Pope Arrives in Colombia, Rejects Bids to Mediate in Country’s Guerrilla War

Embarking on a weeklong visit to one of Latin America’s most troubled countries, Pope John Paul II on Tuesday rejected requests that he mediate in Colombia’s guerrilla war but condemned the widening gap between rich and poor that triggered the warfare.

Speaking at the presidential palace to an audience of political, social and business leaders that reportedly included political representatives of one of Colombia’s two strongest guerrilla groups, the pontiff pleaded that they construct “a society which proceeds in an atmosphere of peace, in which violence and terrorism do not extend their tragic and macabre empire, and where injustices and disparities do not lead to desperation. . . .”

But John Paul rejected a request delivered to the Vatican last week by representatives of the two guerrilla groups urging him to meet with their more militant leaders in the mountains and mediate their conflict with the government of President Belisario Betancur.

Calls It Internal Problem

“You must understand that I am going to a country that has its sovereignty, its institutions, its authorities, and these are the first people who are responsible for resolving these problems, because this guerrilla activity is certainly an internal problem of a country, of a society,” the Pope explained to reporters who accompanied him on the 12-hour flight from Rome to Colombia aboard his chartered Al Italia Boeing 747.

The much feared April 19 Movement (M-19) leftist guerrilla group, which conducted a bloody siege at Bogota’s Palace of Justice last November in which 95 people died, and FARCA (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), a much larger Marxist group that has a legalized political wing, had both sought papal intervention.

“What is peace?” asked the Pope in reference to the terrorist groups. “If peace means terrorism, then I don’t understand it.”

The pontiff’s 30th papal trip abroad and seventh to Latin America began at a fast pace immediately after he performed his familiar arrival ritual of kissing the ground at Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport. His entourage was met by tens of thousands of Colombians who had waited much of the day along the route of his motorcade.

Strong Language

Within four hours of his arrival, he had delivered four speeches dealing with a variety of Colombian problems, from terrorism and drug smuggling to the country’s $20-billion burden of foreign debt.

But in language tougher than any he has used since criticizing the excesses of unfettered capitalism in Canada almost two years ago, he reserved his strongest words to condemn the widening gap between rich and poor here.

“The social question has grown to worldwide dimension, making relations of justice and solidarity between rich and poor people a priority,” John Paul declared.

Pleading that action be taken by the rich countries to ease the debt burden of the poor, he said, “The poor people cannot pay intolerably high social costs by sacrificing the right to development of which they are deprived while other people enjoy opulence.”

To help solve the problem, the Pope called for urgent “international solidarity” to attack the debt crisis and “equitable agreements which are not just subservient to economic laws (which have) no soul or moral criteria.”

But he did not entirely blame the developed countries for the problems of the poor nations, particularly Colombia.

“Among those factors that make development difficult, one finds violence, insecurity, smuggling, the unjust distribution of wealth, illegal economic activities . . . and the massive transfer abroad of capital which is indispensable for the country.”

Hits Terrorism

In an emotional plea, he called for an end to the “specter of violence . . . that leaves its consequences of sorrow and death in so many parts of the world.

“We are witnessing, not without grief, the repeated attacks against peace by various forms of violence whose extreme and disastrous expression is terrorism, which has its roots in political and economic factors which are worsened by the interference of ideologies, by foreign powers, and not infrequently from the collapse of moral values.”

The energetic Pope’s visit will be an exhausting one, involving stops and dozens of speeches in 11 cities and extreme changes of climate, from the cool, thin air of high-altitude Bogota to the sultry Pacific and Caribbean coasts.

The emotional high point is expected to be his visit by helicopter Sunday to the remains of the town of Armero, where 23,000 people died in mud slides caused by the eruption of the still-active Nevado del Ruiz volcano in mid-November. He will also visit Popayan, where 300 people died in an earthquake in 1983.

The pontiff will remain in Colombia through July 7, returning to Rome and then to his summer retreat at Castel Gandolfo on July 8.