Photo Credit: ASCODESA
02/03/2005

On July 14, 2004, a village leader brought his community back to their homes in Saiza, Cordoba in the foothills of the Andes Mountains in Colombia. It was the fulfillment of a dream that was born almost 5 years earlier when the community was forced to flee their homes by the violence that is endemic in the region.

Almost exactly five years earlier a right-wing paramilitary group of 150 armed men took the village of Saiza unawares and entered the main plaza late in the afternoon. They entered houses throughout the town ordering civilians into the main square while looting valuables and then setting the houses on fire. Women and children were forcibly separated from the men in their families, and the paramilitary singled out eight men for execution.

Today, over 100 families have returned to Saiza. They have started schools for the children, and have harvested the first crops. Slowly but surely they are rebuilding the infrastructure of the town. They are happy to say that at the final moment there has been help from local authorities, NGOs, and international organizations for this process.