Father Javier Giraldo, Mónica from Operazione Colomba (Italian NGO), and Italian volunteer Chiara Gambardella.

Article published in the special Newsletter '15 years of PBI', October 2009

Mari Vera, volunteer from Spain (2007-9)

After learning about PBI’s experience in Central America, Father Javier Giraldo requests accompaniment for Colombia.

Father Javier Giraldo radiates serenity1. For many years, he has led the struggle to defend human rights and has often witnessed barbaric violence. However, he still maintains the composure of a person convinced in what he is doing and why.

Father Giraldo was one of the key individuals behind PBI’s arrival in Colombia in 1994. At the end of the 1980’s, he learned about the experience of international accompaniment in Central America and thought it could be a useful tool in the Colombian context, given the grave situation of long-term patterns of systematic human rights violations in the country. He saw that a crucial role could be played by these «international witnesses», people that arrived saw what happened and later explained it so these acts did not remain entirely unpunished and silenced.

With a mischievous smile, he recalls the frightened stare of the person at PBI International in London when he made the request for accompaniment. She was only able to say: «Colombia is different, Colombia is different», by way of explanation for the initial negative response to accompany in the country.

But a few years later, in 1993, a small exploratory commission came to Colombia with the purpose of determining the feasibility of a future PBI accompaniment. After a month of observation, they wrote a report of colossal proportions. What they saw during these few weeks was an ever-greater presence of paramilitaries employing violence against communities and causing displacement, death and destruction. At this time, the annual figures for deaths were exorbitant. The following year PBI returned to Colombia, but this time to stay. Father Javier recalls the principal problem at first being the endless demand for a small group of volunteers. 

Nonetheless, he stresses how PBI’s presence has helped save many lives throughout these years. For instance, during a paramilitary takeover of Dabeiba it was rumoured that Carlos Castaño2 was at the checkpoint. The PBI volunteers, who were accompanying members of CIJP, were questioned at great length. In the end, they were allowed to continue on their way without any trouble. Father Javier also stresses PBI’s moral support and recalls the difficult task of searching for dead bodies after the massacre of La Resbalosa in 2005, in which members of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó were murdered. PBI was also there at the time, accompanying in these moments of extreme pain and anger.

According to Father Javier, the present time presents a challenge for PBI. The current strategies of attacking human rights organisations are more orientated towards criminal prosecutions, false accusations, and stigmatisation of human rights defenders. These are more subtle forms of aggression, but the effect are the same: undermining human rights work, weakening organisations, and silencing reports of abuses. Impunity; what Father Giraldo calls the strategy of «lady justice and the rifle». 

International accompaniment continues to play a key role in all of this. We are completing 15 years in Colombia – how long will we have to continue?

1 This text is based on an interview with Father Javier Giraldo in August 2009

2 Former paramilitary leader