15 members of the University of Antioquia were murdered in the second half of 1987. They were students, professors or employees who were part of student and professor organizations, movements for the defense of human rights or political parties considered left-wing.
This case is representative of violence against university students because it is a period in which the dirty war worsened within the framework of modernization and democratic opening processes. Their various militancy, as well as their political roles within the university, cost them their lives. These cases remain unpunished.
As part of the Truth Meeting process in which the Truth Commission will recognize the impacts of the armed conflict on universities, we spoke with María Eugenia Vélez, who remembers 1987 as a tragic year for the University of Antioquia and for Medellín, and He wonders why there was no outcry from society and the University. She is the sister of Luis Fernando Vélez Vélez, a professor at this university murdered on December 17 of that year.
Luis Fernando Vélez assumed the presidency of the Permanent Human Rights Committee of Medellín, after the murder of Héctor Abad Gómez and Leonardo Betancur. With him a stormy streak for university students during the 1980s ended. “Someone had to take the flags,” said Luis Fernando when they warned him of the danger of his leadership.