After three days of hiding out in cold water while the state military attacked his farming community with grenades and machine guns, Marino Cordoba said he decided to speak out against human rights violations in Columbia.
About 25 people attended a lecture called, "Afro-Colombians: Caught in the Crossfire," by Marino Cordoba at the First Congregational Church on Friday night.
The event was sponsored by UNM's African American Studies and the Student Organization of Latin American Students.
Cordoba, president of the Association of Displaced Afro Colombians, said he was the victim of a state-sponsored infringement on human rights as a result of a land disagreement in 1996.
He said the Colombian government was in a dispute about land rights with a community of about 20,000 people when several hundred military soldiers raided the area during the early morning hours in December.
"The Colombian government was upset with some of the people of my community because they wouldn't give up their land," Cordoba said through an interpreter. "So, the government raided the community and assassinated civilians."
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Cordoba said the official state media reported that the military was raiding alleged guerilla camps within the farming community.
"The government said they were weeding out the militia, but they were slaughtering civilians," Cordoba said. "They would tie the hands of innocent people behind their backs and drag them into the streets, and if they were uncooperative, they would murder them in front of their families."
Cordoba said he was able to escape but said he was forced to hide in the water for the three days until he could hideout in a nearby village.
He said human rights groups later reported that the raid affected several thousand people.
"School-aged children no longer had the opportunity to go to school," Cordoba said. "Children were left without parents and so they had to steal to survive. My home was now a living hell."
Cordoba travels across the United States talking primarily to university students about what he says is happening in Colombia.
"The reason I talk to Americans is because the U.S. government gives millions of dollars to the Colombian government in aid to help fight the drug cartel but the government is using it to displace its people," he said.
The United States gives the Colombian government $1.3 billion annually, according to a statement from the Colombia Solidarity Committee of New Mexico, which co-sponsored the event.
"The money is used to aid the armed forces of Colombia, helicopters, aerial fumigation programs and private sector contractors working as military advisers," said Francine Cronshaw, founder of the committee.
Maria Najera, a senior at UNM, said she was interested in hearing the speaker because she has read about United States aid sent to Colombia in her political science classes and wanted to learn more.
"From what I have read, our tax dollars are going to human rights violators and we are funding terrorists that attack innocent civilians in Colombia and that isn't right," she said. "We are concerned about the terrorists who attacked us but why are we sponsoring terrorism ourselves."
Najera said this is a very important issue that everyone should be concerned about and offered suggestions for preventing human rights violations across the world.
"I think people should read as much as they can about human rights, ask as many questions as they can to their congressperson on what they are doing to stop human rights abusers," she said. "Becoming more educated about what is happening in other parts of the world is also a very good start."
