Here in Barranca

Oil Christ - Barrancabermeja

I guess it has already been a week since I arrived here. I thought I would let everyone know that I am well. The trip here on the bus from Bogota was long but pretty comfortable. The violent films on the bus made me about as nauseous as the constant turns, but the condition was helped by a little sleep.

For a little background, the CPT team base is in Barrancabermeja, Santander, a city in a very low-lying valley between two mountain ranges along the Magdalena river. It is constantly pretty hot and humid with little breeze to speak of. Around 200,000 people live here in town. The area has attracted large numbers of people to work in the oil industry. As the bus approached Barranca (as it's known for short), I saw many pipelines, oil wells, and refineries scattered about. Barranca itself has a large oil refinery by the river belching smoke and ash out over the city. Parts of the city and many of the surrounding communities were under leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) control until the early 2000s when the right wing paramilitary groups entered the area, assassinating anyone who they suspected of having guerrilla or other leftist ties. The paramilitaries since then gained a high level of control over the oil and coca of the region. Since the Colombian government started the so-called paramilitary demobilizations, the paramilitaries have splintered into gangs and factions, but they are still capable of brutal violence.

Yesterday, we accompanied a funeral procession for Luis "Lucho" Arango Crespo, a fishing union leader who was killed in Barranca. We don't know who killed him or why, but, as the Vanguardia newspaper quoted a fellow fisherman as saying, "Being a good leader brought him to his tomb." He was a brave leader who spoke out against illegal fishing and other practices that destroy the river and the fish population, on which the people depend. I am praying for his mother, wife and children, as well as his whole community in this dark hour.