The Community was established on Palm Sunday, March 1997, the villagers declaring themselves neutral in the Colombian armed conflict. On November 23, 2007, the Attorney General of Colombia ordered the detention of a Colombian National Army Captain, Guillermo Armando Gordillo Sánchez accused of being the mastermind and perpetrator of the San José de Apartadó massacre. Gordillo-Sánchez was in charge of the unit assigned to the 17th Brigade of the Colombian National Army. On July 18, 2008, the Attorney General signed the complaint against nine military officials for grave violations of human rights and facilitation of the incursion of the United Self-Defense Forces, who carried out the massacre.