Hong Kong prison padre's Letter to People of Colombia: PLEASE STOP PRODUCING COCAINE!

Dear People of Beautiful Colombia!

I spent several hours on Saturday February 3 at Bogota cathedral, praying that cocaine production in Colombia will soon stop. I stayed in Bogota only two nights .... my main aim was to pray at the cathedral.

In the six weeks before February 3 I went to nine countries which are suffering because of cocaine from Colombia: Thailand, Malaysia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Brazil and Peru.

In Sao Paulo I saw thousands of drug addicts, many of them young, some of them women, sleeping on the street, begging from - sometimes bullying - drivers stopped at a red light ... asking for money. These thousands are victims of coccaine/crack from Colombia.

In Hong Kong I work in the prisons. I see hundreds of men and women from many countries who were arrested at Hong Kong airport for taking Colombian cocaine to Hong Kong ....usually in their luggage, sometimes in their bodies.

I know that farmers in Colombia who produce cocaine will say "I have no other way to make money for my family".
But killing other people's children and destroying families all over the world is not the way to support your family!

There must be another way to make money for your family without causing death and suffering to other people.

Therefore on February 3 in Bogota cathedral I prayed that Colombia's government will be successful in its plan to help farmers produce something other than cocaine. I prayed for an end to the corruption which allows cocaine production to brazenly take place. I prayed for the thousands of drug mules in prisons around the world. I prayed for the many lives and families in Colombia itself which have been destroyed by cocaine. I prayed that all sectors of Colombian society - especially the media and businesses - will support the governments' efforts. I even prayed that if all else fails, then the coca plants will temporarily stop producing leaves that can be made into cocaine!

I know that cocaine is not the only drug affecting the world. And I know that Colombia is not the only country in the world producing drugs.

BUT ...... in terms of lives destroyed, cocaine is one of the worst drugs. And in terms of cocaine production, Colombia is the number one source.

JESUS, PLEASE HELP  COLOMBIA TO STOP EXPORTING  DEATH AND DESTRUCTION AROUND THE WORLD!

Photo taken as I left Bogota on February 4

Fr John Wotherspoon O.M.I.
www.v2catholic.com

FB of No Mas Mulas

www.voiceforprisoners.org 

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