The Truth Commission held a meeting for admitting of responsibility, in which the former AUC paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso and the former commander of the FARC-EP Rodrigo Londoño gave testimonies.
In the two and half years since the Colombian Truth Commission began its mandate, it has developed a pedagogical strategy for generating cultural and educational initiatives to engage the public with its final report. This strategy also seeks to promote cultural and social transformations that contribute to non-repetition of the conflict, taking into account territorial, ethnic, and gender approaches. This snapshot sets out the Truth Commission’s pedagogical commitment and Embrace Dialogue’s (ReD) collaboration in this area.
The Truth Commission is entering its final year of activity, during which it must assume the difficult task of producing a final report that incorporates the root causes of the conflict, the principal victimisers, and the invisible stories of resilience and resistance within communities of survivors. There are significant challenges on many fronts. On the one hand, there is a methodological and editorial challenge: which information should be included in the report, and what will remain excluded? Then, there is a political issue centred around how the Commission will deal with the inevitable attacks from particular political sectors that appear in the report’s content.
As 2020 draws to a close, so too does the Truth Commission’s second year in operation. This snapshot provides a brief overview of the commission’s work to date and points to some of the challenges that might arise in its upcoming final year of work. A more detailed look ahead to 2021 will be tackled in the next snapshot.
“In times of war, the truth is often shamed, obscured and kept at a distance”; Daniel Maestre, a traditional doctor from the Kankuamo community shared these words during a meeting with indigenous groups of the Caribbean. This was one of several held over the past few months, by the Truth Commission, on the subject of #LaVerdadIndigena (‘the Indigenous Truth’) across the Caribbean, Andean, Pacific, Amazonian and Orinoquian regions of Colombia. These events aimed to allow indigenous communities to share their experiences of conflict with Colombian society, culminating in the sixth Encuentro por la Verdad (Truth Encounter) on 23 October: “Indigenous Communities in Danger of Physical and Cultural Extinction: Their Dignity, Resistance and Contributions to Peace”. This snapshot provides an insight into the search for the Indigenous Truth and how providing a platform for Colombians to hear about their experiences both as victims and as defenders of peace has marked a crucial step in the recognition of abuses and the guarantee of non-repetition.
Following the testimony of Ingrid Betancourt in a Listening Space led by Francisco de Roux, president of the Truth Commission (TC), the former leaders of the FARC-EP decided to publish a letter acknowledging the suffering that they had caused through kidnapping. This is an important achievement of the TC, demonstrating both its effectiveness in attaining the truth and acknowledgements of responsibility, and also its ability to mobilise emotions surrounding reconciliation. This snapshot analyses this recent development as part of the virtuous circle of truth.
Walking with the victims, you learn to listen. This phrase was one of the most distinctive phrases Angela Salazar used to say. Until her death, she was the only Black woman truth commissioner, and before that, was a women’s rights defender. Born in Chocó, Colombia, Salazar lived most of her life in Apartadó, Antioquia, where she began her career as an advocate of Black people’s and women’s rights. Salazar died in the first week of August from COVID-19. During her work as a truth commissioner, she understood that the history of Black people (including Raizal and Palenque ethnic communities) was a priority for the Truth Commission (TC). On various opportunities, Salazar asserted that Colombian national history neglects the critical input of Black people’s culture and history in its narrative. The TC would be a tool to depart from these silences surrounding Colombian Black history. This Snapshot shows Angela Salazar’s legacy within the Commission, reflecting on how the TC is dealing with Black history in the context of the internal armed conflict.
The Truth Commission has begun a series of interviews called Naming the Unspeakable with different Colombian artists, all of whom have made the reflection of the armed conflict integral to their work. To date, six meetings have been held to discuss the role of art as a form of recognition and a means to understand the armed conflict. These meetings take as a starting point, the fundamental role of art in Colombia as a means to resist and witness the horrors lived amid violence. The Commission also recognises that art, through its many languages, can delve into the depths of the human condition.
One of the most commonly fraught relationships in a country’s political transition is the relationship between a Truth Commission and the Armed Forces. In Argentina, the Armed Forces denied the findings of the Never Again report and promoted their own independent version of what happened during the dictatorship. In Peru, the Army spoke out firmly against the Truth Commission’s final report, suggesting it was favouring the “terrorists” and in Guatemala, the Armed Forces consistently opposed the Truth Commission from the beginning of its mandate to the very end.
The participation of former combatants in the Truth Commission, particularly commanders of armed groups, is key for realising one of the Commission’s principal objectives: establishing which actors were responsible for atrocities committed in the armed conflict. This will also help the Commission clarify how and in what ways the conflict developed over the decades. This Snapshot analyses recent progress on this issue.
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