CPTnet
Colombia: Basta! Enough!
By Bob Holmes
26 March 2002

Too much! Even one is too many!

Three Union leaders have been assassinated by paramilitaries in the last
three months here in Barranca.

On Friday, March 22 CPTers Chris, Pierre, John and I attended a wake at the
Union Hall for Rafael Jaimes Torra, treasurer of the USO (Federation of
Labour Unions) of Barrancabermeja. He was gunned down as he got into his
pickup truck in front of his home on Wednesday morning.

Friday has been the day for our lenten action each week, so we asked the
Union members if they would welcome our prayerful witness of publicly
burning a death list in places threatened by armed violence and
assassinations. "Absolutely! We welcome your support."

Several hundred mourners gathered in the street as Pierre invited them to
join with us. In prayerful litany we asked our Creator to free us from the
shadow of death cast by the many armed groups in Colombia. Then Chris laid
out a page of chart paper and people were invited to create a symbolic
"death list." Name after name was written down, of persons known to be
targeted by one or other armed group - so many that a second page was
needed. My eyes were not the only ones moved to tears as we reflected on
those we knew both on, and beyond, the list being inscribed. There was
eerie silence as Chris burned the list.

Again, in litany, we begged God to lift us up from the ashes with new
hearts and new hope and new light. John poured the ashes into the earth and
then he and I planted a young tree in the ashes. With the body of Rafael
Jaimes a few metres away, I think we all knew that only with God's power
can the tree of life rise up from the ashes here, and indeed, in all of
Colombia.

Companero Rafael Jaimes . . . Presente!

Christian Peacemaker Teams is a program of Brethren, Quaker and Mennonite
Churches. CPT P. O. Box 6508 Chicago, IL 60680 tel. 312-455-1199 FAX
312-432-1213, E-Mail cpt@igc.org WEB www.cpt.org