Knowing the reality of the armed conflict through first hand accounts, through the stories of people who have lived through massacres and displacement, is very different from knowing the conflict through secondary sources.  For so many of us, the Magdalena River is simply the source of great fish.  What we too often fail to realize is that for those who live within its reach, the Magdalena River can mean both life and death.   With this in mind and to finish our time together, on 16 June 2008 our delegation held a time of public prayer.  Through a Ritual of Purification of the River, we chose both to announce and denounce what we had heard and seen in order to clamour for a time when the waters of the river, too often marked with sickness and death, will instead flow with hope. 

1 June 2008
An armed paramilitary group, presumably the Black Eagles, entered southeast and northeast Barrancabermeja. Members threatened to kill young people they encountered talking in the street, accusing the youth of laziness and using drugs.

3 June
At the request of the survivor of an attempted assassination, the team did follow-up work regarding the attack, which team members witnessed in 2006. At the time of the shooting, many people said the paramilitary wanted to kill the survivor, a teacher, because he had refused to join a network of paramilitary informants. The case has not advanced because the the teacher had not wanted to file a complaint against the assailants.

The weekend before last, six people died in an ongoing string of murders in Barrancabermeja. A newspaper headline called it the most violent weekend of the year. In response, a coalition of social organizations in Barrancabermeja, including women's groups, the diocese, labor organizations, community leaders, CPT, Peace Brigades, and others; organized vigils at the site of the murders. Relatives of those who were killed, as well as friends and neighbors, joined us to commemorate those whose lives violence ended abruptly. "You are not alone," our vigils proclaimed. "We join in your grief."

On Thursday, 3 July, people from CPT Colombia's Barrancabermeja district marched to express their opposition to the surge in violence that has invaded the community. Since the beginning of 2008, thirty-seven people have been assassinated in Barrancabermeja (the same number killed in all of 2007). Barrancabermeja's civil and police authorities have ignored or even denied this increase in violence, leaving the community feeling abandoned to the armed actors. The settling of accounts between different criminal groups linked to paramilitaries reportedly has fueled much of the violence. In what they call "social cleansing," these armed groups kill people they have labeled "undesirable.'