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Trujillo: The Colombian St signed a 2nd settlement agreement before the IACHR

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My hair stands up on end when I listen once again to real stories from this brutal war. Listening to Ludivia, Vice President for AFAVIT, in a speech she made during the event, I can feel her courage. As dusk falls and we assimilate all these intense days, and her story of resistance resonates in my mind. She asks for justice from a State that in her words “does nothing”. “I just hope that this time it doesn’t stay only on paper, that the State fulfils the friendly settlement”, I hear her repeating in my head.
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My hair stands up on end when I listen once again to real stories from this brutal war. Listening to Ludivia, Vice President for AFAVIT, in a speech she made during the event, I can feel her courage. As dusk falls and we assimilate all these intense days, and her story of resistance resonates in my mind. She asks for justice from a State that in her words “does nothing”. “I just hope that this time it doesn’t stay only on paper, that the State fulfils the friendly settlement”, I hear her repeating in my head.

  • On 6 April 2016, the Colombian State signed a second friendly settlement agreement before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in the case of the Massacre of Trujillo, Valle (1986-1994), which legally recognises 76 victims. This case was presented before the IACHR in 1992, and was the first case for the country.
  • Eduardo Carreño (CCAJAR) and Sister Maritze Trigos have historically accompanied the victims of Trujillo. Carreño represents the victims in several processes at the national level, and at the IACHR (together with the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission). In 1995, the first friendly settlement agreement was reached, but was never fully implemented. For the last 13 years they have been working for a new agreement that has, at last, been arrived at.
  • AFAVIT, the Association of Relatives of the Victims of Trujillo, was born in 1995 as a result of the first agreement. The purpose of its creation was to continue to fight for justice and the implementation of the IACHR’s recommendations and conclusions. Since then, and against both wind and tide, the victims continue to fight impunity. It could be said that this process of symbolic reparation and historical memory has been the strongest and most energetic in the region.
  • Monument Park commemorates the murders and disappearances of 235 victims, in facts that began in 1986 and continued for the following eight years. It is a mausoleum that’s an ode to their memory through different spaces and monuments. On the highest part of the hill are the graves of Father Tiberio Fernandez and a wall called the Shade of Love. The history of Monument Park, however, is sad: in recent years it was burnt three times, Father Tiberio’s mausoleum was vandalised in 2008; and the international wall has been damaged four times. It shows that not everyone agrees that these people’s lives should be dignified, or that their families should receive any kind of reparation.
  • Consuelo Valencia is a member of AFAVIT, and the gardener for Monument Park. Two of her under-age children were murdered in the 1990s and thrown into the Magdalena River. Her husband, after being tortured by the Army, died of his physical and emotional wounds. They also disappeared her brother, and none of his remains have ever been found. Consuelo has lived the violence since she was eight, but her name is not on the list of the 76 victims recognised to by the State.
  • Sister Martize Trigos finalises preparations on the day of the public apology, which the IACHR had urged the Colombian State to make as part of this friendly settlement.
  • Singer/songwriter Ancisar creates memory through his songs. He sings about life in the 1980s and 90s in Trujillo, telling the story, for example, of Father Tiberio Fernandez, the spiritual leader in Trujillo who was brutally murdered for speaking out against the abuses committed by the paramilitaries, drug traffickers and agents of the State. He also sings the story of the carpenters, which goes: “25 years demanding that they appear and they have stayed in sad impunity (…) they took them, it was dawn already, half-naked and shivering from cold, and someone said that after they massacred them, they threw them in pieces into the river”.
  • In the agreement there are a number of commitments: recognition for the victims through this public event, the production of a documentary on the Trujillo massacre to support the truth and memory processes, economic support for the construction of two monuments: one on emotional pain and another in homage to the people who were members of AFAVIT who were disappeared (shown in the photograph), amongst others.
  • The day started with a pilgrimage and visit to the Monument Park for the guests.
  • The Minister of Justice, Yesid Reyes, arrived in Trujillo to publicly apologise to the victims on behalf of the State.<br /> With Sister Maritze, they visited ossuaries where some the victims’ remains lie.
  • There was a large military presence at the event. The same battalion that carried out the massacre provided security for the guests that day. The victims, despite their joy surrounding the event, showed some disagreement with that choice.
  • Many victims’ associations from the region were present, and they showed their solidarity with AFAVIT and the victims on this day of recognition.
  • During his speech, Carreño gave the historic background to the achievements in legal terms, the multiple guilty verdicts and the challenges that face the process ahead. During the act, people also heard speeches from the President of AFAVIT, a representative from the National Centre for Historical Memory, from four of Trujillo’s victims and from the Minister of Justice. In their speeches, the victims thanked CCAJAR and PBI’s accompaniment during all these the years.
  • During the event, the photographs of the faces of the people disappeared during the massacre were set out at the foot of the stage. The victims continued to call for truth, justice and guarantees of non-repetition. <br /> The situation today remains difficult. In recent years they have received threats from a neo-paramilitary group, the ‘Rastrojos’, and in 2013 a matriarch and member of AFAVIT was murdered. They also call for an end to impunity.
  • In the afternoon several groups presented cultural works. People from all over the region came to show their traditions. The place breathed happiness and hope.<br /> With hope that the commitments will be honoured this time.
  • My hair stands up on end when I listen once again to real stories from this brutal war. Listening to Ludivia, Vice President for AFAVIT, in a speech she made during the event, I can feel her courage. As dusk falls and we assimilate all these intense days, and her story of resistance resonates in my mind. She asks for justice from a State that in her words “does nothing”. “I just hope that this time it doesn’t stay only on paper, that the State fulfils the friendly settlement”, I hear her repeating in my head.
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