Colombia Exhibit Brings Protests to Campus
Solidarity Committee: Campaign Misrepresents Conditions in Colombia
District-wide protests marked the unveiling of the “Discover Colombia Through Its Heart” art exhibit this week. From Union Station to Georgetown’s Red Square, protesters demanded the removal of the exhibits’ sculptured hearts.
The exhibit arranged to last from Sept. 5 to Sept. 15, is comprised of 47 heart-shaped sculptures. According to the Embassy of Colombia’s Web site, seven 13-foot sculptures representing various aspects of Colombia are located in Union Station and 40 more eight-foot hearts — each depicting lesser-known aspects of Colombian life — are placed in various locations across D.C.
The international exhibit is part of the “Colombia Es Pasión” campaign, a Colombian government-sponsored initiative designed to improve the image of the country abroad.
“The Colombia is Passion campaign was developed to promote the country abroad and encourage business investment, tourism and enhanced cultural relations with nations around the world. The logo of the campaign is a heart, which symbolizes the passion of the Colombian people — the driving force that guides their creativity, determination, warmth and kindness,” the Embassy of Colombia states on its Web site.
Protesters, however, are contesting the message of the exhibit and the motives behind it. Numerous groups have rallied and decried the exhibit’s portrayal of Colombian life as false and misleading; many claim the exhibit is a propaganda initiative.
“Launched at the close of the summer Congressional recess, and centered on Union Station across from the Capitol, this PR campaign is clearly intended to win Congressional support for the proposed U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. We are a coalition of Colombians, Colombian-Americans and others concerned about human, labor and environmental rights in Colombia, and opposed to the FTA,” the No More Broken Hearts campaign states on its Web site regarding the exhibit.
No More Broken Hearts has organized protests at Union Station and published a satirical Web site — colombiavisit.org — in response to the exhibit.
“This Web site is to acquaint English-speaking visitors to our beautiful and complicated country, Colombia. It is particularly geared towards U.S. taxpayers, who provide our government with over $500 million annually in military and economic aid. … We also want to welcome those businesses looking to make a killing, particularly in resource extraction,” the www.colombiavisit.org Web site said.
Members of the Georgetown community also protested the art exhibit on Sept. 9, particularly the placement of one of the sculptured hearts on campus. Located in the Intercultural Center Galleria, the sculptured heart promotes the Colombian flower industry.
The Georgetown Solidarity Committee, Students for Fair Trade and Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán de Georgetown — a student organization that promotes the Latino community and its culture — were among the participants in the protest, according to a press release issued by the Georgetown Solidarity Committee.
The activists dressed in black and, with faces painted white, marched from the Intercultural Center to Healy Hall. Along the march, protesters held up signs and cardboard cut-out broken hearts to demonstrate their opposition to the sculpture and Colombia’s poor human rights record. Upon arriving in Healy Hall, the protesters delivered a letter to the chief of staff in the office of University President John J. DeGioia demanding the removal of the statue.
“Sixty percent of all cut flowers sold in the U.S. are from Colombia, and workers in these factories are organizing in resistance to conditions such as extreme exposure to pesticides during incredible long work hours, threats violating their freedom of association, sexual harassment, and lack of health care and social security benefits. The Colombian government is responsible for the highest number of murdered unionists than everywhere else in the world combined,” the Georgetown Solidarity Committee stated in a press release regarding the sculpture.
GSC sees Georgetown’s acceptance of the sculpture as acceptance of a misleading advertising campaign. Furthermore, GSC and the protesters do not want the Colombia-U.S. FTA approved.
“This sculpture celebrates the cut flower industry. This happens to be one of the most exploitive industries in Colombia. … This is not something we should celebrate,” Ja-Rei Wang (COL ’11) said. “As an institution that promotes social justice, [the university] shouldn’t host this exhibit.”
On the same day as the Georgetown protests, “Colombia es Pasión” distributed hundreds of Colombian flowers in Red Square to promote the exhibit.
Georgetown is the only university in the city with a “Discover Colombia Through Its Heart” sculpture. The piece of art is being sponsored here on campus by the Center for Latin American Studies.
According to CLAS, the center was approached by the cultural attaché of Colombia about placing the heart on campus.
“The main mission of the Center for Latin American Studies is to educate about all aspects of our region of interest. This is an opportunity to show a positive face of Colombia. Unfortunately we have been caught in the middle of a politically charged controversy that was not our doing,” CLAS said through an e-mail from the center’s director, Erick Langer.
Despite the protests, CLAS does not expect to remove the statue prior to its removal date on Sept. 15.
“We encourage students to develop their own views based on the entire exhibit and the information given through it. We do not anticipate removing the heart because doing so goes against the principles of freedom of speech and academic discourse,” CLAS said. “We are open to dialogue within the university community and are willing to serve as liaison between members of our community and the exhibit organizers when concerns such as these arise.”
The Colombia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement has been stalled in Congress since last April, when the House voted down the measure 224-195.
Sep 11 2009 at 2:26 p.m.
Perhaps the protestors should actually visit Colombia, as I did recently, before making wild accusations that have no basis in fact.
I actually know quite a bit about the Discover Colombia Through Its Heart campaign and can tell you that the planning for it has been going on for months and the timing has absolutely nothing to do with the Colombia FTA.
I have a simple question for the protestors: If the government of Colombia is so awful and the people so horribly repressed, why does it have an 80 percent approval rating among Colombians?
Sep 11 2009 at 6:43 p.m.
I feel that Colombia is a great country and I am really sorry that people who do not have the correct information are making things worse for it.
Sep 12 2009 at 4:43 a.m.
social justice is joke. if people are willing to work hard for less money and brave terrible conditions, let them. they don't need some naive college kid acting as a wet blanket and telling others how to run their lives. try finding a real job first, before telling other people they can't work at theirs.
to reference a jack donaghy quote, why don't these protesting student organizations go back to their common room and talk about apartheid. its less obnoxious way to be utterly impotent in the real world.
p.s. unless you want to work for free at a non-profit, no employer cares that you are in a college social justice group.
Sep 12 2009 at 9:38 a.m.
Warof1812: The 80% approval is because there is in the society a very rooted culture of illegality", and the president Uribe is icon of that, where the "end justify the means" that became legacy. Colombia is the only country where the president told in public to his legislator: "please pass me these laws before you get arrested for ties with narco-paramilitaries..." and people laugh. The Nixon's "watergate" scandal was tiny, compare how Uribe is using several times his intelligence agency 'DAS', to spy journalist, the opposition legislators, activist and the Supreme Court of Justice, etc. Imagine if that happen here in USA.
Sep 12 2009 at 12:15 p.m.
I have been visiting Colomibian flower farms for over 15 years as part of my consulting work. Your statements are incorrect about the working conditions on the farms. Thousands of Colomiban men and women have excellent jobs with excellent benefits due to their employment in these farms. Colombia as a nation continues to develope and improve. Maybe you need to visit and learn the good things that are happining in this beautiful country
Sep 13 2009 at 2:53 p.m.
Recently,both Colombia and Mexico have been targeted for massive U.S. military aid and counterinsurgency training. Colombia has more SOA graduates (10,000) than any other nation. Paramilitary death squads are a key element of civilian targeted warfare as it is taught at the SOA. In Colombia, former Defense Minister Gen. Harold Bedoya, SOA graduate and guest instructor, has advocated the use of paramilitaries for years. In Chiapas, Gen. Jose Ruben Rivas Pena, who took the elite Command and General Staff course at the SOA, has also called for the use of paramilitaries. Paramilitaries, in collaboration with the Colombian and Mexican militaries, are now cited for the vast majority of human rights abuses in these conflicts.
"We know the names of the generals and the high-ranking officers implicated in these killings, and nothing has been done," said Luis Eduardo Guerra, a Colombian peace activist whose community has repeatedly been targeted by paramilitaries. "We know that the officers who trained the paramilitaries were trained at the School of the Americas." Guerra was a featured speaker at a previous November vigil to close the SOA at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia, before he was murdered by Colombian soldiers under the command of an SOA graduate in the peace community San Jose de Apartado in Colombia.
Converge on Fort Benning, Georgia - Close the SOA and Take a Stand for Justice in the Americas
November 20-22, 2009
Shut Down the School of the Americas and Stop the Colombia FTA!