CPTnet
COLOMBIA: Would You Spend the Night Here?
Matt Schaaf

Giant black wasps circle the abandoned schoolroom as Julia and Roberta
scramble to gather yellowed papers up off the floor. They are a mixture of
efficiency and excitement. Suddenly, the wasps sting and, yelling, we flee
the school in a mad rush.

In November 2000 the fisherpeople of Ciénaga del Opón fled their home, a
shallow muddy lake surrounded by graveled brushy hills full of catfish,
smallmouth and stingrays. The area, approximately a two hour boat ride from
the oil-processing city of Barrancabermeja, has been controlled by leftist
guerillas for years, but last November right-wing paramilitaries, who are
affiliated with the Colombian military, entered the swamp and civilians fled
the crossfire.

CPT has agreed to accompany the people of the Ciénaga home to protect them
from assaults by armed groups.

During a preliminary work-bee to clean the canals, Julia and several other
community residents asked CPTers Scott Kerr and I to transport them across
the lake to the municipal center of about eight villages in the area. At
dusk we finished our coffee, fish and yucca, and loaded the canoe
dangerously full of fisherfolk.

Many of the people have not been back to the municipal center since fleeing
over a year ago. The boat fills with tense anticipation.

The canoe lands. Our friends eagerly pick oranges, guanabana and one man
shinnies up a mango tree to drop the fruit to his companions below.
Tramping among the abandoned homes and stores, we hear the names of the
people who lived here.

The school, which had housed kindergarten to high school students is now
overrun by wasps and has been left ransacked and stinking of urine. It
holds treasured documents. A list of the inhabitant's names and the
fishermen's association register are rescued before the wasps drive us out.

Graffiti in black paint is read carefully, fearfully: "AUC pride" (standing
for "United Self-defence unit of Colombia"--the name of the major
paramilitary group in the region) and "Ciénaga del Opóm [instead of
Opón] the 'm' for murder [matar]."

As we clamber into the canoe headed back to camp, one young man asks, "Would
you spend the night alone here?" I said I thought I would. "I wouldn't."
He shook his head. "This is where the paramilitaries enter."

CPT continues to accompany the displaced of the Ciénaga del Opón in both
their apprehension and in their hopeful planning to return home.