The 219th General Assembly (2010) approved an overture “On Assisting with a Process for Negotiation of a Peace Accord in Colombia.”
The action directed “the Stated Clerk of the PC(USA) to write the administration of President Barack Obama and the Congress of the United States of America seeking the permanent suspension of the U.S. military use of seven Colombian bases initiated in 2009.”
The General Assembly further directed “appropriate offices of the General Assembly Mission Council (GAMC) to work with ecumenical partners to monitor and post periodic updates on the impact of United States military use of seven military bases in Colombia.”
In August 2010, the Colombian Constitutional Court declared this agreement unconstitutional, ruling that, “the 2009 accord should be redrafted as an international treaty and sent to Colombia’s Congress for approval.”
Concerns continue for the U.S. military presence in Colombia as well as the impact of the Colombia-UN Free Trade Agreement signed in October 2011.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) established its first permanent mission in Latin America in Bogota. This culminated in the first Presbyterian Church, founded in Bogotá in 1856. We continue to share in ministry with our Colombian brothers and sisters in the name of Jesus Christ. Here are ways to learn more about our partners in Colombia, the PC(USA) response and the situation in the country:
- PC(USA) World Mission and the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship partner with the Presbyterian Church of Colombia to train and deploy short-term mission workers to Colombia in the Colombia Accompaniment Program. Trained individuals travel to Colombia to serve as international accompaniers in response to a request from our partners in the Presbyterian Church of Colombia. Our sisters and brothers ask for this ministry in relation to their human rights work and their support of the communities of Colombians who have been displaced by the violence of the forty-year war in their country.
- Read the latest reports and reflections from current Accompaniers.
- Follow the work of PC(USA) Mission Co-Workers the Rev. Mamie Broadhurst and the Rev. Richard Williams on their website and the PC(USA) website.
- PC(USA) at Work in Colombia
- Fellowship of Reconciliation
- Latin American Working Group
- Ruta Pacífica de las Mujeres – en Español
- U.S. Office on Colombia
- Washington Office on Latin America
- Witness for Peace
May God grant peace to the people of Colombia.