Walking together: Healing and hope for Colombian refugees

w a l k i n g
t o g e t h e r
23
for two reasons. For one, the state armed forces are deemed responsible in the Colombian constitution
to protect people’s lives, property and rights. This then means that Colombian citizens are victimized
by the same functionaries that should protect them. Secondly, the governmental system of attention
to victims does not recognize the victims of the actions of State forces if these actions are not proven
through a judicial process. Therefore, victims of the State are excluded from humanitarian assistance,
from participation in the Justice and Peace Law 7 and from the government’s administrative reparation
program. Victims of the state are deliberately and systematically excluded from any institutional offers of
attention to victims.
Urban Violence: Urban violence in Colombia’s cities causes both intraurban (from neighbourhood
to neighbourhood) and interurban (from city to city) displacement. The armed conflict, which was
once a primarily rural phenomenon taking place in the jungles and mountains, can now be found in
the cities. There is increased violence in Colombia’s larger cities, with new armed conflicts related to
drug trafficking, money laundering, social and political control, growth of militias and the rearming of
demobilized paramilitaries.
Aerial Fumigation: Another notable cause of displacement is that of arial fumigations and forced
eradication of illicit crops. Eradication operations are carried out by military and police forces, often with
backup from demobilized members of the illegal armed groups. The military operations that accompany
the fumigations generate risks for local civil society, who become the target for threats and, in some
“I was happy with my family, my work and my studies. I had a house and a home. Then the river parted
and the sadness began. Displacement, sadness, tears, impotence, nostalgia, loneliness. You wish you could
return to your land, but you know you can’t. I see that Jesus loves me a lot, and cling to the hope that he
has something good in store for me.”
- F r a n c i s c o
“The death of my father and my brother was a terrible blow
for me. The paramilitaries killed my father 15 days after
killing my brother. Everything was confusing, I didn’t know
where to go but we had to leave running. I wanted to stop,
but I couldn’t. Worse things happened every day. They tried
to rape my sisters. The danger continues, but God is with us.”
-Cristian
”You feel anger, fear, distrust,
the desire for vengeance,
resistance, sadness, a profound
rage, and disappointment.”
-Richard
“You sleep with one eye open.”
-Edwin
7. The Justice and Peace Law offers significantly reduced prison sentences in exchange for paramilitaries telling the truth. The
primary benefit gained by victims from this law is learning about what happened to their loved ones.