Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 7 sepTember 2017
Pope arrives in Colombia seeking to heal conflict’s wounds

By NICOLE WINFIELD on the embattled socialist
JOSHUA GOODMAN to yield power.
Associated Press In Bogota, city workers
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — were busy scrubbing down-
Pope Francis flew in to Co- town monuments, erecting
lombia on Wednesday to the stage for a giant out-
try to help heal the wounds door Mass and putting the
of Latin America’s longest- final touches on a secu-
running armed conflict, bol- rity perimeter surrounding
stered by a new cease-fire the Nunciature where the
with a holdout rebel group pope will sleep every night.
but fully aware of the fragil- While many Colombians
ity of the country’s peace hail the pope’s humility as
process. a model to emulate, they
During his deeply symbolic have questioned the hefty
five-day visit, Francis is ex- cost of the visit.
pected to press Colom- “It’s great what’s happen-
bian leaders to address ing, the pope is a modest
the social and economic person,” Aristobulo Fon-
disparities that fueled five seca said as he hung two
decades of armed rebel- images of Catholic saints
lion, while encouraging or- from the rearview mirror of
dinary Colombians to bal- his taxi. “What’s not good is
ance their need for justice Pope Francis waves as he walks between Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos, left, and how they’re making a car-
with forgiveness. First Lady Maria Clemencia Rodriguez upon arrival at El Dorado airport in Bogota, Colombia, nival of this visit and spend-
In a video message on the Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017. Pope Francis has arrived in Colombia for a five-day visit. ing so much money.”The
eve of his departure, Fran- (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan) highlight of Francis’ trip
cis urged all Colombians Revolutionary Armed Forc- uncertainties with the po- our weapons.” comes Friday, with a meet-
to take a “first step” and es of Colombia, or FARC, tential to destroy Colom- The plane flying Pope Fran- ing and prayer of recon-
reach out to one another the nation remains bitterly bia’s social fabric. cis to Colombia left Rome ciliation between victims
for the sake of peace and divided over the terms of Meanwhile, the nation’s Wednesday morning and of the conflict and former
the future. the deal even as guerril- top drug fugitive, the target had to change its flight guerrillas in Villavicencio,
“Peace is what Colombia las have laid down their of a $5 million manhunt by path to avoid Category 5 a city south of Bogota sur-
has been looking for and arms and begun return- U.S. authorities, appealed Hurricane Irma. A half-hour rounded by territory long
working for for such a long ing to civilian life. Even the to the Pope to pray that he into the flight, he told jour- held by the FARC.
time,” he said. “A stable Catholic Church hierarchy, and his fellow combatants nalists he wanted to “help The event will be packed
and lasting peace, so that which was instrumental in be allowed to lay down Colombia in its path of with symbolism.
we can see one another facilitating the peace talks their weapons as part of peace.” Francis will beatify two Co-
and treat one another as and is now spearheading the peace process — a He also asked for prayers lombian priests killed dur-
brothers, not as enemies.” the process of reconcilia- proposal the Colombian for Colombia’s neighbor ing decades of guerrilla
Arriving at Bogota’s military tion, was divided over what government has rejected Venezuela, whose prob- warfare, declaring them
air base on a flight from many Colombians saw as out of hand. lems are likely to demand martyrs who were killed out
Rome, Francis was being the overly generous terms “I’m convinced that the some of his attention, hop- of hatred for the Catholic
greeted by President Juan offered to rebels behind only way out of the con- ing it finds “a good stabil- faith.
Manuel Santos and Colom- atrocities. flict is dialogue,” said Dairo ity and dialogue with ev- And the meeting will be
bia’s national symphonic Former President Alvaro Usuga, appearing publicly eryone.” The Vatican last framed by one of the
orchestra playing classics Uribe, a fierce opponent for the first time, in a video year sponsored dialogue most poignant symbols of
by Vivaldi and Beethoven of the peace deal, wrote a published on social media. between President Nicolas the conflict: the mutilated
as well as traditional letter to the pope Tuesday “The Catholic Church is a Maduro’s government and Christ statue that was res-
cumbia music. expressing concern that moral reference and we the opposition and bishops cued from a church in the
A year after the Colom- the deal with the rebels had believe that with its prayers from the country are slated western town of Bojaya af-
bian government signed fueled a rise in drug traffick- we can move forward in to meet with Francis in Co- ter a FARC mortar attack in

the peace accord with the ing and created economic our goal of abandoning lombia as pressure builds 2012. q
Top Colombia drug fugitive asks Pope to pray for disarmament

By JOSHUA GOODMAN whose capture the U.S. has “mountains of Colombia” north to Central America fer of a peace treaty for his
Associated Press offered a $5 million boun- in August, Usuaga said “the and onto the U.S. Medellin drug cartel during
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) ty, describes himself as a Catholic Church is a moral Usuga himself and many the height of Colombia’s
— Colombia’s top drug fu- peace-loving, God-fearing reference and we believe of his gunmen cycled drug-fueled violence three
gitive has shown his face peasant who was “forced that with its prayers we can through the ranks of left- decades ago.
for the first time on occa- for 30 years to carry weap- move forward in our goal ist rebel groups and right- In a second short video,
sion of the pope’s visit to ons in his defense.” of abandoning our weap- wing paramilitaries during Usuga says his group, which
the country, publishing a “I’m convinced that the ons.” Usuga, better known decades of armed conflict he calls the Gaitanist Self
video Wednesday in which only way out of the conflict by his alias Otoniel, is the in Colombia. But authorities Defense Forces of Colom-
he asks for prayers that his is dialogue,” said Usuga, alleged head of the much- consider the group devoid bia, after a mid-20th cen-
group be allowed to lay dressed in camouflaged feared Gulf Clan, whose of any political ideology tury Colombian leftist fire-
down its weapons as part fatigues and sitting on a army of assassins has terror- and have rejected its at- brand, said he and his men
of the country’s peace stool in a dirt-floored, jungle ized much of northern Co- tempts to latch onto the are willing to lay down their
process. In the 90-second hideout. lombia to gain control of peace process with leftist weapons in exchange for
video published on social Reading a statement he major cocaine smuggling rebels as a self-serving ploy legal protection and a “dig-
media, Dairo Usuga, for said was penned from the routes through thick jungles similar to Pablo Esobar’s of- nified” demobilization.q