CPTnet
29 June 2006

COLOMBIA REFLECTION: The Flame of Life

by Sandra Rincón

Nobody knows for sure what happened, how it happened, or who did it. The
truth is that yesterday Manuel Orlando Navarro, who everybody knew as
"Compa" was killed while he was harvesting his corn. His nephew found him
lying on the ground and thought he was sleeping, but when he tried to wake
him, he saw his uncle's blood oozing from his body. He could feel that
Compa was still alive.

With much effort, his nephew moved Compa to his small wooden canoe and
brought his uncle's body, now dead, to his aunt's house. There the family
met to weep, to groan, and to ask "WHY! Why did they kill Compa?"

In the afternoon, while our team was in a meeting, the painful news came to
us. All of us CPTers froze; we couldn't believe it--although we had known,
sadly, that one day this might happen. For five years, the community stories
have been telling us that Compa had been a guerrilla fighter, a
paramilitary, and then a member of the gasoline cartel. He lived at very
high risk of someone making him pay for his past, and although he had made
those choices, he nevertheless deserved to live.

During the 28 June funeral of Compa, his family was distraught because of
the death of their son, their uncle, and their brother. The family had not
slept all night as they waited for their loved one's dead body to be
returned to them, so that they could have a proper wake and bury him with
dignity. They were burying their third son, killed like two other brothers
in sociopolitical violence that is destroying, step-by-step, the hope of our
country.

Now, Compa lengthens the list of the dead, just like Fernando (May 2004),
Ancizar (September 6, 2004), Rosemberg (September 4, 2005), and many other
killed before, in addition to the many people forcibly "disappeared."
Several families in Florida could be extending the endless list of displaced
people who are continuing to scatter throughout the country.

The solitude of the countryside is increasing every day. Ever fewer peasant
farmers are seeding their small, beloved plots of land. Ever fewer farmers
can even come to say goodbye to their friends, because of lack of money,
displacement, fear, and despair. Every day it is more difficult to keep the
flame of life burning, and every day it is more urgent that we become aware
of these realities, and that we act for PEACE.