Among the most severe attacks against the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in 2015, the following are worthy of note:
Threats and acts of aggression
- 23 March: During the celebration of the 18th Anniversary of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, an individual in civilian clothes tried to enter to the San Josecito settlement. When Community members stopped him, he threatened them saying that sooner or later they would be exterminated.[1]
- 24 July: threatens against Germán Graciano Posso, legal representative of the San José de Apartadó Peace Community by military personnel from the 17th Brigade. According to the community’s denunciations, several military members asked community members about Mr. Graciano, stating that they had a plan against him and that the results would soon be evident.[2]
- 8 October: threats have been issued against The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó (Comunidad de Paz – CDP) by the AGC near the hamlet of Mulatos.The group announced that there was to be an incursion unto inhabitants of the area and into “that son of a bitch Peace Community” as a reprisal for casualties the group had suffered a few days earlier in the area of Caraballo.[3]
- 19 October: a threat against a member of the Peace Community in the hamlet of Arenas Bajas. A neo-paramilitary group detained the person for several minutes and set up their encampment on his private property.[4]
- 24 October: a death threat against a member of the Peace Community on behalf of recognized members of a neo- paramilitary group. The group presented a list of ten people and condemned them to death. Among them was Miguel Graciano, member of the Peace Community, and resident coordinator in the hamlet of La Esperanza.[5]
- 26 October: a threat against the Peace Community in the hamlet of Arenas Bajas, where a neo-paramilitary group entered onto the private land of a member of the Peace Community.[6]
- 27 October: a death threat against a member of the Peace Community in the hamlet of La Esperanza on behalf of a neo- paramilitary group that again showed a list of ten people condemned to death by the armed group and where the name of Miguel Graciano appears another time.[7]
- 28 October: a harassment of the Peace Community in the hamlet of Arenas Bajas. On a plot of land belonging to Efraín Úsuga, a member of the Peace Community, a group of families, also from The Peace Community and who were accompanied by PBI, encountered two armed men that identified themselves as members of the AGC, Frente Juan de Dios Úsuga. At a distance they saw a bigger group who had been camped there for several days.[8]
- 11 November: an aggression in the Peace Community on behalf of men dressed in civilian clothes who entered La Holandita leaving pamphlets signed by the AGC.[9]
Slander and defamations
- 4 February: Neo-paramilitaries approached the inhabitants of Nuevo Antioquia (Urabá Antioquia) to announce their social investment, military and political projects in the region and to slander the Peace Community for their opposition to the projects, specifically the construction of new roads through their lands.[10]
- 17 February: Accusations and defamations against the Peace Community were published in the news magazine Semana and the analysis and news website, Verdad Abierta, which connected members of the Peace Community to the Clandestine Communist Party of Colombia.[11]
- 22 June: defamations in several Urabá media outlets by Colonel Germán Rojas Díaz, commander of the Army’s 17th Brigade, who alleged the existence of an alliance between the Peace Community and the guerrillas.[12]
- 3 November: Colonel Germán Rojas Díaz made a false accusation against The Peace Community, the commander of the 17th Brigade. Over the airwaves of the local media he accused members of the Peace Community of being “liars” and of misleading public opinion regarding the presence of neo-paramilitary groups; he threatened to bring criminal prosecutions against members of the Peace Community and send them to prison.[13]
Footnotes:
[1] Peace Community of San José de Apartadó: Una nueva muerte en San José de Apartadó 25 March 2015
[2] Peace Community of San José de Apartadó: ¿Hasta cuándo, hasta cuándo?, 24 July 2015
[3] Peace Community of San José de Apartadó: Paramilitaries announce incursion, 9 October 2015
[4] Peace Community of San José de Apartadó: Paramilitary operations carried out in complete freedom, 20 October 2015
[5] Peace Community of San José de Apartadó: A State that does not listen to it’s victims, and protects the perpetrators, 28 October 2015
[6] Ibíd.
[7] Ibíd.
[8] Ibíd.
[9] Peace Community of San José de Apartadó: Military and government insist in denying the reality, 11 November 2015
[10] Peace Community of San José de Apartadó: Continua la barbarie, hasta cuándo?, 8 February 2015
[11] Peace Community of San José de Apartadó: La tortura, método vigente de Fuerzas Militares en San José de Apartadó, 18 February 2015
[12] Peace Community of San José de Apartadó: Bajo la mirada complaciente de todos los poderes, 15 July 2015
[13] Peace Community of San José de Apartadó: Military and government insist in denying the reality, 11 November 2015