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The priest Gonzalo Palacio Palacio will have to be judged by history, since the ordinary justice could not conclude whether, in fact, He was a priest who used his social privileges to support the most questionable practices and crimes against defenseless civilians, or if he was just a prelate tried and prosecuted for his radical and anti-communist political positions.
He died at the weekend, at 87, after spending nearly three decades between churches and courtrooms. He was pointed out not only for participating in the paramilitary group ‘Los 12 apóstoles’, in the north of Antioquia, but also for being one of its founders and the reason why that gang took a name that goes back more to biblical history than to the horror of the armed conflict.
(Also read: Monsignor Builes, the controversial Paisa bishop who could be canonized)
“The greatest fear was when Father Gonzalo Palacio Palacio, the vicar of the parish of La Merced, one of the three in Yarumal, had a few drinks at the Los Alpes soda fountain, located in front of that church.” This is how the journalist Regina Matta Gómez, special envoy of this newspaper, told it in 1998 for EL TIEMPO.
According to his account, investigated on the occasion of the freedom recovered by the priest already questioned by justice in those years, the priest “He was chatting with his apostles and it was almost certain that the next day a new dead man would appear.” ‘The 12 apostles’ are accused of having committed hate crimes under the modality of what is known in Colombia as ‘social cleansing’.
“Those chosen were people identified by the population as social outcasts who were undesirable, especially for the merchants in the area who allegedly collected money to support the Police,” the story continues. According to multiple complaints, including that of retired Major Juan Carlos Meneses, there was collusion between the Public Force and that armed group, which would have been sponsored by personalities from the region.
The complaints also ensure that the priest was an informant for the Public Force.
(Of your interest: What the priest in the case of the ’12 Apostles’, who died on Saturday, said)
Among those accused of sponsoring and forming ‘The 12 Apostles’ there is Santiago Uribe Vélez, brother of former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez, whose judicial process for this cause is close to being concluded, since in November the allegations of conclusions will be made prior to hearing the sentence that determines if he is guilty or innocent of the charges for paramilitarism.
“The apostolic mission ended a year and 35 dead later, with the raid on the priest’s house in the parish of La Merced, the capture of Father Palacio and the confiscation of a 38-caliber revolver of his property,” the journalist Matta Gómez reported at the time. . That revolver, according to Palacio said, he bought legally to protect himself from the guerrillas, against whom he fought from the pulpit.
Palacio was captured in 1995 in Laureles, an upper-middle-class neighborhood in western Medellín. He was released in 1997, but was not dissociated from the process. After spending decades as a parish priest in the cold town of Yarumal, after the scandal unleashed by the accusations against Palacio, the Church transferred him to the church of San Joaquín, in Medellín, where he remained until his last years of life.
His passage through the north of Antioquia was decisive in his life, not only because of the presence that the FARC, ELN and EPL guerrillas had there, but also because of the ideological influence he received by being part of the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Osos, known for being one of the most conservative in the country. Palacio arrived in Yarumal in 1960.
In that region, the controversial priest Monsignor Miguel Ángel Builes was bishop, accused of stigmatizing and pointing to the point of violence against liberals in the mid-20th century for considering that this ideology was a sin. It is said that Builes was a figure of admiration for the Palace, since to the latter He is also accused of violating the confidentiality of confession to point out, with his own name, those he considered “assistants” of the guerrillas.
The testimonies of the case of ‘The 12 Apostles’ even point out that he had carried weapons and camouflaged himself and pointed out people whom he considered that the paramilitary group should kill, but these accusations were denied by the priest and not sufficiently verified by the courts, that he was left in debt to make a decision on the merits of his case.
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