Newsletters

Date: July 14th 2010

From Anne Sayre and Beth Ingraham, July 10, 2010 - "Never more" - "Stories of "the disappeared"

Our central activity this week was spending two days in a workshop with victims of the violence, lead by two young adults from Bogota. Their organization is one of over fifty Human Rights and Peace organizations in Colombia. Their purpose is to teach the people how to recover the history of the crimes committed against the civil population, and then write a report of the crimes called "Nunca Mas Colombia (Never Again Colombia)." This will be modeled after "Nunca Mas" reports and books written in other countries that have suffered terror under military dictators or abusive governments.

The attendees all had someone in their family assassinated or kidnapped. Especially painful is that the bodies of victims are often never recovered and their fate is unknown, causing false hope of finding them. The workshop leaders began by explaining that the truth of the crimes is not confined to who pulled the trigger. It also includes exposing the entire web of psychological, emotional, economic, social, and judicial forces used by the government and armed groups who are perpetrators of the crimes against humanity. It is most important to name the "intellectual" or hidden instigators of the crimes who also provide legal immunity to the perpetrators.

After explaining goals, the next step was to collect the history of the crimes the attendees had experienced. We tell the following story to illustrate the personal, familial, and societal tragedy.

A grandmother, mother, and wife of 30 years, Dora (name changed) was a seamstress in a maquilla. She lived with her family in Barranquilla where her husband worked as a mechanic. Her son-in-law worked odd jobs with the dream of providing his daughter with a good education, and her son was proud to be able to help provide for the family while saving money for a car.

In 2005, Dora's son-in-law was offered a job with good prospects. Instead of receiving an interview, he was kidnapped and disappeared. Dora's husband passed away in 2007, making her son the primary bread winner of the family. While at work, he was kidnapped and disappeared. As in many stories, Dora and her daughter were left without any answers as to their conditions. For five years, until his bones were identified, the emotional toll, compounded with growing financial troubles, caused Dora much psychological pain and she often had sleepless nights.

During a particularly troublesome night, Dora began praying and begging God to either take her pain away, or take her from this earth. Dora described a radical transformation, and she awoke changed, having come to terms with the situation. She attributed this change to God's help. She now directs her grief toward action through membership in a group of about 30 other community members who have also lost loved ones. They work to bring systematic change by marching in front of the mayor's office and police stations, carrying placards and publicizing the atrocities that have become commonplace.

This group of survivors of the violence relies on their faith in God, and we were changed by having witnessed their gripping and persistent faith. Please keep Dora and other survivors of the violence in your prayers as they work to find a new Colombia and end the systematic violence.

Blessings,
Anne and Beth


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