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FOR and the American Friends Service Committee have released a report documenting the first-person experiences of women peace activists in Colombia. "I Will Never Be Silenced: Testimonies of Hope from Colombian Woman" highlights the words and work of 17 women from throughout Colombia - rural and urban, old and young, Afro-Colombian, indigenous and mestizo, artists, religious, political, feminists. These women have tirelessly and fearlessly worked to create peace and justice.

This DVD, produced by Swiss filmmaker Juan Jose Lozano, tells the story of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó. This is a wonderful introduction to the Community and the principles involved in taking a stand for peace in a conflict zone.

English subtitles, 58 minutes.

In the last six months, Colombia’s armed forces and intelligence agency have evidenced a slew of major scandals, abuses, and policy failures, largely unexplored in Administration and media reports. These include a massacre by the army of top anti-drug police; terrorist infiltration of the Colombian intelligence agency; documented torture of army cadets; extrajudicial killings; use of Blackhawk helicopters to attack unarmed indigenous protesters; and responding to expressions of concern by dozens of Members of Congress with public relations instead of action.

Taken together, these events demonstrate the urgent imperative to fundamentally reconsider the United States’ relationship with the Colombian Armed Forces. This reports provides a brief review.

In collaboration with the American Friends Service Committee, FOR Colombia published in 2004 this report.

This vivid, often moving booklet presents stories and testimonies of Colombians working to find a nonviolent resolution to the long-running civil war in their country.

Download it here

You can also purchase copies for $3.50 via FOR's online store

This piece is an excerpt of a chapter by John Lindsay-Poland in an upcoming book, “Bases, Empire and Global Response,” edited by Catherine Lutz and published by Pluto Press. Download the whole chapter here (PDF).

The United States has operated military bases in Latin America since the beginning of the 1900s, when it first established Army camps in Cuba during the Spanish-American War and in Panama at the beginning of US canal construction there. These bases have served explicitly to project and protect US government and commercial interests in the region, as part of a project of empire. More recently, the explosion of US military interest and funding for Plan Colombia, occurring in the wake of the United States’ withdrawal from military bases in Panama in December 1999, gave rise to a proliferation of new US bases and military access agreements in the region. The growth of bases constituted a decentralization of the US military presence in the region, Washington’s response to regional leaders’ reluctance to allow large US military bases or complexes while maintaining a broader military foothold.