CPTnet
January 8, 2002
COLOMBIA: The Grandmothers are Watching
Lisa Martens

Christmas Eve in the Countryside, Santander, Colombia:

The men with guns -- one reclining in a hammock -- explained that the land
under our feet was said to be haunted. And by my estimation, there are
dis-eased spirits in any space that people use deadly weapons.

CPT works with communities in the countryside
near an oil town called Barrancabermeja,
in Colombia. At the communities' request, our work includes
visiting the checkpoints of armed groups,
thereby decreasing the chance that armed people will
harass or kill unarmed people. It is understood that the existence of armed
groups has to do with resource control--U.S. desire for control over
Colombian oil, some Colombians' desire for control over their own resources,
and some countries' desire to use Colombia as a "door" into the resources of
South America

Having heard what the men with guns had to say of the
spirits haunting the area, my co-worker, William, explained that his
grandmother had died recently and that he was not afraid because her strong
spirit was with him.

That made me think on my grandmothers and grandmothers'
grandmothers--Christian pacifist life-givers that they are and were. If God
and such women as my grandmothers do not watch our interactions with armed
men, then who watches? If the spirits of those bore and loved children are
not present in places where control over particular resources is considered
more
important than human life, then who is present?

 *The armed groups in Colombia include Guerrillas, the Navy, the Army and
Paramilitaries (those I visited on Christmas Eve)
   * Canadian and U.S. violence, in the form of equipment and the training
of known Colombian human rights abusers.

Men with guns have grandmothers, too. I can't speak for them, but I like
to imagine that such women wanted their descendants to live free. And next
time I talk to men with guns, I will ask if that's true.

God have mercy