Anna Vogt is the Latin America and Caribbean Regional Advocacy and Context Analyst for Mennonite Central Committee.
March 11 was the 17th anniversary of Mampujan’s displacement and the massacre in Las Brisas. I sat in a coffee shop off the main square of Villa de Leyva and very slowly ate dessert, holding Mampujan to the light. Besides birthdays and Christmas, there are a whole new set of dates that now mark my life: Jorge’s arrest, commemorations of displacement, massacres. Some events have taken place before I arrived, and the majority of the time, I am a peripheral player. An onlooker, not a victim. Living in proximity with those who hold a living memory of hechos and acts, however, has changed me, even if only in the way I understand the calendar. How does one live well in the midst of these dates, sitting in a coffee shop, overlooking a beautiful convent, cappuccino and cheesecake at hand?
Villa de Leyva, Colombia. Anna Vogt.
I finally got around to reading Louise Penny this month and have been wonderfully surprised. Some bits of these Quebec village based mysteries novels are a little cheesy, yet other sections are wonderfully profound. The main character, Inspector Gamache, is a man constantly surprised by murder. Despite the gruesome details of every case, he continues to believe in the goodness of humanity. Dealing with evil makes him more sensitive to the other side of life: the fragile beauty that is also present. Talking to a friend, in A Fatal Grace, Gamache expresses his philosophy:
People expect me to be cynical because of my job,” Gamache found himself saying, “but they don’t understand. It’s exactly as you’ve said. I spend my days looking into the last room in the house, the one we keep barred and hidden even from ourselves. The one with all our monsters, fetid and rotting and waiting. My job is to find people who take lives. And to do that I have to find out why. And to do that I have to get into their heads and open that last door. But when I come out again,” he opened his arms in an expansive movement, “the world is suddenly more beautiful, more alive, more lovely than ever. When you see the worst you appreciate the best.
On Tuesday, March 14, a judge found Jorge Montes guilty on all charges against him and sentenced an innocent man to 39 years in prison. In the news later that week, I read that two other community leaders, Ciro Canoles and Harold Canoles, in the Montes de Maria have received death threats for this social justice work. Along with remembering Mampujan as I drink my coffee, I hold memories of laughing with Jorge as we travel up and down dirt trails, documenting roads and visiting families. I think about stopping at the end of the long day in Ciro’s store, not yet understanding the process of reconciliation and desire for justice that brought these powerful leaders together in one space, after years of mistrust, yet being present, swapping jokes.
Jorge Montes. Anna Vogt.
As Ricardo Esquivia, the director of Sembrandopaz stated after Jorge’s sentencing:
In an incomprehensible way, a judge of Cartagena recently extended a severe warning to community leaders. Though not belonging to the FARC or any other armed group, they are being stigmatized and processed as guerrillas. In this sense, the peace process is not for them and they will be severely punished with the hardest sentences that the Colombian penal code establishes. This warning materialized in the sentencing of Jorge Montes Hernandez, leader of the Peaceful Movement of the High Mountains of El Carmen de Bolivar, with the extreme punishment of 39 years in prison. However, we understand that this is a first step in the court system and we will appeal this in the Superior Court of Cartagena in search of the justice that this Colombian political prisoner deserves. We ask the government to stop using the judicial system to silence and threaten leaders and social movements that cry for justice. We demand freedom for Jorge Montes Hernandez.
Like Gamache, I want to be surprised by injustice. Not naive, but with a continual hope that justice and goodness are not only possible, but breathing in the air all around us. I will be realistic and analytical, questioning structures of power, and recognizing that justice is not about how I feel. I am a person with feelings, however. I want to leave space for my heart to ache over these questions and situations, to allow emotions to wash over me, to see sorrow and beauty in the same, long, glance, to believe in goodness.
Villa de Leyva, Colombia. Anna Vogt.
There is much work to be done, across the Americas, including Canada, work that involves delving deep into the structural, messy depths of humanity. Watching the sunset over the white brick walls of a Colombian village is a reminder that the world is, however, still beautiful, alive and lovely. Over a seventeen year time period, a whole new generation of possibilities has been born in Mampuján, young people who cannot remember displacement, expect for stories.
None of this means that Jorge will get out of jail or that we will achieve world peace, despite all of our efforts. The events of this week and the reasons why we gather in plazas and in commemorations have filled me with sadness. I recognize my privilege is writing this reflection, in Villa de Leyva. I am not in the Sembrandopaz office, trying to figure out what went wrong and where things could have been done differently, not are I am in jail.
Villa de Leyva, Colombia. Anna Vogt.
I remember Jorge’s words from jail, however: “I only ask God that he keep bitterness and revenge far from my heart and that he fill me with the wisdom to confront and endure this nameless torture. God will help me forgive those who have made me suffer… Only he who is strong enough to forgive an offense knows how to love.” And in another letter “I invite you to continue struggling with great care so that we will finally be able to achieve what we have so greatly desired: progress for our communities. The time has come to change the history of our communities and to achieve this the decisive support from all of the communities is needed, without thinking of colour or race, with only the objective that our new generation will not live that which we had to live.”
Following Jorge’s example, I still choose, to seek to magnify goodness and light, even when they shine brightness because of the contrast with everything that is wrong. Look for the yellow butterflies.
Villa de Leyva, Colombia. Anna Vogt