La Macarena – Stories, Signs, and Smoke

On July 22nd I traveled to La Macarena, a small, isolated town in the Meta department of central Colombia.  I was there to listen to the testimonies of community members who had lost family members with no connections to the armed conflict and to see the evidence of a reported mass grave alongside the local military base.

Stories…

It’s the stories that stick with you.  After all the press releases, the counter press releases, after the images fade – the stories stick with you.

Yolima told of her life after she witnessed a local paramilitary raping a girl and reported it, against all advice.  Three of her daughters, one by one, were disappeared.  She was later told they are all in the La Macarena grave, buried as FARC guerillas…

Armando told of how his son disappeared one day.  Later, after going to any and all the military installations, he was told his son was in the La Macarena grave, buried as a FARC guerilla…

Jorge told of how he returned home one day from working in his fields, and the military was in his house.  He asked about his wife, and they told him to go away.  When he returned, he found bullet holes and evidence of sexual assult in his house.  Later the military told him his wife was in the La Macarena grave, buried as a FARC guerilla…

Paloma told the story of her son – who was serving his obligatory military service – and was at home recuperating from an injury from that service.  One day he went out into town and never returned.  His mother went to the military base asking for help.  She was told he was buried in the La Macarena grave, buried as a FARC guerilla…

The crowd of over 800 people from the surrounding area was a testament to the anger and pain of these communities, who have long been at the leading, violent edge of Colombia’s armed conflict.  The courage and strength of those who stood up to testify publicly was an example of what can happen when people say ” enough is enough.”  They gathered that day under the banner of “we are telling the truth,” an act that can be very dangerous indeed.

La Macarena is a small, isolated town in central Colombia, in the region known as the Eastern Plains.  But these are very different plains than the high plains of the Texas Panhandle, where I grew up.  These plains are covered with an almost impenetrable forest and crossed with alluvial rivers.

And La Macarena bears the scars of Colombia’s 60 years of civil war.  In the late 1990′s, La Macarena was part of a swath of land that was ceded to the FARC in preparations for peace talks which would eventually fail.  In 2002, the Colombian military re-took the zone, and the the most recent scars began.  Because the region had been wholly controlled by the FARC, the military viewed the entire civilian population as guerrilla collaborators (regardless of the fact that the population there had no say as the Colombian government ceded their entire region to the FARC).  The ‘re-taking’ of the region proved to be a period of years of violent conflict – with civilians bearing the brunt.

Through those years, the people of the region knew and heard about bodies buried in the mass grave at La Macarena.  They described helicopters often coming to the adjacent airstrip and dropping off bodies that would later be taken the the unmarked section of the cemetery.  And as the above stories show, they were often told their loved ones were there, buried as combatants in Colombia’s never-ending conflict.

Last October, reports of the “special” section of the cemetery began to emerge in the media.  The local mayor confirmed it’s existence and estimated that over 2000 bodies had been dumped there.  And while the promised investigation languished, human rights organizations began to listen to, interview, and document the people’s stories in la Macarena.

What makes this fosa común, or common grave, so explosive?

That is because up to now, the mass graves that have come to light in this civil war-torn South American country have been attributed to the paramilitaries.

But the one in La Macarena is located just outside the largest military base in the region: the local garrison of the mobile brigades of the Rapid Deployment Force (FUDRA), which receives U.S. military aid and fights the left wing guerrillas. (from Inter Press Service report – A Cemetery Full of Questions)

Signs…

But it turns out, you don’t need a mass grave to be explosive or damaging to one side or another in this conflict.  You don’t need media coverage or international delegations to bring the gravity of the situation home.  What spoke to me at the grave site were the little signs placed about the site.  Signs with numbers, which were code for the order the bodies were discovered in, and for the approximate date of their burial.  While the grave was first publicized in October of 2009, I stood and wondered how there could be so many markers from 2010…

And the whole process of deciphering these signs is a bit like deciphering the violence that has gripped this country – codes and acronyms that all mask the tremendous human suffering that is taking place.  Some reflections from that day in La Macarena:

Crosses line the fence leading up to the military base

Here in the fosa común, I am stuck with the tensions in our work as a church.  We are a part of organizations that work together to uplift, defend and promote human rights.  That includes trips like this, to document past abuses, and to call for public justice as the basis for any lasting reconciliation.  The Presbyterian Church of Colombia is called to stand here with Yolima, Armando, Jorge, Paloma, and all those who came to publicly cry out for the truth, and for justice.

But in my role as a Christian, as a part of the priesthood of all believers, I am struck with the need to witness God’s love, God’s healing, and God’s ultimate forgiveness.  I am struck with the need to mark the hallowed ground, where we all return to dust, to offer prayers for the dead and for the living – recognizing that the signs are not codes, but each one a life, and thousands of lives are represented here in this unmarked, contested, and obscure patch of earth.  In Genesis, Jacob piled up stones to mark the place where he had wrestled with God.  In La Macarena, families have lined the fence of the grave with crosses to mark this sacred ground, where a wrestling of humanity is occurring.

and Smoke…

And then comes the smoke.  After returning back to Bogotá, I watched the Colombian press closely to see what would come of a visit of a group of internationals and Colombian opposition politicians traveling to a remote site to witness what was called the largest mass grave in Latin America.  The headlines below tell the story.  A few days after out visit, the then President Uribe also went to La Macarena, but only to promote more military conquest and to denounce our visit (human rights as connected with terrorism – see quotation below); and the story of this mass grave was soon swept up into the war of words going on in July between Venezuela and Colombia.  At one point, a Colombian spokesperson called for the International Criminal Court to investigate the presence of guerrilla camps in Venezuela, which was interesting, because one of the main requests of our group was that the same ICC investigate the mass grave in La Macarena.  Our request for ICC investigation has not been met so warmly.

So how does this connect to the United States?  As it turns out, La Macarena has been an area of special focus for the US-Colombian relationship.  As a part of a project known as Integrated Action, the US has significantly funded the Colombian military units in this region.  Integrated Action is a step past Plan Colombia, the US’s 10 year effort at drug reduction, military enhancement and state building in Colombia.  This newer effort emphasizes the presence of government institutions and guarantees (government in a box) once major conflict has ended.  (See the Center for International Policy’s paper – After Plan Colombia for a thorough analysis.)  However, the legacy of violence against civilians is so strong, and indeed still runs deeply in places like La Macarena, it is doubtful that the confidence of the population can be rebuilt.  Absent a true, transparent, and mutually accepted process of reconciliation, this effort will be one more layer in Colombia’s ever-increasing civil conflict.

There is a narrative that Uribe’s hard-line security policy, known as “Democratic Security” has been a success, no matter the cost.  The stories of the victims of La Macarena, the signs of a fosa común, and the smoke surrounding any investigation of human rights abuses all point to a very different conclusion.  Security does not come through violence, obscuring the truth, or intimidating persons.  The truth will come out.

The site of the fosa común, or mass grave.

New Reports from La Macarena: ( follow the back and forth through the headlines, or go ahead and read the articles,especially the first, for a full picture of the coverage)

A Cemetery full of Questions

Two congresspersons raise the possibility of a mass grave next to a military installation

Colombia denies existence of mass grave

Uribe and Cordoba trade ‘terrorist’ allegations

“The final victory is not far” says President Uribe at Meta Base (use Google Translate for English)

Venezuela: FARC claims are strategy to cover genocide in Meta

President Uribe’s response to the allegations of a mass grave in Meta, El Tiempo 7/26/10

“El terrorismo, en esa combinación de formas de lucha, mientras a través de algunos voceros propone la paz, a través de otros voceros viene a La Macarena a buscar cómo desacredita a la fuerza pública y cómo la sindica de violación de derechos humanos”, declaró Uribe.

“Terrorism is a combination of different forms of struggle.  While some of its spokespersons propose peace, others come to La Macarena looking for ways to discredit public security forces and to accuse them of human rights violations.” declared Uribe.