A letter from John and Paula Ewers in Colombia
October 3, 2007
Dear Friends,
Can you imagine what it would be like to have to move to a different city quickly? To have to leave your family, friends, educational opportunities, work, involvement with human rights organizations, girlfriend, boyfriend, and familiar surroundings? That happens daily here in Colombia. We were fortunate (or unfortunate) to be a part of that experience today.
Last Friday, we met with some of the human rights workers at the office of the presbytery. They had been contacted about a young university student who had been arrested with five other students, but because there wasn’t enough evidence to keep him, he was released. In Colombia, that is a death knell. Many people have been killed shortly after being released by the police. The assumption is that if you were arrested, there must be some evidence that you are a guerrilla sympathizer, a paramilitary sympathizer, or a threat to someone. Therefore, it is best to get rid of you. Most people go into hiding, such as a young man from Barranquilla we know who was arrested and released. He is now out of the country and studying in a university. Again, the Presbyterian Church helped him.
Today we were asked to accompany the student on his way out of Barranquilla. He’ll go into hiding in another city here in Colombia. Fortunately there are organizations that pay the travel expenses and work with the person while in hiding. Because we are “accompaniers” from a country that supports the Colombian government, our presence in situations like this is an asset. Perpetrators don’t want eye-witnesses, nor do they want a lot of publicity about situations that could cast a negative light on them.
We went to his place of hiding, walked with him to the car, sat on either side of him on the way to the airport, and kept close to him until he went into the waiting area to board the plane. His relatives and friends were there to say goodbye to him.
How unfair! How wrong to have to leave loved ones! How wrong to dramatically change a young person’s life, any person’s life! How wrong to be threatened when you work with people to strengthen union organizing, student rights, the rights of the displaced, African-Colombians, and the indigenous! How wrong that organizations are weakened by losing effective leaders and workers!
This is a reality in Colombia and in many other countries around the world. We need to let the world know about these conditions. We need to be a voice for the voiceless and say this is wrong! This can’t continue! We need to tell this story and others like it, so that these lives bear fruit—so these people know that others care for them.
John and Paula
The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 46
