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R E L I G I O U S

R E S P O N S E S T O

V I O L E N C E

Human Rights in Latin America Past and Present

Edited by

alexander wilde

University of Notre Dame Press

Notre Dame, Indiana


Copyright © 2016 by University of Notre Dame PressNotre Dame, Indiana 46556

www.undpress.nd.edu

All Rights Reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wilde, Alexander.Religious reponses to violence : human rights in Latin America

past and present / edited by Alexander Wilde.Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 9780268044312 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 0268044317 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Human rights—Latin America. Human rights— Latin America—Religious aspects. Civil rights—

Latin America. Freedom of religion—Latin America.JC599.L3 R475 2015

261.7098—dc232015034485

∞ The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of

the Council on Library Resources.


C O N T E N T S

List of Abbreviations ixList of Illustrations xiiiPreface and Acknowledgments xv

Introduction 1 Alexander Wilde

C H A P T E R 1 The Evolution of the Theory and Practice of Rights in Latin American Catholicism 27 Daniel H. Levine

C H A P T E R 2 Violence and Everyday Experience in Early Twenty- First-Century Latin America 63

Robert Albro

PA RT I

Rethinking Religious Contributions to Human Rights

C H A P T E R 3 Human Rights and Christian Responsibility: Transnational Christian Activism, Human Rights, and State Violence in Brazil and Chile in the 1970s 95

Patrick William Kelly

C H A P T E R 4 Church Responses to Political Violence in Central America: From Liberation Theology to Human Rights 123

Virginia Garrard-Burnett


vi Contents

C H A P T E R 5 The Institutional Church and Pastoral Ministry: Unity and Conflict in the Defense of Human Rights in Chile 159

Alexander Wilde

C H A P T E R 6 Violent Times: Catholicism and Dictatorship in Argentina in the 1970s 191

María Soledad Catoggio

C H A P T E R 7 Transformations in Catholicism under Political Violence: Córdoba, Argentina, 1960–1980 219

Gustavo Morello, S.J.

C H A P T E R 8 Religion Meets Legal Strategy: Catholic Clerics, Lawyers, and the Defense of Human Rights in Brazil 243

Rafael Mafei Rabelo Queiroz

PA RT I I

Contemporary Ministries Responding to Violence

C H A P T E R 9 Building Peace and Dignity: Jesuit Engagement in Colombia’s Magdalena Medio 283

Elyssa Pachico

C H A P T E R 1 0 From Preaching to Listening: Extractive Industries, Communities, and the Church in Rural Peru 311

Javier Arellano-Yanguas

C H A P T E R 11 Violence and Pastoral Care in Putumayo, Colombia 339 Winifred Tate

C H A P T E R 1 2 Violence, Religion, and Institutional Legitimacy in Northern Central America 371

Robert Brenneman

C H A P T E R 1 3 The Politics of Presence: Evangelical Ministry in Brazilian Prisons 395

Andrew Johnson


Contents vii

C H A P T E R 14 “Fui migrante y me hospedaron”: The Catholic Church’s Responses to Violence against Central American Migrants in Mexico 417

Amelia Frank-Vitale

C H A P T E R 15 From Guns to God: Mobilizing Evangelical Christianity in Urabá, Colombia 443

Kimberly Theidon

Afterword 477 Alexander Wilde

About the Contributors 481Index 483



ix

L I S T O F A B B R E V I A T I O N S

ABI Associação Brasileira de Imprensa (Brazilian Press Asso-ciation)

ACIB American Committee for Information on BrazilACR Asociación Columbiana para la Reintegración (Colom-

bian Agency for Reintegration, formerly the High Commissioner for Reintegration)

AFDD Agrupación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos (Association of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees, Chile)

APAC Associação de Proteção e Assistência aos Codenados (Asso ciation for the Protection and Assistance of Prison-ers, Brazil)

AUC Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (United Self- Defense Forces of Colombia)

BNM Brasil: Nunca mais (Brazil: Never Again)CAH Consejo Aguaruna y Huambisa (Awajun-Wampis

Council, Peru)CEAS Comisión Episcopal de Acción Social (Episcopal Com-

mission for Social Action, Peru)CEBs Comunidades eclesiales de base (Christian base commu-

nities)CELAM Consejo del Episcopado Latinoamericano (Conference

of Latin American Bishops)CELS Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (Center for Legal

and Social Studies, Argentina)CEPA Comité Evangélico de Promoción Agraria (Evangelical

Committee on Agricultural Development, Nicaragua)


x List of Abbreviations

CEPAD Comité Evangélico Pro-Ayuda al Desarrollo (Evangeli-cal Committee for Pro-Development Aid, Nicaragua)

CESE Coordenadoria Ecumênica de Serviço (Ecumenical Coordination Service, Brazil)

CINEP Centro de Investigación y Educación Popular (Center for Research and Popular Education, Colombia)

CNBB Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil (National Conference of Brazilian Bishops)

CNDH Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos (National Human Rights Commission, Mexico)

CNRR Comité Nacional de Reparación y Reconciliación (Na-tional Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation, Colombia)

CONADEP Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas (National Commission on the Disappearance of Per-sons, Argentina)

CONAR Comité Nacional de Ayuda a los Refugiados (National Committee for Aid to Refugees, Mexico)

CUC Comité de Unidad Campesina (Committee for Peasant Unity, Guatemala)

CyR Cristianismo y Revolución (Christianity and Revolution, Argentina)

DDR Desarme, desmovilización y reintegración (Disarma-ment, demobilization, and reintegration, Colombia)

EGP Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres (Guerrilla Army of the Poor, Guatemala)

ELN Ejército de Liberación Nacional (National Liberation Army, Colombia)

EPICA Ecumenical Program for Inter-American Communica-tion and Action

EPL Ejército Popular de Liberación (Popular Liberation Army, Colombia)

EZLN Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Zapatista Army of National Liberation, Mexico)

FALN Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (Armed Front for National Liberation, Venezuela)


FAR Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes (Rebel Armed Forces, Argen-tina and Guatemala)

FARC Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revo-lutionary Armed Forces of Colombia)

FMLN Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, El Salvador)

IACHR Inter-American Commission on Human RightsICJ International Commission of JuristsIDL Instituto de Defensa Legal (Institute for Legal Defense,

Peru)MAPU Movimiento de Acción Popular Unitario (Unitary

Movement for Popular Action, Chile)MIR Movimiento de la Izquierda Revolucionaria (Movement

of the Revolutionary Left, Chile)MSTM Movimiento de Sacerdotes para el Tercer Mundo (Move-

ment of Priests for the Third World, Argentina)NCC National Council of ChurchesPDPMM Programa de Desarrollo y Paz del Magdalena Medio

(Development and Peace Program for Magdalena Medio, Colombia)

PRN Proceso de Reorganización Nacional (National Reorga-nization Process, Argentina)

REMHI Proyecto Interdiocesano de Recuperación de la Memo-ria Histórica (Inter-Diocesan Recovery of Historical Memory Project, Guatemala)

SERPAJ Servicio Paz y Justicia (Service for Peace and Justice, Argentina)

STM Superior Tribunal Militar (Superior Court of Military Justice, Brazil)

TSN Tribunal de Segurança Nacional (Tribunal for National Security, Brazil)

UDHR Universal Declaration of Human RightsUNCHR United Nations Commission on Human RightsUNDPKO United Nations Department of Peacekeeping

Operations

List of Abbreviations xi


xii List of Abbreviations

UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for RefugeesURNG Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (Guate-

malan National Revolutionary Unity)USCC United States Catholic ConferenceUSO Unión Sindical Obrera de la Industria del Petróleo

(Labor Union of Petroleum Industry Workers, Colombia)

USP Universidad de São Paulo (University of São Paulo)VPR Vanguarda Popular Revolucionária (People’s Revolu-

tionary Vanguard, Brazil)WCC World Council of ChurchesWLF World Lutheran Federation WOLA Washington Office on Latin America


xiii

L I S T O F I L L U S T R A T I O N S

Figures

9.1 Map of Magdalena Medio, Colombia 29010.1 Map of Piura and Cajamarca, Peru 32211.1 Map of Putumayo, Colombia 34112.1 Homicides per 100,000 Inhabitants in Mesoamerica, 1995–2010 37312.2 Religious Adherents in Northern Central America 37812.3 “Legitimacy” Scores of Selected Religious and State Institutions 37914.1 Map of the Mexican States Coahuila, Mexico, and Oaxaca 41915.1 Map of Urabá, Colombia 447

Table

10.1 Types of Church Involvement in Conflicts Opposing Extractive Industries 314



xv

P R E F A C E

A N D

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

This book is the fruit of a two-year project at the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at American University in Washington, DC. It is based on fresh research about active religious responses to vi-olence that have had social impact over the past half century. We wanted to explore how churches and individuals were motivated by their religious beliefs, particularly in the form of constructive agency to mitigate vi-olence. Struck by the contrast between the visibility of church responses during Latin America’s authoritarian era and the lower profile today, we adopted a diachronic perspective of “past” and “present,” hypothesizing differences in religious responses to political and criminal violence. We also wanted to examine a range of societies throughout Latin America, to identify commonalities as well as contrasts. Finally, we believed that a multidisciplinary approach would be appropriate for such an exploratory project. The participants were scholars in anthropology, history, sociol-ogy, and political science whose current research reflects affinities with our central questions and approach. This volume is richer for the perspectives of their different disciplines—and for the individual authorial voices they bring to their chapters—on our core analytical questions.

How the churches relate to “human rights” was from the inception a natural crosscutting theme of the project’s research. We sought fresh historical perspective on how the different churches viewed and contrib-uted to the human rights movement when it emerged in the 1970s. The religious dimensions of that movement were, we believed, ripe for reap-praisal, in order to understand better what led the churches of that era


xvi Preface and Acknowledgments

to defend human rights (or not) and the nature of the legacy of their re-sponses to violence in Latin America today. The resulting research offers a range of illuminating insights into questions about both the past and the present of human rights. This book’s second major theme—pasto-ral “accompaniment”—emerged as a project focus through discussion of ongoing research and is engaged in virtually every chapter.1 Our initial conceptualization emphasized institutional and structural factors condi-tioning religious responses to violence. In examining the dynamic be-tween church-linked actors and context, however, project participants were drawn particularly to interactions and relationships at the pastoral level. The research addressing this pastoral level proved an illuminating lens for our central questions and constitutes a major contribution of this volume.

The subject of violence itself is present in every chapter of this book. Following an interpretation of contemporary scholarship on the subject, authors examine violencias in many forms and the ways in which churches have responded in particular settings, both historical and contemporary. While political transitions from dictatorship to democracy ended gener-alized and systematic state violence in Chile and Argentina, Latin Ameri-ca’s broad processes of democratization have not diminished levels of violence in many places examined in this book. Our research affirms the importance of distinguishing political and state violence from criminal violence—but also points to the need for better conceptualization if con-temporary violence is to be addressed more effectively. This book suggests more generally that religious pastoral ministries, with their insights into the lived experience of violence, offer potentially significant new perspec-tives and perhaps remedies.

The chapters in this book all demonstrate careful attention to context—the specific circumstances to which the churches were respond-ing. But they all also share a common perspective in first understanding those responses in religious terms, “from within.” They take religion seri-ously because it has significant social consequences, because it provides a lens for understanding larger processes of social and political change, and because, at base, it is a way in which many human beings attempt to make sense of their lives and the experience of violence. This book’s contribu-tors attempt to see the world through the eyes of believers and then


Preface and Acknowledgments xvii

“translate” their perceptions, justifications, and rationales for response into the secular language of scholarly analysis. In this sense the book pro-vides a religious perspective on Latin America’s violence that we believe enlarges understanding of its character, causes, and potential antidotes, beyond the explanations of the social sciences as such.

Like any collective endeavor, this volume has benefited from many minds, hands, and spirits. I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to have worked through many stages with each of its authors. In sharing their research passions and talents, they made this joint exploration a genu inely creative process. I was initially drawn to the study of religion and violence in Latin America in the 1960s, a period of extraordinary en-ergy in a new field, and it has been a deep pleasure to uncover such energy today in different places, thanks to the work of subsequent generations. Two of our contributors deserve special thanks: Dan Levine, an old friend and major force in this field for a half century, and Bob Brenneman, a new friend whose research shines with originality and passion. Both lent indispensable support to critical aspects of this enterprise.

This volume also reflects the ideas and experience of other partici-pants in our project workshops (March 2012 and January 2013) and several panels at professional meetings, as well as valuable counsel in un-counted bilateral exchanges: Karina Kosicki Bellotti, Evan Berry, Phillip Berryman, John Burdick, Miguel Carter, Cath Collins, Steven Dudley, Joe Eldridge, Daniel Esser, Tom Getman, Henri Gooren, Frances Hago-pian, Elizabeth Lira, Juan Méndez, Kevin O’Neill, Tom Quigley, Catalina Romero, Cynthia Sanborn, Timothy Steigenga, and Jon Wolseth. Thanks to you all.

A three-day meeting in Guatemala in July 2013 on the topic “The Role of the Church in Facing Violence in Mesoamerica” powerfully af-firmed the present-day vitality of religion in that deeply troubled region. Three dozen participants with grassroots ministries in Mexico, Colombia, and all the countries of Central America demonstrated remarkable will-ingness to share their real-world pastoral experiences and think collabor-atively across the wide spectrum of their different faith traditions. My deep gratitude to Willi Hugo Pérez, rector of the Semilla Seminary and co-convener and organizer of the meeting, and to Bob Brenneman,


xviii Preface and Acknowledgments

Claudia Dary, Joe Eldridge, Amelia Frank-Vitale, Pedro Pantoja, Alejan-dro Solalinde, and Dennis Stinchcomb.2

I owe a particular debt to my colleagues at American University who have accompanied this project for two years: Joe Eldridge, university chaplain and a legendary advocate for human rights and dear friend; Bill Gentile, producer of a three-part video series on evangelical churches and gang violence in Guatemala (available on YouTube as God and Gangs: Criminal Violence and Religion in Guatemala); Dennis Stinchcomb, who combined great enthusiasm for our research with exemplary management skills; Jacquelyn Dolezal, who shepherded the English and Spanish manu-scripts into publication with patience and meticulous care; Inés Luengo de Krom, chief administrator of the Center for Latin American and La-tino Studies (CLALS); Meredith Glueck; Phil Chamberlain; and Amanda Sheldon.

Thanks also to Patrick Breslin, who provided superb editing skills and acute understanding of our issues in revising all the chapters, and An-drew McKelvy, for his excellent translation of María Soledad Catoggio’s chapter.

There are several people without whom this book would have not been possible. Eric Hershberg, director of CLALS and an old and valued friend, brought his broad scholarly intelligence, exceptional professional experience, and encouraging collegial counsel to every step of this project, from its inception to the end. Toby Alice Volkman, program director of the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs, gave us enthusiastic support from the very beginning and allowed us space to develop our project creatively. My deep gratitude to them both and to the Luce Foundation for its two-year project grant.

Much more could be said, but the last word of thanks is to Anne Pérotin-Dumon, for her consistent esprit critique and unfailingly gener-ous faith.

Alexander WildeWashington, DC, USA

September 2014


Preface and Acknowledgments xix

Notes

1. In project workshops in 2012 and 2013 and panels in the annual meetings of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion in 2012 and Latin American Studies Association in 2013. 2. A rapporteur’s report by the Guatemalan anthropologist Claudia Dary, “Las iglesias ante las violencias en Mesoamérica,” may be downloaded at www.american.edu/clals/Religion-and-Violence-Documents.cfm.
