In 2000 Colombian Mennonite Church leaders wrote a letter to North American churches to raise awareness of Colombia's internal conflict and the massive U.S. military "aid" package to Colombia legislated that year. Now Ricardo Esquivia, president of the Commission of Restoration, Life and Peace of the Evangelical Council of Colombian Churches, and Colombian Mennonite Church President Peter Stucky write:

Five years have passed since we sent you early warning of the negative effects the military aid sent by the U.S. government to the Colombian government would have on the people and nation of Colombia.

It pains us to confirm that our prophetic words...have been fatally fulfilled.

The military aid sent to the Colombian government by the U.S. government through the so-called "Plan Colombia" has been worse than throwing kindling on the fire. It's been like gasoline enflaming the fire that consumes Colombian society, prolonging and multiplying its lethal effects. [Plan Colombia funding] has not helped to stop the war, but rather has contributed to its growth.

Every one of the dollars of the millions provided by the U.S. government to the Colombian government in military training, sophisticated weaponry, and planes and fumigations, has been like seeds of destruction.

The authors maintain that military aid undermines trust in the authorities, the precarious state institutions, and hope in the possibility of a politically negotiated solution to halt the bloodbath produced by the endemic armed conflict.

We, the people, are the ones suffering the consequences of the harvest of these seeds of evil. With more war, there are more internal refugees. In the last five years we've suffered the assassinations of more than 70 pastors and church leaders. Others have been kidnapped and are in exile. Three-hundred-fifty churches have been closed due to orders by the armed groups, bombings, fumigations, or fear of combat. Hundreds of families have been displaced. Thousands have died, thousands of life projects destroyed, and thousands of hectares of jungle, fertile soil, and rivers have been contaminated by fumigations.

Nevertheless, as churches, in collaboration with other sectors of civil society, we tirelessly continue to sow seeds and care for our seeds of justice so that we can one day harvest a holistic and lasting peace.

Brothers and sisters, God has blessed you richly but has also given you a great challenge. Be salt and light for your members of Congress, government, and corporations, and show them the path of justice. Use your taxes to take life and peace to the world, not destruction and death.

We are praying for you daily and asking God to multiply your wisdom so that you may be the essential allies for peacebuilding in Colombia and the rest of the world.

May God's peace continue inspiring you.

Signed,

Ricardo Esquivia
President of the Commission of Restoration, Life, and Peace of the Evangelical Council of Colombian Churches

Peter Stucky
President, Colombian Mennonite Church

This update and translation provided by Janna Bowman, national grassroots organizer on Colombia for Witness for Peace. Contact her at janna@witnessforpeace.org.