CPTnet
November 24, 2001
COLOMBIA: The situation has worsened-- Matt Schaaf's letter from
Barrrancabermeja

Dear Friends, after ten days of dengue fever and two weeks to recuperate, I
am back in Barrancabermeja inferno and am leaving for the swamp in about an
hour.

The situation in Barranca has worsened over the last month:

1. Paramilitaries and police have "cracked down" on leftists, accusing
social organizers of collaborating with the guerillas. The police arrest
activists. The paras kill them. A number of union people were killed and
some are in hiding.

2. The paras snatched a Jose (17 yrs old) out of the port three weeks ago,
a friend of ours from one of the communities we accompany. Two CPTers went
to encourage his release. He was found dead in the morning, shot twice
under the chin and left behind the municipal slaughterhouse. Pierre and
Jacobus identified Jose in the morgue

3. Para and army operations in the Valle Cimitarra ( another conflicted
region where CPT has an occasional presence) have caused 8000 peasants to
leave their land and march to Barranca, where they will do . . . what?
Nobody knows. They are very organized and may non-violently or violently
occupy public buildings to protest the war on farmers (spraying cocaine
kills more food crops than drugs) and the economic embargo the paras have
enforced. These people are not allowed to even bring groceries or soap in
from the city without risking being killed at para checkpoint.

4. A local women's organization had their house robbed, including the roof,
by the paras this week. A festive hopeful protest in front of the mayor's
office didn't elicit much of a response from the municipality. The women
plan to rebuild whether the authorities act or do not act.

5. Some 260 families displaced from the swamp (Cienaga del Opon) still wait
on the government to assist their return, after a year of waiting camped out
in the old teacher's college. CPT is ready to accompany them home.

6. I'm trying to think of what positive things are happening; the women's
protest was amazing and gave me a lot of energy -- their was music,
denunciations of violence, poetry and a dance group.

The people in resistance to violence here are astoundingly hopeful and
strong and resilient. One of our friends, when asked how Colombians deal
with decades of threats and violence, responded that he's learned to rest in
the middle of work -- going out to a dance, playing his guitar, lifting
himself above the crap and never-ending assinations.

After almost suffering a nervous breakdown a month ago, I'm listening to my
friend's advice about resting while in the middle of things. My friends had
been murdered, the team was denouncing the Navy, the guerilla and the
paramilitary for human rights violations all at the same time, and Erin
(another CPTer) and I got caught in the middle of a police operation against
???; all of this combined to overwhelm me, but after falling sick, resting,
dancing, and hearing my friend's smarts about taking care and playing
guitar, I'm ready to ease back in.

That's me, today.

How are all of you doing?

Peace, mateo.