Pope Francis begins mission to heal wounds in Colombia
BOGOTA, Colombia — Pope Francis received a spirited, symbol-filled welcome to Colombia on Wednesday as he began a five-day visit aimed at helping heal the wounds and divisions left by Latin America’s longest-running armed conflict.
The arriving pope was greeted at Bogota’s military air base by President Juan Manuel Santos and an orchestra mixing classics by Vivaldi and Beethoven with rhythmic cumbia music popular along Colombia’s Caribbean coast.
In a gesture likely to mark the deep symbolism of the trip, he was given a commemorative peace dove sculpted by an adolescent youth born in a jungle camp to a rebel father and a politician mother after she was taken captive by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in 2002. Clara Rojas, now a congresswoman, did not see her son again until 2008 when he was 3.
The first pope from Latin America looked thrilled to be back in Colombia, the first country he visited after he was ordained in 1970.
He smiled widely as he waved from the Popemobile to thousands of wellwishers who lined up for hours for a glimpse of the wildly popular pontiff along the 9-mile route from the airport to the Vatican’s embassy.
During his visit, Francis is expected to press Colombian leaders to address the social and economic disparities that fueled five decades of armed rebellion, while encouraging ordinary Colombians to balance their need for justice with forgiveness.
A year after the Colombian government signed the peace accord with the FARC, the nation remains bitterly divided over the terms of the deal even as guerrillas have laid down their arms and begun returning to civilian life. Even the Catholic Church hierarchy, which was instrumental in facilitating the peace talks and is now spearheading the process of reconciliation, was divided over what many Colombians saw as the overly generous terms offered to rebels behind atrocities.
Former President Alvaro Uribe, a fierce opponent of the peace deal, wrote a letter to the pope Tuesday expressing concern that the deal with the rebels had fueled a rise in drug trafficking and created economic uncertainties with the potential to destroy Colombia’s social fabric.
Meanwhile, the nation’s top drug fugitive, the target of a $5 million manhunt by U.S. authorities, appealed to the Pope to pray that he and his fellow combatants be allowed to lay down their weapons as part of the peace process — a proposal the Colombian government has rejected out of hand.
“I’m convinced that the only way out of the conflict is dialogue,” said Dairo Usuga, appearing publicly for the first time, in a video published on social media. “The Catholic Church is a moral reference and we believe that with its prayers we can move forward in our goal of abandoning our weapons.”