The March of the Forgotten

by Katharine West

On Thursday, March 6, 2008, Colombians took to the streets of the country’s cities in a valiant gesture to reclaim the memory of victims of the right-wing paramilitary violence, which has tormented the country for decades. The atmosphere was surprisingly festive—despite the somber message, with many widows and orphans participating in the march. It was more of a celebration of the lives of the fallen, with chants of “ni perdon, ni olvido; castigo a los asasinos” (no forgiveness, no forgetting; punishment for the killers).

According to Ivan Cepeda, interviewed by City TV, a Bogotá-based television channel, nine million people worldwide participated in the anti-paramilitary marches, while others put the number in the hundreds of thousands. The fact that the march took place only one month after widespread protests against the FARC highlights how divided the country remains under the government of President Alvaro Uribe.

In the little pre-march coverage that did exist, many critics tried to convince people that the march had been organized by the FARC and, therefore, marching would be unpatriotic—or, at the very least, would signify a lack of support for the president at the same that he was embroiled in a diplomatic confrontation with Ecuador and Venezuela.

In a sad comment about the strength of Colombian democracy, many held placards stating, “I am a survivor of the genocide of the Patriotic Union,” a leftist political party founded in 1985 by the FARC and other sectors on the left and whose members were massacred during the 1980s and 1990s. The march in Bogotá also included representatives from Hijos Colombia (Children of Colombia), an organization made up of children whose parents were massacred, and members of leftist groups, trade unions and even the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered (LGBT) community.

Many marchers carried photos of people who were murdered or disappeared—politicians, trade unionists, peasants, students, etc.—and several of the marchers wore balaclavas and held models of chainsaws, an obvious reference to the testimonies of demobilized paramilitary that provided detailed descriptions of how bodies were dismembered during massacres. Paramilitaries are also responsible for a large percentage of the three million people—out of a total population of 44 million—who have been forcibly displaced from their homes and land.

Katherine West is a graduate in Law of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. She has lived in Bogotá for the last nine years and is presently finishing a masters program in Latin American Studies in the Javeriana University.