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Dabeiba has not recovered from war
After years of pain and death, Llanogrande pathway rises up and extend its hand to reconciliation.
Bibiana Ramírez / Monday 24 April 2017 / Español / Deutsch
 
Llanogrande. Foto Bibiana Ramírez - APR.

It is perhaps one of the Antioquia’s municipalities most hit by the violence. It is located in the west of the department and they call it The door to the Urabá, although it could be The door to the terror due the killings, forced displacement and suffering that every peasant can tell. In 1996 paramilitaries arrived to the territory and then the first massacres took place.

But before that, Dabeiba was a prosperous land. “This here before used to produce all kind of fruits, it was a very fertile land. One came out to the pathway and everywhere people bought what we had, in a market, in a store, even in a canteen. They used to order dozens of fruits. I counted the money and thought I have now money to go to the market” recalls Judith, president of the Community Action Board in Barrancas pathway.

They tell that on Saturdays and Sundays, the town was so full that there was barely space to walk. But in 1999 population was reduced to the half owing the paramilitary siege that made them move. Most of them had to displace to Medellín, others died and just a few stayed, but also suffered the onfall. “We had to sleep on the mountains, we haven’t overcome the war” says one of Judith’s sons.

Llanogrande is a pathway that was In the middle of the crossfire. Things have changed because today there is a Transitional Veredal Zone of normalization and the peasants only want reconciliation.

Luis survived to tell

A joyful peasant, disposed to tell how did survive the war. He used to live in the Cañaveral pathway but had to move to Medellín with his family. Two years after he couldn’t take it anymore, he missed the countryside and decided to go back, but this time to Llanogrande.

Paramilitaries in Dadeiba used to drive a white van around, break into houses, take people out and take them away without return, sometimes they even stole their shoes. Three men had control of everything there: Conrado, Pelusa and Escalera. The last one used to have a seal in the “Y” division of the road which drives to Urama and Llanogrande. He used to chop peasants and throw them in the river. “Escalera was a referred man, very mad. He was big and fat. One day he gathered us together in the Y, took out a long list with names and said he was going to cross out the list” recalls Luis.

Eight days after, Luis was in the way to the town and close to the Y some guerrilla came out saying they had to stay there until new instructions. “We were stacked like cattle next to a tree. A commandant told us that they were going to take a stumble off those pathways. Later, there was a line of 15 dead paramilitaries along the bridge and they brought dragging the corpse of Escalera. They told us that they were going to do to him, the same he used to do to the peasants and then let us go”.

“I was in the town when a van passed by, stopped and I got caught. We all knew they were paramilitaries. I got loose and hid in a pharmacy. There a soldier protected me. Those men were following me all the afternoon long. A cousin of mine had heard some shots and said I got killed. The new was already spread around the pathway. Next day I got home, my family couldn’t believe it”

Luis stopped going to the town. It was his wife who had to go to buy the groceries every 8 days. Three years ago, he went out again. Those same men that were following him sent him greetings. “Once I, already angry, sent them the message that they could come whenever they wanted to, that I would kill a chicken for them, that they were already very big. What did I do? I got a gun to protect myself. Nobody came, then I sold that gun”.

Afterwards, Luis was detained by the army, according to them, because he was the commandant of the FARC Fifth Front. “A soldier caught me and told me I was now detained, that I couldn’t move. I left the shovel, they tied me up and took me to the corraleja. At two in the afternoon a helicopter came and took me to the town, to the dungeon. I was there for eight days and they never proof anything against me”.

In another chance, Luis was milking the cows because he worked as a butler in a farm. “It was four in the morning, I was crouched down with the pail on the ground. Suddenly, side by side, there were two men wearing camouflage. I looked up, I was surrounded. They punctured the rifle on my belly – Milk that cow quickly – they said, and asked for the milk. They were paramilitaries coming from Aguila, another pathway. There they had already killed Juan. They drank the milk and left. At six we had to take it to the dairy, close to the Y. I went with my son. When we arrived there, we realised they had killed the milkman. That day we would have been three dead men.”

Llanogrande’s mother

Carmen is a short skin brunette. Her smile reveals shyness. She lives in a high point where she can see all the pathway. Next to her house there is a white flag, which the wind does not stop waving. Since five in the morning, she is already at the school to work for the community in a communal restaurant which is managed by a group of women.

Ten years ago, FARC killed her husband. He was the president of the Community Action Board. That death remained in silence, left two orphan children and a whole frightened pathway. “That happened at 6 in the evening. We heard shots close to the brook. We were shocked. Few later two guerrillas came and told us to go to a meeting on the road. We were all there. They told us there was the dead. That the gossips were the causes” tells Ana, a neighbour.

Carmen cannot talk about it. ­­She owns a 17 hectare farm, which eight are rented to the government to the Veredal Zone. She suggests to rent all the farm, because it has already deteriorated a bit with the 250 guerrillas living there.

I ask her about her feelings to the guerrilla and the government. “I’ve been asked the same question other times. But you know, I forgave since that moment, what I did was to give myself into working for the community and my kids, following the example my husband used to give. This what is happening is for a reason, we have to reconcile to live in peace, in my heart there is no hate.”

While we were talking, guerrilla and government showed up after a long walk through the boundaries of the farm, to finish defining the contract. She offers them soda to quench the thirst. One of the oldest guerrilla takes a look inside the house, he sees a picture of Carmen with her husband and his face turns nostalgic. She serves them with humility and they thank.

“Since Ana got widowed, we all try to help her. We still tell her that in any need we are there for her. She is the mother of Llanogrande. She is very communal. She is ready for everything, she collaborates and works” affirms Ana.

Translated by: Lina Castillo