Photo Credit: Thomas Flores
San Jose de Apartado
Official Title: Comunidad de Paz de San Jose d Apartado
Departamento: Antioquia
Region: Uraba; part of the so-called “banana belt”.
Population: c3,000 (1995); c300 (2005)
Location: approx. 7 miles from Apartado, the municipal center.
Ethnic mix: Mestizo; many arrived in 1950s, fleeing La Violencia in other regions.
IDP population: Few outsiders, but almost entire population have been displaced at one time or another.
Date of establishment: March 23 1997.
Traditional political affiliation: orig. strongly Communist, but later the Union Patriotica dominant.
Trigger event[s]: Paramilitary take over in February 1997 after the killing of over 30 community leaders
Persons/organisations involved in establishment:
Leadership: Diocese of Apartado; CINEP, Justicia y Paz, Pax Christi International.
Supporters: Peace Brigades International has a permanent presence; Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Declared objectives: to create a neutral zone where the civilian population would be respected.
Relations with local government bodies:
Mayor’s office: At the time of establishment the Mayor’s office in Apartado [Alcalde Gloria Cuartas] played a key supprting role.
Governor’s office: Governor’s [Alvaro Uribe V.] office at time of creation trid to co-opt movment for “active neutrality” and make it basis of a one-sided policy to withdraw local support from the guerrillas.
Memberships of regional organisations:
Organisational structure:
Community meetings: Regular weekly or bi-weekly assemblies.
Decision making bodies: Consejo internal.
Functional committees: Committees & Working Groups: Education, Health, Sports, Culture and Women.
Valued goods produced in region: main crops are plantain, maize, yucca & cacao. However, observers have also commented that the community’s territory is close to a major transit route used by guerrillas. Recently the peace community has set up a cooperative to market chocolate and locally grown bananas.
Local armed actors in the region: Initially local diocese negotiated acceptance of the new peace community from both guerrillas and paramilitaries, neither of whom kept the commitment.
Armed forces: Presence [currently 17th Brigade] since 1980’s in efforts to drive out guerrillas and disrupt transit
Paramilitaries: ACCU/AUC major presence since 1995; most massacres attributed to paras, who maintained control of main road accessing village. Following the Uribe government's strategy of demobilising major paramilitary units, these have simply been veplaced by similar bodies operating under new names.
Guerrillas: FARC dominated region until mid-1990’s, with major UP strength throughout local communities as a result and the perception that many are "guerrilla suporters" - an accusation that has constantly been levelled at the peace community itself.
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Arrangements with L.A.A.s No formal negotiations or agreements are recorded, and attacks have been carried out by all LAAs , but predominately by AUC
Significant events: During violence of the 1980s and early 1990s many of community were displaced but returned in late 1990’s to participate in peace community. Many leaders and community members assassinated, the latest [a founder member] in February 2005. In April 2005 the National Police returned to San Jose and established a post in the village; the community responded by deserting the village and setting up an alternative community [San Josecito – Comunidad de Dignidad] some distance away. During the Presidemcy of Alvaro Uribe [2002-2010] the community was adversely affected by the national policy of "democratic security", which included the practice of recruiting local informants and "peasant soldiers", and by the government's efforts to demobilise the paramilitaries, which has resulted in the replacement of organisations like the AUC by a new generation of local para units with names such as "Aguilas Negras" who continue to pose a threat to this and other peace communities.
Further comments: The example of this peace community had a major influence on the planning for other peace communities in the region [for example San Francisco de Asis and the communities of CAVIDAD].
One of the problems initially faced by San Jose was the widely scattered nature of the settlements outside San Jose itself and the difficulty of agreeing realistic rules for people living in somewhat different situations. Another was the issue of whether or not to ban alcohol within the peace community.
The Community has successfully used the Inter-American Court to obtain two orders, the first [1997] calling on the Colombian Government to take special precautionary measures for the protection of the community and the second [2000] calling for the investigation of attacks against the community and protection for IDPs returning to San Jose.
Further Reading:
Mitchell, Christopher & Catalina Rojas "Against the Stream; Colombian Zones of Peace Under Democratic Security" Chapter 3 in Local Peacebuilding and National Peace edited by Christopher Mitchell and Landon Hancock [Continuum Press; 2012]
Rojas, Catalina "Islands in the Stream" in Zones of Peace edited by Landon Hancock & Christopher Mitchell {Kumarian Press; 2007]
Valenzuela, Pedro "Neutrality in Internal Armed Conflicts; Experiences at the Grassroots Level in Colombia" [Uppsala University, Sweden; 2009] Ph.D. dissertation.
Contact details:
Last Updated: December 2011
Documents:
Photo Credit: Thomas Flores