One of the most awaited determinations of the peace agreement signed between the Colombian state and the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) in 2016 was concluded at the end of June, with promises from President-elect Gustavo Petro. “I receive the recommendations of the Truth Commission and I will carry them out. Even the last family, in the last corner of the country, will know this story and its recommendations.”
Chaired by the Jesuit priest Francisco de Roux, the Commission set out to retell the story of five decades of violence in Colombia from the victims’ accounts. The team conducted more than 30,000 interviews and built a platform that can be consulted by region, date and type of occurrence – many reports are anonymous, so that victims cannot be identified by their aggressors.
The voluminous report counts a large part of the crimes against humanity committed in the armed struggle in the country, which involve torture, kidnapping, recruitment of minors, sexual violence and attacks on the peasant and urban population.
The document considers that there are 9 million Colombians victims of violence and lists 450,666 dead in the armed conflict, more than double the previous estimates. The work is independent of the peace courts, and your information may not be used for legal purposes.
In delivering the text, De Roux said that the country’s reconciliation is urgent and that knowing this truth will be a first step. “We would spend 17 years if we were to hold a minute of silence for every victim. We can’t waste any more time.”
Are you satisfied with the final report of the Truth Commission? A lot, because it was possible to listen to the victims. The truth that emerges from this work is not an academic truth, it is constructed from the victims’ pain. In addition, we were able to reflect and propose solutions for the non-repetition of violence.
Mr. is from Cali, a region of many conflicts. Personally, among the revelations, what touched you the most? I was aware of violence, from a lifetime devoted to accompanying conflict. But he had never felt the depth of human tragedy within. The way children were taken to war by force and had their lives destroyed. It pained me to see how women’s bodies turned into battlefields. And the pain of indigenous and Afro-descendant communities.
Also the volume and mode of kidnappings. In the period we studied, there were more than 50,000 abducted, several for many months or years, in the forest, in terrible conditions. Finally, it became clear to me that what happened in Colombia was not a civil war, but a war against civilians. Of every 10 victims, 8 were civilians. You can’t put things on an equitable scale.
What recommendations for the non-repetition of the conflict did Mr. would highlight? In the first place, a serious effort is needed to implement the peace agreement, starting from its most important article, that of rural reform, so that the peasantry is valued and can emerge from the difficult conditions in which they live and that make them a participant or victim of the criminal factions. We have to change the way we think about the State, we need a cultural transformation for harmonious coexistence among Colombians.
I also believe that it is necessary to change the way we think about security. It cannot be weapon-based, but collectively organized. The police must leave the interference of the Armed Forces and be composed of citizens. It cannot be that we have 7 million Colombians displaced from their homes, on the periphery, usurped by guerrillas, paramilitarism or organized crime.
We cannot lose sight of the fact that security is for human beings before it is for the lands. With more human accompaniment, we will need fewer weapons.
Today, the greatest obstacle to peace is drug trafficking. The war on drug trafficking has long shown that it is impossible to win. Worse, it makes more profit from drug trafficking. We fell into this trap of the US view, that drug trafficking is won with war and it didn’t do any good – we continue to produce and sell more drugs than before.
Indigenous people and other forest defenders are being murdered in Colombia and Brazil. What does the report tell us about crimes against nature and the Amazon, which countries share? We have to completely change the way we face things. Understanding that the life of an indigenous person is more important than any soy, cattle, multinational industry. A company is a business, and businesses adjust with money, but the value of a human being is absolute. Destroying and letting the forest and these peoples be destroyed is clumsy and unethical.
When Brazil attacks its indigenous population, the dignity of all Brazilians is attacked — and so is the Colombian side. Care for nature, among all, must be a place of protection, of honor. To advance over the jungle is a stupidity, a suicidal crime.
X-ray | Francisco de Roux, 79
Born on July 5, 1943, he studied philosophy, letters and theology at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. He was ordained a priest in 1975, earned a master’s degree in economics at the University of the Andes, taught at the London School of Economics, and earned a doctorate in economics at the Sorbonne. He worked at the Companhia de Jesus Peace Program and at the Research and Popular Education Center, in addition to having participated in the 2016 agreements.
