"The fields and a warehouse were still burning when we got there. A mother, in shock, emerged from the doorway of a home. We were told that the blood we saw was that of her three children—an infant and two toddlers—and their grandmother. They had been hit by mortar fire and rushed to the hospital in the town of Esteli. Holes dug in the ground as places of protection for the families of the village to jump into when the shellings came dotted the fields. So did mortar shells. We learned later that the infant died from the attack."
Gail Phares of the Carolina Interfaith Task Force on Central America described the scene that greeted a group of 30 North Carolinians their first day in Nicaragua in April of this year. The group of professionals, church executives, and former Peace Corps volunteers and missionaries, representing 10 denominations, had arrived in the village of Jalapa near Nicaragua's Honduran border at 4 o'clock in the morning, just after an attack by the U.S.-backed contras, or counterrevolutionary forces, from Honduras.
Two members of the U.S. Congress were also in the border area that day, and it was widely believed that the contras did not continue their attack because of the presence of North Americans. That fact sparked the thinking of the North Carolina group. Jefferson Boyer, an anthropologist and former Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras, articulated what was beginning to form in many of the minds and hearts of the group's members: What about setting up a permanent vigil of North Americans on the border to serve as a "protective shield" for the people of Nicaragua who have been made victims of U.S. policy?
The idea struck such a responsive chord in the group that they decided to propose it to Sergio Ramirez, head of Nicaragua's Council of State, before leaving the country. Ramirez pondered the idea long and hard, and then suggested that the group meet with Minister of the Interior Tomas Borge. Borge responded immediately: "We are at war. We wouldn't want you to receive the bullets meant for us. That would not be Christian of us." But after more discussion, Borge agreed that such a presence on the border could have a strong impact on the situation in Nicaragua.
Borge's words reflect the problem and promise of the situation in Nicaragua and of an idea that has evolved into the "Witness for Peace," a grassroots effort by North American Christians to maintain a permanent, nonviolent, prayerful presence on the border between Nicaragua and Honduras.
The United States has launched an undeclared war against Nicaragua. A year ago Newsweek disclosed the involvement of the CIA in a "covert war" against Nicaragua's Sandinista government. The U.S. government had begun funding, arming, and training the contras located in Honduras, most of them former members of the brutal National Guard of Anastasio Somoza, the tyrannical dictator deposed by the Sandinistas in 1979. In a year's time the contra forces have mushroomed in size while their attacks have escalated in frequency and brutality, and the war against Nicaragua has widened to include attacks from its Costa Rican border as well as new economic sanctions from the United States.
Christians and others in the United States have watched the escalations, have prayed and wept at the sufferings created by U.S. policy against Nicaragua. The feeling has often been one of helplessness as the casualties mount and U.S. policy stays on course, despite protests in this country.
The idea is spreading that the time has come for a permanent confrontation between U.S. military power and the power of conscience and truth—a confrontation led by North Americans who are willing to share the suffering that for so long and in so many places has been inflicted on others in our name.
Tomas Borge stated that Christian conscience restrains him from allowing North Americans to become victims of bullets intended for the people of Nicaragua. But Christian conscience compels us to do all that we can to stop the bullets sent by our government, now claiming increasing numbers of victims.
The people of Nicaragua, having lived through four decades of U.S.-backed repression at the hands of the Somoza dynasty, have embraced the significance of the cross. They know the faith that is born of risk and sacrifice. It is a lesson many of us North Americans are just beginning to learn.
Fortunately, Nicaragua is a neighbor, and many people in the United States have decided to see for themselves the effects of U.S. policy and the nature of life in this Central American nation. Most have come back committed to sharing their impressions and enabling others to participate in what is for many a life-changing experience.
The North Carolina group had such a commitment, and by the time their plane from Nicaragua's capital city of Managua landed on North American soil, they had a strategy in mind for getting 150 North Americans from as many states as possible to hold a vigil on the Nicaragua border in July. Phares and Boyer began working full time in the project. The phones rang day and night, and they quickly had 150 volunteers from 30 states and had to turn as many away.
The journey to Nicaragua in July and the time spent on the border near Jalapa was described by many of those who participated as "profound." They came away with the same conviction that traveler after traveler to Nicaragua has had: that the people of Nicaragua are deeply involved in the building of a new society whose foundation is justice. Robert Bonthius, a Presbyterian pastor from Maine, heard the commitment of the Nicaraguan people described as "reading the Bible's prophesies as a present promise."
Bonthius described the experience of being part of a crowded, festive scene in Managua on the Fourth of July. Conscious of the day and its significance to U.S. citizens, Nicaraguans asked of the North American group, "Sing us your national anthem."
"I hadn't sung it with any enthusiasm for a long time," explained Bonthius. "I have been so aware of the contradiction between America's constitutional ideals and what we are doing in places like Nicaragua. We have not been true to the best of our national heritage and gifts. The experience of being in Nicaragua helped me appreciate the American heritage in a way I haven't for 30 years."
Bonthius and the 149 others felt that their presence in Nicaragua was an expression consistent with America's best ideals: an expression of friendship born out of a desire to help protect the fragile experiment in justice being undertaken in Nicaragua. Since the greatest threat to that experiment is coming from the United States, their presence was also a clear statement of opposition to the policies of their own government.
A kinship based on a shared vision of justice grew up between North Americans and Nicaraguans on the border. But the unity they felt went much deeper. The North Americans journeyed to Nicaragua as Christians offering friendship to a nation that is profoundly Christian, declaring that bonds in the body of Christ are stronger than national loyalties. The group was welcomed by the Christian community in Jalapa, and all joined together in prayer at the border. The Nicaraguans pleaded that North Americans return.
Before the North Americans left Nicaragua, the idea surfaced again of creating a permanent witness at the border. As with many great ideas, this one was hatched and planned late in the night. Their last night in Managua, a handful of the 150 participants in the July vigil stayed up until almost dawn and formed themselves into a working committee. The group reflects two of the qualities central to the Witness for Peace: its ecumenical scope and its grassroots character. The group members come from a variety of denominations, and their addresses range from Ellsworth, Maine, to Santa Cruz, California; Raleigh, North Carolina, to Fairbanks, Alaska; and Chicago to Corpus Christi, Texas.
Immediately upon their return, David Sweet, a Latin American history professor from Santa Cruz, began traveling the country like an itinerant evangelist, generating enthusiasm for the Witness for Peace. Paddy Lane, a carpenter from Alaska, packed up her belongings and headed for Santa Cruz to establish an office for the project.
Planning for the Witness for Peace continued among the first handful, and others were added to the committee. After many lengthy conference phone calls and an October weekend retreat in which the entire committee converged on Philadelphia, a concrete plan emerged.
The Witness for Peace calls for rotating teams of about 15 people from local areas in the United States to go to Nicaragua. While the symbols, language, and commitment of the witness are Christian, the project is open to people of all faiths who feel comfortable with its biblical, prayerful, and nonviolent approach.
Since groups will come from local areas, some sense of community among members will already exist, which will be built upon for the experience in Nicaragua. The teams will make commitments of approximately two weeks, which will include training in the United States, orientation upon arrival in Nicaragua, participation in the border witness, and debriefing afterwards.
While at the border, participants will take part in times of prayerful witness as well as in constructive work. Through a program of rebuilding and serving, they will begin to take concrete responsibility for trying to help repair the damage our government is doing in Nicaragua.
Upon return to the United States, members will take part in press work, public education, and political action. They will serve as a regular flow of information about the effects of U.S. policy on Nicaragua and offer eyewitness testimony and documentation of the situation on the border.
The presence and work of the participants in Nicaragua will be augmented by teams of longer-term volunteers, who will commit themselves to three months or more in Nicaragua. They will receive the rotating teams and maintain close relationship with the Jalapa community as well as contact with the Witness for Peace in the United States.
In the United States, many people are involved in local support work, fund raising, and public education. The Witness for Peace is financially supported by the pledges of individuals, churches, and local support groups, as well as donations from church denominations, religious orders, and other concerned organizations.
The project maintains political independence both from the Sandinista government in Nicaragua and political organizations in this country. Participants in the Witness for Peace are likely to have both critical and positive feelings about the Sandinista government and its policies; the political unity of the project comes from a shared opposition to U.S. policy against Nicaragua. Although the project is not in any way aligned with the Sandinista government, dialog has taken place with Sandinista officials. Agreements have been reached about access to and mobility in the border area for participants in the Witness for Peace.
The hope of the Witness for Peace is that a different kind of U.S. presence in Nicaragua will inhibit military violence, cause the U.S. government to re-examine and change its policy toward Nicaragua, and establish a relationship of trust and friendship between the people of Nicaragua and the people of the United States.
A long history of individuals placing themselves in positions of risk as a nonviolent response to military aggression precedes the Witness for Peace. Citizens of Assisi, Italy, celebrate each year the fact that their city was saved from destruction in 1234 by the courage of Saint Clare and the other sisters in the cloister of San Damiano. When the sisters received news that the Saracens were going to sack Assisi, they went to the gate of the city with the elements of the Eucharist. As they stood praying at the entrance to the city, the attackers were so taken aback that they retreated.
During the Nazi period in Europe, citizens in several countries blocked the deportation of Jews to concentration camps by lying down on railroad tracks in the path of trains. The same tactic has been repeated more recently in efforts to block the transportation of nuclear materials in the United States. On the island of Kwajalein in the Pacific Islands, native people have placed themselves on nuclear missile testing sites in opposition to U.S. violation of their land.
In Algeria in August, 1962, following the ouster of the French, civil war broke out between two factions. Thousands of Algerians, including children, marched between a pitched machine-gun battle and forced the factions to a cease-fire. The following month, women lay along a highway to halt advancing armed columns.
In 1960 a group of U.S. pacifists undertook a Walk for Peace from San Francisco to Moscow, demanding nuclear disarmament in both the United States and the Soviet Union. Peace activist A. J. Muste was so impressed with the walk that he became convinced of the need for a permanent international peace unit.
As a result, in 1961 nonviolent activists from several countries, including the Gandhian Shanti Sena (peace brigade) from India, came together in Beirut. World Peace Brigade for Nonviolence (now Peace Brigades International) was born with a charter calling for the establishment of a standing roster of 1,000 volunteers prepared to give substantial blocks of time and to be on call for emergency service in international projects "related to the abolition of war and the use of nonviolent attitudes and methods in the achievements of national independence and basic social change."
World Peace Brigade first began working to bring a nonviolent presence to the independence struggles then engulfing Africa. In its two decades of existence, it has been on the scene of many conflicts, including in Nicaragua following the July vigil of North Americans.
The history of such efforts is marked by both success and failure. Many people who have observed Nicaragua and conceived of such a nonviolent witness feel that there may never have been a situation and an idea so well suited to one another. The idea of a border witness has surfaced again and again as North Americans have made their way to Nicaragua and back.
Politically, the contras have focused on Jalapa as a prime target for their attacks. The town is located on a point of land that makes it at the same time very vulnerable to attack from Honduras and an ideal location for creating a peace shield. As the political situation changes and the war widens, other zones of conflict may also be considered. Because the U.S. government is directly involved in the aggression against Nicaragua, many North Americans are seeing a different type of intervention by U.S. citizens as both a right and a responsibility.
The witness is strengthened by the fact that North Americans are responding to the invitation, and even the plea, of Nicaraguan Christians. Both CEPAD (Evangelical Committee for Aid and Development), which includes most of Nicaragua's Protestant denominations, and Centro Antonio Valdivieso, a theological research and education center, have offered their support and cooperation in the project. North American organizations in Nicaragua, such as the Maryknoll missionaries, have also responded with support.
Word about the Witness for Peace has spread across the United States into every geographical corner and denominational nook. The response has been overwhelming. The Witness for Peace seems to articulate for many the yearning to act, and the willingness to take risks, for the sake of conscience, to see an end to U.S. hostility against Nicaragua. A Mennonite professor from Harrisonburg, Virginia, described the witness as "one of the most 'kingdom-like' initiatives since the Underground Railroad."
The Witness for Peace is an act of intercession, a prayer on behalf of the people of Nicaragua that is offered with bodies as well as voices. It is also an act of confession.
For most of the people who participated in the border vigil in July, one moment stands out as the most profound. As North Americans stood at the border, hands linked with those of Nicaraguan sisters and brothers, they offered petitions for forgiveness for the suffering that our government is creating. After the third petition, a response was murmured from the Nicaraguan campesinos: "Estan perdonados—You are forgiven." A mother who had lost three sons in attacks by the contras stepped forward and offered absolution.
Frances Truett, a United Church of Christ pastor and mother from Maine, reflected the feeling of many who were there: "That act of forgiveness was a blessing filled with a profound sense of grace for us all. It was for me another conversion."
The Witness for Peace is an occasion for our deepening conversion. The most frequent comment offered from Nicaraguans to the North Americans in the July witness was, "You are signs of hope for us." We have often said the same of our Central American sisters and brothers whose faith has flourished in the most violent of situations.
We have been too willing to let our lives stand intact while our government creates suffering in our name. The Witness for Peace is an opportunity for beginning to understand that to wage peace may require of us as much as waging war has required of others. In the sacrifice and risk, our faith will be strengthened and our bonds with Nicaraguan sisters and brothers deepened. May the Witness for Peace be our united prayer for peace, that, in the words of the apostle Paul to the Roman church, "we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith."
Joyce Hollyday was an associate editor of Sojourners magazine when this article appeared.
Got something to say about what you're reading? We value your feedback!