Buenaventura Fighting

Missionaries to Colombia Boyce and Beth Wallace are requesting your prayers and positive thoughts for the people of Buenaventura, Colombia.

Buenaventura -- located along the Pacific coast, 215 miles southwest of Bogota -- has long been Colombia's largest port and central exit point for the country's coffee bean export. Recently it has also become the center for drug traffic. Cocaine shipments going by water to the US are channeled through this port. In recent years, the city has experienced a violent turf war between leftist rebels, far-right paramilitaries and drug traffickers. Last year, there were about 300 homicides in the city, which has a population of 300,000.

The drug war is raging on this month, and the casualties continue to mount. On March 16th, deadly bombing rocked the coastal community. News reports indicate that the blast, which damaged buildings and stores, occurred as two policemen passed by on patrol in the center of the port city.

There are three Cumberland Presbyterian churches located in Buenaventrura, all three of which have been involved in the latest violence and have lost family members. Tragically, Euripides Morera, pastor or Rios de Agua Viva, was wounded by shrapnel from a homemade bomb, a bomb that killed his nephew.

Pastors of the other two Buenaventura congregations, Rodrigo Torres and Gilberto Arteaga, also need our prayers and support as they continue to minister to dangerous and suffering communities.

Please be mindful of the people of Buenaventura and of those who are there to provide aid and support. Remember that Colombia does not have a drug problem. Americans and Europeans have a drug problem, and that without this demand, narcoterrorism in Colombia would cease.