that he was one of those Christians who would give their life for the gospel. “He fought the oil companies in order to defend life in all its forms,” he said.

“We do not want futile confrontations or controversies, still less with the Bishops’ Conference, but I wish to tell you that the treaty regulating relations between the secular state of Ecuador and the Vatican permits us to veto the nomination of any bishop,” he said.

“This power has never been used; let us not be obliged to use it now. But if an absurd fundamentalism brings to our Amazonian province orders that emphasize ritual and moral fundamentalism, and wear medieval robes in the middle of the jungle, we will have to use the

power vested in us by the Modus Vivendi treaty,” he warned.

The “medieval robes” he referred to are the habits worn by the Heralds of the Gospel: knee-length black riding boots, a white cassock with a large brown scapular, bearing a half white, half red cross extending from neck to hem with arms in the shape of fleurs-de-lys. The order, recognized in 2001 by the Pope, lives by a military as well as a religious discipline.

The head of Ecuador’s Bishops’ Conference, Antonio Arregui, responded to the president’s words, indicating it would be a totally unheard-of precedent, in this day and age, for the state to interfere with the appointment of bishops.

Arregui, the archbishop of Guayaquil, said the Modus Vivendi expressly recognized that the appointment of bishops is the Pope’s prerogative.

In what was seen as a conciliatory move, the Vatican announced on March 19 the appointment of the Ecuadorian Bishop of Guaranda, Ángel Polibio Sánchez, as apostolic delegate in Sucumbíos, to represent the Vatican in legal matters and government relations.

“We are pleased by this development, but we would like to see the precise scope of this appointment,” said the interim Foreign Minister, Kintto Lucas.

He was well advised to be cautious, as it was later clarified that Ibarguren Schindler would not be withdrawn from his apostolic administrator position, and Sánchez’s appointment merely sought to place an Ecuadorian as representative to the Justice Ministry, which also deals with religion and has refused to formally register the appointment of Ibarguren Schindler.

Source: Inter Press Service News Agency, IPS http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55008

The law of Mother Earth…

From page 1

restoration. Bolivia's law mandates a fundamental ecological reorientation of Bolivia's economy and society, requiring all existing and future laws to adapt to the Mother Earth law and accept the ecological limits set by nature. It calls for public policy to be guided by Sumaj Kawsay (an indigenous concept meaning “living well,” or living in harmony with nature and people), rather than the current focus on producing more goods and stimulating consumption.

In practical terms, the law requires the government to transition from non-renewable to renewable energy; to develop new economic indicators that will assess the ecological impact of all economic activity; to carry out ecological audits of all private and state companies; to regulate and reduce greenhouse gas emissions; to

develop policies of food and renewable energy sovereignty; to research and invest resources in energy efficiency, ecological practices, and organic agriculture; and to require all companies and individuals to be accountable for environmental contamination with a duty to restore damaged environments.

The law will be backed up by a new Ministry of Mother Earth, an inter-Ministry Advisory Council, and an Ombudsman. Undarico Pinto, leader of the 3.5 millionstrong campesino movement CSUTCB, which helped draft the law, believes this legislation represents a turning point in Bolivian law: "Existing laws are not strong enough. This will make industry more transparent. It will allow people to regulate industry at national, regional, and local levels."

Source: Upside Down World http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3013-the-law-ofmother-earth-behind-bolivias-historic-bill-

LATIN AMERICAN ECUMENICAL NEWS • JANUARY – APRIL 2011

Catholics in Nueva Loja, Sucumbios, Ecuador demand removal of far-right bishop

LATIN AMERICAN ECUMENICAL NEWS • JANUARY – APRIL 2011

6 Church and Society

What is important is the neighbor, not the creed, says the National Council of Christian Churches of Brazil (CONIC), on the occasion of the Day of the Fight Against Religious Intolerance Brasilia, January 26, 2011 (ALC) n spite of the great transformations that humanity has brought about, it has not been able to overcome prejudices and intolerance, present in the globalized world under the guise of the combating of terrorism. In Brazil, the nation carries an enormous social and historical debt that generates class prejudice and racial discrimination.

The public statement by the National Council of Christian Churches of Brazil (CONIC) called on society and religions to celebrate the National Day of the Fight Against Religious Intolerance, held on January 21 in Brazil. “We are called to put into practice Jesus’ commandment of loving one’s neighbor as oneself,” says the statement, signed by the General Secretary of the national ecumenical organization, Rev. Luiz Alberto Barbosa. Respect of differences is fundamental, the statement emphasizes.

Human migration and the camps of refugees dispersed throughout the world reveal the crisis of the capitalist model, “which increases social inequality and tension between different cultures,” bringing about more prejudices and

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Displaced Awa Indians, Colombia (ACNUR CODHES)

Sobering facts: Colombia’s displacement crisis in 2010

By Mariel Pérez April 26, 2011 (LAWG)

ast year, 280,041 Colombian civilians were forced to leave their homes, fleeing from the extreme violence of Colombia’s decadeslong conflict. This statistic is the centerpiece of a February Spanishlanguage report published by the Colombian human rights NGO CODHES, a group that has worked tirelessly for nearly two decades to shed light on the human rights crisis in Colombia. As CODHES’ report highlights, almost 33 percent of displaced civilians are forced to flee from zones that are a focus of “territorial consolidation,” the signature program of the Uribe administration that aimed to set up military control of areas of the countryside while also, at least in theory, expanding civilian government institutions.

Massacres, kidnappings, targeted assassinations, and death threats against civilians and human rights defenders continue to be the norm in these zones of territorial consolidation, forcing civilians to leave their homes and their livelihoods behind. From 1980 through July of 2010, 6,638,195 hectares of land were stolen from their rightful owners as a consequence of acts of violence committed by illegal armed actors. CODHES is quick to note that the provinces in which this land dispossession occurred coincide with the zones of “territorial consolidation.” These zones also coincide with national and international resource-extraction projects, including mining, oil palm

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cultivation, and the cultivation of illicit crops.

The 280,041 people who were displaced in 2010 are part the largest group of internally displaced persons in the world, some 5,195,620 people who have been forced off their land in Colombia since 1985. To put that into perspective, that number is 11.42 percent of the total population of Colombia. These numbers are much higher than the official statistics of a government that refuses to recognize some of the worst massacres and mass displacements that have occurred in the country. CODHES notes the particular vulnerability of indigenous and Afro Colombian communities, which have been consistently victimized by armed groups.

Alongside the millions of internally displaced people, 389,753 Colombians living outside the country are considered refugees.

In other words, nearly 12 percent of the Colombians living in the exterior were forced to flee their home country due to threats against their lives or well-being.

Making matters worse is the fact that paramilitary groups continue to threaten to silence anyone brave enough to struggle for justice and land restitution. CODHES calls on the government to protect those who are fighting for land rights, criticizes the impunity against victimizers, and calls on the government to strengthen the rule of law and punish those responsible for the massive displacement crisis in Colombia.

Source: Latin America Working Group, LAWG http://www.lawg.org/action-center/lawg-blog/69-general/861-soberingfacts-colombias-displacement-crisis-in-2010

People kill in the name of religion (ALC)

intolerance.

CONIC recalls that according to data of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), Brazilians practice more than 30 different religions. “Diversity is one of our greatest riches and we need to foster within society the peaceful coexistence of religious differences.”

The statement by the Council also recalls, however, that with colonization blacks were brought by force to Brazil as slave labor, where they had their values, culture and religion torn away from them. Jews,

fleeing the Inquisition in Europe, were forced to convert to Christianity and they adopted Brazil as their new homeland. Ever since “we have lived together with religious intolerance in our country.”

CONIC’s public call emphasizes that in the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus demonstrated that charity, the salvation of the soul, does not depend on the religious creed professed. “What is important is helping the neighbor, independently of whether or not he or she professes our religion.”

Panamanian Catholic Bishops Conference discusses issue of mining

By Julio A. Carles Panama City, January 27, 2011 (ALC) t its annual ordinary plenary assembly, the Panamanian Episcopal Conference (CEP) discussed the matter of mining, an issue that, along with deforestation, is the greatest threat to the environmental sustainability of the country.

The members of the conference coincided in that there are very weak laws controlling foreign investment and a slack regulation that does not guarantee that polluting substances, such as cyanide, are safely managed for the benefit of the health of the population.

Alida Spadafora, President of the National Association for the Conservation of Nature, pointed out that the draft bill which seeks to reform the Mineral Resources Code

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is a cause of concern to different sectors.

Spadafora coincided with the CEP when pointing out that the mechanisms for legitimate consultation that would allow the communities to know of the effects caused by mining have not yet been developed.

Meanwhile, the Vice-President of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela, said that the concessions for new extractive mining should be suspended, and that he has told this to President Ricardo Martinelli.

Varela added that the moratorium should last until such time as the benefits of the mining operations already in progress can be demonstrated to the population.

Varela’s statements follow the introduction of a legislative bill by President Martinelli in the National Assembly that would reform the Mining Code so as to foster mining

in the country.

Despite his position, Varela believes that the proposed reforms approved by the Cabinet Council are beneficial for the nation, because they will generate employment.

The bill has already been sent to the Trade Commission of the Assembly which is to set the agenda for consultations prior to formal discussion.

The text of the proposal establishes an increase in the terms of rent, bonuses and fines that the mining companies are to pay, and eliminates the current prohibition of other countries from exploiting those resources that are Panama’s.

In regard to the latter, Varela spoke of the interest on the part of financial agencies from Korea and Singapore in the mineral wealth of the isthmus.

Afro-descendants in Brazil ask that the churches include themes of black and indigenous cultures in Sunday Schools Sao Bernardo do Campo, April 6, 2011 (ALC) articipants in the 4th AfroChristian Gathering have suggested that churches include themes of black and indigenous cultures in Sunday Schools and in their theological formation programs, including the developing of liturgies

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that reflect the corporal, identity and cultural experiences of blacks and the indigenous, and the guaranteeing of spaces of visible participation for youth, gender equity, and ethnicity.

Participants from different Christian churches and experiences in the struggle for the defense of life and rights gathered together in the

Methodist University of São Paulo (UMESP) from April 1-3. Their purpose was to renew leaderships for the struggles and hopes of black people, to reflect on black youth as subjects of rights, and to assume public commitments.

The discussions and plenary session agreements were the basis for the preparation of a document,

through which the group commits to building strategies of dialogues and interventions with the intention of strengthening the actions in the area of human rights. It is a pro-active response to the declaration of the International Year of Youth and the International Year for People of African Descent.

The group has suggested that

biblical studies be offered that deal with the theme of diversity and the overcoming of intolerance, the organizing of open conferences, the sending of proposals to the II National Conference of Youth, and the strengthening of the campaigns against youth deaths.

Church and Society 7

April 1, 2011 (ALC)

As one of the results of the IV Forum of Sexual, Family and Religious Diversity held in the Diocese of Saltillo this week, the community of San Elredo will shortly be able to have an organization in Coahuila, integrating families that have daughters or sons with sexual preferences different from those recognized by the civil society of the country. he association, already created in other cities of Mexico, seeks to seriously involve the family and the Church as an institution, in the commitment to work for the eliminating of this cause of discrimination that has frequently led even to crime as a consequence of that phobia.

This week at the IV Forum of Sexual, Family and Religious Diversity held in the Diocese of Saltillo, a group of conferences and activities dedicated to informing and sensitizing the

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Bishop Mauricio Andrade, primate of the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil, and the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary-general of the Anglican Communion, have expressed their shock and sadness at the death of 12 students and the wounding of some 12 more by a gunman at a school near Rio de

Porto Alegre, March 31, 2011 (ALC) eligions in Brazil have a fundamental role to play in the recuperation of values that are essential for society, ones which have been lost along the wayside, says Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil Synod Pastor Altemir Labes, of the Northeast Gaúcho Synod, based in Estância Velha, 43 km from Porto Alegre.

“There can be no Christian commitment on our part without the determination to fight for peace, justice and the overcoming of violence,” said Labes in an interview with Marcelo Schneider, advisor to the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Peace, recalled Labes, is not just the absence of war. It includes all areas of human life, such as the overcoming of food shortage and relations between people. “The commitment that we have as churches, of working for a fair distribution of wealth, is one of the tools that can guarantee a decrease of violence,” he said.

Since 1985, Pastor Labes has been part of the Peace and Justice Service (SERPAJ) and is involved in processes for the building of peace and the affirming of non-

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Bishop Raúl Vera López celebrating mass with the LGBT community, Cohahuila, Mexico (El Diario de Coahuila)

Mexican society on the issue were held. According to its organizer, Noé Leonardo Ruiz, it was the first of its kind in the country having the backing of a diocese, in this case that of Saltillo, led by Bishop Raúl Vera López, and is a space open to the public in general to break the discriminatory myths surrounding the Lesbian and Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual community.

Ruiz also explained that the event also sought to create awareness of the promoting of a culture

of acceptance of that community, through the invited guests present from other states like Nuevo León, Durango and Chihuahua.

In addition, he pointed out that the forum is sustained through its own resources, despite the lack of institutional and public agencies support, because of the homophobia in an eminently traditionalist country, that needs to evolve toward a culture of equality, justice and respect for the rights of persons.

Episcopal Anglican Church officials express shock, sadness after school shooting in Brazil Brasilia, April 11, 2011 (ENS)

Churches are to be committed to the overcoming of violence, says Brazilian Lutheran pastor

Janeiro on April 7. heir statements were issued in separate releases April 8 by the Anglican Communion News Service.

A 23-year-old former student, armed with two revolvers, opened fire on students at Tasso da Silveira municipal school in Realengo, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, at the beginning of the school day on April 7, according to news

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Shooting tragedy at Tasso da Silveira municipal school, Realengo, Rio de Janeiro (ALC)

reports. The gunman killed himself after he was wounded by police.

“With great sadness we have been witnessing a day of tragedy in a school environment,” wrote Andrade, adding that it was “time for us to discuss our security system, especially the security in our public schools.”

“In this tragedy, people close and people far away are sorry and are united in pain with the parents of the 12 murdered children,” the bishop wrote. “We too, from the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil, are sorry and praying to God that he may comfort these families, wipe their tears and renew their hope in the resurrection.”

Kearon, who is visiting Brazil, wrote to Bishop Filadelfo Neto of the Rio de Janeiro diocese, “This is a shocking tragedy and my prayers are with the families of the young victims and all who are injured.”

Source: Episcopal News Service, ENS http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_127916_ENG_HTM.htm

violence in Brazil. The congregation of Estância Velha has adhered to the theme of the Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB) for 2011: “Peace in God’s Creation.”

The discussion of the theme led to the practice of the recycling of garbage, involving 15 communities in that undertaking. The collected material is sold to recycling plants in the area and the financial resources obtained in this way are used to subsidize social projects. “The great contribution that the church has to make is that of awareness raising, prompting discussions on these issues,” Labes pointed out.

Pastor Altemir (IECLB)

Labes,

IECLB

The Ecumenical Movement for Human Rights (MEDH) in Argentina summons the churches to commemorate the Day of Memory Buenos Aires, March 24, 2011 (ALC)

MEDH invited all who share the commitment to the present and future of the Argentinean people, to commemorate March 24 in a Space of Gathering, Memory and Reaffirmation of the militancy for Dignity and Rights. he convocation was held in the historical and symbolic May Square; with the churches carrying photographs of those persecuted and disappeared in the past and the present, along with the banners and flags of the faith communities.

The National Day of Memory for Truth and Justice commemorated the day in Argentina of remembrance of the deaths of civilians that occurred during the last military dictatorship that governed the country, self-proclaimed as being a Process of National Reorganization. It is commemorated annually, on the same

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day that - in 1976 - the coup d’etat overthrowing the constitutional government of María Estela Martínez de Perón took place, and which marked the beginning of the most aberrant military and genocidal dictatorship in Argentinean history.

MEDH was created in February of 1976, on the eve of the military dictatorship, and since then is one of the organizations for human rights traditionally recognized in Argentina. Its first liturgy for human rights was held in the Cathedral of Quilmes in 1976, and it is the entity of the churches expressly dedicated to human rights.

The churches that are members of MEDH are: the Argentinean Evangelical Methodist Church, the Evangelical Church of Río de la Plata, the Evangelical Church of the Disciples of Christ, the Waldensian Evangelical Church of Río de la Plata, the Association of The Church of God, the Argentinean Reformed Church, The United Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the Diocese of Quilmes, Viedma, Neuquén and Puerto Iguazú of the Catholic Church.

LATIN AMERICAN ECUMENICAL NEWS • JANUARY – APRIL 2011

Parents supporting sexual diversity form association in Coahuila, Mexico as a result of the IV Forum of Sexual, Family and Religious Diversity

LATIN AMERICAN ECUMENICAL NEWS • JANUARY – APRIL 2011

8 latin america and Environment

Brazil does not need poisons to maintain food production: Landless Workers Movement in Brazil leader João Pedro Stédile Brazil could give up its dubious rank as the world’s number one consumer of agrochemicals without decreasing the amount of food it produces for its own people, according to João Pedro Stédile, leader of the Landless Workers Movement (MST).

Rio de Janeiro, April 27, 2011 (Tierramérica)

n lands settled by small farmers as part of the agrarian reform process, a change of mentality is already underway towards food production in harmony with the environment, Stédile told Tierramérica.

For the last three consecutive years, Brazil, an agricultural giant, has occupied first place worldwide in the consumption of agricultural herbicides, fungicides and insecticides. It had risen to second place behind the United States in 2006, but took over the top spot in 2008 after a record soybean harvest.

A study by the German market research firm Kleffmann Group, commissioned by the National Association for Plant Protection, which represents agrochemical manufacturers, confirmed that Brazil is the world’s leading market for agrochemicals.

Over seven billion dollars were spent on these products in 2008, while the area of cultivated land decreased by two percent.

Nevertheless, the amount of chemical products used per farmer in Brazil is relatively small compared to other countries. In 2007, an average of 87.8 dollars per hectare were spent on agrochemicals in Brazil, compared to 196.7 dollars in France and 851 dollars in Japan.

The five biggest transnationals in this sector - BASF, Bayer, Syngenta, DuPont and Monsanto all have manufacturing plants in Brazil.

This situation has led the MST to broaden its focus beyond its original purpose of pushing for the effective implementation of agrarian reform. The organization currently represents some 20,000 members throughout Brazil, and works alongside 60,000 rural families in pressuring the government to distribute idle farmland and improve the conditions on those areas already settled by small family farmers. Stédile spoke with Tierramérica about the movement’s current concerns.

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TIERRAMÉRICA: It seems the MST is no longer just a protest movement and has moved on to address other areas, like protecting the environment and opposing the use of toxic agrochemicals.

MST flag present from the north to the south of Brazil (ALC)

JOÃO PEDRO STÉDILE: We have learned in the last 10 years that having land and producing food is not enough. It is important to produce healthy food. There has been a process of growing awareness within the movement itself.

We have begun to work on promoting the adoption of agro-ecological techniques to produce food in harmony with the environment.

Agronomists are trained under the model of the Green Revolution and the intensive use of poisons.

We have had to start from zero and work in cooperation with universities to create agronomy courses that adopt an agro-ecological approach.

Over the last few years there has been growing alarm around the world regarding the effects of toxic agrochemicals, and this was when Brazil became the country that uses the most agricultural poisons. Aside from the global alert, the National Cancer Institute announced that there are more than 40,000 new cases of stomach cancer every year, and in half of those cases it is fatal. The cause is contaminated food.

TIERRAMÉRICA: Are the rural workers’ settlements established through agrarian reform a means to reduce the use of agrochemicals?

JPS: There may be small farmers in some regions of the country who still use these chemicals.

However, the number of farmers in agrarian reform settlements using poisons would be insignificant.

It is entirely possible to maintain the same output of food produced for consumption in Brazil without using a single kilogram of poison.

There is enough scientific knowledge to stop using these poisons, and there is plenty of land and labor to grow food in Brazil.

This is one of the great contradictions of agribusiness. It is precisely on these large landholdings that it has been impossible to produce crops without poisons, because they have replaced human labor with machines, while family farms and agrarian reform settlements enjoy this advantage.

TIERRAMÉRICA: Can agrarian reform settlements and small farmers help counteract the new rise in food prices?

JPS: Yes, because prices have risen in the supermarkets due to the monopoly held by companies that control the world agricultural market.

In Brazil, our agricultural production increases every year, and yet prices continue to rise.

According to free-market logic, when production rises, prices fall.

But this is not happening, because the oligopolies that control the world market manipulate prices, and the Brazilian economy is held hostage by them.

Small farmers who produce food for the local market are able to escape this control.

TIERRAMÉRICA: The MST has been accused by some of being co-opted by the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2011), and criticized by others for being overly combative and violent. What is the MST’s profile today?

JPS: It is a dynamic social movement and within it there are many contradictions and problems regarding the ways in which it acts in each state of the country.

Everyone in society sees the MST through their own lens. We are engaged in an ongoing struggle, and a lot depends on each particular state in Brazil. We organize marches, and occupations of large landholdings and public buildings, but in different states one aspect is sometimes emphasized more than another.

We have never lost control during any of our occupations, not even when we occupied the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) or the headquarters of the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES).

Today the MST needs to offer answers and organize the population around other problems, and that is why we are now involved in agro-ecology and education.

Source: Tierramérica http://www.tierramerica.info/nota.php?lang=eng&idnews=3662

UPM (formerly Botnia) pulping plant on the Río Uruguay (Uruguay al Día)

Controversial pulping industry expands in Uruguay

By José Elosegui Montevideo, February 21, 2011 (Latinamerican Press)

The diplomatic dispute between Uruguay and its neighbor Argentina over a large paper pulping plant along the shared border not only did not derail the business, but Uruguay is taking steps to expand the controversial cellulose industry, a move that could put in jeopardy one of the country´s main resources: land. n January 18, Montes del Plata de Uruguay, a consortium of forestry companies Arauco of Chile and the SwedishFinnish Stora Enso, signed a US$1.9 billion — the largest single private investment in Uruguay´s history — contract to build a pulping complex in Conchillas in the southeastern Colonia department.

The project, which includes a pulping mill and a port for cellulose exports, would produce 1.3 million metric tons a year from its estimated start date in 2013.

According to the consortium, the complex´s construction will create an estimated 3,200 jobs. But once in operation, the company says it will provide direct employment to only 500 people.

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Past conflict: Uruguay´s cellulose industry was thrust into the international spotlight when its other plant that straddles the Uruguay-Argentina border began to operate in late 2007. The plant, owned by Finnish company UPM-Kymmene, which purchased it from another Finland-based company, Botnia, in 2009, sits on the Uruguay River in the town of Fray Bentos. An outcry from environmentalists and the government of Argentina sparked a diplomatic dispute between both countries and massive protests over the pollution the plant poised to cause.

The Argentine government lodged a case against its neighbor in the International Court of Justice, which gave Uruguay a

moral conviction for not respecting the treaty on the river the two countries share, but did not order the plant to close.

The $1 billion-plant in Fray Bentos was also touted by the government as a job creator, but it currently employs just several hundred people. The Rio Negro department has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.

Monoculture: Uruguay has around a million hectares of eucalyptus and pine forests, most of it destined for the cellulose industry and largely in the hands of multinational companies. The Montes del Plata consortium is the single-largest owner of the land with almost 240,000 hectares, and UPM-Kymmene holds around 225,000 hectares. US company Weyerhaeuser owns more than 140,000 hectares.

Most of Uruguay´s farmland is dedicated to transgenic soy cultivation. The industry, mainly controlled by large Argentine farming companies, takes up around 1 million hectares, meaning that the forestry and soy industries together hold one-eighth of Uruguay´s arable land.

These industries are exhausting key water sources for many rural communities, and leading to soil degradation, displacement of small-scale farmers, the loss of food sovereignty and safety and the loss of control of land to foreign companies.

Critics raise their voices: Some criticism of this system has emerged from the government itself. President José Mujica has expressed his worry for the increased concentration of Uruguayan lands in foreign hands. He has called on lawmakers from the ruling Broad Front party to evaluate possible alternatives. Lawmakers from his party concurred, and following the Montes del Plata announcement, said this type of industry is not ideal.

Sen. Eduardo Lorier, of the Communist Party, one of the member parties of the Broad Front, was quoted in a Jan. 20 article in Continue on page 9

latin america and Environment 9

April 20, 2011 (Ecumenical Water Network) n many countries, rural communities, in particular indigenous peoples, rural women and peasant communities, are struggling to protect the integrity of Creation and their rights to water, land and territory. In Guatemala, the Lutheran church (ILUGUA) accompanies communities who are trying to safeguard the forests, water, and biodiversity of the Las Granadillas Mountain which are threatened by excessive logging carried out by big landholders.

As they challenge the interests of powerful landowners, those defending the environment and the rights of the communities in Las Granadillas have been harassed, threatened, and branded as criminals.

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Biblical reflection: We decide to do your will José Pilar Álvarez from the Lutheran Church of Guatemala writes about the role of faith for communities who defend the land and water they depend on.

“7Then I said, ‘Here I am; in the scroll of the book it is written of me.

8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.’

9 I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; see, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord.

10 I have not hidden your saving help within my heart, I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.

11 Do not, O Lord, withhold your mercy from me; let your steadfast love and your faithfulness keep me safe for ever.”

Psalm 40,7-11, NRSV Introduction Psalm 40 has a concentric structure that can be represented in the following way: A:vv.1-3 B: vv.4-6 C: vv.7-11 B’: vv.12-15 A’: vv.16-17 Although I do not claim in this meditation to give an in-depth examination of the psalm, the above structure will help us to have a clear-

er understanding of the message of the text for us today in the defense of Las Granadillas mountain that we are daily engaged in.

When our situation presents us with unexpected dangers (vv. 1-3 and 1617) In these verses the psalmist describes a situation of danger that leads him to cry out to God for God’s protection and salvation.

What is being described is not a passing situation. It has been happening for some time, and thus the cry to God as well. Hence God’s actions have resulted in joy, thanksgiving and praise.

The Guatemalan Lutheran Church (ILUGUA) has committed itself to protect nature and in particular the Las Granadillas mountain, initially because it contains the sources of the water supply for where we are living, and more recently because we have come to know and appreciate the biodiversity to be found on the mountain.

In the course of the years, we in the ILUGUA have seen how this commitment has exposed many of our church members to serious dangers as they have challenged the interests of powerful individuals. We have been threatened, insulted, abused and branded as criminals, and over many years we have been subjected to harassment by those who wish to destroy the forests and the water sources.

In this situation, we have cried out to God and we have seen how God has protected us, how God has enabled us to meet people who help, encourage and strengthen us. That has led us to give thanks daily, to recognize God’s greatness and power, but, above all, to continue to cry out to God in face of the actions of those who oppose the protection of nature.

When dangers strengthen us (vv. 4-6 and 12-15) In the course of all these years of our struggle to defend the Las Granadillas mountain, we have been subjected to many, many lies on the part of those who are attempting to destroy the forests and the water sources. However, those of us who are part of the Guatemalan Lutheran Church can say with the psalmist, ‘we do not look to those who turn aside to falsehood’ (v.4b).

On the contrary, on that mountain we have witnessed the creative

hand of God, whose greatness is to be seen in the trees, the animals and the water sources.

Moreover, in our daily struggle we have discovered how God has brought us to get to know one another better, and give greater support to one another. We have learned to protect one another, to appreciate one another and above all to realize more and more that we are brothers and sisters. Those are some of the wonders and purposes of God. However, it is also certainly the case that we continue to need divine help and protection. When our opponents see how God is active in our church and in the individuals who are defending God’s creation, they do not give up, but find different ways of harming us. So we continue to cry out to God, acknowledging in advance that our crying out to God is also a declaration of our confidence that God’s promises will be fulfilled.

Those whose aim it is to destroy the created world have attempted over many years to put us to shame and to humiliate us. They have tried various ways, in the words of the psalmist ‘to seek to take our life’ (v.14). However, God has proved faithful, and we have never been put to shame, humiliated or captured.

On the contrary, we have come out of each encounter strengthened to continue the fight, in the knowledge that the Las Granadillas mountain is a gift from God that we have to protect because in many respects our survival depends on it.

When our faith encourages us (vv. 7-11) In the course of this long journey we have discovered that we shall only be able to continue our struggle to protect creation if we strengthen our faith. Day by day we find in the Bible words that encourage, strengthen and guide us, and thus we can say with the psalmist, ‘We desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within our heart’ (v.8).

The struggle in which we are engaged and the choice that we have made are acknowledged day by day both by our supporters and by our opponents. However, in doing this we have total confidence that God’s mercy and love will always be with us, until all will come to the truth, or (what is the same) until the Las Granadillas mountain becomes protected and is finally designated as a water protection area.

The Rev. José Pilar Álvarez Cabrera is a pastor of the Guatemalan Lutheran Church (ILUGUA), and collaborator in the Association for the Defence and Protection of Las Granadillas Mountain.

Controversial pulping industry…

From page 8

La Diaria as saying that the two cellulose plants “create very few resources for the country” because they operate — or will operate in the case of Montes del Plata — in dutyfree zones.

Lorier added that the forestry and soy industries are a step backward for Uruguay, since it means it simply exports more raw materials, and more of its land is concentrated in the hands of a few, foreign com-

panies.

For its part, Grupo Guayubira de Uruguay, an umbrella group of environmental organizations, has harshly criticized the Montes del Plata project. The group has long warned against the social, cultural and political implications of monoculture.

One of the group´s members, activist Elizabeth Díaz, told Latinamerica Press that the entire “global model” should be reconsidered.

“We´re talking about a factory and a number of hectares destined for plantations, instead of talking about using them for food production or other types of traditional products,” she said. “Montes del Plata holds some 250,000 hectares of land, five times the area of the Montevideo department. That´s ridiculous for Uruguay and I think any other country on Earth.”

Source: Latinamerican Press http://www.lapress.org/articles.asp?art=6305

Democracy cannot be built on top of impunity…

From page 1

What did you think when you heard about the coup in Honduras?

That the domination mechanism continues and that this new blow to democracy affects the entire Latin American continent. Changes in our countries should be chosen by the people, not by force with the support of the United States.

What is your opinion regarding the participation of the United States in the coup in Honduras?

History demonstrates that the United States has always backed coup d’états to control countries and to defend its interests. In Latin America, a coup d’état is not possible without the backing of the United States government.

Look at what happened with the coup attempts in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador. We ask ourselves, why is the United States installing military bases throughout Latin America? Why does it continue to impose dictatorships when what we need are resources for development for people - not for projects of death and subjugation.

What is the perception of Honduras in the rest of the continent?

I have worked throughout Latin America for over 40 years and what is happening today in Honduras, affects all of us; destabilizing our lives and the rights of people. This is nothing new. We have seen it throughout the continent and the result is always repression, pain, lack of freedoms, death and the subjugation of the resources of the people to power elites. We cannot permit it.

What mechanisms should we adopt so that history does not repeat itself?

The unity of the nations and the people is the true solution. We have the recent example of Ecuador. The unity of UNASUR and the reaction of the people contributed to making sure that the coup did not take place.

We do not want more governments that are imposed on us. We want to elect. This is why we are here, accompanying the Commission of Truth; seeing how the issue of Honduras is being addressed at the international level and demanding that the United States respect the right of the people to self determination.

What is your opinion on the Nobel Peace Prize to Obama?

I wrote a letter to Obama and I told him I was surprised by this award, but now he should be coherent and work for peace. Definitively, he has not done it.

Your country, Argentina, suffered a brutal dictatorship and your people waited almost 30 years to see the perpetrators in prison. What advice would you give to the people of Honduras who demand justice?

You must not permit judicial impunity because a democracy cannot be built on top of impunity. You must continue to work and insist that those who committed crimes are tried. This is a right of the people.

The Honduan regime has promoted a Commission of Truth and Reconciliation. How credible is this for you?

Reconciliation is not something that is empty. There can be no reconciliation if it is not based on truth, justice, reparation for the victims and if there is not repentance on the part of those who committed the crimes. For the governments’ Commission, this is not the case.

Porfirio Lobo and Barack Obama coincide in saying that we should not look to the past, but to the future in order to move forward.

That is immoral because it justifies the crimes committed.

What happens to the victims, to the families? Are we supposed to just forget them, bury them?

Memory is important. Not to remain in the past, but to illumine our present, to generate and create life. Societies that say that we should not look to the past repeat the same barbarities, the same situation of injustice.

Why is a Commission of Truth that wants to investigate the structural causes of the coup and identify those responsible important for Honduras?

You cannot hide the truth nor whitewash the image of the government. The Commission of Truth wants to reach this truth, identifying those who are responsible in order to bring them to justice at the national and international levels. This is the only way to make sure that it never happens again.

Source: Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular, FNRP http://www.resistenciahonduras.net/index.php?option=com_content& view=article&id=2594:honduras-democracy-cannot-be-built-on-topof-impunity&catid=98:opinions&Itemid=347.

LATIN AMERICAN ECUMENICAL NEWS • JANUARY – APRIL 2011

Ecumenical Water Network: Water for Guatemala’s landless

LATIN AMERICAN ECUMENICAL NEWS • JANUARY – APRIL 2011

10 latin america News

Deepening dependency on mining in Colombia In his inaugural speech last August, President Juan Manuel Santos said mining would be one of the five motors for Colombia´s progress. But critics complain that promoting this industry would endanger the country´s chance at environmental and cultural sustainability.

By Susan Abad March 23, 2011 (Latinamerica Press) olombia holds Latin America´s largest coal reserves and has significant amounts of gold, silver, platinum, nickel, copper, iron, magnesium, lead, zinc and titanium, as well as deposits of emeralds.

Forty-percent of the country is currently concessioned off for mining projects because of lax laws, according to Mario Valencia of the non governmental Colombian Network Against Large Scale Transnational Mining, an umbrella group of 50 rights and environmental organizations in the country.

Government figures show that the mining and hydrocarbon industries comprise 85 percent of Colombia´s foreign investment. From 2002 to 2009, investment from these industries has increased from US$466 million to $3 billion, and exports from $2.8 billion to $8.1 billion.

“The law prioritizes only the economic aspects,” says Juana Díaz, a spokeswoman for the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia´s Territory and Biodiversity arm.

Díaz pointed to a 2001 reform to the Mining Code that loosened environmental regulations by scrapping approval for exploration, and changed land ownership requirements, in favor of large companies, with requirements such as largescale infrastructure and heavy machinery “that only multinational companies could fulfill,” cutting out many small-scale miners.

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Heavy metals, heavy impact Mining may generate billions in profits, but that “does not make up for the environmental and social and many other costs that are difficult to calculate,” said Juan Mayr, Colombia´s former environment minister and a current advisor for the United Nations Development Program. “They are extracting non renewable natural resources, causing a great impact on Colombians´ collective patrimony. They grant mining titles without any kind of oversight, any kind of qualification.

It´s a system plagued with a lack of vision and [with] irregularities.”

Transnational mining companies have 43,000 square kilometers of concessions.

South African miner Anglo Gold Ashanti has a concession of 6,900 square kilometers in its gold projects Gramalote in Antioquia and La Colosa in Tolima with important

political and economic impact that explains the numerous social conflicts, says Sen. Jorge Robledo, of the opposition Alternative Democratic Pole.

“The population is paying and will continue to pay a high price,” said indigenous Sen. Marco Avirama.

“In the process of mining exploration and exploitation, because of the machinery, vehicles and technology used, the soil stability and the fauna, flora and water is strongly affected, wiping out the local ecosystem with no possibility of its recovery.”

Avirama pointed to the large amounts of water needed to extract gold and the use of cyanide and mercury that eventually contaminates local rivers.

According to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Colombia´s gold mining industry has made the country home to the largest mercury contamination on Earth. Measurements taken by the agency last year in Segovia, in the northwestern Antioquia department, a mineral rich zone, found 10 to 20 times greater the 10,000 nanograms per cubic meter considered safe by the World Health Organization.

The town of Temacapulín, which lies in the middle of four hills, is putting up the fiercest fight. The federal government’s aqueduct project would involve not only moving them to new homes,

Opponents to the industry note its cultural impact Campesinos, indigenous and Afro-Colombians are already being deprived of water and land by those who are working in informal mining or those who have “sold out” to the big companies,” said Avirama. “Also, the investment that companies bring in and the investment that they generate are accompanied by practices that are not in accordance with the ancestral forms of life of the population.”

Water resources are also at severe risk Some local residents in the northeastern Santander department have urged the government to deny an environmental permit for Canadian mining company Grey Star that plans to extract more than 500,000 ounces of gold per year from deposits in the Santurbán high-altitude wetland, a valuable ecosystem that is protected under the constitution. The area is home to more than 40 lagoons, hundreds of streams and abundant vegetation that regulates the water cycle.

Drilling here would put the water supplies for 1.6 million people in the cities of Cucuta and Bucaramanga in jeopardy, Robledo said.

“They are going to use 40 metric tons of cyanide and 230 metric tons of ammonium nitrate-fuel a day,” he added. They are going to dynamite 1,075 million metric tons of soil in the first phase [of the project] and … do so in an area of high-altitude wetlands and natural reserve, which is prohibited.”

“They Don’t Want Their Town to Vanish” – Underwater, flooded by the El Zapotillo dam in Mexico

By Daniela Pastrana Mexico City, February 9, 2011 (IPS)

Local residents protest influx of mining projects in Colombia (Susan Abad Latinamerica Press)

but relocating their cemetery and their church, which in 2009 turned 250 years old, and which forms part of the rich cultural and historical heritage that is to disappear under the waters. he people of three towns that would be flooded by the El Zapotillo dam to be built in the

T

El Zapotillo Dam will flood Temacapulín (adaptingtoscarcity)

western Mexican state of Jalisco have refused to be relocated and are fighting to save their homes.

“We have shown them, with the support of academics and scientists from the University of Guadalajara, that it is feasible to build the dam elsewhere, where it would not affect the town, but they don’t want to do that,” said Emma Juárez with the “Save Temacapulín, Acasico and Palmarejo” movement, which held a non-binding community vote on Jan. 7-8 in Temacapulín, a town of 500 people.

The vote, in which people from the town who are living in the United States and the city of Guadalajara also participated, was backed by Patricia Vergara, an official at the Citizen Participation and Electoral Institute of Jalisco, and was observed by three local lawmakContinue on page 12

Eviction and displacement This influx of wealth attracts illegal armed groups, which position themselves near the projects to extort or sometimes to place themselves at the service of the transnational companies.

“A dispossession of land is being consolidated, as well as foreign investment, especially in mining and palm oil, which is tied to forced displacement,” said Jorge Rojas, director of the non governmental Human Rights and Displacement Consultancy.

He said that nearly one-third of

the 280,000 people displaced in Colombia in 2010 came from areas where these two industries were present.

The government has started to crack down on informal mining by making surprise visits to the mines, cancelling permits for a lack of security and instating higher fines for violations. Santos´ government also said it would create the National Minerals Agency to regulate smallscale mining, which it says is highly contaminating and has become a source of financing for the armed groups.

But Valencia says that that it is really a way to favor large-scale mining companies.

“There are more than 2 million artisanal miners in Colombia that have long lived off of this activity,” he said. “The government is trying to take this way of life away from them and give it to the large mining companies. It has been grouping artisanal mining with illegal mining, so now it has the authorization to persecute both of them … and clear the way for the transnationals.”

Source: Latinamerica Press http://www.lapress.org/articles.asp?art=6332

Bolstering ecumenical…

From page 1

In order to increase the support to ecumenical peace-building initiatives already taking place in that country, the Central Committee encouraged the organization of an International Consultation on Colombia together with the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) “in order to explore the possibility for an accompaniment program and/or an Ecumenical Forum to support the churches and people in Colombia in their peace work”.

When outlining the issue for Central Committee members, reference was made to the 2010 report of the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) in which defenders of human rights in Colombia expressed deep concern over “the increased threats and stigmatization of several categories of human rights defenders”.

The UNHCHR report presents cases of killings, threats, arbitrary

arrests and detentions, sexual offences, break-ins into homes and offices, illegal surveillance by state intelligence services and information theft attributed to “members of illegal armed groups that emerged from the paramilitary demobilization and guerrilla groups, in particular the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARCEP) as well as, in some cases, members of security forces”.

Addressing the international community, the statement appeals to governments “to assess the impact of trade provisions on human rights before they enter into a free trade agreement (FTA) with Colombia and to adopt sustainable policies that give particular attention to the protection of farmers, indigenous people, Afro-Colombians and tradeunionists, as their rights are being highly impacted by the presence of transnational corporations in the country”.

Source: World Council of Churches

Honduras and Human Rights 11

By Alejandro F. Ludeña Tegucigalpa, April 15, 2011 (Latinamerica Press) arta Moncada´s husband killed her in a hotel and chopped up her body in 2003. While her tragic end is not uncommon in Honduras, it sparked an outcry among the country´s women who started to speak out against gender-motivated crime.

That same year, the Women for Life Forum was founded, a group of 11 grassroots organizations along the northern Honduran coast, the region with the country´s highest rate of femicide. They aim to help bring about profound change in the country´s patriarchal society to combat violence, especially against women.

According to Carolina Sierra, the group´s executive coordinator, the members´ most notable achievement was to put this issue on the radar of the media and on the agenda of nongovernmental organizations.

Also helping to give this epidemic of violence more visibility was the Observatory on Violence, a project started in 2005 and backed by the United Nations Development Program and the Autonomous University of Honduras.

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Women blame government for scant investigation of femicides in Honduras (Yadira Rodríguez Latinamerica Press)

“The Observatory allows us to conduct a better analysis about women killings, to have access to information that NGOs don´t have,” said its executive director, Reina Rivera. “This way, we can give this problem more visibility, differentiating between those deaths caused by femicide from those that don´t have a tie to gender inequality.”

Cases on the rise According to figures of the Women for Life Forum, more than

2,000 women have been killed in the country since Marta Moncada´s murder in 2003, making Honduras the second-most violent country against women in Central America after Guatemala.

But these figures clearly shot up in the year following Honduras´ June 2009 coup that ousted thenPresident Manuel Zelaya, who had governed since 2006. 337 women have been killed. Killings reportedly occurred against many women for their political beliefs, including

opposing the coup that was carried out by the military.

But in 2010, the first year that the Observatory made a complete count, there were 438 women killed in the country that could be considered femicides, or those murders that occurred because of inequality in power between men and women.

While human rights organizations accuse current President Porfirio Lobo of siding with the aggressors, authorities have admitted that women are especially vulnerable to these crimes.

Human Rights Minister Ana Pineda said during the United Nation´s Universal Periodic Review on Human Rights that weakness in state institutions is hindering investigations of human rights violations.

Three months later, a special police unit was created to investigate these crimes, with an aim to “protect the vulnerable groups of Honduras, including women, young people, members of the gay and lesbian communities and journalists,” said Security Minister Oscar Álvarez.

No political will Nelly del Cid of feminist organization Tejedoras de Sueños, or Dreamweavers, says there is no political will to address the issues at the

root of femicide.

“The political will is measured in terms of budget, and this is worthless,” del Cid told Latinamerica Press.

Even though some women believe Lobo´s government has done next to nothing to combat this problem, some say some dialogue with the current administration is necessary.

Sierra says she´s worried the situation will only get worse because activists have lost arenas to discuss the issue.

Maritza Paredes, a longtime human rights lawyer, said “femicide limits development, democracy and peace. This is not an issue just about families or women. It´s the country´s issue; the state must act on this.”

Meanwhile, hope lies with women´s organization and resistance to the trend, which have been strengthening in recent years.

Slowly, people are speaking out more and more against violence.

“Leave the individual problems by the wayside and advance in the search for justice” is the goal, Sierra said.

Source: Latinamerica Press http://www.lapress.org/articles.asp?art=6357

Honduras: A so called democracy with much of a dictatorship

By Sergio Ferrari April 2, 2011 (Latin America in Movement)

In spite of the fact that the Honduran government claims to have brought in sensible improvements, “human rights continue to be violated systematically” in Honduras. An accusation presented in the third week of March in Geneva by eleven representatives of Honduran civil society, and resumed by Carolina Sierra, of the Foro de las Mujeres por la Vida (Forum of Women for Life), a network that works mainly in the north of her country. ierra came to Geneva to observe the Periodic Universal Examination (PUE) on Honduras in the Council for Human Rights of the United Nations.

At that time she presented a long list of recommendations to correct violations of fundamental human rights.

On March 17 she evaluated the present situation. Her report was presented by three official reporters designated by the Council, representatives of Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the Russian Federation.

There will be another voluntary appearance of Honduras before the Council in two years.

Ana Piñeda, Minister of Justice and Human Rights in Honduras, was the official voice of her Government. She insisted that effec-

tive improvements were made on the 129 recommendations formulated in the Council for Honduras, noting that “a certain number of measures are under application.”

Each representative of Honduran civil society present in Geneva was able to present his/her critical view, in reports of two minutes each.

Three official representatives and speakers from international organizations spoke during the subsequent debates. Some of them recognized partial formal improvements. The majority repeated substantial criticisms.

The most critical presentations came from the World Organization against Torture, pointing out that the perpetrators of 92% of violations remained unpunished; the International Federation of Leagues of the Rights of Man reported 200

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homicides in 2010 with complete impunity; the Center for Justice and International Law affirmed that Honduras “had not respected a single recommendation to improve the institutional and judicial system.”

The “Lobo” (Wolf) continues to kill The latest case that severely moved Honduran public opinion was the murder, during demonstrations of the third week of March, of professor Ilse Velásquez.

The Committee of Families of the Imprisoned and Disappeared (COFADEH) lamented the death of this social militant and defender of human rights. The sister of Manfredo Velásquez, disappeared in the 1980s and the first case of this kind in this country recognized by the Corte Interamericana de

Derechos Humanos (Interamerican Court of Human Rights), a case for which Honduras was condemned at the time.

These dramatic examples “do not allow us to forget other fundamental incidents that have already become dramas, as in the murder of women. We registered 64 cases in the first two months of 2011, an average of one murder every day.

To make matters worse, Sierra insists, “for these crimes as for violations of every kind of human rights, there is no juridical action, everything falls into the most complete impunity. Only 13% of the murders of women result in investigations or juridical processes”, said Sierra.

“The organizations of civil society should take advantage of the periodic examination done by the Council on Human Rights. This is a new mechanism that could allow us

“Permanent violations” “The government of Porfirio Lobo has implemented an intense campaign to convince the international community, outlining a message of respect for human rights”, explained Carolina Sierra, a young journalist and social communicator.

Nevertheless, “those of us who suffer violations and repression, we know perfectly well what is true”, she insisted. “It is paradoxical, for example, that on the same 17th of March that Honduras passed its examination in the Council in Geneva, a severe repression took place against a strike convoked by the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular (National Front for Popular Resistance), FNRP.

Because of this the International Organization of Human Rights for the Right to Eat (FIAN) published a communication in Tegucigalpa denouncing “beastly [actions] against demonstrators”, and asking the international community to continue to “pressure to end repression. . . that is suffered by large social sectors of the Honduran population.”

In parallel, the Asociación Mundial de Radios Comunitarias (AMRC: World Community Radio Association) released a critical document alleging that “freedom of expression continues to get worse in spite of engagements assumed by the Government (of Porfirio Lobos) before the United Nations.”

This organization noted ten cases of violent deaths of journalists in 2010, one of the highest numbers in the Latin American continent.

“In addition to the aforesaid murders one has to note the persecution against community radio stations and alternative media”, Carolina Sierra said. Sierra presented a list of examples: “almost every day social leaders of the Resistence are threatened; all demonstrations against the regime are suppressed; it is a question of a policy of permanent exclusion, through violence, of the administration of natural strategic resources, against the will of local communities.”

Carolina Sierra Honduras)

(La

Tribuna,

to contest the official claims of substantial majorities that in fact do not exist”, noted Sierra.

We are aware that from Honduras itself “we must maintain in our collective imagination all the compatriots of the world, and of international civil society, an appeal that will not be forgotten.”

Even though, in such a complex situation, “Honduras is not high on the international agenda...it is fundamental that Governments, NGOs and human rights movements continue to exert pressure so that people can see what is happening to us in Honduras”, Sierra insists.

We remember that after the Coup d’etat of June 2009, there were rigged elections that made possible the formation of a government in January 2010 under the present president Porfirio Lobo Sosa.

“He represents the continuity of this democratic breakdown, and because of this he is not recognized by an important part of the international community, particularly Latin American countries”, she concludes.

Source: Latin America in Movement http://alainet.org/active/45493

LATIN AMERICAN ECUMENICAL NEWS • JANUARY – APRIL 2011

Women organize to fight femicide in Honduras

LATIN AMERICAN ECUMENICAL NEWS • JANUARY – APRIL 2011

12

United Church of Canada call to support threatened anti-mining activists in El Salvador February 10, 2011 (United Church of Canada)

The Santa Marta Association for Economic and Social Development (ADES), a non-governmental organization that is a partner of The United Church of Canada, is very concerned about a new and recent wave of death threats against members of community-based organizations who have opposed the establishment of a gold mine by a Canadian company in the province of Cabañas. n 2009 similar crimes went uninvestigated, including robberies, kidnappings, and death threats against members of ADES and other community and environmental organizations with whom ADES works closely.

Eventually three activists, Marcelo Rivera, Ramiro Rivera, and Dora Alicia Sorto Recinos, were brutally murdered.

During a recent visit to El Salvador, General Council staff Jim Hodgson and Christie Neufeldt met with those who have been recently threatened: Elvis Zavala, Pablo Ayala, and Manuel Navarrete of Radio Victoria, and lawyer Hector Barrios of the National Roundtable against Metallic Mining. They all stated that the ongoing refusal to investigate the crimes committed in 2009 not only encourages the recent threats and crimes but could also lead to more violence and murders in the near future.

While those who actually committed the crimes have been found guilty and sentenced in the murder cases, there have been no investiga-

I

Jim Hodgson, Miguel Rivera, brother of an ecological activist murdered in June 2009, Héctor Berrios, a lawyer who has been threatened for his human rights work, Christie Neufeldt

tions into who planned the murders or how the murders are related to the victims’ involvement in the antimining movement. Those who are threatened now believe the negligence of El Salvador’s Office of the Attorney General, particularly the lack of investigation into who is ordering the attacks, has created a climate of impunity that enables those carrying out this systematic campaign against the social movement to continue with threats, violence, and potentially murders.

Miguel Rivera, brother of one of those murdered in 2009, explains that the community’s opposition to the development of the gold mine is largely due to the threat it represents to the community’s already depleted water sources: “People don’t need gold. They need water.”

In the middle of the night on January 11, a written death threat was pushed under the front door of community radio station Radio Victoria, despite supposed 24-hour police security. The authors claim to be an “extermination group” and

offered large sums of money to the radio if they “stop making trouble,” including ending reports on mining.

If they don’t, the group says they will murder the radio’s three “loudest mouths,” Elvis Zavala, Pablo Ayala, and Manuel Navarrete.

On January 23, a member of the National Roundtable, Hector Berríos, received phone calls to his home and his cell phone from an unidentified person who claimed to have been hired to kill Hector or a member of his family.

Two young people in Cabañas who were connected to the June 2009 murder of Marcelo Rivera have been killed. Darwin Serrano, who participated in the murder but was released from prison as a minor, was attacked and killed on December 20. Gerardo Abrego León, who testified in the trial that convicted and sentenced the executors of Marcelo Rivera’s murder, was killed on January 2.

Source: United Church of Canada http://www.united-church.ca/getinvolved/takeaction/110203

Violence In San Pedro Sula, Honduras: Evangelical Pastor Carlos Roberto Marroquín murdered Tegucigalpa, February 22, 2011 (ALC) report by police authorities in the capital city of Tegucigalpa informed of the murder of Evangelical pastor Carlos Roberto Marroquín, founder of the Latin American Network of Christian Lawyers, when leaving his house in San Pedro Sula.

The 41 year old pastor was shot by unknown gunmen who fled from the scene, when walking his dogs at dusk outside his home as was his custom.

According to a news story in the Honduran newspaper El Universal, Pastor Marroquín began his

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Pastor Carlos Roberto Marroquín Ortega. robertomarroquin.blogspot.com)

preaching ministry in the poor sectors of San Pedro Sula when he was only 12, and later became a lawyer by profession and an expert in theology. In January 2002, he founded the Pentecostal Church of God, after having carried out similar activities in Central America, Mexico, Peru, the United States, Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Panama, Holland, Turkey, and the Dominican Republic.

Marroquín was the President of the Christian Judicial Fraternity.

The police are searching for the murderers, and the motive of the crime is not yet known, while an intense investigation is underway.

“They Don’t Want Their Town…

From page 10

ers, a city councillor, and a representative of the community’s elders.

The result was overwhelming: 643 of the 648 people who voted said “no” to the dam and to the relocation of the town 500 metres away, as required by the aqueduct project, which is to divert the course of the Verde river and carry water to the cities of León, in the neighboring state of Guanajuato, and Guadalajara.

“They don’t want their town to vanish, it’s that simple,” said Guadalupe Espinoza, a lawyer who has filed a number of injunctions known as “amparo” — an action for the protection of constitutional rights or guarantees in the face of arbitrary action by the authorities — to block the project.

“We have brought 14 lawsuits, which are ongoing,” he said. “And despite that, 15 houses have been built (in the relocation zone), which is illegal because there is a court order for the temporary suspension of the work.”

In a telephone interview with IPS, Raúl Antonio Iglesias, regional director of the national water authority (CONAGUA) in the Cuenca Lerma Santiago Pacífico Basin, said those opposed to the project are a very small group.

“It’s a tiny group of people, six to eight at the most,” he said emphatically. “The results of the vote were because they brought in people who don’t live there.”

The El Zapotillo dam is part of a mega-project to supply drinking water to the people in the Los Altos region in Jalisco. The authorities say the project will benefit 2.5 million people in 14 towns in Los Altos and in the cities of Guadalajara and León.

According to Iglesias, the overall project will cost 835 million dollars, 208 million of which are for the dam itself and reparations to local residents. However, no concrete offer of indemnification has been made, merely a plan to relocate the towns.

The project, to be completed by late 2012, also involves the construction of a 140-km aqueduct from the dam, pumping plants, a disinfection plant, a storage tank and a macro-circuit for drinking water distribution.

“But there will also be indirect benefits, because the project will generate 12,000 jobs operating the entire system,” he said.

In response to Iglesias’ claims, Juárez said “neither the state nor the federal authorities have ever shown up in Temacapulín. And the claim about work is false.

“The people working in construction are earning 80 pesos (seven dollars) for 12-hour workdays, and they’re not even from this region: what kind of benefit is that?” the activist added.

The central problem is that the original project was illegally modified, according to opponents.

In 2006, the Secretariat (ministry) of the Environment and Natural Resources, in charge of the

environmental impact report, approved a plan that involved an 80-meter high dam, with a reservoir that would hold 411 million cubic meters of water.

But the call for bids issued in 2007 involved a 105-meter high wall, which would imply the flooding of Temacapulín, Acasico and Palmarejo, including buildings designated as cultural heritage sites and the surrounding farmland, and the forced displacement of the local population.

In September 2009, after a public tender process challenged by companies that were disqualified, the federal government decided in favor of the Peninsular Compañía Constructora firm in association with another Mexican company, Grupo Hermes, and FFC Construcción, a Spanish firm, and the state government launched a campaign to buy the homes of the local residents.

The city council of Cañadas de Obregón, the district where two of the three towns are located, rejected the change in land use implied by the 105-meter high dam. And the towns launched a legal and political battle to block the project, which over the last two years has gained the support of national and international non-governmental organizations.

In November 2009, Catholic priest Gabriel Espinoza brought the case before the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). In January 2010, representatives of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights visited Temacapulín, the epicenter of the resistance movement.

And in the first week of October 2010, the Third International Meeting of Dam-Affected People and Their Allies met in Temacapulín, bringing together 330 activists from 60 different countries.

The governor of Jalisco, Emilio González of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) — to which Mexican President Felipe Calderón also belongs — rejected a recommendation against the project by the state Human Rights Commission, which argued that construction of the dam is the responsibility of the federal government.

Local residents say the dam violates their right to property, legal security, housing, food, development, information, consultation prior to projects that affect them, and a clean environment.

In the January 7-8 vote, 90 percent of the people of Temacapulín said they planned to continue the battle.

But the authorities insist that the dam will go ahead. “I have instructions to negotiate until the last minute with each one of the owners, but expropriation is being studied, because we have to consider the benefits to the majority,” Iglesias said.

Source: Inter Press Service News Agency, IPS http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54392