Colombia

Back in June, conscientious objector Mario Andrés Hurtado Cardozo was granted a tutela (a writ for protection, which should prevent him from being recruited by the military) by the municipality of Soacha, close to Bogotá. Mario was the very first non-religious conscientious objector to receive a tutela in this way. The magistrate ordered military district 59, located in the municipality of Soacha, to resolve his military situation within a maximum of two months. Mario's next struggle is to complete and graduate from his degree with his libreta militar – the card given the conscripts when they finish their time in the military. Being unable to graduate from university is just one of the discriminations that faces those without a libreta militar. You can read his conscientious objection declaration from 2010 (in Spanish) here.

On Thursday 14 August the young conscientious objector, JOSÍAS JOHAN PATIÑO was on his way to work. Around 7 a.m. he was at the Aguacatala station when, under orders from Captain Barrera, members of the national army, Sergeant Peña and auxiliary prison guard Gutierrez from the 6th Division, twenty seventh brigade in the Department of Putumayo, stormed the Aguacatala metro station. They asked for and withheld the identity card of the young man mentioned as a way of coercing him to climb into the truck which the army uses for recruiting young men by force i.e. rather than issuing the appropriate summons to resolve his military situation as law 48 of 1993 states.

Tomás Gisbert & María Jesús Pinto

The Colombian armed forces, with 281,400 military personnel, are the second largest army in all of Latin America, surpassed only by Brazil. Added to that are the 159,000 members of the National Police, a militarised police force that reports to the Ministry of Defence. In Colombia there are 6.2 soldiers per one thousand inhabitants, a ratio almost four times that of Brazil.

The surge in extractive mining and energy activities in Colombia over the last few years has come accompanied by the massive militarisation of the zones where the mining and energy sectors operate. The Colombian government has in recent years created what are known as Energy, Mining and Transport Battalions. Their growth has accompanied the policy of attracting foreign investment in the sector from multinational corporations for the implementation of the neoliberal extractive policy: the so-called 'mining and energy drive'. At the beginning of 2011 there were 11 mining and energy battalions, but by 2014 there were already 21.

In November, Hannah from the WRI office and Igor Seke from WRI's Right to Refuse to Kill Committee visited Colombia.

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Salvador talking about nonviolence


Salvador, long-time activist with the conscientious objection group “Quinto Mandamiento” in Barrancabermeja, needs emergency medical support.

This is write-up of the trip made by Hannah Brock (Right to Refuse to Kill programme worker) and Igor Seke (of the Right to Refuse to Kill committee), from 28th October – 8th November 2013. We were joined by Rachel Brett, of the Quaker United Nations Office [QUNO] (and member of the Right to Refuse to Kill committee), from 30th October – 3rd November.

In a powerful reminder of the ongoing problem of batidas (forced recruitment raids on the streets, like press gangs), Colombian CO Juan Carlos Poveda Camaro (http://www.wri-irg.org/node/21996) was recruited in Villavicencio, and held for 45 days.

Back to the Contents of the book

Jorge Vélez

Many WRI friends and affiliates were involved in this conference, and here we reprint a report produced by American Quakers on the conference.

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War Resisters' International have submitted a statement to the Colombian government, as a law that will regulate rights to conscientious objection progresses through the Colombian parliament.

The submission will be input to the relevant parliamentary committee through ACOOC (Acción Colectiva de Objetores y Objetoras de Conciencia).

War Resisters' International have made a submission to the Colombian government, as a law that will regulate the right to conscientious objection makes its way through the Colombia parliament.

The submission will be input to the relevant parliamentary committee through ACOOC (Acción Colectiva de Objetores y Objetoras de Conciencia).

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London, 14 February, 2013

Andreas and Hannah from the Right to Refuse to Kill programme visited Colombia in November 2012 to meet new antimilitarist groups, reconnect with existing contacts, and to plan new ways in which WRI might provide useful forms of international accompaniment. Many of the groups we met are members of ANOOC - Asamblea Nacional de Objetores y Objetoras de Conciencia – a nationwide assembly of groups that work on conscientious objection.