Murder Attempts Continue

(Translated by Rowan Viva, a CSN Volunteer Translator. Edited by Teresa Welsh, CSN's Volunteer Editor)

Unfortunately, after documenting threats by the army against the community and the disappearance of Felix Guzman by paramilitaries, once again we have to denounce new extremely serious events, which urgently demand action to stop the violence that is, once again, threatening the lives of community members.

      The 22nd of September 2010, at 5:50pm, in the area of Tierra Amarilla, JOSE DAVID GRACIANO and ALONSO VALLE GUERRA were walking along when they were attacked by two paramilitaries on a motorcycle, one of whom is known throughout the area. The paramilitaries began to shoot at the men from the motorcycle.  The men ran and managed to hide.  Alonso Valle was wounded in the leg.  The other man was not injured. They were coming from a hearing at which they had appeared, having been wrongly accused of being militiamen, based on false testimony. They left the hearing too late to ride home on public transportation, so they were walking.

The community gave notice of these events to the Town Guard.  The Guard said that they had communicated with the Brigade, who informed them that everything was calm and that it was a lie that something was going on. It is worth noting that on the route to San Jose Apartado there were five military checkpoints, one of them only five minutes from where the events occurred.  What's more, in Tierra Amarilla there has been military control lately, but on the day of the events there was not any military presence. These two people had asked the Town Guard two days before the events if they would accompany them on the climb and descent to the hearing, because they feared their lives were in danger due to the to the stigma of the accusations against them.  The petition was denied by the defense. 

The 22nd of September 2010 at 8:00 a member of our community in Dabeiba was attacked by the paramilitary known as Berardo Tuberquia.  Tuberquia revealed that he was part of Las Aguilas Negras (Black Eagles) that make their presence in Cordoba and Uraba.  He was questioned by various members of the community and he told them that he had a long list of community members to assassinate. Tuberquia began to say that at the top of this list were various leaders, partners, and members of the community, like people of the rural neighborhood of San Jose de Apartadó. 

This demonstrates the difficult situation in the area due to paramilitary action and the complacence of the public forces towards it.  Murder attempts are made and nothing is done about it. As always, confronted with the real facts and details, they lie.  They say that nothing is happening. We are already used to this.  For 13 years we have documented the paramilitarism and they only say that we lie.  We have recorded more then 800 human rights violations against the community and it is all met with impunity.  We told how the massacre of February 21 had happened with the joint action of the paramilitaries and the military. Our story was corroborated by confessions of some members of the military.  Nevertheless everything is met with impunity, so they just continue with their murder attempts, trying to exterminate the community. 

We urgently ask for national and international solidarity demanding that the State end these murder attempts and acts of extermination against the community.  

THE PEACE COMMUNITY OF SAN JOSE DE APARTADO SEPTEMBER 24, 2010 Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado http://www.cdpsanjose.org 

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