Naya’s massacre

The first place we arrived at was Timba [Cauca]; that is the place where we entered the Naya. We could see the Naya River which is very wide and mighty; it flows into the sea and has other tributaries.

There were red spots in the river and we started seeing that they were people, dead people floating downstream. We could see that there were bodies without heads, arms, legs; men, women, children, and that there were paramilitaries on the other side of the river. We arrived in the villages of the massacres two days after: La Concha, Yurumanguí, Juntas, Lopez de Micai [departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca]. There were all sorts of deaths, with a rifle, a machete, or with a chainsaw. People who were thrown into the river so they would drown there.

That was around April, during the 2001 Holy Week.

One feels frustrated, furious because one asks oneself if what they are doing there is what they could be doing at your home or to one of your relatives.