The FOR Colombia program has recently signed a partnership agreement with the Spanish organization Acompaz [1]. As result of this partnership, the Colombia Peace Presence Team in in San José de Apartadó will be expanded to accommodate an additional Colombia Peace Presence member, bringing the team to three. The expansion of the team, to begin in February 2007, will provide invaluable help in strengthening international support for the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, specifically supporting the Peace Community’s return to lands from which they had been forcibly displaced and establishing Humanitarian Zones there. Additionally, the Peace Community will benefit from increased outreach and advocacy in the European Union.

Acompaz was formed in 2005 by members of various peace and justice collectives and activists throughout Spain who wanted to unite in support the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó. In their efforts to support the Peace Community, and other peace communities, Acompaz has focused on: collaborating with other Spanish and European Union NGOs in defense of human rights for the civilian population of Colombia; supporting projects in the community to improve basic health, ecology, sustainable agriculture, community history, and education; supporting the international judicial process that hopes to prosecute the crimes against humanity committed against the Community and end the impunity that has allowed these crimes to continue from 1997 to the present; offer support and cooperation with the multiple and diverse collectives in different parts of Europe and the world that have been created in solidarity with the Peace Community of San José, other peace communities and the civilian resistance in Colombia; and participate in the struggle for a nonviolent world and access to land in which peace prevails.

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