Mennonite Weekly Review

Héctor Mondragón — economist, activist and member of the Colombian Mennonite Church — has been endangered by what the church called “slander” in Colombia’s national newspaper.

Héctor Mondragón, economist, activist and member of the Colombian Mennonite Church, is seeking to clear his name after the Colombian national newspaper alleged he is connected to an armed group. — Photo provided by MCC

El Tiempo (The Times) alleged in an Aug. 29 article that an e-mail to Mondragón had been found on a laptop belonging to a slain leader of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), the nation’s largest left-wing armed group.

As a result, Mondragón canceled a U.S. speaking tour with Mennonite Central Committee, planned for Sept. 3-15 to speak against the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, in order to clear his name in Colombia.

Alix Lozano, president of the Colombian Mennonite Church, and Jenny Neme, director of Justapaz (Justpeace), the church’s peace organization, wrote an open letter in support of Mondragón.

They noted that Colombian leaders who support the free trade agreement traveled to the United States while Mondragón could not, making Lozano and Neme “feel there is an evident lack of fair play in the democratic debate surrounding this issue.”

Lozano and Neme detailed Mondragón’s commitment to indigenous people and small-scale farmers in Colombia.

“We have known him as a Christian not only committed to the cause of Jesus Christ, but also to Jesus’ teaching and example of nonviolent love,” Lozano and Neme wrote.

Mondragón refuted the false information about him in an essay he wrote for broad circulation, translated and published Sept. 10 by ZNet, a Web site of independent political commentary.

“They failed to kill my body, but today they are threatening to kill my words, and I feel it like a re-opening of my old wounds,” wrote Mondragón, who was tortured in 1977 and has been threatened with death repeatedly because of his advocacy work for the poor and marginalized.

The recent claim threatens Mondragón because it could make him a target for right-wing armed groups.