La Guerra Escondida

Colombia

LA GUERRA ESCONDIDA

Colombia’s National Historical Report on Anti-Personnel Mines

By March 2016, Colombia ranked second place worldwide in number of victims of Antipersonal Mines (MAP, acronym in Spanish) and War Explosive Remnants (REG). Additionally, the country ranked first in number of victims of the Public Force.

Despite this level of impact and the increasing awareness around the effects of war in the direct victims of MAP and REG, the dimensions, characteristics, secondary effects, and very diverse expressions of the damage they cause, continued to be ignored.

The Prolongar® Foundation, in the National Report “The Hidden War. Antipersonnel mines and explosive remnants in Colombia ”, reconstructed for the first time in the country the memories of the victims of these attacks through methodologies that rescued the body as a place of memory.

¿QUÉ ES Y POR QUÉ ES IMPORTANTE?

Trabajamos desde el 2015 hasta abril del 2017 en los departamentos de Antioquia, Arauca, Cauca, Meta, Bolívar, Nariño, Norte de Santander y Putumayo con 322 victimas directas e indirectas de MAP y REG. Entre ellos 66 mujeres, 19 niños, niñas y adolescentes, 97 hombres campesinos e indígenas y 140 víctimas de la fuerza pública.

El proyecto reconstruyó las memorias en relación a:

Los daños causados por las MAP en las víctimas civiles, miembros de la fuerza pública y desmovilizados.
Su impacto en los territorios y en las dinámicas de la guerra.
Las acciones organizativas de paz y de resiliencia de las víctimas y comunidades afectadas, entre otros aspectos.

Así mismo, el informe cuenta con un capítulo de recomendaciones de política pública y una guía metodológica a modo de cartilla para aquellos gestores de la memoria que quieran involucrar el cuerpo y el movimiento en sus talleres.

OUR ALLIES

TESTIMONIES

“Thank you very much, really, because we have been with several organizations and I had never felt as good as today … daily life is work, but we had never had a space like today … I feel very relaxed. One has the opportunity to express what has been saved inside and it feels like a rest, as if a burden had fallen from the back … really believe me that I have unloaded what I had in my heart, yes I cried, but I do feel as if I had removed a weight from my back”

“I got here a little discouraged … but from the first talk I felt encouraged … I feel very happy, grateful, because these are workshops that one carries in the heart, and those healings that are done with us, they are very nice things”

“The workshop felt very good. First of all, we shared with the other victims, in community, we got closer and became more friends. We were able to hear from other victims’ stories to encourage each other, and to change ourselves by seeing what other victims’ have overcome. That gives one enthusiasm to move forward”