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?
3 comments:
Hi Manuel, glad to see you telling the world what's it like in Colombia.
I've put a link on Missionary Gas
http://missionarygas.blogspot.com/
Dear Manuel
While understanding the pain and frustration of living in Colombia and the problems with the border incident with Ecuador, I wish to comment in Ecuadors favour. First of all, it is not right for Colombian troops to violate Ecuadorian territory without the knowledge of the Ecuadorian government. Secondly, so far to the best of my knowlege, IT HAS NOT BEEN PROVED THAT THERE IS ANY LINK between the Ecuadorian goverment and the FARC that can not be explained in terms of humanitarian activity. The problem is that the accusations are made, but when they are refuted nothing is said. Thirdly, Ecuadorian troops continue to guard the border, destroy drug factories and risk their lives in a dispute which isnt theirs (Ecuador has 14 border posts as opposed to 2 in Colombia, despite the massive financing of the "plan Colombia" buy the United States.
Please try to take into account the feelings of people in your "vecino país" and give a balanced account of what is happening
Dear Stuart,
First of all, thank you for taking the time to read this humble mumblings and to think and comment. I find that very encouraging and edifying.
Secondly, believe me that I do also understand the anger and frustration Ecuadorians must feel to see their territory violated by their neighbours (I would feel exactly the same I think) and there I agree with you: that was not right and that is what OAS and the Group of Rio have said. That precisely is one of the recurring complaints of Colombian analysts in terms of what they consider a diplomatic defeat for Colombia. In other words, Ecuador got Colombia reprimanded --albeit not as vigorously as Ecuador might have wanted-- for violating foreign soil (which is right, of course, I repeat), but Colombia´s neighbours did not get equally reprimanded for expressing sympathy for what is internationally acknowledged as a terrorist group. Proof may or may not exist regarding Presidents Correa and Chavez actually cooperating with FARC, but Chavez has already given them a privileged status and Correa even as a candidate said that he refused to call FARC terrorists --to which he is entitled of course, but of which he is responsible also. Accusations and demands are coming to him also even from the Ecuadorian opposition and media, so it´s not a matter of black and white Colombian/Ecuadorian opinions.
Thirdly, yes Ecuadorian troops may be guarding the border, but the fact is that there were very well established FARC camps where those men found refuge. I appreciate and value the effort made and the price paid by the Ecuadorian armed forces, but find it difficult to accept that corrupt politicians send those men to die and under the table encourage and support the same terrorists their soldiers die fighting against (OK, it´s not proved, but then I´m not judging in a court, only expressing an opinion based only in what I read and hear and see in the news)... and if that makes me too daring in condemning, that would make you equally daring in acquitting... and if we are to avoid that completely, then there would be no conversation, no debating, just silence.
Finally, after re-reading the posting, I can say I don´t think I have said anything offensive or even insensitive, but I´m open to apologise if that would be the case. Even in Colombia, there are people who would agree with my opinions and many others who would disagree, even violently...it´s not a matter of nationality here, as I know there are Ecuadorians who are asking the same questions and refusing to accept naively that everything can be explained in "humanitarian" terms. However, I do know that as written language does not have the advantages of oral expression, with its tones and nuances and facial expressions, ideas may easily come through as cold and harsh...never my intention though.
Once more I thank you the opportunity you give me to exchange views in this way; it would have been far easier to just sit, judge and disagree and comment with others, so I appreciate your gentlemanly courage and gesture of friendship.
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