PBI-Colombia accompanies the one-year anniversary of the murder of two members of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó
PBI-Colombia has posted on social media: “The commemoration of the founding of the San José de Apartadó Peace Community 28 years ago has begun. On this occasion, the Community is receiving a visit from the Austrian Embassy and the European Union Delegation. At their meeting, they issued a call to address the continued impunity following the murder of Nalleli and the young Edinson a year ago, and the lack of guarantees in the context of the recent intensification of threats against the community.”
The delegation of the European Union in Colombia also posted on social media: “A year ago, Nalleli and Edison from the San José de Apartadó Peace Community were murdered. Together with [the Embassy of Austria in Colombia], the European Union came to accompany the community in the commemoration and review the authorities’ commitments and their fulfillment. No to impunity #DefendLife”
Last year, the El Colombiano newspaper reported: “Nallely and Edinson were murdered on Tuesday, March 19 at noon, the news reached Apartadó around 6 p.m. and the bodies were collected 24 hours later.”
The threat of “paramilitarism in the northwest”
At that time, El Heraldo reported: “The woman and the child were killed with firearms, apparently by members of a criminal group from which the Community has reported threats.”
Infobae added: “The region where this crime was perpetrated is mainly operated by the paramilitary Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC), also known as Clan del Golfo, the country’s largest criminal gang.”
On March 20, 2024, Colombian president Gustavo Petro posted: “Four hundred members of the community of Paz de San José de Apartadó were murdered, two days ago, the whole government was there in Apartadó and we met with members of the community in the Popular Assembly. On our return they assassinated two more community members. Dark forces want to reissue paramilitarism in the northwest of the country.”
Coal deposits and mining titles
Moira Birss, formerly of PBI-Colombia, has written in the NACLA report: “Part of what makes Apartadó and the Urabá region so attractive to armed groups (and the economic interests that often drive them) is the area’s strategic location near the Gulf of Urabá.”
She adds: “The area is also reported to contain significant coal deposits, for which the state issued an exploratory license more than 15 years ago.”
In the days after the murders of Nalleli and Edinson, Franklin Castañeda from the Ministry of the Interior visited Las Delicias. On the evening of March 27, 2024, Castañeda tweeted: “A field inspection will be carried out on the mining titles.”
We await that information.
“Mining kills the land”
On March 13, 2024, just six days before she was killed, Nalleli Sepúlveda painted on a wooden gate that the Peace Community rebuilt after it was destroyed a message that reads: “Mining kills the land. We have the right to protect nature.”
Photos by the Peace Community.
28th anniversary of the Peace Community
Yes! Magazine has reported: “On March 23, 1997, Brígida Gonzáles, 69, along with the others who decided to stay, founded the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó. This ‘Peace Community’ declared itself neutral in the conflict, pledging not to get involved in any way and asked to be left in peace.”
Toronto-based Scott Pearce (in a blue t-shirt in this November 2019 photo) was a PBI-Colombia field volunteer who was present in the Peace Community when it was attacked by paramilitary forces in 2000. That story is told in this PBI-Canada article.
The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has accompanied the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó since 1999
Further reading: Hope appears in the peace community of San José de Apartadó: The Colombian government announces measures of protection and recognition of this municipality, with which Rivas cooperates, besieged by paramilitary and drug violence. (March 18, 2025)
0 Comments