Scott Nicholson – Colombia

Leidy is a 24-year-old microbiologist who has the very subversive job of being the manager of the water treatment plant for the Saravena Community Water Company (ECAAS). I visited the plant on August 28 and Leidy and her co-workers spoke with understandable pride about this amazing community-owned-and-managed company. Unfortunately, the Colombian government and military don’t share this pride in ECAAS – they view it as a guerrilla project that needs to be handed over to a private corporation.

ECAAS was created by the people of Saravena in 1970 and it provides clean drinking water to approximately 20,000 residents of this small city. The general assembly of ECAAS is comprised of two representatives from each of the 30 neighborhood councils and one representative from each of the six main social organizations in Saravena. The assembly elects the administration and sets the policies for ECAAS.

The current water treatment plant was inaugurated in June 1997 and a plaque lists the names of the eight people that made up the ECAAS administrative board. Bernardo Arguello was the president. He was imprisoned during the first mass arrest that took place in Saravena on November 12, 2002. He has since been released. Luciano Pinto Duran was the vice president. He later became the president and was arrested in January 2004. He is still in prison. Edgar Mantilla was killed near the Saravena police station by two “sicarios” (hired killers) on August 15, 2003. Miguel Pedraza, Silvino Aceros, and Alberto Páez had to go into hiding when arrest orders were issued for them in 2003.

The sicarios also killed two other ECAAS workers in 2003. Uriel Ortiz was having a beer with three friends in the El Caney bar on July 22. Police agents entered the bar and searched Uriel and his companions. The police asked if one of them worked for ECAAS and Uriel responded that he did. Five minutes later, two sicarios entered the bar and killed Uriel and his friends.

Rito Hernandez returned home from his job at ECAAS on September 25, 2003 and went across the street to have a beer with a friend. Two of Rito’s brothers were in his home that evening and when I met them in 2004 they described what happened. Two sicarios rode up on bicycles and one of them shouted “Unionist, son-of-a-bitch!” and drew his pistol. Rito tried to defend himself with the table but it couldn’t protect him from the gun. His brothers chased after the killers and saw them pass a police checkpoint and enter the police station. I met Rito’s five children during my last day here in Saravena in 2004 - his youngest daughter was two and his oldest daughter was nine.

In addition to Bernardo Arguello and Luciano Pinto Duran, ten other ECAAS workers have been imprisoned. Four workers were imprisoned along with Bernardo on November 12, 2002. Five more workers were imprisoned during the next mass arrest in Saravena on August 21, 2003. Another worker was imprisoned on October 6, 2003.

On March 12 of this year, approximately two dozen Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas came onto the grounds of the water treatment plant. They ordered the employees to leave the plant and then blew up the pipeline that transports water from the plant to Saravena – leaving the community without clean water for the next four days.

In spite of all this persecution, the people of ECAAS are continuing forward with their inspiring work of providing clean and affordable water for the community. For me, they exemplify the construction of social justice which is the heart of Saravena.

In love and solidarity,
Scott Nicholson

Scott Nicholson serves as a Short-term Volunteer with the Social Organizations of Arauca, Colombia. As a part of the process of accompaniment, Scott works as an advisor/consultant in the administration of productive projects in the rural communities.