Landmines and Remembering in Colombia

Landmines and Remembering in Colombia

According to a report, since 1990 Colombia has had 11,073 registered victims of landmines; and President Santos has set aside land for the Museum of Memory dedicated to the ongoing armed conflict.

El Espectador of Bogotá reported that to mark the International Day of Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, various agencies in Colombia joined forces to raise consciousness of the horrors caused by antipersonnel mines, used particularly in irregular conflicts like the current struggle in their country. La Dirección Contra Minas released a report showing that so far in 2015 there have been 54 victims in Colombia. “Of these, 18 victims were civilians, of whom 9 were killed and 9 were wounded. The remaining 36 were members of the security forces, 34 of whom were wounded and 2 were killed.”

La Dirección also reported that in 2013 there were a total of 3,308 victims of antipersonnel mines in the world, compared to 4,325 reported in 2012, which shows a decrease of 24%. In Colombia, Antioquia is at the top of the five departments most affected by landmines during the past 15 years with 2,465 people (22%), Meta 1,112 (10%), Caquetá 910 (8%), Nariño 794 (7%) and Norte de Santander 772 (7%).

Semana Magazine of Bogotá observed that Antioqueño writer Manuel Mejía Vallejo’s contention, “you die when you forget,” fits Colombia’s present situation. While Colombia has endured many years (decades) of merciless war, it can be said that as a country it appears to have little memory. “There are no great monuments, no heroic recounting of stories, indeed it turns its back on its past.” This, of course, is in contrast to large cities in the United States and Europe, “where seemingly on every corner” there is a statue or a plaque, with plenty of museums spread around, evoking the “most traumatic events in their histories.”

Colombia has done nothing to mark the destruction of the Palace of Justice, nor Pablo Escobar’s bombings, nor massacres like that at Bojayá (and too many others to count). All that marks the “Bogotazo,” the great uprising and slaughter of April, 1948, which led to the period of La Violencia (1948-1966) and the beginnings of the ongoing conflict, is a small, easy-to-miss plaque at Carrera Séptima and Avenida Jiménez with the laconic message: “Here fell Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, caudillo of the people.”

“Therefore, the launch of the Museum of Memory by President Juan Manuel Santos has so much meaning.” Its construction was mandated by the “Victims’ Law” and it aims to portray the “recent history of violence in Colombia,” “restore the dignity” of those who suffered, and “spread the truth about what happened.” It will be built on a plot of 20,000 square meters at 26th Street and Carrera 30 and will be ready in 2018. There will also be a monument at El Dorado Airport to remember fallen leaders like José Antequera, Bernardo Jaramillo, and Carlos Pizarro.

Semana noted that the new Museum of Memory will be difficult, because this is a sensitive issue politically. It is enough to remember what happened when Elvira Cuero Jaramillo, then director of the National Museum, proposed to take the mulera that legendary or infamous (depending on one’s point of view) FARC leader Manuel Marulanda always wore around his neck because, as she said, “History is also told with objects.” She was roundly criticized and accused of being an apologist for Tirofijo (“Sureshot,” as he was known).

The main problem is that “it is a museum dedicated to a war that is not over.” Other events in world history, like the Holocaust, have museums that appeared several decades after the fact, when people “had already metabolized the horror,” said psychologist Lina Rondón. What is more, in Colombia there is no single version of what happened, no agreement on who “the perpetrators” were, as there is in Argentina or Chile where museums revolve around military dictatorships.

In Colombia historians have managed to agree (more or less) on some basic points, such as the beginning of the war. The report “Basta Ya!” by the Centro de Memoria Histórica asserts that the war began with the arrival of the National Front in 1958, (though others would say it began with Gaitán’s murder on April 9, 1948.) The challenge, therefore, is great. Martha Nubia Bello, director of the new museum, notes that this will not have an official account, because “although there are irrefutable truths such as the fact that most of the victims of this war were civilians, the museum will be open to other versions, including those of the victimizers themselves, not to exalt, but to question them.”

To read more articles like this one, subscribe today. If you would like to learn more about us, follow this link:

http://ejournal.missouristate.edu/2015/03/invited-essay-aggregating-latin-american-news-media-for-fun-and-hopefully-enough-profit-to-survive-the-ideas-underpinning-the-latin-american-news-digest/

ENDS

© Scoop Media