CPTnet
May 5, 2002
COLOMBIA: CPT delegation encounters guerillas

by Diane Janzen

We were attending a community meeting under the trees close to a farmer's
house. My mind was filled with the images of a vandalized school, a health
center with paramilitary graffiti on the walls and burned down houses along
what was once a major street in an abandoned town members of our delegation
had visited that morning.

We heard the noise of a motor boat coming from down the river and the
sharing stopped as the men from the community went to investigate. I
thought that perhaps the people in the
boat were more community members who were late for the meeting.

I could see tension on the faces of the community members as they moved away
from the riverbank. I then saw that the three men in the boat were wearing
military vests and carrying machetes and machine guns.

Matt Schaaf, one of the delegation coordinators, immediately approached
them. He then reported back to us that this group of men were from the ELN
guerilla group and were surprised to find CPT in this area. The men moved
to the shade of the farmhouse and made themselves at home there.

Meanwhile the boat driver, a community member, briefly spoke with the other
farmers and quickly got back into his boat. He almost stalled his motor in
his eagerness to get away. Even though the guerillas forced him to drive
for them, the paramilitary groups, who also have a presence in the area,
would see his acquiesing to their demand as collaborating with the
guerrillas and his life could be in danger.

Stewart Vriesinga, from the Colombia team, Conrado Zepeda, a Mexican member
of the delegation, and Matt went to speak with the ELN men again. The rest
of us remained standing, and it was then that I noticed that the community
members were all behind us. We were standing in front of them, almost in a
row, facing the guerillas in the farmer's living room.

Then from the bushes down river came four more men from the same guerilla
group. They joined the others in the living room and all continued talking
with Matt, Stewart and Conrado. The CPTers explained that CPT has a
presence in the area because the civilians requested it, and that requesting
a community member to drive them, or staying at any of the homes of
community members, puts the farmers at risk with the paramilitaries. The
guerillas didn't really respond.

Then the guerillas came over and shook the hands of all of the CPT
delegation members, sometimes introducing themselves and sometimes looking
us in the eye. They then continued on foot up the riverbank. Now I'm left
with another image in my mind, the image of the guerillas making themselves
at home in the farmer's living room, and the CPT delegation standing in a
row facing them with the civilians behind us.

Participants in the April Colombia delegation: Tom Cavanagh (Lennoxville,QC)
Antonio Gutierrez (Chiapas, MX) Diane Janzen (Calgary, AB), Lee McKenna
(Toronto, ON), Linda Oneill (Forest Grove, OR), Jessica Phillips
(Kimberton, PA), Katie Stoltzfus-Dueck (York, PA), Tim Stoltzfus-Dueck
(York, PA), Erin Yoder (Goshen, IN), Conrado Zepeda (Chiapas, MX), and
Christine Forand (Priceville, ON.)