One week after the elections, Community Peacemaker Teams - Colombia met with AGROPEGU and the Community Action Board of El Guayabo to reflect on the moment the country is going through and how it may affect the local territory. We came together to think collectively about the scenarios that are causing concern today, the risks that may lie ahead, and the questions that, as a community and an accompanying organization, we need to ask ourselves—even if many of them remain unanswered.
It was an honest exercise. The community reflected on how the passage of time transforms the ways we care for and defend our territory. We recognized that the strategies that worked in the past cannot always respond to the challenges of the present. At the same time, the conversation reminded us of something that has accompanied this community throughout its history: its ability to learn, reorganize, and face adversity. In the midst of uncertainty, hope found a way to make itself present—as an embrace that lovingly holds and comforts us.
The conversation continued into the evening around a communal pot of food. We prayed, shared a meal, laughed, and also found a moment to breathe. Together, we recognized our strengths: we have more experience, new tools, trusted allies, the support of the international cooperation community, and, above all, a community that continues to believe in dialogue, organization, and collective action.
The context remains deeply challenging. But the truth is that it has never been easy. The path has always been one of resistance. We have never done anything different, and that is exhausting. No one should have to spend their life fighting for what ought to be a guaranteed right. And yet, through collective action, we have continued to find ways to reorganize, build new strategies, and protect life and our territory. That capacity is what keeps hope alive.
We will continue to invest in these spaces for coming together, convinced that listening, reflecting, and building collectively are also ways of accompanying one another, caring for one another, standing up for life, defending our territory, and sustaining our shared hope. Because, in the end, it is in coming together that we resist.
