AMERICA/COLOMBIA - Migrants, conflicts and violence in Nueva Pamplona: Bishops agree common commitment lines

Thursday, 27 June 2019 evangelization   emigration   peace   violence   bishops   armed groups  

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Arauca (Agenzia Fides) - Colombia is experiencing moments and conflicting situations. While in Arauca the Catholic community shows solidarity towards the Venezuelan brothers, on the other side of the country, in Cauca, killing continues to maintain control of the territory inherited by FARC. The Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Nueva Pamplona met on June 21 in the city of Cúcuta, as informs the note sent to Fides by the Bishops’ Conference of Colombia (CEC), for an analysis of the context of the region, emphasizing the migratory situation, the conflicts and violence in the area, which is located right on the border with Venezuela.
In this sense the actions guided by the Church and the challenges that these problems entail were presented. The Archdiocese of Pamplona and the diocese of Arauca (both on the border with Venezuela), referred in particular to the conservation of the "páramo de Santurbán" (natural paradise threatened by mines) and the phenomenon of migration. The diocese of Arauca addressed the situation of the conflict and the phenomenon of migration.
The Bishops of Cúcuta, Mgr. Víctor Manuel Ochoa Cadavid, of Tibú, Mgr. Omar Alberto Sánchez Cubillos, and of Ocaña, Mgr. Gabriel Ángel Villa Vahos, announced the work with which each of the ecclesiastical jurisdictions contributes to reconciliation and peace .
José Luis Ramírez Ospina, director of the Prospecta & Innova foundation, which aims at sustainable development, was among the organizers of this meeting, said that everyone knows how the Catholic Church has diminished the consequences of the crisis in the area, and now we can "understand where we can go (...), there are common lines to reach agreements and important commitments for the people of the north of Santander and Arauca".
Among the common lines established in the meeting: evangelization (all the dioceses will work on this aspect); complete formation (Cúcuta, Tibú and Ocaña); organizational strengthening (Cúcuta, Tibú, Arauca and Pamplona); peace and reconciliation (all); charity and social inclusion (all); environment, rural development and rural economy (Tibú, Pamplona, Arauca and Ocaña); migration and displacements (all).
In Cauca, precisely in Caloto, the ONIC (Colombian Indigenous National Organization) denounced the assassination of Carlos Alberto Biscué, Nasa's indigenous social leader of the Indigenous Center of Huellas, and of Jhordan Pequi, leader of the López Adentro center, both murdered at dawn of June 23 in Caloto.
Social leader Biscué, 30, had a son and was engaged in agricultural production in the area. On 17 June, in the same Caloto, Ánderson Pérez, a former FARC fighter, was assassinated. His death, three blows to the head by two armed men, joins the list of 134 former guerrillas who were killed by the signing of the peace agreement, according to the FARC party. (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 27/6/2019)


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