Letter to the Editor: Inaccurate Caption

Published: September 6, 2007

To the Editor:

In the News Briefs section of the Aug. 2 edition of The Georgia Bulletin, a picture of a displaced Colombian boy is depicted, and the words that accompany the picture talk briefly about the 3 million Colombians displaced by violence. However, a disturbing remark is made, which I want to point out. It says “leftist guerrillas have been fighting the Colombian government and its paramilitary allies for four decades.” Positioning the paramilitary forces as allies of the Colombian government is misleading and it is part of guerrilla propaganda, when, in fact, the Colombian government has been fighting the so-called leftist guerrillas as well as the paramilitary forces.

Father Pedro Poloche
Catholic University of America
Washington, D.C.

Editor’s Note: Father Poloche, a priest of the Atlanta Archdiocese currently studying canon law, is a native of Colombia.