The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has posted on social media:
“We are accompanying the Peace community in Apartadó, in the village of La Resbalosa, with the construction of a memorial to the Mulatos and La Resbalosa massacres, as part of the Amicable Agreement with the Colombian State.
We reiterate the importance of remembrance and acts of reparation following the recognition of the community as a victim of the Colombian State.”
The Massacre
PBI-Colombia has previously explained: “On February 21, 2005, the villages of Mulatos and La Resbalosa (Antioquia), located five hours from La Holandita, the main settlement of the Peace Community, were the scene of a heinous crime that, once again, hit its inhabitants.”
“Among the 8 victims of this massacre, 7 were members of the Peace Community: Luis Eduardo Guerra, historical leader and founder of the Community, Bellanira Areiza, his companion and Deiner Andrés Guerra, his 11-year-old son; Alfonso Bolívar Tuberquia Graciano, the coordinator of the Humanitarian Zone of La Resbalosa, Sandra Milena Muñoz Posso, his wife, Natalia and Santiago, their two children aged 5 years and 20 months.”
“The massacre was perpetrated by a commando of around 60 paramilitaries from the Heroes of Tolová Bloc of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) along with troops attached to the Army’s 17th Brigade.”
That article adds: “In the months following the massacre, the XVII Brigade and the Ministry of Defense stated that, given the modus operandi employed, there was no doubt that the massacre had been perpetrated by the FARC-EP guerrilla group.”
Construction of the memorial site
For Peace Presence explains: “In the middle of the 1990s, as violence escalated and peasant farmers suffered from extrajudicial deaths at the hands of armed actors as well as forced displacements, the people began to organize themselves in order to return to their land and to escape from the spiral of violence.”
It adds: “Conscientiously objecting to the war and demanding their rights as civilians not to be involved in a conflict, the community denounced the use of arms within their territories and committed to a variety of principles in the process (including cooperative communal work, prohibition of alcohol, the non-use of illicit drugs, the no-entry of armed actors, non-use of weapons and the refusal to provide information to armed actors).”
Accompaniment
The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has accompanied the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó since 1999.
