Newsletters

Date: March 27th 2010

by Bill and Liz Branch
March 23, 2010

Our third week in Colombia has offered us more sense of being settled. While in the first two weeks we were learning our way logistically and culturally, our third week was a bit more tranquil. We were the only U. S. visitors on location this week.

Undoubtedly the highlight for us has been our weekend trip to Bogotá, the capital of Colombia. As most of you know, Bogotá is a huge and amazing city with very interesting state buildings and skyscraper business offices. The state buildings that particularly interested us were the modern Supreme Court Building and the old capitol building facing it across the Plaza de Bolívar. On the third side of the square, symbolizing the interconnectedness of the Colombian government and the Roman Catholic Church, is the 300 year old cathedral.

The new court building became necessary after 1985. When the guerrilla group M-19 barracaded themselves in the old court building, the army attacked them. Even though the justices asked for time to negotiate with the guerrillas, the army continued their attack, and in the course of the struggle, the building burned down. About 100 lives were lost, including 11 of 24 members of the Supreme Court and all 35 guerrillas.

Interestingly enough, the facade of the Capitol building is currently covered with ants! A social-justice minded artist has attached 1300 large, two-headed ants to the walls. The ants' heads stand for two groups, one for the displaced of Colombia and the other for those who caused them to be displaced. The ants will remain on the building until the end of this week.

Our purpose for being in Bogotá was to attend a two-day conference on "peace with justice and dignity." It was sponsored by an Andean ecumenical group. About 80 or 90 people from a number of South and Central American nations attended.

While much of what went on escaped us because of our limited Spanish, we were still able to follow the major themes, each of which was complex. We heard anger against the governmental policies of the U.S. but we also received an appreciative welcome from the other participants. We heard deep concern for the poor of Latin America, and we heard a rejection of the free-market economic system. We all pray for an end to the economic disparity between extremely wealthy and desperately poor.


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