Colombia: Peace Community leader detained

Bill Weinberg

A March 21 statement from the San José de Apartadó Peace Community:

We call for national and international solidarity to demand the freedom of GILDARDO TUBERQUIA, member of the Internal Council of the Peace Community, who has been illegally detained today, March 21 at 8:45 AM, by the Police. Gildardo refused to register his personal information at the police roadblock at El Mangolo, located at the exit of Apartadó on the road to San José de Apartadó. He was detained for demanding that the police comply with Sentence C-1024 of 2002 of the Constitutional Court, which prohibits organisms of the State from demanding the registration of personal information, such as place of dwelling and work, activities and family relations, and others not strictly needed for legal identification of the person.

For several months, many followers of the Peace Community and inhabitants of the zone have prtested the illegal actions of the police at the roadblock, and received responses such as: “We are the law”, “We do whatever we want”, “We don’t care if you denounce us”, “You do not tell us what to do”, and similar.

We demand the immediate liberty of our comrade who has suffered a persecution at the hands of the Public Force
sufrido una persecución por parte de la Fuerza Pública, and and end to all aggressions and illegal actions by the police against the community.

We are grateful for any support in demanding the immediate liberation of Gildardo.

See our last post on Colombia and San José de Apartadó.

  1. Tuberquia free
    An update:

    Thanks to national and international solidarity, Gildardo Tuberquia was freed by the police at 11:45 AM. After being insulted by the police for having denounced his illegal detention, Gildardo was released. Gildardo demanded the presence of the Procuraduría [Attorney General’s office] and Defensoría [human rights ombudsman] to demonstrate the illegality carried out by the Public Forces in demanding registration. [T]he accusation…was supported by the Procuraduría, which affirmed to the police the illegality of this and of Gildardo’s detention. The police attacked Gildardo verbally and appear furious at the community, which causes us to fear for the lives of the leaders and members of the community.