Agenzia Fides

Bogota (Agenzia Fides) - "Peace process is a necessary process. In Colombia it is very difficult to achieve a military victory, not because our army is not adequately prepared, but for the geographical conditions and for the guerrillas, who have become a terrorist group ": This is the opinion of the Archbishop of Bogotá (Colombia ), Ruben Salazar Gomez, who will receive the biretta in the next Consistory, interviewed by the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo. The text of the interview was sent to Fides Agency.
Besides being President of the Episcopal Conference, Bishop Salazar Gomez was also President of the Commission for Reconciliation, therefore the question whether the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) have been brought to the dialogue also by the blows inflicted by the army, he replied: "Undoubtedly. This was a decisive factor. But there is still their presence. When I talk to the Bishops of the outlying areas, such as Orinoquia, Nariño, Putumayo, they confirm the strong presence of the guerrillas. One cannot always continue to kill, thinking only about destroying us. All this has cost the country too many victims, too many tears, too much pain. It is horror that Colombia has five million displaced! "
The Archbishop of Bogota adds: "the main problem of our fighters is that they have lost all sense of reality. They live in another world ... They still live in the 60s, when Che Guevara and Fidel were guerrillas and there was a completely different political world. Maybe living in the jungle prevented them from hearing the news or understanding its meaning."
With regard to the widespread phenomenon of corruption, the future Cardinal defines it "the cancer that is eating the country, on an unprecedented scale" and believes that the crisis of justice depends on the fact that "it is not really justice because it is slow, does not arrive or arrives distorted. It does not stop crime and rehabilitate the criminal. "
On Monday, November 19 (not Thursday 15 as previously expected) dialogue for peace in Havana (Cuba), between the government of President Santos and the FARC will re-open. The sponsors are Cuba and Norway and witness countries are Chile and Venezuela (see Fides 18/10/2012). (CE) (Agenzia Fides 14/11/2012)