Pope’s challenge in Colombia: Peace
Nation polarized after 52 years of civil war
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — The memory of the land mine that tore off the leg of Helena González’s nephew years ago is still fresh.
González, 25, has spent much of her life fearing more attacks by Colombia’s Marxist rebels against her family. And last year, when given the chance to vote on a peace agreement to end a half-century of conflict, she joined the majority of Colombians in voting against the deal.
As Pope Francis arrived in Colombia on Wednesday for a five-day visit, the challenge before the leader of the Roman Catholic Church is clear: nudging the country, torn apart by 52 years of war, toward a peace with former guerrillas that remains controversial in the eyes of many of the war’s victims.
On the surface, much has gone well for the peace accords between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by their acronym, FARC. After failing in the referendum, the government reworked the deal and passed it through Congress, sidestepping voters. About 7,000 rebels left the jungle, gave up weapons and are returning to civilian life.
But for González and thousands of others, the conflict left lasting scars. An estimated 220,000 people were killed as rebels battled government and paramilitary groups from isolated mountains to city streets. At least 6 million people were displaced by the conflict.
Public opinion has edged up — slightly — in favor of the deal signed by President Juan Manuel Santos. But the country is still as divided as ever at a time when rebels are meant to be starting new lives among civilians.
Francis’s visit to Colombia is the first papal trip to the country since 1986, when the war was still raging and much of the country was off limits to Pope John Paul II.
This time, Francis has more freedom to travel the country and meet his flock, celebrating Mass in Bogotá on Thursday, beatifying clerics killed in the war Friday in the city of Villavicencio, and Saturday and Sunday visiting Medellín and Cartagena, both of which have staged remarkable turnarounds in recent years.
“‘Let us take the first step’ is the theme of this journey,” Francis said in a video message to Colombians on Monday. “Peace is what Colombia has sought for a long time, and it is working to achieve it.”
For Francis, the trip is a rare victory in what has been a frustrated run of diplomacy by the Vatican in the region.
For a time, it appeared that a peace agreement in Colombia might be tilting toward a similar failure.
Last October, after four years of negotiations with the FARC, Santos scheduled an up-ordown vote for Colombians on the deal. Although the president had seen it as little more than a popular rubber stamp, the referendum instead galvanized widespread feelings that the rebels had gotten off too easily.
Among the loudest campaigners were Christian Evangelist churches that joined allies of Álvaro Uribe, Santos’s predecessor, and argued that the deal betrayed religious values.
When the deal was rejected, Vatican diplomats urged the Colombians to save it. After the new deal was signed, Francis called Santos and Uribe to the Vatican to hash out their differences, but the two men left with little agreement.
And Friday, the FARC said that it would form a new political party, announcing its leadership and a new logo, a rose.
Many Colombians feel that the party’s new name, the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force, whose acronym is also FARC, shows that the former rebels remain unrepentant.
“For me, the FARC aren’t honest and the votes they’ll get will be through coercion,” said Alfonso Téllez, 52, a Catholic who fled to Bogotá from the southern city of Cali after his grandfather was killed by armed men.
Despite the challenges, some said they would use the visit by Francis as a moment to reflect on the war and move on from it.
Virginia Casas, 40, left the capital’s cathedral on a cloudy Tuesday having finished prayers to the Virgin of Chiquinquirá, the patron saint of Colombia. The conflict was on her mind that afternoon, along with her cousin and nephew who were kidnapped during the war. “The FARC have gone back into civilian life,” she said. “And I’ve forgiven them. Of course I have.”