CPTnet
COLOMBIA: Nighttime Encounters
By Jonathan Horst

[Note: The CPTnet editor is currently working with the team in Hebron.]

At about 8:00 pm on June 22, CPTers Pierre Shantz and Jonathan Horst began
their return trip to the village of La Posa after accompanying a group of
leaders to their village of Yanaquay.

Shantz and Horst boarded the motor-canoe, along with the driver and another
man, in the dark. Despite the lack of visibility, the driver proceeded to
maneuver the canoe at nearly full throttle aided only by the light of two
dim flashlights.

After nearly missing a few submerged trees, the group saw a flashlight on
the bank and the driver pulled over. After a short, good-natured
conversation between the driver and an armed person on the bank, the voyage
resumed. The incident marked the first guerrilla checkpoint the current CPT
Colombia team had encountered.

Shortly after, the rapidly traveling canoe grounded on a sandbar in the
middle of the river. "The driver was really anxious to get the boat free,"
said Shantz. "We were really close to where they had told me a paramilitary
checkpoint usually is." After getting soaked in the effort to unground the
20-some foot wooden canoe, the group proceeded upriver at an even faster
pace.

About 10 minutes later, they saw another flashlight on the shore and then
four more lights lit up on the other bank. A voice commanded them to come
over to the bank, where they were told to identify themselves immediately.
Shantz and Horst quickly gave their name and citizenship. From their
position close to the bank they could see four armed persons, one of whom
was laying on the ground with a semi-automatic pointed at them. Shantz
first requested that they identify to what group they belonged. They
refused. Then he said that the team was in contact with the local Navy
thinking that it was a paramilitary checkpoint. Upon hearing this
information, the armed men demanded that the driver get out of the canoe
and climb the six-foot bank.

One guard began to walk back into the shadows with the driver while another
jumped in front of Shantz, who had accompanied the driver up the bank,
asking what he was doing. He replied, "I'm going with [the driver]." When
he saw that the driver was only about 25 feet away, Shantz allowed himself
to be detained. After a tense minute passed, Shantz heard the driver and
guard begin to laugh quietly. He began to make small talk with the other
guards until the driver returned and said that everything was all right.
Shantz again asked for their identification. The soldier in charge
replied, "We're the FARC"-Colombia's largest guerrilla group.

Once in the boat, the driver explained that the guerrillas were nervous
because they heard a boat traveling quickly, stopping at the location of
the paramilitary outpost and then traveling quickly again. They assumed
that the boat was transporting. But, upon speaking with the driver, they
understood the situation and allowed the team to continue their return to
La Posa.

In conversations that night, Shantz and Horst learned that in that region
the people have learned to coexist peacefully with the guerrillas over the
last 30 years. However, they all sleep with a bag of clothes, food and a
hammock next to their bed in case they must flee a paramilitary invasion
quickly in the night.

_____________
To stop receiving messages from CPTNET on MennoLink, send a message
with only the word suspend in the body to server@MennoLink.org.