Medellin, May 23, 2017
Most honored bishops of the Colombian Pacific
Archbishop of Cali, Bishop of Buenaventura, Bishop of Tumaco, Bishop of
Quibdó, Bishop of Istmina-Tadó, Bishop of Guapi,
(Translated into English by Silvia Brandon Perez)
(Translated into English by Silvia Brandon Perez)
From Pax Christi Medellin, the National Ecumenical Council for Peace – (Spanish
acronym MEP), the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests and the Coalition
of Social Movements and Organizations of Colombia - (Spanish acronym COMOSOC),
we join our voices to the many that have been raised throughout the country to
support you and our Afro-Colombian people. These people have accumulated
centuries of denial and more than a century of struggles for life, territory,
dignity and peace. They have done it in a peaceful way; their organizations and
leaders have demanded a real and permanent presence by the Colombian government
which systematically continues to condemn them to oblivion and abandonment. It
is clear to us and clear to the world's acknowledged perceptions that the
centers of power and their beneficiaries reserve the rich geographies of the
Pacific, its coasts, its seas, its soil and its subsoil, its forests, its
rivers and its fauna for subsequent looting and appropriation for their private
coffers. But their populations do not matter to them; we see people's lives and
living conditions in a state of utter deterioration and poverty, their
fundamental rights such as health, housing, food security and sovereignty,
education, work at a living wage, public services, social welfare, political
and cultural rights are violated with impunity. Life deteriorates; there are no objective
conditions for peace. The
ambitions of national minorities linked to political, economic, and military
power and to the power of the mass media have made our Pacific Coast a broad
geography for the humiliation and death of its inhabitants. And have made of the
land, its richness and its immense biodiversity, a scene of devastation and
usurpation. The voracious appetite of the multinationals justified by national
policies is one of the greatest causes of the impoverishment of the land and
its people
As Christian men and women and members of the church who join their
efforts for peace to those of social and popular organizations, we thank you
for your prophetic bravery and pastoral courage. Because you have raised your
voice to accompany your people and their struggles, to protect the life,
territory and dignity of your oppressed sisters and brothers. That attitude
evangelizes us and fills us with joy and hope. And it invites us to make the
cause of our Afro-Colombian peoples and particularly of the Colombian Pacific,
the cause of us all. "We are all Pacific" and we understand that the
peace in all of Colombia is played out today in that immense region secularly
forgotten by the central powers. Your commitment, brother bishops, moves us to
commit ourselves more firmly in the national and international dissemination of
the facts of violation of human rights, violation of the rights of peoples and
violation of the rights of the Earth with the consent of the national
government.
We accompany you, brother bishops, and we are fraternally with you.
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