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An article by Jaime Ortega Carrascal in La Vanguardia – translated by CPNN and reprinted for non-commercial purposes.

A survivor of the Bojayá massacre, a FARC guerrilla who is about to leave his weapons or a peasant who stopped cultivating coca are some of the anonymous Colombians who found in the community radios the way to promote the peace thanks to support from the European Union (EU).

The initiative “Community Radios for Peace and Coexistence”, launched in mid-2016, supports 400 of the 627 community radio stations in Colombia to generate a culture of peace in the most remote rural areas, those most affected by the armed conflict.

Photo Resander

“This is very important because community broadcasters disseminate the expressions and feelings of those living in distant territories,” the EU ambassador to Colombia, Ana Paula Zacarias, told EFE.

The EU allocated two million euros (about US $ 2.23 million) to this initiative promoted by the Cooperative Network of Community Media in Santander (Resander) with the support of the Colombian Presidency, the Ministries of Culture and ICT, The Office of the High Commissioner for Peace and the newspaper El Espectador.

“The messages are adapting to the different regions,” added Zacarias, recalling that the “Fiesta Estéreo” station in Barrancas, in the Caribbean department of La Guajira, emits in Castilian and Wuayuunaiki, a language of the Wayú Indians who represent a high percentage of the population of the area and are distributed between Colombia and Venezuela.

In the Wuayuunaiki language curiously there are no words like “peace” and “coexistence”, which is why in these programs they say it in Spanish.

Building peace and providing post-conflict support after the agreement with the FARC guerrillas is the EU’s priority, which also emphasizes issues such as indigenous communities, children, gender equality and environmental protection.

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(Click here for the original Spanish version of this article

What is happening in Colombia, Is peace possible?

Journalism in Latin America: Is it turning towards a culture of peace?

How can peace be promoted by radio?

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“All the guerrillas of the FARC are committed to the peace process and on our part we do not want to use words as a weapon”, says a guerrilla at the station “La Calidosa”, Policarpa, municipality of the department of Nariño, on the border With Ecuador.

Policarpa houses one of the 26 temporary transitional zones of normalization in which about 7,000 FARC guerrillas will leave their weapons to return to life in society and that is why messages of reconciliation are very important among listeners of ” La Calidosa “.

“We are sure that this project is one of those that is having an impact in the construction, in the transmission of the peace in the territories because the 400 radios can reach an audience of ten million listeners”, indicates Zacarías .

At the same station, Juan, a peasant, tells how “violence has hit very hard” in the area and with his testimony advises listeners to return to traditional crops, such as coffee that for years was replaced by coca, which brought them nothing but misfortunes.

“People came and were infusing what is called the cultivation of illicit uses … we went directly or indirectly, without realizing that we were hurting our families,” he says.

The EU initiative not only opens microphones to the people, but also includes workshops in which 200 community radio journalists have been trained in the elaboration of educational content on peacebuilding, as well as 50 broadcasters receiving technical assistance and donations of recording equipment.

The project is secured until next November, although the EU ambassador is of the opinion that this “does not mean that we can not in the future study other formulas to continue supporting this work of sending messages on peace to the territories” to promote reconciliation between the Colombians.

An example of this is Noel, a singer-songwriter known as “El Negrito del Swing”, a survivor of the Bojayá massacre, the worst committed by the FARC, which on May 2, 2002 caused between 79 and 119 deaths when a bomb launched during a combat against paramilitaries fell in the church of that town of the department of the Chocó where hundreds of people had sought refuge.

“Art will allow us not to forget what happened, it will preserve our memory, and I think that I am contributing (to peace) by not being spiteful and trying to heal,” comments Noel in “Suba al aire” in which he remembers “that we were happy in Bojayá.”

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An article from the Mennonite World Review

Partners of Mennonite Central Committee in Colombia continue to walk with people affected by more than 50 years of violence as new armed conflict emerges even after a peace accord.
Violence among armed groups is escalating as FARC-EP guerrillas demobilize, threatening Mennonite Brethren churches in the Chocó region.

Members of a Colombian Mennonite Brethren Conference visit a rural community in the San Juan region shortly after the community experienced significant flooding. The community is stuck in the middle of violence between the Gaitanista Self Defence Forces of Colombia, a paramilitary group that occupies the area, and a guerrilla group vying for power. — Brendah Ndagire/MCC

The country’s largest rebel group, FARC-EP — the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — signed a peace accord with the government last year. But “there is still a long journey toward peace,” said Amy Eanes, an advocacy support specialist for MCC in Colombia.

Some armed groups are becoming more active, hoping to assert dominance and claim territory once occupied by the FARC-EP.

This is especially true in rural areas of the Chocó region, where MCC partners with the Mennonite Brethren Conference, whose members are working and praying for peace.

Living in fear

A member of one of the churches, Maria Camila, whose real name isn’t being used to protect her identity, says another guerrilla group is fighting the Gaitanista Self Defence Forces of Colombia, a paramilitary group that normally occupies the area, and it’s very dangerous there now.

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What is happening in Colombia, Is peace possible?

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Armed conflict between the two groups broke out in February, months after the peace accord was signed by the FARC-EP. In one part of the town, the guerrilla group threatened to shoot civilians if they didn’t open their doors because the guerrilla fighters believed members of the paramilitary group were hiding there.

“Even though you know that God says that wars will come and in the midst of all these things God will protect you, it was something so terrible — to feel the shootout, to hear the sounds,” she said. “I just said, ‘Lord, have mercy on us and watch over us,’ but we thought this was going to be the end.”

Camila has never felt so unsafe. “We aren’t free to walk around at night. We all live shut in our houses,” she said. “All of us in the community are frightened. That’s why we’re living like this.”

She has little faith the peace accord will make a difference in her community or other rural areas in Colombia.

“In reality, the hope we have is from God,” she said.

Teaching peace

MCC continues to support partners in Colombia that work on peacebuilding initiatives and assist some of the most vulnerable families, particularly those displaced by violence. The conflict has resulted in 7 million internally displaced people.

In April, MCC embarked on a three-year peace-education project with the Mennonite Brethren Regional Council of Chocó to promote an understanding of a culture of peace and how to encourage peacebuilding among youth and young adults.

One of MCC’s partners, the Church Coordination for Psychosocial Action, supports churches and organizations, enabling them to provide trauma awareness and healing, build resilience and contribute to peacebuilding and reconciliation in Colombia.

MCC works with a number of Mennonite churches and organizations in Colombia who have been actors for peace for many years.

“The churches are figuring out what this post-accord period will look like for them, and I think it’s important to walk alongside these partners,” Eanes said.

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An article from Sputnik (translated by CPNN)

The peace delegations of the Colombian Government and the ELN guerrillas announced on June 6 that they reached a series of agreements at the negotiating table in Ecuador during the second round of talks in that city, including international financing to push forward the peace process.

The new President of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, assures that his administration will continue to support the peace process.

“A fund to finance the peace process has been established by negotiators for the Colombian National Government and the National Liberation Army (ELN). Its objective is to mobilize contributions from international cooperation to finance, in a transparent and flexible manner, the expenses for its development, “they said in a joint statement.

They also pointed out that during the first two weeks of negotiations in the second round of talks (which began on 16 May) they reached consensus on issues related to pedagogy and communication for peace.

According to reports, it was possible “to establish a joint team of pedagogy and communication for peace, whose general objective is to promote the construction of a culture of peace through the generation of trust and credibility, which gives greater strength to the work of the Dialogue Table and the agreements being reached. ”

Finally, they highlighted the progress in the creation of the group of countries for support, accompaniment and cooperation with the peace talks (GPAAC).

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What is happening in Colombia, Is peace possible?

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“The GPAAC, initially made up of Germany, Holland, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland, have defined the terms of reference that will guide their development,” the government and the guerrillas said.

The statement came after the national press reported that 206 people from different rural populations in the municipality of Santa Bárbara de Iscuandé (Nariño, southwest) were displaced last weekend by clashes between the ELN and criminal gangs.

“Community leaders reported that four older adults remain in the area where the fighting took place because of their health problems,” according to the local radio station Blu Radio. They added that the displaced are housed in homes of friends and relatives in a situation of overcrowding.

Neither the Government nor the ELN have yet commented on this situation.

The Colombian Government and the ELN have held public peace talks since last February 8, after the participation of that rebel group with the Executive was supported by sectors that consider that it is only possible to speak of a general peace for Colombia when an armistice similar to that achieved with the FARC is achieved.

The Colombian armed conflict, which has involved guerrillas, paramilitaries, state agents and drug gangs for over half a century, is the oldest war on the continent and has left some eight million victims, as well as 300,000 dead, 45,000 missing and 6 to 8 million displaced, according to official reports.