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Christian Aid's visit to Urabá

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Visit to Mario Castaño’s family farm. Mario was a land claims leader who was killed on 26 November 2017. This was the first stage in the visit of Christian Aid and the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission (Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz). We were received by Elilia Isabel Flores, Mario’s widow, and four of their daughters with their families. Several leaders from neighbouring lands also came, to show their support for the family and to tell the story of La Larga Tumaradó river basin. In this photo we can see Darling, Mario Castaño’s granddaughter, at the entrance to the farm next to the PBI flag.
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Visit to Mario Castaño’s family farm. Mario was a land claims leader who was killed on 26 November 2017. This was the first stage in the visit of Christian Aid and the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission (Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz). We were received by Elilia Isabel Flores, Mario’s widow, and four of their daughters with their families. Several leaders from neighbouring lands also came, to show their support for the family and to tell the story of La Larga Tumaradó river basin. In this photo we can see Darling, Mario Castaño’s granddaughter, at the entrance to the farm next to the PBI flag.

  • Visit to Mario Castaño’s family farm. Mario was a land claims leader who was killed on 26 November 2017. This was the first stage in the visit of Christian Aid and the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission (Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz). We were received by Elilia Isabel Flores, Mario’s widow, and four of their daughters with their families. Several leaders from neighbouring lands also came, to show their support for the family and to tell the story of La Larga Tumaradó river basin. In this photo we can see Darling, Mario Castaño’s granddaughter, at the entrance to the farm next to the PBI flag.
  • Leaders from the collective territories of Curvaradó and Pedeguita y Mancilla were also present to tell the story of their displacements and of the struggles which enabled them to return to their lands, including the creation of the Humanitarian Zones and Biodiversity Zones.
  • Enrique Chimonja, from the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, thanks Mario Castaño’s family for receiving us in their home and also welcomes the Christian Aid delegation and the leaders from neighbouring farms. They explain the aim of the visit for the Christian Aid campaign to raise awareness of stories of forced displacement in the Bajo Atrato region.
  • Mario Castaño’s daughter Nelcy was present the day her father was murdered on Sunday 26 November 2017. After that day, she and her daughters and her mother and sister moved, and now they are waiting for guarantees that they can return to the farm in safety. During the visit, a tribute was held to the leader and his struggle to recover his property, Arbol del Pan, in the village of La Madre, part of the collective territory of La Larga y Tumaradó.<br /> In this photo Nelcy is holding a picture of her father.
  • Andrés is a well-known leader from the Caño Manso Humanitarian Zone, in the Curvaradó collective territory. He told the delegation the story of his displacement and return to the Humanitarian Zone. He also told us that they receive numerous threats for claiming the titles to their lands, but that they continue to hope their land will be returned to them.
  • Telling the story of the Bajo Atrato region, of military and paramilitary operations in 1996 and 1997 which led to the displacement of thousands of people.
  • After the visit to Mario Castaño’s farm, the delegation travelled to Playa Larga, in the collective territory of Pedeguita y Mancilla. This is the same place where local land claims leader Hernan Bedoya was murdered on 8 December 2017. His son, Osman Bedoya, was present at the meeting to pay tribute to his father, saying “in spite of the pain his absence causes me, I have to keep going”.
  • The Christian Aid delegation and the team from the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission with leaders from the Caño Manso Humanitarian Zone. This Zone was created in 2013.<br /> Also present were some Embera Katio indigenous families from the Jaikerazabi indigenous territory (municipality of Mutata) who were recently displaced due to the violent situation in their territory and given refuge in the Humanitarian Zone.
  • After Caño Manso, we accompanied the delegation to the Camelias Humanitarian Zone, in the Curvaradó collective territory. Local leader Maria Ligia Chaverra told the story of her arrival in the territory with her husband more than 60 years ago, and how the armed conflict changed her life, forcing her to move around and hide. However, her struggle to recover her land has always been at the centre of her life, and her hope of returning to peaceful, tranquil times remains very strong.<br /> We also told the story of PBI’s accompaniment to the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission since the year 1994 and our work in the Bajo Atrato region since 1997-1998.
  • Next we arrived at the Nueva Esperanza Humanitarian Zone, in the Jiguamiandó collective territory. There the delegation met with different leaders from the area, who came from the indigenous territory of Alto Guayabal and from Uradá and also from the Pueblo Nuevo Humanitarian Zone. These past months have been highly complicated in this territory. The community are once again afraid about the presence of illegal armed actors, and threats to leaders who are reclaiming their land.
  • Justice, Zainab and Adrian, from the Christian Aid London team, with Thomas Mortensen, director of Christian Aid in Colombia, listening to the leaders’ stories.
  • Enrique Chimonja, winner of the Diakonia Prize for defender of the year and member of the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, told the story of how he became a human rights defender to the members of Christian Aid. It was an emotion-filled moment for everyone.
  • The Christian Aid delegation with the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission members and Erasmo Sierra, leader from the Nueva Esperanza Humanitarian Zone (Jiguamiandó), accompanied by PBI and volunteers from the Los Katios international accompaniment organisation.
  • Daybreak in the Jiguamiandó river basin, Chocó department.
  • We ended the visit at the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó. Doña Brigida, Gildardo Tuberquia and German Graciano Posso told the story of the creation of the Peace Community as a peaceful resistance process in the midst of the armed conflict, with a strong conviction to resist forced displacement. They told the story of the continuous violence they have faced since they started the Community 21 years ago.
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