Competing For Peace
A Football Championship Between Gangs
In San Onofre football is more than just a game. Here, football has become a solution for gang violence, drug consumption and inter-youth rivalries. The town has been torn apart by violence, allowing gangs to enter to recruit the youth who have nowhere else to go. Kids from one neighbourhood couldn't even enter another without being attacked. Killings still happen daily, but football has become a way to bring people together across neighbourhoods, and even between gangs. They no longer attack each other with guns. They have replaced their weapons with balls, and enemies have turned into friendly rivals. And where drugs are for many youngsters an escape to the pain caused by violence and poverty, football is a healthy alternative, allowing them to put their minds on something else. Watch the video below to see how football has changed life in the town of San Onofre.
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Replacing Guns and Drugs With a Football in San Onofre, Colombia
San Onofre lies at the foot of the Montes de Maria mountain range in the department of Sucre. Montes de Maria has developed a negative stigma over the years caused by violence, massacres and drug trafficking. The AUC (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia) have been in charge of the region, bringing violence and struggles with other armed actors. However, once we arrived in San Onofre, we realised very soon that its negative stigma doesn't reflect on the people that live here. Warm smiles of young and old, delicious smells of food and fruits, and the happy sounds of the traditional Gaitas (flutes) mixed up with modern Champeta, immediately showed us what San Onofre is really about.
However, threats of violence, drug consumption, gang rivalries, are still the truth of the day. And the lack of opportunities leaves the youth an easy prey to the hands of gangs, armed groups and drug dealers. Torn apart, broken up and turned against each other, the people of neighbourhoods Porvenir and Palito have now found ways to unite, to build friendships, and to become a community once again. The gangs have replaced their guns for a football, the kids dance with a smile on their face, and chefs cook to heal the soul of their community.
And while we think it's important to emphasise the beauty that San Onofre has to offer, it's equally important to acknowledge the remaining problems. Paramilitaries are still active in the region. They still attack the population and sometimes even engage in social cleansing, killing those they consider a menace for society. Gangs are still quick to recruit kids from the streets. And basic human rights are still lacking in many communities, such as
Mampuján. As we can see in the videos that we published about football,
music,
dance,
the little defenders,
food, etc. the communities are working extremely hard to bring change to their environments. But top-down structural change is also required. As Susana Fergusson says in the song
Tendrá Un Final: "we cannot just take all these video's, art, and photo's and call that development. It doesn't work like that". It requires government intervention, it requires a relocation of resources and it requires equal rights and opportunities for everybody. Violent groups have to be put to justice, the rights to education, healthcare and basic public services have to be implemented
everywhere,
and kids no matter where they are from should be given the opportunity to become whatever they want.
