Pope Francis heads to Colombia as defender of peace
POPE Francis travelled to Colombia yesterday to plead for a “stable and lasting” peace in a divided country just emerging from a 50-year war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
His visit comes two days after Colombia’s government and the country’s last active guerilla group, the ELN, announced a ceasefire, a key step toward sealing a “complete peace” to end Latin America’s longest civil war.
“Peace is what Colombia has sought for a long time, and she is working to achieve it: a stable and lasting peace, so that we see and treat each other as brothers and not as enemies,” the pope said in a video message on Monday.
“Peace reminds us that we are all children of the same Father, who loves and consoles us,” he said ahead of the five-day tour, which will see him meet both those persecuted and their tormentors.
The Colombian conflict has left 260 000 people confirmed dead, 60 000 unaccounted for and seven million displaced.
The 80-year-old Argentine, who will be making his 20th foreign trip as pope and fifth to his native Latin America, was expected to touch down late afternoon yesterday in Bogota.
There he will meet with President Juan Manuel Santos and leaders of the Catholic Church in Venezuela who have been attempting to help mediate in their country’s crisis. — AFP