Gustavo Moncayo

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Gustavo Moncayo 2008

Gustavo Moncayo (* 1952 in Colombia ) is a teacher in a small village in the remote province of Nariño in southwest Colombia. He gained notoriety as a peace activist .

Life

Gustavo Moncayo left his hometown Sandoná on foot on June 17, 2007 in order to hike to Bogotá, which is more than 1000 kilometers away .

The background to his long hike to the Colombian capital is the kidnapping of his son Pablo Emilio in 1997 by the guerrilla group FARC . His son was then working in a military communications station in Nariño . Ten soldiers died, four were injured and 18 young men were kidnapped in the attack.

The " caminante de la paz " (German: "Friedensläufer") became a national symbol for a humane solution to the conflict. His aim is to use public pressure to get the government and the FARC to exchange prisoners as soon as possible. On his long walk, Moncayo, who symbolically chained his hands and feet, collected over 2 million signatures for a non-violent solution to the conflict. On August 1, 2007, Moncayo presented his collection of signatures to President Álvaro Uribe in front of tens of thousands in the central Bolívar Square in Bogotá . The folk hero then camped in a tent on central Bolívar Square with the intention of staying there until his son is free.

On a trip through several European countries, Moncayo met Pope Benedict XVI on October 11, 2007 . at a personal audience in Rome to discuss the problem in Colombia. On October 22, 2007, Moncayo received the 2007 Peace Prize of € 5,000 from the “Non-Profit Dr. Heinz Umpfenbach and Wolfgang Hübner Peace Foundation ”. On November 19, 2007, Moncayo began a new walk to Caracas (Venezuela) in Bogotá in support of the Venezuelan mediation in the Colombia conflict. After mediation by Senator Piedad Córdoba , the FARC released his son on March 30, 2010 after being held hostage for more than twelve years in the border area of ​​the Meta and Caquetá departments . A delegation with the Senator and representatives of the Red Cross took him to Florencia in a helicopter belonging to the Brazilian Army , where he symbolically took off his father's chains.

After the release of his son Pablo Emilio, he expressed criticism of the government's military policy. As a result, Pablo Emilio, himself, and other family members received a series of death threats. After the government did not respond to the family's requests for help, the son went into exile in Italy and wants to work from there for a humanitarian agreement to exchange political prisoners from the government and the guerrillas.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pablo Emilio Moncayo le Quito las cadenas a su padre en símbolo de libertad .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: El Tiempo , March 30, 2010 (Spanish)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.eltiempo.com  
  2. ^ Freedom after being held hostage for twelve years. ( Memento from October 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) tagesschau.de, March 31, 2010
  3. ↑ The Moncayo family threatened in Colombia. In: amerika21. August 23, 2010. Retrieved August 23, 2010 .
  4. ^ Former FARC prisoner Moncayo in Italy. In: amerika21. October 18, 2010, accessed October 18, 2010 .
personal data
SURNAME Moncayo, Gustavo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Colombian pacifist
DATE OF BIRTH 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Colombia