Luis Eduardo Guerra, his family and five other people were dismembered in the settlements of Mulatos and Resbalosa.
Article published in ColomPBIa no 7 in may 2008.
Walking through the San José de Apartadó Peace Community, one comes across a circle of coloured stones. On each is an inscription, remembering more than 170 people who were killed or disappeared during the eleven years the Community has existed, crimes that to date remain in impunity. A number of these crimes occurred despite the provisional protection measures granted by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the year 2000, ordering the Colombian Government to protect this community which in 1997 declared itself neutral in the armed conflict.
One of these stones bears the name of Luis Eduardo Guerra, leader of the San José de Apartadó Peace Community whose body, those of his family, and five others (including five children), were dismembered in the settlements of Mulatos and Resbalosa, situated at five hours´ walking distance from the main Peace Community settlement, in the Urabá Antioqueño region. This massacre was committed on 21 February 2005, yet it is only now, three years after this bloody episode, that the justice system has begun to show advances in the investigations which could coraborate the Community’s version of the facts. From the start, members of the Peace Community insisted that paramilitaries and soldiers serving with the army´s XVII Brigade were behind the massacre. Public declarations by the Community were corroborated by, among others, an independent investigation carried out by a group of Spanish judges and attorneys from the Medel1 association.
However, some of the media, the Government and the army discredited the peasant farmers´ accusations and denied that state security forces had been in any way involved in the massacre. The commander of the XVII Brigade at that time, General Héctor Jaime Fandiño Rincón, went so far as to say in a written declaration that, given the way the citisens had been murdered, there was no doubt that the FARC guerrilla were responsible for this horrific crime.2
Other sectors of Colombian society turned their backs on the Peace Community, thus intensifying the smear campaign against it and delegitimising by associating it with the guerrilla. President Álvaro Uribe himself publicly declared on 21 March 2005 that «in this Community in San José de Apartadó there are good people, but some of their leaders, sponsors and defenders, have been identified by people who lived in the community as FARC collaborators and of using the Community to protect this terrorist organisation».3
For its part, the army published an article on its website questioning the neutrality of the Peace Community and reprimanding the former mayoress of the town of Apartadó, Gloria Cuartas and Jesuit priest Javier Giraldo, for accusing the army of these crimes. NGOs who acted in solidarity with the Community were also questioned: «in the case of San José all those NGOs who are sympathizers of the subversion, will surely join this campaign of misinformation in Colombia and abroad ».4
It must be stressed that in the Colombian context these kinds of declarations by the Government place Community members under serious risk by insinuating that they have links with illegal armed groups. Moreover, the debate surrounding a crime against humanity such as this massacre should not be focused on alleged links with armed groups acting outside of the law, but rather on a thorough investigation that takes into account the different versions of events. However, times are changing for the Peace Community, after several de- mobilised paramilitaries declared that they carried out this massacre in collaboration with army troops. According to Semana magazine, a former combatant from the ‘Héroes de Tolová’ paramilitary group declared that «some 50 soldiers under the command of Captain Guillermo Armando Gordillo Sánchez stayed behind to ‘keep lookout on the mountain’ while the paramilitaries went on ahead to commit the crime».5
The evidence lead the Attorney General´s Office to arrest Captain Gordillo in 2007 and issue arrests warrants for 15 soliders of the XVII Brigade, two of whom are still on the run. Of the 14 members of the military currently detained, six were charged on 15 April this year.6 On 12 May this year, Gordillo himself, who was detained last year, confessed to the Attorney General’s Office that the operation had been carried out together with the paramilitaries and with the support of his army superiors. During his testimony (version libre), paramilitary commander Diego Murillo, alias ‘Don Berna’, also admitted that his men had carried out the massacre in complicity with the soldiers. ‘Don Berna’ was not able to give more details about the operation, as he was subsequently extradited. «The soldiers have been arrested not because of any real political will to see justice carried out, but rather as a result of international pressure. The government only put them in prison to clean up its image. Those 15 soldiers will be replaced, and to date there are no arrest warrants for none of the others implicated in the crime, soldiers, paramilitaries, politicians and businessmen», declared Jesús Emilio Tuberquia, leader of the Peace Community.
Jesuit priest Javier Giraldo, who has accompanied the Peace Community since it was founded, also highlights the importance of a full investigation to discover the intellectual authors who planned the crime, and others who were also involved. «It is clear, after hearing three or four testimonies, that there was complicity between the army and the paramilitaries. Until now, they have captured or uncovered links to just a few individuals and focused on the material authors. According to the statements of soldiers there were a minimum of 50 soldiers there and only 15 have been issued with arrest warrants».
The Community also questions the Government’s attitude, as it has yet to make a statement on the latest revelations, nor has it retracted the accusations made three years ago. «What is surprising is the silence of the national government, the army and the media, who, in spite of the evidence and legal decisions, have not yet answered for their serious and false smears against the Peace Community, when they linked its inhabitants to the FARC guerrilla». While the Colombian justice system slowly advances, the case of the massacre in Mulatos and Resbalosa, and around one hundred other cases concerning members of the Peace Community, are awaiting decision by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
1. ‘’La Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó. Alrededor de los hechos de Febrero de 2005’’, MEDEL: European Magistrales for Democracy and Freedom, February-May 2006.
2. “Delación, única pista de masacre”, El Colombiano, 4 March 2005 – Published at www.ejercito.mil.co/index.php
3. “Verdad en masacre de San José de Apartadó se impone a mentira estatal”, Press agency of the Popular Training Institute (IPC), 16 April 2008, and the programme “San José de Apartadó: Tres años después”, Contravía, www.contravia.tv
4. “San José de Apartadó: ¿Comunidad de paz?”, Foundation for Truth in Colombia, published at www.ejercito.mil. co/index.php?idcategoria=79445
5. “La Comunidad tenía razón”, Semana, 24 November 2007.
6. “A indagatoria 15 militares por presunta responsabilidad en masacre en San José de Apartadó”, Semana, 27 March 2008; “Verdad en masacre de San José de Apartadó se impone a mentira estatal”, Press agency of the Popular Training Institute (IPC), 16 April 2008.