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Map
created by Jairo Marcos Restrepo
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San José de Apartadó, Antioquia
The San José de Apartadó Peace Community is located in Apartadó, Antioquia, part of the Urabá region near Panama. Founded in March 1997, the Peace Community was set up by citizens who sought to separate themselves from the conflict by refusing entry to all armed groups - guerrillas, paramilitaries and the state security forces.
Excluding armed groups has not been easy: about 150 of the community's members have been killed by the FARC, the paramilitaries, and the security forces. None of these murders, threats or attacks has ever been solved or punished.
The San José community has sought and received accompaniment from outside groups, who have embraced it as a model of non-violent resistance to war. Peace Brigades International and the Fellowship of Reconciliation have maintained a volunteer presence for years. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts) and Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) have visited the remote town. Leaders of the town have toured the United States and Europe, educating grassroots groups. The Peace Community has received provisional protection from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Between February 21 and 22, a group of armed men detained Luis Eduardo Guerra - one of the community's most prominent leaders, who had visited the United States on speaking tours - as well as his son, his partner and another person near the Mulatos river, several miles from the San José town center.
According to witnesses, the army's 17th Brigade - based in nearby Carepa, Antioquia - had been carrying out operations in the Mulatos area. According to Amnesty International, "Soldiers in the area have reportedly told local inhabitants that if the killings had not been reported, they would have killed more civilians. The soldiers have allegedly referred to the eight victims as 'dead guerrillas' ('puro guerrillero muerto')."
The detainees were taken to the farm of Alfonso Bolívar Tuberquia, whom Peace Brigades identifies as "a member of the Peace Council of the hamlet of Mulatos." Neither the detainees, their families, nor Tuberquia was ever seen again. An investigative commission that traveled to the zone on February 25th found recently-dug graves with the bodies of five adults and three children, aged two, six and eleven. Among the bodies was that of Luis Eduardo Guerra, showing signs of torture.
While there is still no definitive word about who is responsible, the accounts of witnesses and accompaniment groups point to the military, as does the community's own statements.
The armed forces deny any involvement, and continue to argue that the Peace Community is a guerrilla concentration camp from which citizens are forbidden to leave - an allegation voiced by Gen. Jorge Enrique Mora, at the time the head of Colombia's army, in August 2003. In May 2004, President Uribe fueled these allegations by warning foreigners accompanying the community that they could be jailed or deported for "obstructing justice."
While Colombian prosecutors have launched an investigation, President Álvaro Uribe has ordered the security forces to occupy the town of San José de Apartadó, arguing that no territory may be off-limits for the government. In early April, upon the arrival of the first police, most of the peace community's members abandoned the town, adding to the ranks of Colombia's millions of internally displaced persons.
Twice a year, U.S. law requires the State Department to certify that Colombia is improving its human rights record: doing more to cooperate with human rights investigators, suspending, dismissing and prosecuting violators, and fighting paramilitaries. Each of the two certifications frees up 12.5 percent of military aid destined for Colombia.
A certification decision is likely during the first half of 2005. Though it is entirely possible that Colombia's military did not commit the February 21-22 massacre, it is impossible even to contemplate certifying military aid to Colombia until we know more. Civilian Colombian government authorities must first carry out a thorough investigation that takes into account testimony from witnesses and community members. If this investigation finds that soldiers took part, arrests and prosecutions must follow.
For now, any certification should remain on hold: it may offer the best hope for clearing up what actually happened in San José de Apartadó.
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Watch a documentary about San José de Apartadó (AVI file in Spanish) from the Colombian television program "Contravía," on the Indymedia Colombia website |
 Read a proposal from the peace community for the production and marketing of bananas [in Spanish, graphic in English]. |
| Read a June 26 report from a delegation led by the Colombia Support Network. |
