The strategy of criminalizing protest and social leaderships reached the Eastern Antioquia. On Friday, March 8th, members of the Fiscalía’s C.T.I. arrested Ancísar de Jesús Morales in the main park of San Francisco, a municipality located in the eastern forest subregion of Antioquia.
Ancísar is a counselor in the municipality and is a member of the board of directors of the Asociación Campesina de Antioquia (ACA), an organization that in turn is part of the Movimiento Social por la Vida y la Defensa del Territorio (Movete).
Everything indicates that Ancísar is the victim of a judicial montage. The Fiscalía charged him with drug trafficking, use of minors and possession of weapons, because during the search of his house situated in a rural area, a shotgun used for hunting was found. The accusations are strange since they were made by a source not identified, and corroborated by a person that Ancísar had himself reported to the Police for selling illicit substances.
The arrest was a cause for surprise and repudiation within the ACA and other organizations and social movements of Eastern Antioquia. Months ago, Ancísar had expressed to the authorities of the municipality his concern for the increase of small-scale traffic in San Francisco and the participation of young people in the sale and consumption. The Mayor of the municipality, the Police Commander, the President of the Council, the Pastor and the Coordinator of the school certified that Ancísar promoted prevention campaigns in favour of minors, however, the judge (control de garantías) rejected such statements.
In a letter, young communication responsibles for of the ACA ratified the leadership of Ancísar, who since 2008 has been promoting “the process of education and audiovisual training with young peasants in the municipality of San Francisco”. Their main motivation, the young people state in the letter, “has always been to encourage other young people to take root and feel a sense of belonging in the countryside, from the development of artistic and creative seedbeds with children and young people from villages in their municipality and others in the region. Seeking to generate processes of permanence in the territory, mediated by communication and art. We bear witness to Ancísar’s transparency and committed work, its sensitivity, leadership and constant concern for environmental and social problems in the municipality”.
José Ariel Rueda, representative of ACA, defined Ancísar as a community and society builder who has been developing and supporting organic agricultural production strategies for 14 years. Ancísar, said Ariel, also participated in the substitution of illicit crops in the municipality, and is part of the chocolate producing association ASOFAGUA. “We know that it is a false positive that seeks to extinguish his leadership in the municipality, because some groups that are harmed by what he has been doing.
It seems that the only ones who benefit from the capture of Ancísar are the real criminals. That is why the ACA and the Movete demand its immediate release: because being a social leader can no longer be a crime.
Original: https://www.periferiaprensa.com/index.php/component/k2/item/2267-falso-…