Update and reflection from Germán Zárate-Durier
Español aqui / Spanish here. English translation by Linda Eastwood, former US-coordinator of the Colombia Accompaniment Program, and 2020 Barstow Driver Award recipient -- info below!
The global crisis caused by the Coronavirus (COVID 19) has led to changes in the daily life of all humanity, and we will never go back to what we were before the pandemic. Many sectors of society – social, political, economic and even ecclesial – have exhibited every kind of fear. Instead of resolving their differences, they continue insisting on them in absurd way, using the media to create situations of panic with which they have made many people dependent on their falsehoods as if they were truth.
There are many people, communities and institutions which, suddenly not having access to the media, don’t respond to such fake news, and make major community efforts to generate alternative ways of life for themselves – the great majority to which the major communication media denies access.
These experiences translate into community ACCOMPANIMENT which advocates for life, starting from their localized spaces, but little by little expressing and generating actions which will impact the wider life-changes for which this pandemic is creating opportunities.
Last year, we had the opportunity to participate in a gathering of organizations who carry out or promote accompaniment in Colombia, including the participation of parent organizations from other parts of the world, especially Europe and the United States. These were wonderful days for getting to know about the efforts which many young people, in particular, are making towards peace and justice.
A little later, I was invited, by the [Bogotá inter-faith] group “Teusaquillo Territory of Peace,” to visit a remote but beautiful location called La Julia, in the plains of Colombia’s Meta department (state). It was an experience of hope and much joy on seeing the work which is being done for peace and social-justice by churches and local community organizations, there and in neighboring towns, with the participation of students from the public schools in the area. I learned that this region had been hard-hit by this country’s violence.
During that trip we also visited a group of ex-combatants from the FARC [Colombia’s main guerrilla group, which signed a peace-deal with the government in 2016]. This group had organized themselves into an agricultural production co-operative. It was challenging to see how much they had managed by their own efforts.
These days, we have been participating in different ‘working spaces’ for social-justice and for peace, insisting on the necessity not only of denouncing the unjust assassination of social leaders but also of demanding that the current government take concrete action to stop these nefarious practices. The environment of tireless work and hope is another signal that things can indeed change in Colombia. The most important thing is that those who lead these acts of political advocacy, including young people, are appropriately prepared academically, but that they come from impoverished (popular) sectors and have never forgotten their roots and who have a real commitment to their people.
A little while ago I participated in the 5th National Interethnic Assembly, made up of organizations of indigenous and Afro-Colombian peoples, exchanging their contributions and their work-plans, their organizational and association capacities, taking advantage of an opportunity that the pandemic and social networks are giving us.
The major demonstrations and mobilization in the United States triggered by the killing of George Floyd are a very positive signal of the repudiation of violence, from wherever it may come. And the racism which we, too, have in many countries is another major challenge which we must face if we want, some day, to understand that all humans are equal, and that we can learn to live together in justice and peace.
All this is to say that hope must not die, cannot die, while groups of citizens are conscious that this, now, is an opportunity to meet each other again as human beings, recognizing the values of women and respecting them, seeing our children and youth as the hopeful promise of a new society. And faith – even if not in institutionalized religion which is also corrupted – faith can be strengthened by re-discovering our relationship with God and our neighbors.
“Faith without works is dead” (James 2:26) and “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2). Further, we note: “Strive first for the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). I finish with: “Let us love God above all things and love our neighbors who are equal to you and to me.”
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