The children were under the bed. The girl was very nice, about 5 or 6, and the boy was interesting …. We asked the commanders to leave them in a neighboring house, but they said they were a threat—that they would grow up to be guerrillas .… 'Cobra' took the girl by the hair and cut her throat.
—excerpt from the confession of paramilitary fighter Jorge Luis Salgado.

A united cry for justice echoed throughout the world following the tragic Feb. 21, 2005, massacre of eight civilians in a Colombian peace community. People and communities in solidarity with the San Jose de Apartadó Peace Community demanded truth and justice, not only for the brutal murder of 6-year-old Natalia and 18-month-old Santiago, but also the killing of community leader Luis Eduardo Guerra and his son, 11-year-old Deiner, and partner Beyanira, along with three others. When the peace community claimed that the U.S.-backed Colombian Army, together with paramilitary fighters, had massacred their friends and neighbors, the Colombian government responded with slanderous comments.

The Colombian Army and government officials claimed their investigations indicated a guerrilla massacre. Yet at the same time, President Alvaro Uribe and others suggested some peace community members were guerrillas themselves. "There are some leaders, backers and defenders … belonging to the FARC and who want to use the community to protect this terrorist organization," said Uribe. Thanks in part to such statements, continued violence and threats descend on the community and its leaders—more than 200 have been assassinated since the community's founding in 1997, the vast majority at the hands of paramilitaries and the Colombian Armed Forces.

Finally the truth has slowly begun to show its face. Last November an army captain was arrested for his role in the massacre. At the end of March, more than three years after the massacre, arrest warrants were issued for 15 other members of the infamous 17th Brigade, thanks to the testimony of a former paramilitary fighter who participated in the massacre. Jorge Luis Salgado admitted that paramilitaries were patrolling with the U.S.-backed Colombian Army in the region and participated in the massacre.

Despite the ongoing violence, the families of the peace community persevere. During the third commemoration of the massacre, internally displaced families returned home to the massacre site to restart their lives while another 12 families joined the peace community. Regardless of the fear and still-recent memories of the massacre of eight of their friends and neighbors, these brave families have returned to reclaim their lands and live in peace on the margins of a conflict that has devastated the region for more than 15 years.

Blessed are those that, challenging barbarity, continue along the path of peace with justice, humbly constructing a community in solidarity that does not bend under the imposition of the domination and oppression.—words of Father Javier Giraldo at the massacre commemoration.

Kathleen Nygard accompanied the San Jose de Apartadó Peace Community for over a year with Peace Brigades International and is now a Colombia international team member with Witness for Peace. Pray and Act for Peace in Colombia on April 27-28. Also join Witness for Peace in June to commemorate 25 years of work for justice and peace.