Pope arrives in Colombia to help heal wounds of 50-year war

BOGOTA, (Reuters) Pope Francis arrived in Colombia on Wednesday with a message of unity for a nation deeply divided by a peace deal that ended a five-decade war with Marxist FARC rebels but left many victims of the bloodshed wary of the fraught healing process.

Francis, making his 20th foreign trip since becoming pontiff in 2013 and his fifth to his native Latin America, started his visit in Colombian capital Bogota. He will travel later in the week to the cities of Villavicencio, Medellin and Cartagena.

Greeted at the airport by President Juan Manuel Santos as attendees waved white handkerchiefs, the Argentine pope hopes his presence will help build bridges in a nation torn apart by bitter feuding over a peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Speaking to reporters on the Bogota-bound plane, Francis said the trip was “a bit special because it is being made to help Colombia go forward on its path to peace.”

Francis will encourage reconciliation as Colombians prepare to receive 7,000 former FARC fighters into society and repair divisions after a war that killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions over five decades.

References to the recent peace deal were immediate.

A teenage boy, born in 2004 to vice presidential candidate Clara Rojas when she was held captive in the jungle by the FARC, handed Francis a white porcelain dove as a welcome present.

On his drive to the Vatican Embassy in central Bogota, the leader of the world’s Roman Catholics was mobbed in the ‘pope mobile’ by screaming crowds tossing flowers and holding up children to be kissed.

“Peace is what Colombia has been seeking for a long time and is working to achieve,” the pope said in a video message ahead of his arrival.