NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      BOGOTA (CWNews.com) - At least 80 people were killed in three days of violence over the weekend in northern Colombia, including 20 people slaughtered as they attended a baptism.

      The police chief of Magdalena province, Col. Octavio Grajales, quoted Father Giovanni San Juan of Playon de Orozco village as saying most of the victims had been attending a baptism at the local church when they were selectively dragged outside by the gunmen and shot to death. The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitary group was blamed for the deaths. Fourteen people were killed in San Pablo in Bolivar province, some of them women. All were dragged from their homes before dawn and shot execution-style in the street.

      The AUC had declared an 18-day ceasefire over the Christmas and New Years holidays, but it ended at midnight last Wednesday and the anti-Communist paramilitaries began their killing spree with 48 deaths on Thursday and Friday. The attacks appeared to be revenge for an attack by the Marxist Armed Force of Colombia (FARC) rebels who killed 30 people in a raid on a paramilitary stronghold on December 27.