Peace March

On Tuesday a small bomb was left in a supermarket in the centre of Quibdo. It killed four people and injured others. People believe the bomb was left because the supermarket owner refused to pay the extortion money that most businesses here are expected to pay for ´protection´. His daughter died in the blast. The other sad part is that the woman who left the bomb in the supermarket, is said to have been paid only 50,000 colombian pesos - that´s less than 20GBP.

So today people organized a peace march to demand an end to violence here in Choco. Everyone was dressed in white t-shirts and thousands marched through the street with white balloons. The school children came in their hundreds - starting from their schools and walking down to the park. Miguel and I went with friends. The police took off their jackets and put on white t-shirts for the occasion! One placard read ´those of you for violence, are far fewer than those of us for peace´. How true!