Colombia Journey: Report from Scott Nicolson

Dear friends,

One of the most deadly professions in Colombia is education. I visited Arauca City (100 miles east of Saravena in the state of Arauca) from July 17 to 19, and I met with leaders of the Arauca Teachers Union. Jaime Carrillo, human rights coordinator for the union, gave me a list of the 28 teachers who have been killed in Arauca since 1980 - nineteen of those murders took place in the last five years. “I knew most of those people,” said Jaime. Another 125 teachers have been threatened with death – five percent of the 2,456 teachers employed by the state of Arauca.

Jaime has been receiving death threats from the right-wing paramilitaries (which have close relations with the Colombian military) since 1991. In January 2004, anti-union graffiti was painted on a high school and the house of the union president, flyers with death threats
against the union leaders were thrown in the streets, and a letter expressing condolence for Jaime’s death was slipped under the front door of his house. Jaime fled to Bogotá for a while and then flew back to Arauca City on March 8. As soon as he arrived home from the airport, two paramilitaries came to the house asking for him. That same month, he received a message that stated, “Watch out for your children or you’ll never see them again.”

It wasn’t safe for Jaime to stay in his home, so he spent the next six months living in the union office. My first trip to Arauca was with an international delegation in June 2004. We flew from Bogotá to Arauca City and had a brief meeting that evening in the union office – where Jaime was staying. One day, some of his friends invited him to leave the office to have lunch with them. As soon as Jaime sat down at the table, his cell phone rang and the caller told him, “We’re watching you.” On May 18, June 18, and July 18 of 2005, threatening materials were slipped under the front door of his house.

Jaime told me that he is one of the five remaining members of the board of directors of the Unified Workers Federation in Arauca. Samuel Morales, a teacher and the federation president, is in prison in Bogotá on charges of “rebellion.” Alfonso Campino was released from prison last month for medical reasons – he was also held on charges of “rebellion.” The federation auditor went into hiding to avoid arrest on charges of “rebellion.” Leonel Goyeneche, a teacher and the federation treasurer, was murdered by the Colombian military on August 4, 2004.

The Arauca Teachers Union office has an armored door, bulletproof windows, and video camera surveillance; and Jaime moves around Arauca City with two armed bodyguards. He said, “I sense that I could be the victim of a bombing and I worry about my wife.” Carmen has also been mentioned in the threats against Jaime. In spite of all this, Jaime says “I’ve lived all of my life here in Arauca and I’m going to continue forward with this work.”

One of several inspiring educational projects in Arauca is the Parmenio Bonilla High School in Puerto Nidia. Parmenio was the director of the Puerto Nidia high school and he was killed on his way to the school in 1993. The high school was created by the peasant families in the region and it provides a quality education for the children that come from “satellite” elementary schools in their communities. My friend Raquel Castro, who is in prison in Bogotá on charges of “rebellion,” was the director of the school. When I visited her on July 1, she showed me an album of photos of the school and explained the improvements they had made while she was director. Eudoro, another friend, is the current director and I saw him again this afternoon – he said the school is continuing to function very well.

In love and solidarity,
Scott

This photo is of Jaime with some of the materials that were slipped under his front door in 2005 – including this booklet about the alleged dangers of communism. The folder underneath contains the threats he has received in the past 15 years.