“The Church will always believe in peace talks,” says top Church mediator in Colombia about violence in the country and crisis on southern border

Bishops from both sides of the Colombia-Ecuador border recently came together to discuss joint relief programs and pastoral strategies to address an ongoing humanitarian crisis in the border region.

The gathering was led by Monsignor Héctor Fabio Henao Gaviria, who has served as a peace broker for more than 30 years, representing the Catholic Church in negotiations between armed groups and the government.

Henao spoke with Crux Now about the meeting, which took place in the southern Colombian department of Putumayo, where local communities have been caught between left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary groups, and criminal organizations.

He also discussed his expectations for peace along Colombia’s southern border and in the country as a whole, after the new administration led by President Abelardo de la Espriella has ended the peace talks between the government and armed groups that were initiated by former President Gustavo Petro.

Henao was ordained in 1980 and, after earning a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, he returned to Colombia and was sent to working-class neighborhoods in Medellín in 1983.

Those were the worst years of violence in Medellín, when Pablo Escobar dominated a massive drug cartel and waged war against both security