CPT Net
August 12, 2001
Barrancabermeja: The Call
By Pierre Shantz

Since May the CPT team in Colombia has accompanied displaced people from
Cienaga del Opon, a rural area south of Barrancabermeja. The people from
that area were displaced in November 2000 when a paramilitary (para) group
took over the zone from Colombia's second largest guerilla group, the
ELN. The paras, who have ties to the U.S.-funded and trained Colombian
military, killed several people and threatened many more.

During our time in Cienaga del Opon we have had several requests to
accompany people who have needed to go into the city to visit family or go
to meetings. If they had been seen alone in the city the paramilitaries
would have killed them. Other times, people have told us that they have
been "called in" to meet with the paras to talk about their situation. Many
people who get the "call" and present themselves are later found dead.

On Thursday as Matt Schaaf and I were taking a motor canoe out to the
communities, we were stopped and told that two people in the area had
received the "call." We learned that the paras wanted to ask them some
questions about their activities. Because the area used to be controlled by
the guerrillas, the paras have accused many people of being guerrilla
collaborators.

Lucho Navaro was one of them. Friday morning his body was found on the
riverbank. He got the "call" directly. For a couple of months Lucho had
been able to come to the city without any problems, so he apparently didn't
expect problems when he came in Wednesday to sell his fish. As he prepared
to leave town with his friends at about 5pm, four men arrived and told him
to get in their boat. He asked why, and one punched him in the head and
threw him in the boat. While he was in the boat witnesses say that he was
punched several more times.

His mother, who lives close to the port, was notified and she and two of
his sisters immediately went to a para controlled neighbourhood where
people usually go to plea for a family member's safe return. They were told
that no one knew where he was, but that he was still alive because he was
being investigated about his activities.

Lucho's body was found Friday morning. That afternoon, Matt and I
accompanied family members into the city to attend the funeral, but upon
arriving we learned that we'd already missed it.

Since May, when our accompaniment project in Barrancabermeja began, we have
heard daily reports of killings by paras. But this is the first time the
killing has struck one of the families we know.