Colombians flee to cities to escape war, only to find more problems

Published: 2004-11-16

CUCUTA, Colombia (CNS) -- During the past decades, displaced people fleeing the violence of Colombia's civil war created a neighborhood named New Horizon, built of wooden shacks and unpainted cement houses. But along New Horizon's rutted unpaved streets, the warfare, desperation and hunger of the countryside were replaced by unemployment, malnutrition and urban violence. Edda Maria Pabon, her husband and their two children fled the town of Tibu, 45 miles north of Cucuta, along the Venezuelan border. They left in 1999 when paramilitary forces began fighting to drive out the National Liberation Army guerrillas and take control of the rich coca-growing region. The outlaw groups murdered their enemies in the street, Pabon recalled. "One lived with fear," she said. "The whole family came here." Pabon's family joined an endless stream of displaced people fleeing to Cucuta and other cities.

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