CPTnet
June 22, 2002
COLOMBIA UPDATE: May 16-31, 2002

Thursday, May 16, 2002
Matt Schaaf and Carol Spring visited in the Cienaga de Opon and heard
reports of up to 200 army personnel passing through. Schaaf and Spring
walked up to the school and saw men working on the power lines but no army.

Charles Spring, Keith Young, John Marks and the team's motor canoe driver
saw six military personnel at the port in Barranca, some of whom were
checking ID's.

Spring spoke to the person who watches the team's boats regarding the salt
put into the team's gas tanks a few days earlier. They discussed possible
suspects.

Charles Spring went to the army base to sign an affidavit concerning the
February 10th incident in which army personnel took the CPT boat in the
Cimitarra Valley.

Saturday, May 18, 2002
Schaaf went to visit partners to plan for CPT to work in the Cimitarra
Valley in early June while people there build houses. Paramilitaries have
interrupted the work, and the bank that funds the project is threatening to
cut funding unless the people move ahead with construction.

Sunday, May 19, 2002
Marks and Young visited several families in the Cienaga. One farmer
reminisced about the days when they could go to festivals of the coastal
towns;
now he believes it is too dangerous for him to travel. Another farm woman
told CPTers that there is no safe place in Colombia, but she prefers the
country to the
city.

Monday, May 20, 2002
Marks and Young went to Los Neques where they helped build a ladder for the
water tower. The farmers crafted notches for the rungs of the ladder with
machetes. Marks and Young visited the President of Los Neques, who asked
CPT for accompaniment to Barranca for people wanting to vote in the May
26th presidential elections.

Tuesday, May 21, 2002
Siegers and Schaaf visited with three farmers harvesting corn. When Schaaf
commented on the nice fish the daughter of one of them was cleaning, she
immediately gave the fish to the CPTers as a gift. Schaaf thanked her but
realized his mistake when he remembered the armed groups use compliments to
get fish and other things from the people.

One of CPT's partners called and said paramilitaries killed five people in
the Cimitarra Valley. CPT promised to send two team members.

Wednesday, May 22, 2002
Young and Carol Spring went to the Cimitarra Valley, spending seven hours
on the muddy road. Their driver knew there was a six o'clock curfew but he
drove to San Francisco where he was stopped by the guerrillas. The driver
asked the CPTers to speak for him; they explained that it was their fault,
not the driver's.

Two reporters visited CPT, one from Cox Newspapers and one from Newsday and
took some information on CPT from Charles Spring and Marks. Newsday later
released a story on Barranca which quoted Marks.

Thursday, May 23, 2002
At the meeting for a return of the displaced to the Cienaga, Marks and
Spring heard about an army visit to the Cienaga followed by an appearance
of paramilitaries there the very next day.

CPT went to the Cimitara Valley to be a presence after some deaths by
paramilitaries had been reported. Carol Spring and Young watched some
guerrilla members clean their assault rifles.

At a weekly human rights workers' meeting CPT heard unionists ask, "How
can the union movement work with the people and not be seen as terrorists?"

Friday, May 24, 2002
All team members came back to Barranca and joined in the Litany of
Commemoration and Rededication in front of the house where Nelcy Cuesta had
lived. Family and friends attended. Cuesta was a teacher and community
worker killed by the paramilitaries. She lived in the neighborhood where
the CPT house is located.

Saturday, May 25, 200
Siegers and Young saw a Navy boat on the Magdalena River, but did not stop
since they had spoken to the Navy several times recently.

Sunday, May 26, 2002
Siegers and Young, with the CPT canoe, accompanied public transport boats
carrying people from the Opon into Barranca to vote in the Presidential
election and afterwards returned with the boats.

In the evening Siegers and Young were told that guerrillas were in the
area. They went to the farmer's house people had reported seeing the
guerillas. The farmer and his sons appeared distressed but said nothing
about armed groups.

   Monday, May 27, 2002
Marks and Charles Spring visited with the People's Defender (regional head
of the Colombian government's human right's office) who claims he cannot
guarantee a safe return for the refugees from the Cienaga de Opon. The
community may choose to return but no one can provide them ongoing
security. The people are already targeted and would be more so in the
Cienaga, he said.

Tuesday, May 28, 2002
Carol Spring and Schaaf discovered that a gas tank had been stolen out of
CPTs canoe in broad daylight.Young visited CPT partners to offer a presence
for six days during a house building project in the Cimitarra Valley.

Wednesday, May 29, 2002
Schaaf and Carol Spring accompanied a displaced family to Barranca. They
visited displaced families from the Cienaga in Barranca and were told that
paramilitaries had visited them at their refuge, an old school building,
three times in the past month.

Upon their return to the Opon River, Schaaf and Carol Spring found many
yards were flooded and some houses were islands.

Thursday, May 30, 2002
Young and Siegers accompanied a man to the Cimitarra Valley. The mud in the
road made it almost impassible. No armed groups detained them on the way
out, but both the military and the police checked bags and ID's on the way
back.

Young and Siegers visited the Cienaga refugees in Barranca who requested
CPT presence in the Cienaga on days when some men go there to fish.

Friday, May 31, 2002
The team discussed current challenges members were facing at their meeting:
Scott Kerr's visa was not renewed, delaying his entry into the country;
Charles Spring was in the hospital with dengue fever; days off were not
happening; gas tanks were
missing; and people continued to pour salt into the gas tank of the team's
canoe.

Schaaf and Siegers had difficulty finding hosts on the Opon. One house
had water flowing around it from the channel behind it. Swamp gases from
rotting vegetation were rank. Some corn fields were standing in water
eighteen to thirty centimetres deep.