Peter Dexter
Well-known member
This coming Friday will mark the thirtieth anniversary of the last sermon in Trujillo, Colombia by Padre Tiberio. Three days later his vehicle in which he was traveling with three others was intercepted by a group of paramilitaries. His body was later found floating in the Rio Cauca. It had been decapitated and mutilated (castrated). The other passengers were never found. In the late eighties and early nineties Trujillo was the site of what became known as the Trujillo Massacre in which over two hundred individuals, mostly campesinos were were brutally murderd (in some cases chain saws were used). The murders it came to be known were carried out by right wing paramilitaries or AUC (Autodefensas Unidos de Colombia) and Cali Cartel members. The police and military were complicit. Some of the victims were labor leaders while others, the campesinos were accused of collaborating with the left wing FARC (Fuerzas Armados Revolucionarios de Colombia) arch enemies of the paramilitaries. Why the Jesuit Priest was murdered is mot known. The paramilitaries were known to carry out "social cleansing" killing drug users, prostitues and sex abusers among others. There is a monument to the massacred on a hillside just outside the village containing the tombs of many of the victims. Padre Tiberio's tomb is there.
The best film I have ever seen dealing with the conflict of those years was produced in 2010 and titled Los Colores De La Montaña (in English: The Colors of The Mountain). Paramilitaries play a principal role but both the FARC (graffiti) and the Colombian military (helicopters overhead) are referenced. Incidentally there are no scenes of killing except for a large pig blown sky high by a mine.
The best film I have ever seen dealing with the conflict of those years was produced in 2010 and titled Los Colores De La Montaña (in English: The Colors of The Mountain). Paramilitaries play a principal role but both the FARC (graffiti) and the Colombian military (helicopters overhead) are referenced. Incidentally there are no scenes of killing except for a large pig blown sky high by a mine.
