I watched intently from our back patio here in Micohumado (Mico for short) as people in black suits with CTI on their backs, soldiers, others in civilian clothes, and some with video cameras were going in and out of two homes at 7am. They were all being guarded by a group of soldiers. As a CPTer whose mission is to observe and report violence I paid close attention to this situation.
Soon there were female cries from the home, "My child, my child." For the next two hours we heard this cry numerous times along with the cry of a very distressed teen who was one of four children of the mother involved. The pain I felt as I heard the cries of a mother and her children being forcibly separated made me know in my heart in a new way the horror of war.
A crowd of Micohumado villagers soon gathered at a distance with fear on their faces. They informed us three CPTers that the people in black were the arresting body of Colombia's Attorney General's office and that someone had accused the man and the two women in the house of being guerrilla collaborators. One villager told me, "The accused man is a hard-working farmer here. Everyone here knows him. Let the community judge him."
When we CPTers approached the investigators to get their story, they told us, "We came from Bogota with arrest orders for these people. We are just doing our job. We are not saying whether they are guilty or not. We will do an investigation to help determine that. The villager mentioned above joined us and repeated what he had told me to the investigators. The investigator said, "That would not be part of due process; we could not do that."
During this period, Matt, my CPT friend, took a photo from our back yard. This flash caught the attention of one of the investigators who came running to him, demanding he hand over the film. Matt refused. We than called the Defender of the People, a watchdog agency of the government, and they said we had the right to keep the film.
Months before, CPTers had had long conversations with the accused man and from that we know that he has had a deep interest in the spiritual basis of CPT and Gandhi and generally in nonviolent movements. At that time he had asked for something to read about our spiritual roots. This crisis has moved us. I will try to visit him in jail.
It is hard for us CPTers to know the truth of the matter about the accused. Were they arrested as a way to instill fear in the village? Some villagers feared this might be the beginning of more arrests. Others thought our presence might have prevented that and encouraged better treatment of the accused. But we do know that we have a mandate from Jesus to visit the man and women in jail and to share where our faith comes from.
Pray with us, for us, and for everyone involved that God would use everything that has happened to somehow forge a space for peace in this area of Colombia called Mico.
Jim
Soon there were female cries from the home, "My child, my child." For the next two hours we heard this cry numerous times along with the cry of a very distressed teen who was one of four children of the mother involved. The pain I felt as I heard the cries of a mother and her children being forcibly separated made me know in my heart in a new way the horror of war.
A crowd of Micohumado villagers soon gathered at a distance with fear on their faces. They informed us three CPTers that the people in black were the arresting body of Colombia's Attorney General's office and that someone had accused the man and the two women in the house of being guerrilla collaborators. One villager told me, "The accused man is a hard-working farmer here. Everyone here knows him. Let the community judge him."
When we CPTers approached the investigators to get their story, they told us, "We came from Bogota with arrest orders for these people. We are just doing our job. We are not saying whether they are guilty or not. We will do an investigation to help determine that. The villager mentioned above joined us and repeated what he had told me to the investigators. The investigator said, "That would not be part of due process; we could not do that."
During this period, Matt, my CPT friend, took a photo from our back yard. This flash caught the attention of one of the investigators who came running to him, demanding he hand over the film. Matt refused. We than called the Defender of the People, a watchdog agency of the government, and they said we had the right to keep the film.
Months before, CPTers had had long conversations with the accused man and from that we know that he has had a deep interest in the spiritual basis of CPT and Gandhi and generally in nonviolent movements. At that time he had asked for something to read about our spiritual roots. This crisis has moved us. I will try to visit him in jail.
It is hard for us CPTers to know the truth of the matter about the accused. Were they arrested as a way to instill fear in the village? Some villagers feared this might be the beginning of more arrests. Others thought our presence might have prevented that and encouraged better treatment of the accused. But we do know that we have a mandate from Jesus to visit the man and women in jail and to share where our faith comes from.
Pray with us, for us, and for everyone involved that God would use everything that has happened to somehow forge a space for peace in this area of Colombia called Mico.
Jim
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