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Been to Havana?

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Been to Havana?

Hello Friends,
”You’ve been to the peace talks initiated by Santos in Havana?” I ask the woman across from me at breakfast.
“Yes I was part of a group of Colombian victims who went to share with our perpetrators how it felt being on the receiving end of their guns. This is part of the talks going on to end the civil war. It was really good. I felt they really heard me.”
“What’s that button say you’re wearing?” she added.  I answered “it says Pray for Peace” She responded. “That’s a good thing.”
She was part of a meeting of various community leaders called by Ricardo Esquivia.  Its purpose was for them to figure out together how best to respond to a request for help from Argos, an international cement company.
 Argos had bought up thousands of acres of land for a song from campesinos (farmers) when they had to leave their land because of the violence.  Now Argos wants to talk about how to improve its image by its response to this situation, namely they have this huge acreage and many campesinos have none.
This seems quite an altruistic gesture on the part of Argos. It could be a model for getting the land back into the hands of the farmers for the whole country. Such land reform is central to a lasting peace.
Pray that they will come to a good agreement to the satisfaction of everyone.
Ricardo is a leader in “Sembrandopaz” (Planting  Peace) an organization working for justice and peace.  He is a Mennonite lawyer who worked for 10 years to get Conscientious Objectors to military service recognized by the Colombian government. He told me he has been working for peace since he was 18. He is now 68, a real inspiration to me.
Shalom,  Jim
 Ps. no pictures cuz my camera gave up. 
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