Moving?

We have just gone through moving houses once again (the third time since we came to Colombia), and were complaining about how exhausting and stressful it had been. However, to think that moving from a comfy house to another (a bit smaller mind you, but nice anyway) had caused us such stress, made me reflect of the pledge of the millions of Colombians who have had to move in different circumstances. Last Saturday, these reflections came back as we accepted an invitation from the man who works as the janitor of the condo where we live, to go and visit his family and perhaps see a plot of land or two we might want to buy (well, he thinks we can afford such a thing... it´s a good excuse to go to the countryside anyway). We drove half an hour along a good road and another half hour along a fairly reasonable dirt one, peppered with leisure, week-end "cottages", some of which can easily cost 2 or 3 hundred thousand USD. Our friend´s family live very humbly though, but even so they were able to provide us with a hearty lunch with what they produce themselves: a chicken, plantaine, potatoes and herbs soup... delicious! And we even went back home loaded with onions and coriander and mangos. Once we got home, Paty reflected that so many millions in Colombia (around 4 million, they say) are people who one day have that, a small piece of land they can live off, and then, all of a sudden, because of someone else´s greed or hatred or simple evil, they are violently forced to join the army of displaced people that beg for coins at a street corner. One day they can feed their kids with their work, and grow some crops and tend to a couple of cows, and enjoy their mountains or their plains, and the next they sit by the curb, perhaps mourning one or two family members killed or lost as they fled, despised and looked at with suspicion by a city that cannot understand them and does not want to show any sympathy to them... a city that very often does not even want to acknowledge they are there; or does not want to acknowledge their hunger... of food and of justice... a city that so often just sneers and cries "let them work... don´t let them be lazy!".

You can see them all over Colombian cities(if you decide not to avoid the pain of even looking into their eyes, of talking to them, of asking their names) , you can see them perplexed, confused, disorientated.

Yes, there are so many crying, so many desperately lonely, so many humiliated and vexed... and so many of them are our brothers and sisters... would you believe it?

Open wounds at the heart of a nation

I had thought of a different title: "Scars at the heart of a nation", but I had to change it halfway through. You´ll see why.

After all the noise of the last few weeks, all the scandal has died, the news has moved on, and today this part of the world is out of sight of the world press because (at least apparently) there was no war and we can breath again... but can we? Let me tell you 3 short stories that make me wonder...

Miguel is 22; when he was just 15, a group or heavily armed men, part of a guerrilla column of the FARC guerrilla burst into his family´s flat and kidnapped him, his older brother and his mother, along with a few other neighbours, and took them into the jungle. For three years, they were kept captive in extreme conditions, and one day he and his brother were released, apparently after their father had paid a huge price... his mother remained captive for another 3 years and although he is happy to see her again, miraculously released, his happiness is tainted by the memories of his father, killed also by FARC guerrillas 2 years ago.

Julio is 13, and he can´t believe what he sees and hears in the news, where a jubilant anchorman is announcing that his father was killed by a fellow guerrilla, his own chief bodyguard. He had met his father when he was 6, when there were peace talks and everybody could go and meet the big guys: Marulanda, Jojoy, Raul Reyes... and he went to meet his dad. They spent a couple of wonderful weeks together, getting to know each other, hoping for the best, but the best never came. The peace talks ended 7 years ago, and his father´s life ended last week, shot by his chief bodyguard while he slept, so that he could get a juicy reward.
Julio can´t understand why everyone hates his father, why so many folks are saying that the killer has earned the reward for killing such foul vermin; he can´t understand why everyone is so jubilant that a man has died... he can´t understand why is it that so many Christians seem to share that joy, oblivious to the fact that his beloved daddy has gone to hell... “Why didn´t God save him?” "Why nobody thinks of my sorrow?"he asks... I don´t have any answers.

Maria is 18, and looks like 50 sitting in front of a CCTV set, listening to the confession of a “former” paramilitary warlord, (dressed of course in an Armani suit, reading from a last generation Vaio laptop, looking and sounding imperious, commanding, proud... far from repentant I would say) who talks of thousands of murders, among them her parents´. Her brain just can´t take in so much evil... even pain seems to be numbed as she hears how those men confess to rounding up dozens upon dozens of peasants just because they needed real victims to train their new recruits. She simply can´t believe that the only reason why her sweet, loving mother was cut to pieces with a machete was that a rookie paramilitary had to learn how to do it slowly, careful that the victim did not die soon (the rookie that killed his or her victim faster in the group would be severely punished). She mercifully fainted before she heard what had happened to her dad... but she managed to hear that if one of those rookies refused to do to the victim what he was ordered to, the next one down the line would have to do it to him (or her... no discrimination there). So that´s it; she just has to accept as a fact of life that her parents had been just educational material, tools among thousand other tools for young folks to learn to kill, torture, skin people alive, gouge eyes out, and many atrocities more, in their way to becoming fierce warriors, who would fight against "those evil guerrillas".

There are in Colombia more than 3 million people displaced from their homes, a good percentage of them separated from their parents, children or siblings when they fled, never to see them again. There are also millions now who can mention at least one relative who has been killed, maimed, kidnapped or “disappeared” either by right wing militias, leftist guerrillas, corrupt government forces or just “common delinquents". Some of them cry for revenge; many others just don´t know how to react... incredibly, a few of them work for peace and forgiveness and reconciliation.

Even if all shooting and killing stops today (wishful thinking!), there would still be such a load of pain, rage, thirst for justice, thirst for revenge and who knows what else, that it would take decades for those wounds to heal (so we are very far from the scars, you see?) ... any room for the message of the Gospel, do you think?

Sabre rattlings in South America: Chapter 2 and The End

The good news: they say it´s all over; the bad news: my promising career as war correspondent was nipped in the bud... (good that I kept my day job just in case). But let me at least tell you how it happened.

Yesterday (Friday, March, 7), something really weird happened. In Colombia, people spent hours upon hours glued to their TV sets; at home, in the streets, in shops and bus stations, there were big and small groups of people watching, commenting, aahhing and oohhing, and sometimes even cheering... what was going on? Was a qualifying match for the World Cup going on?... nope. Had the Olympic games in Beijing brought a few months forward?... no chance... believe it or not, everybody was following closely a summit of Latin American presidents (the so called Grupo de Rio, but which was meeting in the Dominican Republic... don´t ask!). Something normally as exciting as watching a dripping faucet, managed to capture the attention of millions and blew all ratings records. Why? Simply because we all felt that our collective futures were being played around that table. The probabilities of an open war were slim, to be honest, but even the perspective of a long, protracted economic war of attrition was worrying enough.

Roundabout midday, it all looked grim. Accusations and even insults, came and went. Positions were so far apart from each other, that whoever thought an agreement could be brokered would have been advised to stop smoking dancing-shoe-leather. However, by late afternoon, those same Presidents were shaking hands and promising to be good boys from now on. The Nicaraguan President even announced there and then that he was establishing diplomatic relations with Bogotá again (after a never-ending full 24-hour rupture!). Ecuador´s President took Uribe´s extended hand, although his face was anything but friendly... but he shook hands nonetheless and when he was coming out of the meeting expressed satisfaction that the beating of drums had not gone anywhere beyond that point.

What is the final result?

That´s difficult to measure, and the best proof that the agreement brokered was brilliant in diplomatic terms, is that everyone is saying they won the standoff, and is more or less right in saying so.

Ecuador played its cards right up to a point and got that the final statement reaffirmed in no ambiguous terms that no country has the right --for whatever reason they may think they have-- to invade another one (that is to take armed actions across the border). If Ecuador wants to harbour FARC or anyone else and Colombia does not like it, Uribe can complain, cry and dance, but not shoot. However, in order to get this far, Ecuador had to pay the price to see its last chance to see Colombia condemned for what she did (something very serious in diplomatic terms), vanish in thin air. It had not happened in previous days in the meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS), and it did not happen in Santo Domingo either.

Venezuela saw President Chavez sweating because Uribe was accusing him formally before the International Penal Court for genocide, as accomplice of the internationally and officially acknowledged FARC terrorists. Whether he would have been found guilty or not nobody knows, but it would have been nasty enough for Chavez to be dragged to that court, specially as he has been so successful in making himself seen as a public enemy by the US government.

Colombia got reprimanded and also got a slap in the hand, but nothing else... and that was a low price to pay for the risk she took and the trophy Uribe took home: Reyes´ head. Furthermore, just as he was speaking, Ivan Rios --another member of the FARC secretariat and a supposed heir to their top leader-- was announced dead (one of his own bodyguards killed him tired of being chased by the army... and I guess that the 5 million USD offered as a reward worked as a nice incentive too). On top of that, the whole world had heard that the Colombian government has proof that Venezuela´s and Ecuador´s Presidents are helping and supporting terrorist groups within their territories (and will have to go back to their countries to face incensed and belligerent opposition groups who are horrified by this)... I don´t know if anybody cares about this in the rest of the world, but it must feel good to let everyone know your foe is a felon and you can prove it.

One thing that felt historically unusual and really made me proud to be an American (and by the way, America is a continent, not a country, and American are we all from Canada to Chile...this can be theme for another posting now that I´ve run out of news, but let´s leave it there just now. It´s only that I wanted to mention it before my audience goes down to single figures)... as I was saying, it was good to watch the news everyday and see people being interviewed in the streets of Colombian, Venezuelan and Ecuadorian cities, and everybody was opposed to war. No patriotic speeches from their leaders convinced Ecuadorians or Venezuelans that they should go to war with Colombia... even accepting that Colombia had done wrong by crossing Ecuador´s borders. Apart from a handful of inane clowns hired to cheer everything Chavez says, I saw mature peoples, thinking peoples, pacific peoples, just wanting to be left alone carrying on with their lives and facing their own internal problems without resorting to fabricating external enemies... and that is good and reassuring. Now Venezuelans do not have to starve, Colombian workers won´t have to be laid off, Ecuadorians don´t have to see its most important commercial partner close its borders, and won´t have to expel the hundreds of Colombian entrepreneurs and professionals that are such an important part of their economy... so everybody is happy, or should be.

But before we forget, once we have sighed our relief and celebrated that Venezuelan and Ecuadorian soldiers have gone back to their barracks to their normal do-nothing routine, let´s say a prayer for the Colombian soldiers and the Colombian people, who have not seen one day of peace in 50 years. Let´s have a word of prayer for the over 4 thousand people who remained kidnapped (some of them for over 10 years!) just because someone thinks they are economically or politically valuable as merchandise. Let´s mention in our intercession before God the 3 million people who have been displaced, violently uprooted, terrorised into leaving their home because someone just fancied it, people who one day were poor but fairly comfortable peasants, and the next day are begging for a coin in one corner of a city they had never been to before, while their kids sleep off their hunger under the rain on the sidewalk.

Yes, the threat of international war is over, and now Colombia can go back to its everyday war against greed, against corruption, against evil in all its ugly manifestations... a battle that is ultimately against sin...care to join us?

Sabre rattling in South America

Hello everybody

I´m starting this blog thing just because it´s awkward to be sending hundreds of emails and have them returned because an old address, or even worse, to be rejected by some programme that considers my email as spam only because it goes to 2 or 3 hundred folks simultaneously.

Our lives are not that interesting or exciting as to be sending out emails with news very often. Actually, those of you who get a newsletter from us know they only arrive every 3 or 4 years (the time it takes to accumulate interesting enough news). However, the current situation in this part of the world made us cry out for prayer, and we need to keep you informed and updated as far as possible.

So there you are, we are "blogging" now.

General Update:

After deploying troops at the Colombian border, Venezuela has done nothing else, yet. There were some lorries detained, but as they were full of food (something a bit scarce in Venezuela these days), they were allowed into the country. Chavez has announced today that he will cease all commercial relationships with Colombia, ...and that can be good, as today also one of the most important papers in Caracas editorializes saying that the time might be ripe to bring down such an irresponsible President... Bravo!... now let´s sit and wait.

Life in Colombia goes on more or less as normal. Kids go to school, the new house is a mess... by the way, we have moved into a smaller house (we can´t make all the old furniture fit!... time to change it?... uhm ...wishful thinking!). Anyway, our new address:

... I changed my mind and decided not to post it. If any of you want to know it, please email me and I will send it to you in a reply.

All missionaries linked to the seminary are OK: Latin America Mission, Latin Link, Free Church of Scotland, Grace Baptist Mission, OMS, Christians in Action, Looney Tunes... the lot!

Embassies advice wisely not to do anything other than living normally and let the storm die away.

Having said that, remember that "normal" in Colombia could make many of you die of an adrenalin overdose, so please don´t stop praying. Last month millions demonstrated against FARC, and today there are demonstrations being called against paramilitary´s and state´s crimes... polarization all over, tempers going high...

That´s it. I´ll try to post every couple of days during the emergency and see how it goes. If any of you has comments or specific questions, please either leave them here or send me an email... whatever suits you best.

Bye just now.

Part of the Latin Link team in Colombia. Sitting from left: Catalina (with Lord Fitzwilliam Darcy in her arms), Patricia, Noemi, Silvie, and Fiona. Standing: Yours truly, Benji and Simon.