In the last month the paramilitaries have killed 66 people in Chigorodó (a small town that neighbors Apartadó) and 26 people in Apartadó. Gloria reported that the paramilitaries were about to "take Apartadó" which means more people will certainly be killed.
On 8/22/96 Gloria Cuartas was in a school in preparation for Semana por la Paz, a week-long peace education event sponsored by Programa por la Paz. While she was talking with children in the school, paramilitaries killed and then decapitated a child who was playing in the school yard. Later the same day paramilitaries hurled insults at Gloria Cuartas. She interprets these acts as an indication that the paramilitaries intend to kill her.
(issued by Gloria 8/29/86 via phone to Cecilia Zarate-Laun of Madison)
Gloria Cuartas, the mayor of Apartadó, had called for public support throughout the world for the gestures of peace and reconciliation which she is making. A social worker who has never been a political candidate, nor a party activist, Gloria was asked to run for mayor of the violence plagued town of Apartadó by a group of citizens led by Apartadó's Catholic Bishop (now Archbishop of Cali), Monsignor Isaias Duarte.
Her role as mayor has been to seek to have feuding factions work for peace. But paramilitary groups and guerrillas have brought battles to Apartadó, where numerous people have been killed in the past several days.
Gloria's work for peace (and her life itself) are being threatened by violence while President Samper and military officers (with their barracks a few kilometers from Apartadó) stand by and permit the slaughter to continue, supporting paramiltary violence against the population of Apartadó in the name of a war against "subversives."
Gloria asks that people of conscience throughout the world write, send faxes and call to Colombia's political and military leaders, urging them (with words that are nonconfrontational) to:
(Side note not intended for letters to Colombian officials: The "self defense cooperatives" are nothing more than groups of heavily armed men who have taken the law into their own hands and regularly violate the most sacred precepts of human rights and personal dignity.
Please send faxes to the following people immediately and then let CSN know. The top two people listed are the highest priority.
We would appreciate receiving a copy of your fax -- CSN fax (608) 255-6621; phone (608) 257-8753).
(PLEASE mail or fax copies of your faxes to CSN)