Colombia's priests keep paths of peace open

As bishop of Montería, Monsignor Julio César Vidal Ortiz has different kind of ministry. Instead of saying mass or handing out communion to parishioners, he has a more dangerous mission: helping right-wing death squads, known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), negotiate peace with the government. Montería is locally called the paramilitary capital of Colombia, and the right-wing militias control Father Vidal's turf.

Like scores of other Catholic priests in this deeply religious country, Vidal's role is as much peacekeeper as parish head. He has attended every meeting since talks began last July between the government and AUC leaders - many of them alleged killers and drug traffickers - at their hideaway in Córdoba in northwest Colombia.

Just a few weeks ago, the 10-month peace process appeared to be faltering after the mysterious disappearance - and presumed death - of AUC founder Carlos Castaño, allegedly at the hands of fellow AUC members. But despite the hurdles, Vidal, along with the government and the Organization of American States (OAS), last week convinced 10 AUC leaders to accept a "zone of concentration" in Córdoba, to which they will be confined for the duration of negotiations.

In exchange, the government will lift arrest warrants - and thus, US extradition requests - for these leaders and their bodyguards, as long as they are in the zone. The Army will be allowed to patrol the zone's perimeter, and an international body, led by the OAS and the church, will regulate it. Thus Vidal and his colleagues will be key to the possible demobilization of some 20,000 rank-and-file paramilitaries.

During Colombia's 40-year war between the government, left-wing guerrillas, and right-wing death squads, the Catholic Church has often been the only channel for dialogue between the groups. It has helped negotiate previous peace deals and secure the release of civilian hostages. Amid death threats, kidnappings, and assassinations, Vidal and priests like him have taken the biblical promise, "Blessed are the peacemakers," as a mandate.

"We are the only means of communications with the armed groups," Vidal says. "I am not doing this for extraordinary reasons. It is something to which I am obligated" as a priest.

During government negotiations with feared AUC leaders, Vidal says he begins each meeting by offering a prayer. "In the meetings, we recite the invocation of God, we ask for wisdom, and we listen," he says.

His main role at such meetings is to act as a catalyst when the two parties reach sticking points, of which there have been many since negotiations began, he says, such as the AUC's opposition to their extradition to the US on drug- trafficking charges.

Amid varied attempts to resolve Colombia's complex conflict that began in 1964 as an effort by Marxists to overthrow the government but has increasingly become a battle for the country's vast drug wealth, the church has played a key role in negotiating with Colombia's three major armed groups: the AUC, the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and their smaller cousin, the National Liberation Army (ELN).

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