On February 23, 2005 we received terrible news from the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó. Luis Eduardo Guerra, member of the Peace Community's internal council, his 11-year-old son Deiner Andrés Guerra, Bellanira Areiza Guzmán, member of the peace community, and a family from another hamlet in the district of San José, Alfonso Bolivar Tuberquia Graciano, Sandra Milena Muñoz Pozo and their children Santiago Tuberquia Muñoz and Natalia Andrea Tuberquia Muñoz, 2 and 6 years old respectively, appear to have been brutally murdered on February 21 or 22, 2005. According to the human rights organization Corporación Jurídica Libertad (CJL), the group was detained in the settlement of Los Mulatos (part of San José district) by the 11th Army Brigade on February 21, 2005 and the dismembered body of Deiner was found in what seemed to be a mass grave the following day.
CJL stated that "at this point we don't know the whereabouts of Louis Eduardo Guerra and the other people detained illegally and arbitrarily. With the information and evidence that is available we can assume that a cruel massacre has been carried out against members of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó."
"The pain overwhelms us so deeply we can only cry," the Peace Community wrote. "Luis Eduardo, great friend and great leader, human rights defender, founder of our community .... His death envelops us in an indescribable grief, and the circumstances of his murder and that of the people who were massacred along with him fills us with outrage and indignation.... Luis Eduardo, your memory, your commitment, your clarity, your friendship give us strength in the midst of this pain. As always we reflect on this, we will not step back from our principles even if the [Colombian] State, with their paramilitaries, do away with us."
The community organized a commission of community members, national and international observers and governmental officials to pick up the bodies on February 25.
If you would like to write messages of condolence and solidarity to the Peace Community, please write in Spanish and email them to
In its statement, CJL demands that 1) "The National Government does everything possible to ensure that the Human Rights Unit of the National Attorney General's office and personnel specialized in forensic medicine initiate the investigation into these serious events. 2) That the National Inspector General appoint a group of advisors to begin a disciplinary investigation. 3) That under no circumstances should personnel of the Colombian Army's 11th Brigade be allowed to participate in the judicial investigation, to avoid manipulation of the crime scene."
