Silence and sadness move hand in hand through every corner of Bohórquez, a peaceful town in the south of the Atlantic, where violence knocked on the door of the home of three families.
From this town of fishermen and farmers were Luis Guillermo Canoles Menco (32 years old), Marlon Luis Jhon Zárate (33 years old) and Jesús Gabriel García Sarmiento (39 years old), fatal victims who fell in the massacre perpetrated by hitmen and which claimed the lives of seven people, which occurred last Tuesday night in the Alto del Perro sector, located in the Cabeceras village, in the municipality of Rionegro (Antioquia).
EL TIEMPO managed to speak with some neighbors and acquaintances of these three men, whose versions agree that they were poor, quiet people, who had no problems with anyone and who were only trying to make a living as bricklayers.
Manuela Jhon is a relative of Marlon Luis Jhon Zárate, one of the victims of the Rionegro massacre.
Photo:Kronos
“They were good boys, dedicated to agriculture, but as things got tough in the town they began to travel to look for work that would hire them,” said a neighbor of García, who asked not to be identified.
They went to look for work as bricklayers
According to testimonies in Bohórquez, a district of the municipality of Campo de la Cruz, in Rionegro there were 10 people from the town working in construction.
Some had already returned and only these three men remained who were arrested for death in their intention to return to their families.
“15 days ago, three who came to spend Father’s Day returned. They did not return,” said the woman who claims to be the daughter of one of the workers who arrived from Rionegro.
“The man who hired them rented that house and all the workers were there. They told me that that was a safe place, that they never closed the gate because it was a quiet area. Nothing happened,” he added.
Three other victims were also from the coast. They were from La Guajira and were identified as Yeisin Fontalvo Vuelvas, Luis Epinayu, Jesús Gabriel García SarmientoNo details are yet known about the lives of these people.
Kathiusca García, a cousin of Jesús Gabriel, told the local newspaper El Heraldo that shortly before the fateful incident he was talking on the cell phone with his wife and hung up abruptly. “He told her that he would call her because they were surrounded. It was his last communication,” the woman said.
In Bohórquez, the bodies are expected to be laid to rest this Friday, in order to give them a Christian burial in the town cemetery.
In the homes of each of the victims, their relatives have set up tables, covered with white tablecloths, with photos of them in life, sacred images and lit candles.
The joy that these boys brought when they came home from work, on average every two months, was lost. Today in the town only the memories of their stories and laughter remain, while mourning and pain fill everything.
LEONARDO HERRERA DELGANS correspondent for EL TIEMPO Barranquilla
