Members of the Comunidad de Paz de San Jose de Apartado march in memory of victims of the continuing violence in Colombia. Photo by the Comunidad de Paz de San Jose de Apartado, which is about 50 kilometers from the Panamanian border.
Reporting human rights abuses is not a crime
by the Defend the Sacred Alliance, Kumi Naidoo, Nnimmo Bassey and Noam Chomsky
Twenty-four years ago, the search for a way out of the unending violent conflict in Colombia saw a significant moment of hope. On 23 March 1997, 1,350 displaced farmers gathered in the remote village of San Jose de Apartado in the north-western province of Antioquia to join together and form a peace community. After paramilitaries had roamed the region pillaging and massacring, the local community declared itself neutral in the war, rejecting weapons, drugs, alcohol and cooperation with any armed group. With their community, the people of San Jose have shown other communities in the country how to break the victim-perpetrator cycle and to build communal alternatives of nonviolence, solidarity and autonomy outside of the dominant culture.