Prayers
for Peacemakers, 29 June 2017
Urgent
Prayer Action: El Guayabo Eviction Order Set for July 5
Greetings
from Christian Peacemaker Teams Colombia,
We
are sending you this Urgent Prayer Action for the community of El
Guayabo. This is a community of 250 families that Christian
Peacemaker Teams has accompanied since 2013. For over 30 years
approximately 60 families farm land neighbouring the community. In
the 1980’s Octavio Lopez owned the land and after encountering
economic problems he decided that he would leave the land to local
families to use. Thirty years later Rodrigo Lopez, a man
claiming to be Octavio’s son, wants to take the land from these
families.
Photo: Caldwell Manners
The
community affirms that he has used violent armed groups to intimidate
the families to leave. But when this did not work he used his
political influence to manipulate the judicial and political system
in his favor. Under Colombian law the El Guayabo families have
earned the right to own the land for the years they have lived and
worked on it. After numerous attempts to evict the community,
attempts that were successfully stopped by community lawyers, Lopez
has succeed in finding a judge that would give him reason in spite of
the overwhelming evidence to the contrary and several national
government bodies who support the farming families right to the land.
El Guayabo’s lawyers continue to file countersuits but have
told us that an eviction on the 5th of July is most likely to happen.
The
judicial fight will not end but removing these families from their
land will have devastating effects on them. Lopez plans to
destroy everything they have constructed and the legal battle to
return to the land could take many years leaving the families without
any source of income.
A
coalition of Colombian and international organizations accompany the
El Guayabo families in their struggle for Justice.
We
are reaching out to you to pray for the community of El Guayabo. We
believe that the power of prayer can transform the hearts and minds
of the judge and officials in charge of the eviction and once again
the eviction will be stopped.
Take action:
Please
share this
video
message from Él Guayabo with your church and wider community as we
seek to cover the Guayabo families in a cloke of Prayer.
Learn
more about Guayabo:
-
El
Guayabo Will Not Give Up,
CPT
Colombia -
En
El Guayabo, 120 Familias le Temen a Desalojos y a Amenazas,
Verdad
Abierta
