by Francisco de Roux, S.J.
(from El Colombiano of Medellin, 3 May 1995)
On Wednesday, April 26, at 10 AM, Richard Phelps, the Executive of Dane County, pulled together his administrative and technical team in order to receive the Mayor of Apartadó, Gloria Cuartas and the Bishop of the same city, Monsignor Isaias Duarte Cancino.
The government of Dane County wanted to express its solidarity with the city which some years before it had declared its sister community.
Msgr. Duarte could not make the appointment because he had to be present at the Regional Peace Commission, the same day in Medellin. It was then my task to accompany the Mayor and informally give the greetings in the name of the Bishop.
The meeting had a practical character. The Mayor presented, with detail and enthusiasm, the political and social situation of her town. The Consensus among the different political and social forces gave her mandate to address the numerous needs of the city. Richard Phelps renewed the commitment of that North-American city with the people of this region of Antioquia.
What followed was a week full of activities. Conferences at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and Milwaukee, meetings with technical people, educators, civic and religious leaders, radio interviews, journalists, even an ecumenical service for Colombia. It was a city that wanted seriously to live up to its sisterhood commitment with Apartadó.
The story started 5 years ago, when the Colombia Support Network of Madison proposed to the local civic leaders to establish a sister city relationship with a Colombian city. And Apartadó was selected. The CSN has been the soul and the strength of this effort. They have never offered money but rather solidarity and this is very specific: to contribute to peace in the region, to defend human rights and international humanitarian law, and to connect this Colombian community with the technical and financial opportunities that there are in the US to solve the problems of a basically poor population.
The most important aspect is that in its relationship with Apartadó, the people of Madison have maintained the operative principle that make this city famous: act locally and think globally. I could easily say that Madison is the most organized and participatory among the cities in the US and one of the most influential in the politics of the North American nation. With respect to Colombia, our friends in Madison want to be serious in their concrete commitment to Apartadó and without slacking they study what happens in Colombia and what happens in the relationship between their country and ours. And at that global level they are making proposals.
They think that the solution to the drug problem in Colombia is not war. They reject Helms and Bennett's position that wish direct intervention from the US on the "Colombian narco-democracy". They believe that the solution to the drug problem starts by exercising state control over the consumers in the US. They ask for the suspension of military aid to Colombia. But at the same time, they want to maintain aid for development and in opening the US market for Colombian products. They have protested against violations of human rights in our country particularly against the paramilitary groups. They have sent communications to the government and to the rebels to initiate conversations.
At this moment when Antioquia, with good judgment, has created the Regional Commission for Peace, we should incorporate in the process the sister city of Madison/ Dane County, which already has acted with commitment and strength and that already has sent 3 commissions to study the situation of its sister community, Apartadó -- that city full of pain, center of one of the most beautiful and promising regions of Colombia.