Otros Idiomas

With regards to the ceremony that is to take place in Apartadó on August 4, 2011 with the participation of the President of the Republic, in which agreements around monetary reparations will be signed for families who were victims of horrendous crimes and where many of the perpetrators will be present, the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó finds itself with the moral imperative to express the following:

1. We distance ourselves ethically from the families who accept money as a payment for the crimes that have been perpetrated against their loved ones, while they resign themselves to the fact that there will be no justice; that the crimes will remain in total impunity; that the perpetrators are still in the government, in the state security forces or running criminal businesses, and while the paramilitary structures that assist the State with its criminal strategies remain intact and active.

2. Signing an agreement which aims to use money to cover up any demand for justice and reparation for so many lives that have been cruelly destroyed, in an area that was particularly affected by the brutality of the perpetrators who are entrenched in power, means giving in to the most shameless bribe that is trying to buy the consciences of the mourners and the dignity of the victims.

3. The region of Urabá was witness to the extremely cruel destruction of social organizations, labor unions, human rights groups, alternative journalism, opposition political parties, social and community leaders, and attempts at creating an economy based on solidarity. To allow money to erase all of the memory of that disgrace and to bury any longing for justice, is to turn into a degenerate society that allows parents to sell their children; children to sell their fathers and mothers; brothers and sisters to sell their siblings, like recyclable junk in a filthy market.

4. Our Peace Community has suffered horrors during the last fifteen years: massacres and murders of several hundred of our members; forced disappearances; indiscriminate bombings; burning of houses and crops; pillaging of our basic goods; rape of our women; forced and massive displacements, almost constant threats of death and destruction; economic blockades and prevention of access to food; illegal detentions; baseless prosecutions; rigged prosecutions that are based on false testimony that is bought with money; stealing of computers; prolonged illegal surveillance; illegal wire taps; slander and defamation campaigns; illegal searches and registrations; expropriation of land and goods belonging to displaced people; destruction of our sacred sites; illegal filming and photographing; destruction of schools and health centers; stealing and destruction of generators; illegal military occupation of land, homes and community spaces; stealing of work animals and domestic animals; pillage of the meager supplies in our homes; and creation of paramilitary structures to constantly infiltrate and intimidate our families with people who are bribed and whose moral consciences have been destroyed. The worst part is that the Presidents on watch have been immediately informed and they have refused to comply with the Constitution which requires them to guarantee the rights of the citizens.

5. For all of these years, all of our testimonies have been fruitless. Testifying before the judicial system has done nothing but cause those who testify to be murdered, stigmatized, subjected to baseless prosecutions, threatened or forcibly displaced. The government and the armed forces have defied the resolutions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the sentences of the Constitutional Court. The officials that they have designated to command the state security forces in the area do not respect the Constitution nor the laws nor International Law and they act in opposition to the most fundamental principles of universal ethics.

6. Our Peace Community has had to organize mass returns of displaced people to their lands, not only relying on our own efforts and resources but also running enormous risks of having to face the hostile armed forces of the State and the paramilitaries which have always operated and coordinated together. Denied resources from the State that we have rights to as taxpayers, we have had to solve our most urgent needs alone, but we have done so thanks to community solidarity and our sister communities in other countries that have recognized our struggle and shared our ethical principles.

7. We believe that trying to bury so many horrendous crimes in money while the structures that perpetrated them remain intact and their participants in impunity, is a giant and aberrant bribe.  Once again we implore of the president and his ministers and officials: FIRST ADDRESS ALL OF THE INJUSTICE. Purge the government and the State of all of the criminals, especially the state security forces and the so-called ?security? organizations that are essentially about creating ?insecurity.? Clean up the judicial system from the rotten state that it is in. Reestablish the dignity of the victims and rebuild everything that you have destroyed. Swear real, not false, respect for the Constitution and the laws. RESPECT HUMAN DIGNITY. MAKE AMENDS TO THE VICTIMS AND THOSE WHO MOURN THEM. Then think about paying, because to pay before that is to commit the most shameless BRIBE.

After a few days in which the situation in the territory of our Peace Community had been relatively calm, once again we are shaken by death, which as before leaves terror and outrage in its wake. The silence of the weapons is a lie, as is the parallel silence of the State oversight organizations, which refuse to uncover and dismantle the structures that create death in the area, as is their obligation; in fact they allow the paramilitary bases of Nuevo Antioquia, Batata, Los Mandarinos and others to act openly and shamelessly, and they allow the paramilitaries to continue controlling the neighborhoods of Apartadó and the road to San José.

Once again we inform the country and the world of the way in which life is being destroyed around us:

-On Monday, July 25, 2011 around 6:00pm, two paramilitaries wearing civilian clothing and carrying small arms arrived at a farm ten minutes away from Tierra Amarilla, a place on the road between Apartadó and San José where state security forces and paramilitaries have perpetrated numerous crimes. There, 38 year old EDISON VALDEZ HIGUITA, who was working cutting wood, was murdered with two shots to the head by the two paramilitaries. After murdering him they left him on the ground and stole his chainsaw. The Community immediately requested the intervention of the Office of the Ombudsman to demand that the State oversight organizations pursue those responsible, protect the survivors and help the family of the victim, but the Ombudsman responded aggressively, reproaching the Peace Community for getting involved in cases that did not concern it because they did not involve any of its members.

Our Community has always defended our right to solidarity and has rejected and condemned the indifference and isolation that this society is trying to impose as a dominant cultural feature. This indifference and isolation facilitate human rights violations and the destruction of all community and humanitarian efforts. Given our history as a community that has been greatly victimized, and the solidarity that we have found in other groups of people from around the country and the world which have helped us to survive, the people around us come to us when they are subjected to affronts and horrors. We have the right to help them the same way that others have helped us. It is very unfortunate that it's the very OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSMAN, an organization designated by the Constitution to coordinate solidarity with the victims, that wants to condemn us for showing solidarity and refuses to comply with its duty to the victims.

-On Sunday, July 31, 2011, around 7:00pm, armed men approached a member of our Community on the path between San Josesito and La Unión, attempting to detain him and subject him to who know what affronts. Fortunately he ran and was able to escape.

These incidents show how dramatic the situation is, and demonstrate the great degradation that is happening in our area. The right to life and many other rights continue to be disrespected. Even worse, the State itself wants to silence us, to continue as an accomplice or sponsor of the criminals, and to prohibit us from working as human rights defenders in the area. We will not let them gag us because it is illegitimate and illegal. We will continue denouncing and demanding that the State comply with its constitutional duties.

Voluntary blindness; voluntary deafness; voluntary motor atrophy; how else can you describe the government's irresponsibility after so many condemnations, calls, pleas, demands that it meet its obligations without any reaction? It is still giving the paramilitaries free reign to forcibly displace, threaten, kill, sow terror and announce death. In light of the government's passivity, the paramilitaries continue to believe that they have absolute control over life and death, like in decades past. We hope that one day, not too far in the future, the government will have to answer for its crimes before the international community.