Mennonite Weekly Review

When Father Rafael Gallego asked the Colombian army not to camp next to the church and high school in Tiquisio — because it put students, church members and other neighbors at risk of guerrilla attack — the army refused.

Kathleen Kern, of Rochester, N.Y., serves with Christian Peacemaker Teams.

Only after he appealed to the bishop of Magangue for help did the army agree to move, but thereafter, soldiers referred to Father Rafael as “the guerrilla priest.”

Father Rafael invited Julian Gutierrez, a Christian Peacemaker Teams worker, to Tiquisio to talk about a peace and development organization in the Magdalena Medio region, where CPT works.

Later, Gutierrez learned that the priest had had secondary reason for the invitation: because soldiers have money and weapons, young men from this poor community can find the military alluring, and paramilitaries often punish men with long hair for not following paramilitary “rules” of conduct.

The priest, who grew his own hair long as a form of resistance, wanted Gutierrez, who wears his hair in dreadlocks, to visit so that the young men could see that a man could be “cool” without looking like a soldier.

By 2008, Tiquisio had received national and international recognition for the success of its “Process,” a Colombian term referring to unified grassroots community initiatives that facilitate development, peace, education and health care. The Tiquisio Citizen’s Process convinced many guerrilla and paramilitary members to lay down their weapons and reintegrate into civilian life. It even taught human rights and international law to the Colombian Armed Forces.

Father Rafael had a U.S. speaking tour scheduled for October and November, but the U.S. Embassy denied him a visa. The reason given for denying one to a man who had helped lead nonviolent resistance to all armed groups — guerrilla, military and paramilitary — in his community? Security.

When Colombian church leaders questioned the visa denial, asking what possible risk to U.S. security the priest represented, they received the impression that the Colombian military had asked the U.S. not to grant him one.

This is the same military that has routinely violated the human rights of Colombian civilians and has tacitly supported Colombian paramilitary groups responsible for most of the atrocities in the country.

The most recent of its many scandals involves soldiers kidnapping civilians, murdering them in a region far away from their home communities, dressing them as guerrilla combatants and then turning in their bodies as rebels killed in combat so they can receive monetary rewards or more vacation time. Yet, Colombian Army officers almost routinely receive visas to come to the United States.

The Colombia Support Network and Council on Hemispheric Affairs put out a joint statement on the denial of Father Rafael’s visa, which read, in part:

“In recognition of the transgressions now being perpetrated by Colombian authorities, Washington should welcome, not shun, genuine democrats who, like Father Rafael, work courageously and at great personal risk to improve their society by translating theoretical rights into practical ones. Such potential guests should be praised and rewarded for having put U.S. democratic values to the test. The State Department’s action in canceling Father Rafael’s visit was a shameful action that needs to be condemned and reversed.”