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Catholic prelates appeal to armed groups in northeastern Colombia to cease their violence, respect international humanitarian law
By La Croix International staff | Colombia
Catholic bishops in northeastern Colombia have visited a diocese in the region that is gripped with drug cartel-related violence as a gesture of solidarity with the suffering people and a hope to overcome the never-ending spate of mayhem there.
The Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Nueva Pamplona visited the Diocese of Arauca to express their support and closeness to Bishop Jaime Cristóbal Abril González and to the Church in his territory.
Bishop Abril González's diocese is at the center of the violence between rebel groups in Arauca and which has caused so much suffering among the civilian population that it is viewed as a humanitarian and social crisis.
His diocese in the Colombian region located in the northeastern part of the country on the border with Venezuela is witnessing not only a resumption of armed conflict between rebel groups but also from drug traffickers.
There are selective killings especially of young people, forced displacements of entire families in rural areas, threats to leaders, attacks with explosives, car burnings.
From March 14 to 16, according to the statement of the Colombian Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Jorge Alberto Ossa Soto of Nueva Pamplona, Bishop José Libardo Garcés Monsalve of Cúcuta and Bishop Israel Bravo Cortés of Tibú, traveled through the municipalities of Arauca, Tame, Fortul, Saravena and Arauquita.
In the diocesan Marian shrine "La Negrita de la Cordillera, del Piedemonte y la Sabana" they recited the rosary for peace, visited various parishes and shelters for migrants managed by the diocesan social pastoral.
"We want, with this sign of the Cross, to express that the Lord continues to bear the pain and suffering of the Araucan people and of Colombia ... the Lord continues to bear our weaknesses, but he calls us to allow ourselves to be reconciled with him and with our brother," said the Archbishop of Nueva Pamplona, Fides reported.
This visit for Archbishop Ossa Soto was a pilgrimage to pray and implore peace in these territories, "not a demonstration, nor a request for agreements, but a commitment, because in the first place peace is a gift from God and secondly, a commitment of the Christian".
Bishop Abril, whose Diocese of Arauca is at the epicenter of the violence said: "It was a very significant, very special visit, one of fraternity, closeness and witness, in unity in faith, in prayer for peace. It was an expression of solidarity with all the people who, in particular, during this year 2022 have had to suffer because of the violence".
He expressed the hope that the Araucan people would change with this gesture of solidarity and appealed to armed groups to cease their violence, respect international humanitarian law, "which obviously includes respect for the life and dignity of every person."
Earlier, Bishop Abril called on the international community to continue to offer its accompaniment and support to the civilian population.
Drug traffickers and paramilitary groups -- fighting over the territories they influence and for the illegal economies of drug trafficking -- are accused of the violence.
Colombia is the world's largest producer of cocaine.
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