Boston Prays for Peace in Colombia |
Posted by FoM on July 23, 2001 at 07:26:03 PT By Anand Vaishnav, Globe Staff Source: Boston Globe After 37 years of civil war in Colombia, some 40,000 people have lost their lives, thousands more have fled, and no solution is in sight. But yesterday, youths packed a South End church to urge leaders in their homeland to find a path to peace. For the second straight year, hundreds filled the Cathedral of the Holy Cross to celebrate a Mass calling for peace in the war-torn South American nation. Leading the way were two 20-year-old leaders of the Colombian Children's Peace Movement, a group that has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Organizers of the Mass - all of them Boston-area families of Colombian descent - raised money to fly the pair to Boston to speak. The best hopes for an end to the civil war lie with the younger generation of Colombians, they said. ''It's the only way,'' said Farlis Calle, 20, a leader of the Colombian Children's Peace Movement who is studying at Santa Monica College in California. ''Youths bring energy, hope, and vigor. Most of the Colombians think it's impossible to find peace.'' Calle and other leaders of the children's movement travel the world spreading the message of peace and raising awareness of Colombia's bloody conflict. Guerrillas, paramilitary gangs, drug kingpins, and the government are locked in a decades-old war for control of the country. Last year, the US Congress passed a $1.3 billion ''Plan Colombia,'' mostly aimed at trying to halt the country's drug trade. Many among the 1,000 people at the Mass have relatives who remain in the country, where unemployment is high and social services barely exist. ''Welfare doesn't exist in my country,'' said Monica Vanegas of Everett, part of a group called Voices In Action, which is rallying local Colombians. ''The minimum wage is hardly enough to pay for transportation to go to work.'' Cardinal Bernard F. Law celebrated the Mass, speaking in both English and Spanish. He called on the federal government to grant temporary protective status to Colombians fleeing to the United States. Many waved Colombian flags as a choir sang songs and hymns in Spanish during the Mass. ''We pray for freedom, for human rights, for reconciliation, for peace for Colombia,'' said Law, whose processional was led by teenagers dressed in colorful scarves and long skirts of Colombian tradition. ''These brothers and sisters need our help.'' About 30,000 people of Colombian descent live in Massachusetts, according to 1999 figures from the state Office of Refugee and Immigrant Health. But that number is probably an undercount, given that many Colombians are undocumented or don't speak English. A growing number of Colombians live in East Boston. One of them, 21-year-old Johnny Giraldo, said it is up to young Colombians to repair what the warring adults have begun. ''Even though we're far from our country, we're still the future of our country,'' he said. ''By us being outside of our country and doing positive things here, hopefully it will inspire change.'' Note: Cardinal Law leads 1,000 at mass for a nation at war. This story ran on page 2 of the Boston Globe on 7/23/2001. Source: Boston Globe (MA) Related Articles & Web Site: Colombia Drug War News Congress Challenges Cost of 'Unwinnable' Drugs War Bush To Raise 'Private Army' in Drugs War CannabisNews Articles - Colombia Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
Comment #3 posted by pissedonandoff on July 23, 2001 at 20:40:09 PT:
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What if some 18 year old Columbian boy had his mother and father killed (not by another Columbian) by a U.S. citizen sent down there to do some real killing. I don't know what the term for these Americans is, let's say contractor. Let's say he plans for several years, gets some drug money behind him, buys a plane and fills it with all the gas it can carry, catches President Bush out on his jog, and crashes the plane in a big fireball. What would George Senior say. "It was a cruel and unjustifyable act made upon our soverign nation and we should dump all the agent orange we have left over from Vietnam and teach those ignorant people in Columbia a lesson." [ Post Comment ] |
Comment #2 posted by pissedonandoff on July 23, 2001 at 20:39:13 PT:
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What if some 18 year old Columbian boy had his mother and father killed (not by another Columbian) by a U.S. citizen sent down there to do some real killing. I don't know what the term for these Americans is, let's say contractor. Let's say he plans for several years, gets some drug money behind him, buys a plane and fills it with all the gas it can carry, catches President Bush out on his jog, and crashes the plane in a big fireball. What would George Senior say. "It was a cruel and unjustifyable act made upon our soverign nation and we should dump all the agent orange we have left over from Vietnam and teach those ignorant people in Columbia a lesson." [ Post Comment ] |
Comment #1 posted by Sudaca on July 23, 2001 at 09:02:24 PT |
better they should pray for the US to leave Colombia alone. The interventions have only made a bad situation worse. How is Plan Colombia helping Colombians? By now its evident it isn't. [ Post Comment ] |
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