[1] Following decades of fighting in the region between guerrilla groups and the Colombian army, later joined in the 1980s by paramilitary fighters, the community of La India had reached breaking point by 1987.
Its aim was to promote economic growth and peace in the region by holding talks with all parties involved in the conflict, while avoiding taking sides.
The ATCC obtained a government grant for six million pesos to build a community store and two purchase two canoes to provide transport to the area along the Carare River.
[3] The ATCC's greatest setback was the murder on February 26, 1990 of its co-founder and president Josué Vargas, its secretary Saúl Castañeda, and its technical advisor Miguel Ángel Barajas, along with London-based BBC journalist Silvia Duzán who had been interviewing them in a restaurant in Cimitarra.
[2][4] During the 1990s the ATCC was involved in a struggle to convince local farmers not to accede to the demands of guerrilla groups and plant coca.