Unlimited Nerve and Audacity
[Translated by Brice O’Connell, a CSN volunteer translator]
The Peace Community of San José has provided an abundance of evidence regarding
paramilitary activity in the territory of their settlements. Also numerous are the
rights requests addressed to the President of the Republic begging for him, in
accordance with his constitutional obligations, to act to restrain the unity between
the actions of criminal groups and State agents. After the “armed strike” of a few
days ago, the Government threw its hands up in horror trying to conceal all the
support it had lent them. The Government’s presence is permanent and its quantity
of men does not permit them to hide their guilt. This support and impunity the State
utilizes to cover them constitutes its true strength.
For our side, we will continue to give evidence of their serious crimes before the
country and the world:
From Tuesday the 24th to Friday the 27th of January 2012 the
paramilitaries appeared for the first time in the districts La Esperanza
and El Porvenir. From there they organized patrols in the surrounding
areas, placing reserves and checkpoints in the roads. The farmers that they
requisitioned were told that they need to give their support or they will be
assassinated and that they will exterminate the Peace Community. They also
announced that they are going to take el ganado de los campesinos, el cual ya
no les pertenece.
Saturday the 28th of January, 2012, around 11am, the paramilitaries fired
warning shots in the district of El Porvenir. All of the threats that have been
uttered in that district have forced six families from to be displaced. Other
families are preparing for their displacement: new serious crimes of the war
of the State.
The same Saturday the 28th of January, 2012, army troops entered the
district of Mulatos, of the peace community, where they uttered, as is now
customary, new threats against the Peace Community and announcements of
their impending extermination. At less than an hour distance away, the army
and paramilitary complement each other in similar terrorist acts, but the
militaries say that “they don’t see” the paramilitaries.
Therefore, we will continue on under the terror and anxiety, but nothing will make
us back down from our insistence for an alternative world or our solidarity. To
renounce it would be to jeopardize our ideals against criminals. Again, we are
thankful for the solidarity of so many people that share this search and reject these
disgraces.
Peace Community of San José de Apartadó
February 2, 2012
(This translation may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the source, author, and translator are cited.)
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