Coming soon: Holy Water

South Africa has its problems. So does everywhere else, but SA really does seem to have several more than everywhere else.

Except the Colombian seaport city of Buenaventura, of course.

Buenaventura, Colombia’s biggest Pacific seaport, is notorious for drug trafficking and the violence inflicted by criminal gangs.

Human Rights Watch issued a report on the city detailing the recent history of abductions by successor groups to right-wing paramilitary guerrillas. The gangs have been known to maintain “chop-up houses” where they slaughter victims.

Nice.

You might think that greater investment, better policing or even long-term dialogue might be the answer to these issues, but no. Monsignor Rubén Darío Jaramillo Montoya, Bishop of Buenaventura (which literally translates as “good luck”, lol), is going to spray the whole city with holy water from a helicopter next week.

Well, that’ll be about as effective as praying on a mountain.