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The distrust sown on the field
 
Frieden in Vegáez. Von: Bibiana Ramirez - APR

Vegáez is a municipality located in the Urabá antioqueño [1]. There is placed now the Transitional Point of Normalization (PTN) [2] Héroes de Murry, where there are around 200 guerrillas. Government has not fulfilled to the community, the agreement about investing in social issues included in the peace agreements.

It is full moon in Vegáez. The few just paved cement streets, are lightened. Kids run from side to side. Arquía River is the life in that municipality of Vigía del Fuente in Antioquia.

In the afternoon peasants come back to their homes after work. Some of them pass by with trays of fish, others with clusters of plantains on their shoulders and others with sweat on their forehead, tired, but with the satisfaction of having food for their families, even though it is insufficient.

Vigía del fuente is one of the poorest municipalities in Antioquia and maybe in the country. In its municipal head there is neither electric power nor aqueduct. Employment possibilities are limited and Vegáez is the reflection of that poverty. It is the farthest municipality in Vigía. Its population is 1250; some others moved due the violence.

There is a power plant which works from 3:00 in the afternoon to 11:00 in the night. Every family pays its maintenance fee. A ticket to Vigía costs 80.000 pesos and this amount of money is not so easy to earn, that is why for most of the people it takes years to get out. Half of the population in Vegaéz has wood houses and the other half adobe houses, these last ones were gotten through a project from the Town Hall.

This municipality exists since more than one hundred years ago. Plantain has fed them and has let them survive. River offers fishes and any mountain animal fills, sometimes, their plates. There is a health centre that is attended by a nurse and a doctor, but is not well equipped to help in serious emergencies, people have to go in this cases, to Quibdó and it is about six hours in chalupa [3].

There is a school, quite abandoned. Many students spend even two hours to get to it. The principal is at the same time secretary and teacher.

They have lived in the middle of the war. It is a strategic place where FARC-EP has been present, reason why the government has attacked little communities that are all over the basin of the Arquía River. “Here it used to come the government* (army) but just to drop bombs” says a habitant of Vegáez. Also paramilitaries had tried to get into, but the guerrilla has prevented it. That’s when communities get into crossed fire.

Stigmatized community

We were with big part of the community, so they could tell the stories that surrounds them. There showed some representatives from the Community Council, some seniors, youth, the principal, the priest, some kids and some other curious, all from the town, to see what was going on.

They warned me they don’t trust anyone, less in journalists, because they are the most who have stigmatized their region. A community leader said that days before a journalist that made him an interview showed him afterwards as he was in the transitory area where the FARC-EP are. “He showed me as a guerrilla, that’s why we don’t want you to tape anything and we want our names not to be shown”.

I attuned my memory to keep everything. At the beginning the voices came out shyly, and only some were speaking. A while after, stories started coming out and also the worries. Young people looked at the ground. One of the seniors incited them to speak, but none of them said anything.

“We have been a stigmatized community. This Arquía River has been seen by all the people as a guerrilla. Here they live (FARC-EP guerrillas), but we are not to blame, before they came, our ancestors used to live here” said a leader of the community.

And then, an elderly woman added: “There was a time when every day you could hear helicopters and airplanes. One was washing the clothes on the river and has to go out running to hide. We were living pretty scared and we had nothing to do with what was going on. Bombs fell here close, and all our land was damaged.

Doubts with the Post-agreement

Last year, in November, community in Vegáez had a meeting with some government delegates, FARC-EP, guarantor countries and Antioquia’s Governor to sign some commitments where the community accepted a Transitional Point of Normalization (PTN) in their territory and the government engaged to provide the care never supplied before, to a poor and disadvantaged region.

Nevertheless, few months after, people felt disappointed by trusting a government that wants not to accomplish. For example, some men in Vegáez were hired to work in the PTN Héroes de Murry, but they haven’t received their payment during the past three months. “A lot of people stopped planting to go work there, in this moment they could be reaping a harvest of plantain. We are considering to strike against the government, there in the PTN to see if they finally pay us. They changed the engineer that owes us for another and the new one doesn´t answer neither.

During the conversation they denounce that strange people has come to distribute presents. People they don’t know. “Here it comes public workers, they go in and out. They don’t ask us anything, we don’t know who they are, they do not meet us, and they don’t take us into account. The peace process has not benefit us” avers a shy woman.

Community proposed the government they would sell the plantain and the food for the PTN, but they didn’t accept. “They preferred to pay much more money for a transport when we are just 15 minutes away. Besides they wanted to take out our doctor and we didn’t let that happen. The thing is that the government wants to take advantage, they want to invest the less. You can’t trust like this” affirms another member of the community.

Children play in a paddock they use as a playground, but river is their biggest fun. Young people don’t have options, they get out of school and there they stay, “lucky ones those who can go to Quibdó to study”.

At the end what remains is a big concern. The panorama will keep being desolate, because the government has not the intention of making the investment they said. “What are we going to do when this is over? We think the Post-conflict is going to be worse. Here the paramilitaries hasn’t come yet but because guerrillas are here with guns, but when they disarm, the others will come. It has been happening in other towns, they are in and they are controlling everything”.

People say goodbye with humble. At the end they apologise for being so tough with me, but the distrust has been sown long ago and they are right, the people who has come from outside have played dirty. Anyways in their own faces there is still a show of tranquillity for having unburdened and the hope that this time someone is going to tell the truth about their community.


Written by: Bibiana Ramirez

Translated by: Lina Castillo

[1Urabá Antioqueño: Geographical Zone located in the west of the country. It is made up by 24 municipalities and takes part of Antoquia’s department as well as of Chocó department. The north of the subregion borders with the Caribbean sea.

[2(PTN) Transitional Point of Normalization: FARC-EP members are in the PTN camps as the first step for the registration of arms and weapons and the laying down of them. Also to make the transition between war and civil life.

[3Chalupa: Is a type of small boat which can be propelled by sail, rowing or motor. They are commonly used in freshwater formations in Colombia and Mexico