COLOMBIA

In Colombia, as in other Latin American countries, there is a ritual at the stroke of midnight, between the sunset of the old year and the dawn of the new one, which consists in burning a muñeco - the symbol of the year which has come to an end - and, through the fire, "eliminating" the negative things that happened.
Therefore, the last days of December are spent to search for old trousers, t-shirts or shirts, sweatshirts and clothes that are no longer used, in order to dress the muñeco of the Old Year by stuffing it with sawdust, paper or any other material that can shape the cloths. Then it is put on a chair sitting in the doorway, in the garden or in the streets.

Mario Paciolla was a young man whom we knew since he was involved in the Peace Brigades International’s Project in Colombia until 2018 and then in the United Nations Verification Mission in Caquetà, Colombia.
On July 15th, he was found dead in his apartment in circumstances yet to be clarified, even though it was initially stated as a suicide. Mario had a ticket to come back to Naples on July 20th and, for more than a week, he kept on saying to his mother that something really worried him. He was afraid and he wanted to return to Italy.
He was a sociable, committed, loved young man and, above all, a lover of truth and justice. Whatever happened we want to ask for an independent investigation which clarifies the facts. This is why we invite you to subscribe to the truth-seeking request promoted by the Rete Accademica Europea per la Pace in Colombia (Europaz):  https://www.europaz.org/verita-per-mario-paciolla/

A few days ago I spoke to A., a 6 year old girl from the Peace Community.
Her mother had warned me: A. wants to tell you what she is doing, how she is doing, the small and large achievements of the children of her age.
Now A. speaks very well so that understanding each other is simple.
Some time ago the dialogue would have been a little more complex.
So she begins her story by talking to me about the school, the arrival of the rainy season, the family, the mare, the mules.
She shows me how much she has grown (she is marking her height on the wooden part of the house) and her mother, there with her, points out that her temper has also started to grow.
We both smile.
Then she starts talking about plants, flowers, field crops, yuca, ñampi (a tuber similar to yuca), rice, plantain, bananas, beans, fruit plants: papaya, pineapple, coconut.

During this quarantine, we have all been going through a difficult time of worries and concerns about our families and our future in the workplace and in the social sphere. Many people went into mourning for the loss of one of their loved ones, robbing many families of the chance to say a final goodbye. It is very painful to find out this powerlessness for ourselves when dignity, affections and economic security are being taken away from us. We felt close to each other, empathic and heroic because everyone had had the same fate. Or, as Pope Francis put it, ‘in the middle of the storm, we are all on the same boat’.
Yet we are very much aware that in our country boats are not all the same: some people are going through all this on a raft. This is why those who could tried to help people living with great difficulties during the quarantine. At the same time we are aware of what this additional huge burden has caused in areas where people were already experiencing precariousness, violence, war, injustice, and hunger. Yet no one has been hearing anything from them.