CPTnet
October 15, 2002
COLOMBIA: I cried for Colombia

by Scott Albrecht

[Note: The Colombia Team posted this reflection to their direct list on
October 8, 2002.]

Last Friday I cried for Colombia. Perhaps what is most surprising
about that is that I hadn't cried sooner in the last month that I have
been here. I have encountered members of all the armed groups: the
paramilitaries, the army, and two different guerilla groups. The
impact of last Friday morning was especially strong, however.

   That day my co-worker Ben Horst and I were visiting a village in the
Opón River area near Barrancabermeja, Colombia. Accompanying villages
that are threatened by armed groups is a large part of CPT's work in the
region. On this day, a number of people were
gathered at one house, some playing a minitejo (a game like horseshoes,
except with an iron disk instead of a horseshoe). Others were waiting
to unload gravel for a community work project.

   In the middle of this setting, three visitors came in. Two men wearing
camouflage pants and with pistols in their belts walked up the path from the
nearby lake. The AUC (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia) paramilitary
unit has been occupying another village on the lake for the past number of
weeks and must have decided to explore more territory.

   Ben and I greeted the paramilitary members, and stayed with them for
the half hour or so they stayed in the area. Ben told the commander
that we want peace in the area, and that the presence of any armed
group is dangerous for the civilian population because it attracts
opposing armed groups. For my part, I stayed within half a metre of
the other man, occasionally asking him a question, all the while
racking my brain to figure out how to make the armed men leave.

   After we walked the paramilitaries out of the village and they took
off in their canoe across the lake, Ben and I prayed on the shore. We
prayed for peace, and that the land would be used for the benefit of
all the people who live there. As we prayed, we looked over the lake
at the mountains in the distance. Surrounding the lake was lush green
jungle, with corn fields and plantain trees. We knew God intended this area
to be a place of justice, peace, and good life. The presence of guns in
that area brings fear and violence, which is opposite to what God intended.
That
juxtaposition had a strong impact on me at that moment, and I cried for the
people of Colombia.