WEBVTT

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60 years of war in Colombia

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Almost half a million deaths

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More than 8 million displaced people

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Thousands of kidnappings and disappearances

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Many of them women, who despite the pain have rebuilt
their lives and those of their families and communities

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We\'ve produced this film
with them and for them

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Like rivers, women grow
when they join together.

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There would be no Amazon River
without countless smaller rivers

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And there is no decent life
for women if we aren’t united.

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When Waters Flow as One:
Women and Peace in Colombia

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Amazon Piedmont

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It was very hard when we
started because of the conflict.

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The paramilitaries, the mafias, and
the FARC were all fighting over territory.

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Women couldn’t just go where they wanted.

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They had to ask permission,
because there was a code of conduct.

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The FARC were well-established in
Putumayo when the paramilitaries arrived.

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There was an armed group
and there was the army.

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The FARC moved freely in the territory and
there was coca, but they were one armed group.

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After the paramilitaries arrived in
2000, there were two armed groups.

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Montes de María - Caribbean Coast

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In ‘99 they began to appear at night.

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They would appear, kill, and be gone. Then
they would come back at night and kill again.

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This was a strategy they
used to terrorize people,

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to make them fear for their lives. We
saw a lot of things in our community.

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If they didn’t like a
person, they’d kill them.

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If you owed them money
and didn’t pay, they’d kill you.

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If they didn’t like the way you
looked at them, they’d kill you.

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Mountains of Central Colombia

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In my neighborhood, I saw a lot of young people
killed before they had a chance to grow up.

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I wept with many mothers over their sons
lying in pools of blood.

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We couldn’t spend the night in the country for
fear that armed groups would show up and rape us,

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kill us, or abduct us to join their ranks.

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Cumbal Indigenous
Reservation - Andean Paramo

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There were times in Cumbal
when you couldn’t leave the house,

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when you would hear
shots at all hours of the night.

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For a little girl like me, that was hard.

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You wait for your mom, your dad, or your
grandpa to tell you what to do and how to act.

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You scream, then you stay
silent … it’s just agonizing.

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Soacha - South of Bogotá

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It was really hard. Deaths every day;

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the paramilitaries, the curfews, the threats against
community leaders and anyone who worked for human rights.

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It was harsh, it became an aggressive
place where you just couldn’t stay on.

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Nasa Indigenous
Reservation - South Colombia

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These territories are
very sacred and spiritual.

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They’re beautiful to look at, but this is also a source
of wealth that powerful people want to get their hands on.

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Chocó - Pacific Coast

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The youth, the women, the organizations,

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the most visible of them
get entangled in the conflict.

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They become military targets.

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In Montes de María, paramilitary forces committed
over 60 massacres and displaced thousands of families

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My mom was a cheerful and very positive housewife.
She was tall, light-skinned, and very pretty…

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like her daughter! I have her features,

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these two birthmarks.

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Her nose, her mouth,
my face is a lot like hers.

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One night my dad said that we had to gather
our things and leave

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because they had taken my
mother and she wouldn’t be back.

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I was about 13.

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Let’s think for a moment about
the meaning of this gathering,

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How long has it been going on,

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26 years? This 26-year-long journey.

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You know that I’d still be
with her if she were alive.

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No one will forget her,

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no one.

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No one.

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Mountains of Central Colombia

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Sexual violence against women has been ignored
and the victims of these abuses are invisible.

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One of them fell in love with me,

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and he scared me more than ever
when he told me all that they did,

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how they befriended their victims and
invited them to dinner,

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but took them far away
and killed them brutally.

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It was very hard to hear those things.

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I lived with all that
fear. I couldn’t sleep.

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I was his so-called girlfriend,
but I had no choice in the matter.

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My life and the life of my family
were at risk. It was terrifying.

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It all began because they
appropriated the nicest properties

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and there was a nice little farm near us.

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I would pass by every evening
going to town to sleep there,

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and he would walk alongside me to chat.

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Then it was flirting and more,

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and I wasn’t free to break it off.

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My family asked me what
I had gotten into with him.

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“You’re putting us at risk,” they said

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But the safest thing was to play along as long as possible
so I wouldn’t get hurt and they wouldn’t get hurt.

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So that was very stressful
and also dangerous

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because it made me a
collaborator of this armed group

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without even meaning to.

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In a sense it was forced
on me, but more out of fear…

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until he took up with a prettier girl.

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The armed conflict penetrated
towns and cities, leaving no safe place

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I came to eastern Antioquia
displaced from Medellín,

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after being victimized in many ways,

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including the murder of my 4 brothers
and my pregnant younger sister.

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They killed her and her baby.

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Bullets were fired at the house

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and I decided to leave with them.

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I didn’t want them to grow up
there and suffer the same fate.

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It was a little hard to be in
the middle of all those groups.

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When people started to leave Medellín,

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my mother asked me “Are
you going to stay there?

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Don’t you see the danger? What
are you waiting for, to be threatened?”

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“Mom, they haven’t threatened
me and I don’t think they will.”

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The stores had closed by then,

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and there was no transportation,
so I shut myself into the house early.

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You could hear boots going by all
night, right outside and very loud,

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and the dogs barking.

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You just expected them to
knock on the door at any moment.

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The kids grew up having to be silent.

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And I was in many places, but I
ended up in Guarne, in the country.

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But there was war there too.

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The same thing was happening in the east.

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In some places, armed actors had absolute control over
women’s bodies. La Libertad, in Sucre was one such place.

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♫♫Rowing, rowing, we’ll get there.

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Rowing, rowing, we’ll achieve peace. ♫♫

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We’re going to do a skit.

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You play him and I play a 13-year-old girl,

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like I was at that time.

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I am the 13-year-old girl that he abducts.

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The boss said to look for
you… You have to come with me!

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No, we’ve done nothing wrong.

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And they go… They’re going!

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I had a problem with my
husband and he sent for us

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and when I got there he said to my husband, “you
stay with the kids and she’s coming with me.\"

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At 9 p.m. they took me out of town to Alto
de Julio. I was with him there for 9 days.

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After 9 days he brought me back.

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I did everything he wanted,

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things that are...

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painful to think about.

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Sometimes I cry from the pain,

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but that’s just the way it is.

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I was 13...

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when “the Bear” set his sights on me

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and sent a man for me.

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My mother was distraught;

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she stopped eating and sleeping,

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and she wouldn’t be seen,

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because she was so
heartsick and embarrassed

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about everything that was happening to me.

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He told my husband that he could get
me back if he paid for the gas to bring me.

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My husband blamed me for
everything that happened, and he left me.

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I was alone with my two daughters.

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During the violence, there
was very little you could do

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because we were under siege.

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You weren’t free because we were being
spied on by paramilitaries under the Bear.

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They were spying on me in particular;

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I was a special target of the Bear.

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From the time the Bear got here,
he singled me out and threatened me.

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When I had to care for
certain patients - urgent cases -

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I had do it in secret.

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When the Peace and Justice Law began, when people
began to resist, things changed here in Libertad,

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I began to help them.

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But before that, during the conflict, it was
almost impossible to do anything like that.

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Mocoa, Putumayo

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I thought that the school curriculum had nothing to
do with what was happening in this war in Putumayo.

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And I always told the
Secretary of Education,

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This can’t be, Mr. Secretary, the numbers say so
many students, but half of them are in the guerillas;

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the FARC are taking half
the students off with them.

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I’ve found FARC in the schools, teaching their own ideology
and regulations, and then taking the students off with them.

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Their mothers are
distraught…this can’t go on.

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The educational authorities
have to do something.

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“Don’t say anything to those people,
Señora, because the President...

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has expressly forbidden
anyone from talking to them.

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If you barge in and talk to
them, that’s a huge problem.”

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But I told the women,

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“No, look, I’ll stay here one more day
and we’ll see where the youngsters are.”

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So sometimes we rescued
them and other times we couldn’t.

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Thousands of boys and girls were brought into the ranks
of the guerrillas, and their schools fell into disuse

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Former FARC Combatants
Settlement - Eastern Plains

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I was 13, almost 14, but I was short and
skinny, and I looked like a 10-year-old.

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So most of them helped me, for
example to carry my share on our marches.

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I would fall behind and
they would come back for me.

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I was about 13 or 14 when I joined.

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Why did you join?

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Yes, I liked it.

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I’m an ex-combatant, but there are still
active guerrillas around here.

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It’s a conflict zone,

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and there are many
killings of ex-combatants.

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We always fear that they could come
at any time and kill one of us.

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I’ve been here for a little
over 2 years now with my son,

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fighting every day for a better life.

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Between 2002 and 2008, military forces killed 6,402
civilians and presented their bodies as enemy casualties.

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The armed forces are being
investigated for these crimes.

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They befriended the guys, all the
young guys they took off with them.

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They offered them work; they offered
to take them to see the sea, and so on.

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Julián was out of work at that time. He
didn’t like to be without work for too long,

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since we depended on him.

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One day he went to play
soccer with the recruiters,

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and one of them had a store where
he sold beer, liquor, all that stuff.

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So the young guys liked to go there.

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For those who liked drugs,
they gave them drugs.

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Gradually they won them over,

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and they offered them work in other regions
where they would earn a lot of money.

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Those who accepted went with
them. Others didn’t accept and didn’t go.

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My son was out of work, so he accepted.

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He was so proud that he came home and told me he would
earn a lot of money and could help us pay for the house.

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He left the house at 7 p.m. on March 2
to meet with the recruiter.

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He told me to save his food
because he wouldn’t be long,

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but we never saw him again.

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Never.

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Then 6 months later we found out that he was dead and buried
in a mass grave in Ocaña, far away in Norte de Santander.

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We found out because there were rumors.

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They brought back other guys and buried
them, but some of us still had no word.

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Then the coroner called four families
to a meeting on Sept. 23,

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and delivered a letter telling us
to come for our loved ones.

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On that day it all came out in the open.

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But we still didn’t know, I mean the
ones who went for their sons knew that

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(the soldiers) had killed them,

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because when they got there, they were told “Your son was
a guerrilla and he was killed in combat with the army.”

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But that was a lie because if my
son was at home with us at 7 p.m

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and the next day they
kill him so far from home,

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when would he have become a guerrilla?

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They told all the mothers that their sons
were guerrillas, that they were subversives,

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that they were in the ELN.

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They accused my son of being in the ELN and
that he was in Ocaña planting landmines.

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On Sept. 25, 2008,
Pres. Uribe told the press

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that our sons were not so innocent, they weren’t just
“picking coffee,” but had gone to Ocaña as criminals.

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That set us off and we began to act.

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We mothers of Soacha spoke up,

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began our demonstrations, everything.

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And that’s when they began to threaten us.

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That’s what we’ve been doing…

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telling the people of Colombia
what happened to our sons.

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This should not be forgotten,
it should not be repeated,

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more mothers shouldn’t have to suffer.

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But it will continue in Colombia.

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Perhaps by the Police, maybe by the Army.

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In Colombia ..

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They both violate human rights.

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This has been an accomplishment in Soacha,
the organization of the women’s movement

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and some women who have taken up
the defense of women’s human rights.

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None of the armed groups respected the territory
of Afro-Colombian or Indigenous peoples in Chocó.

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Waters of the Atrato,

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a rose blooms on your banks.

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I am as a canoe floating slowly down
stream, kissing your water, fresh and sweet.

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These groups make threats,

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and women are intimidated and constrained.

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The groups say who should aspire to
what, and they control the resources.

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Who are they? The
guerrillas, the paramilitaries,

00:26:54.917 --> 00:27:04.041
criminal gangs, they dangle
resources and they make threats.

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They threaten candidates, and most women
aren’t accustomed to any kind of public life,

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so they back off from it.

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This is having an effect
on the work that we’re doing

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because women’s participation is strategic,

00:27:38.292 --> 00:27:44.667
to change some of the
ways decisions are made.

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If we are on the inside,

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maybe we can help make some changes.

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But one flower doesn’t mean it’s spring.

00:27:52.751 --> 00:28:01.666
I mean if there are just 1 or 2 women in a
group of 10 or 15 officials,

00:28:01.667 --> 00:28:09.042
they still don’t have the power
to make the needed changes.

00:28:15.709 --> 00:28:29.126
But there are still opportunities to show
women a different way of working together

00:28:43.292 --> 00:28:54.541
The struggles for peace and women’s
equality became inextricably entwined.

00:28:54.542 --> 00:29:00.333
Organizing from 1984 to 1990,

00:29:00.334 --> 00:29:02.708
we reached a membership of 5,000 women,

00:29:02.709 --> 00:29:07.500
and the more pushback we got, the more
unshakeable we became.

00:29:07.501 --> 00:29:11.333
Like with kids, the more something is
forbidden, the more they want to do it.

00:29:11.334 --> 00:29:15.708
And we also knew why we were doing this,

00:29:15.709 --> 00:29:21.125
more than anything so
that women would wake up,

00:29:21.126 --> 00:29:25.125
would struggle, would make demands,
and not let themselves be mistreated.

00:29:25.126 --> 00:29:26.584
All these things.

00:29:26.917 --> 00:29:35.291
We women don’t give birth or raise
our children for war and violence...

00:29:35.292 --> 00:29:38.501
women’s bodies are not spoils of war.

00:29:41.876 --> 00:29:47.916
But persecution was even
worse from the 1990s on,

00:29:47.917 --> 00:29:55.459
because the armed groups did not look
kindly on an organization made up of women.

00:29:56.126 --> 00:30:00.083
With their patriarchal thinking,

00:30:00.084 --> 00:30:05.750
they saw women fighting for their rights when
they should be taking care of their men’s needs,

00:30:05.751 --> 00:30:15.251
because they have always aspired to control
women’s lives and bodies.

00:30:15.876 --> 00:30:25.916
And in 2003–2010 they practically did away
with the organization.

00:30:25.917 --> 00:30:31.501
From 100,000 women in 2003,
we had no more than 1,000 by 2013.

00:30:32.001 --> 00:30:34.833
We had to overcome our fears

00:30:34.834 --> 00:30:41.126
and find other strategies.

00:30:43.084 --> 00:30:51.083
We were so in their faces, saying “Why
did you do this or that. We want answers.”

00:30:51.084 --> 00:30:53.459
Now we had to take a different approach.

00:30:57.626 --> 00:31:09.251
The Nasa people provide an example of successful
resistance through their united and unceasing mobilization.

00:31:14.751 --> 00:31:19.708
They openly told us that indigenous
people in Colombia are a hindrance.

00:31:19.709 --> 00:31:27.291
And anyone who goes
against their economic interests

00:31:27.292 --> 00:31:32.291
will of course be a military target.

00:31:32.292 --> 00:31:37.459
They’ve tried all possible mechanisms,
some clear to see and others more subtle.

00:31:58.667 --> 00:32:03.958
I travel all around the territory
doing what needs to be done,

00:32:03.959 --> 00:32:06.583
accompanying women and communities,

00:32:06.584 --> 00:32:13.833
strengthening them, sometimes
just telling women that we have rights,

00:32:13.834 --> 00:32:17.375
because that is greatly needed.

00:32:17.376 --> 00:32:22.126
The more we venture into these territories
and experience these women’s processes,

00:32:22.709 --> 00:32:26.084
the more we realize the need
to accompany and strengthen them.

00:32:30.751 --> 00:32:36.000
And one thing that should
be said here, my sisters,

00:32:36.001 --> 00:32:41.500
is that we don’t organize as
women against our brothers,

00:32:41.501 --> 00:32:45.375
against men, and we make this very clear.

00:32:45.376 --> 00:32:48.541
We weave together with them,

00:32:48.542 --> 00:32:55.167
above all to reflect on what makes
our place in the movement so unequal.

00:32:55.334 --> 00:32:58.291
There are many very important processes.

00:32:58.292 --> 00:33:02.792
The indigenous movement is very strong,

00:33:03.501 --> 00:33:10.500
but women’s processes are still emerging.

00:33:10.501 --> 00:33:13.834
Sometimes we make progress and other times…

00:33:15.209 --> 00:33:16.667
not so much.

00:33:17.209 --> 00:33:24.958
But women also face all these organizational
and leadership responsibilities.

00:33:24.959 --> 00:33:28.541
Already facing so many obligations at home,

00:33:28.542 --> 00:33:32.417
they have to consider how much
time and resources they can devote to it.

00:33:33.167 --> 00:33:38.625
When a woman decides to step forward,

00:33:38.626 --> 00:33:42.541
to work as a woman, collectively,
she doesn’t back down.

00:33:42.542 --> 00:33:49.000
There are obstacles, ups and downs, and I’ve
often not wanted to go back to those spaces.

00:33:49.001 --> 00:33:53.125
I get tired, I say no more,

00:33:53.126 --> 00:34:00.667
but once you get that spirit, that
sensibility, you always push on.

00:34:13.292 --> 00:34:22.000
In Colombia, 185,422 people have been
reported disappeared in the last 35 years.

00:34:22.001 --> 00:34:27.875
Not a minute of silence
for our disappeared,

00:34:27.876 --> 00:34:31.834
no, a life of resistance.

00:34:35.501 --> 00:34:37.583
Like looking for a needle in a haystack,

00:34:37.584 --> 00:34:39.208
and we find her.

00:34:39.209 --> 00:34:41.459
All together we find her.

00:34:43.167 --> 00:34:47.291
Even if they give her
back in a terrible state,

00:34:47.292 --> 00:34:49.126
that’s my mother.

00:34:49.667 --> 00:34:52.126
Her soul is in heaven,
but these are her remains.

00:34:52.501 --> 00:34:55.541
No longer in a field,
and not at the coroner.

00:34:55.542 --> 00:35:03.459
She’ll be in a cemetery and in our hearts,
with her family as she always should have been.

00:35:04.959 --> 00:35:06.708
This is a miracle,

00:35:06.709 --> 00:35:11.667
but it also shows that
victims should be believed.

00:35:13.542 --> 00:35:21.376
I spent a lot of time knocking on doors
so they would believe me

00:35:23.167 --> 00:35:26.626
that the paramilitaries took my mother,

00:35:28.584 --> 00:35:31.166
that she was disappeared,

00:35:31.167 --> 00:35:35.417
and that she hadn’t abandoned us
as many wanted us to believe.

00:35:38.292 --> 00:35:42.501
If she were here, alive,

00:35:43.084 --> 00:35:45.416
she’d be looking for her children.

00:35:45.417 --> 00:35:47.751
She would never have given up.

00:35:50.542 --> 00:35:55.917
We want Mrs Gloria and Mayerlis to
be happy because we are celebrating life

00:35:56.542 --> 00:35:58.541
Alive they took them,

00:35:58.542 --> 00:36:00.625
alive we want them

00:36:00.626 --> 00:36:02.291
Alive they took them,

00:36:02.292 --> 00:36:04.001
Alive they took them,

00:36:04.876 --> 00:36:07.876
Cry no more, Maye…

00:36:08.584 --> 00:36:11.417
Maybe I had to go through all of that

00:36:12.334 --> 00:36:14.458
to get what we have today,

00:36:14.459 --> 00:36:18.792
all this love and affection
and breaking the silence.

00:36:33.876 --> 00:36:38.916
What I’ve gone through is a day in the
park compared to what they experienced.

00:36:38.917 --> 00:36:44.791
But I’m going to transform this into positive things
so that women don’t have to go through what I did,

00:36:44.792 --> 00:36:49.833
to ease the pain of other
women, that they have a voice,

00:36:49.834 --> 00:36:51.333
that they don’t take our children,

00:36:51.334 --> 00:36:54.708
that they aren’t abducted, that they aren’t
poisoned with drugs.

00:36:54.709 --> 00:37:03.750
If we didn’t raise our voices
and take these actions,

00:37:03.751 --> 00:37:07.292
Montes de María would be lost
to us, it would be in their hands.

00:37:12.001 --> 00:37:18.500
We can’t deny that the situation is difficult,
but we live by the power of our words.

00:37:18.501 --> 00:37:26.959
We declare ourselves in peaceful resistance
to those violent actions.

00:37:37.917 --> 00:37:40.791
I don’t feel safe

00:37:40.792 --> 00:37:49.291
because violent men want to kill us women
who have decided to defend our rights.

00:37:49.292 --> 00:37:51.500
They come for us right in our homes.

00:37:51.501 --> 00:37:54.125
We lost Maritza right in
her house in Santa Marta.

00:37:54.126 --> 00:37:56.916
They grabbed Deyanira in her house,

00:37:56.917 --> 00:38:01.077
and they killed another sister in front of her children,
right in the doorway of her house in Tierralta.

00:38:09.501 --> 00:38:22.084
Women’s activism against the armed conflict, and
in favor of peace has exposed them to new risks.

00:38:24.292 --> 00:38:29.041
It’s never easy to get past
the usual role of woman,

00:38:29.042 --> 00:38:35.000
family, and missed opportunities,

00:38:35.001 --> 00:38:42.126
but you have to empower yourself,
decide what you want to do.

00:38:42.917 --> 00:38:50.875
The radio show was a space to speak
out on the many problems in the territory.

00:38:50.876 --> 00:38:58.876
And when you provide this service to the
community, other women find spaces for leadership.

00:39:00.751 --> 00:39:07.459
Alright, we’re here with you
at 3:23 p.m., expecting to find…

00:39:07.751 --> 00:39:11.750
We’re at a time of women’s awakening.

00:39:11.751 --> 00:39:20.958
Maybe we’re tired of weaving, just crafts
and housework, just taking care of the kids.

00:39:20.959 --> 00:39:26.251
The radio station is a place
to speak out and be heard.

00:39:26.501 --> 00:39:30.042
The process of women’s
empowerment, for women to be seen

00:39:30.292 --> 00:39:33.166
You have to be strong to be a leader,

00:39:33.167 --> 00:39:36.126
prepared for anything.

00:39:37.251 --> 00:39:40.458
Because in Colombia, in the territories,

00:39:40.459 --> 00:39:48.834
you may be digging your own grave.

00:39:49.292 --> 00:39:53.584
That’s what it is to be a
leader today in the territories.

00:39:54.376 --> 00:40:02.584
Coca is a major element in the economy of Putumayo, where
the unemployment rate is among the highest in Colombia.

00:40:02.667 --> 00:40:08.334
One out of every three people in the department
has been a victim of the armed conflict.

00:40:13.251 --> 00:40:17.541
I learned about coca from my
uncles, who were growers from early on.

00:40:17.542 --> 00:40:22.375
Also from the 1996 coca growers’ movement

00:40:22.376 --> 00:40:25.126
when the conflict here was at its worst.

00:40:25.917 --> 00:40:30.417
So I’ve always known of coca and
I’ve always recognized the problems.

00:40:35.126 --> 00:40:42.333
This sugarcane project is
by the sweat of their brows.

00:40:42.334 --> 00:40:47.750
These families just decided
to stop growing coca,

00:40:47.751 --> 00:40:50.709
sidestep the coca economy,

00:40:51.626 --> 00:40:55.667
and grow a crop that, as Veronica
says, doesn’t cause problems.

00:40:59.626 --> 00:41:11.000
I don’t grow coca now, but still I consider
myself a part of the coca sector, because…

00:41:11.001 --> 00:41:16.916
on one hand I support the struggles
and the movement of the cocaleros …

00:41:16.917 --> 00:41:22.584
and I’m part of the cocalero movement
that demands an economic transformation.

00:41:23.251 --> 00:41:28.042
My husband was also a cocalero in his day,

00:41:28.126 --> 00:41:33.542
and when he became a
leader, we had to set an example.

00:41:33.792 --> 00:41:37.666
Now, even though I don’t
have a single coca bush,

00:41:37.667 --> 00:41:43.501
I consider myself a cocalera. We’re
part of this movement for transformation.

00:41:45.834 --> 00:41:54.792
Promoting peace and crop substitution is
considered a threat in these cocalero departments

00:41:54.876 --> 00:42:05.458
Advocating the substitution of other crops for
coca goes against the interests of armed groups

00:42:05.459 --> 00:42:09.834
and political sectors that fight over the
profits of the drug trafficking economy.

00:42:12.167 --> 00:42:19.251
They don’t want us to say anything about social
organizations, nothing about crop substitution,

00:42:20.084 --> 00:42:22.209
they just want people to grow coca.

00:42:32.084 --> 00:42:37.751
These were coca fields.
Where you see cassava now,

00:42:37.876 --> 00:42:40.292
a very nice cassava crop
that I planted before leaving,

00:42:40.626 --> 00:42:44.834
that was all coca,

00:42:45.459 --> 00:42:56.251
and there was more
coca deeper in the forest,

00:42:58.001 --> 00:43:03.167
We were promoting crop substitution and we
weren’t interested in the coca economy anymore.

00:43:04.334 --> 00:43:07.501
Now we’re building something new,

00:43:07.751 --> 00:43:11.751
a new farm economy,
and that’s not at all easy.

00:43:12.876 --> 00:43:16.916
Our connection to the land is total.

00:43:16.917 --> 00:43:18.709
It’ is everything to us.

00:43:21.334 --> 00:43:24.625
They’ve been killing us one by one.

00:43:24.626 --> 00:43:28.501
We lose friends and sisters in the
struggle, and they’re just statistics.

00:43:29.084 --> 00:43:32.042
I ask myself what would
happen if they killed me.

00:43:33.334 --> 00:43:36.959
It’d be a news item like so many others.

00:43:39.251 --> 00:43:46.126
But when they kill a leader, they crush
the hopes and dreams of a community.

00:44:02.334 --> 00:44:10.792
Marco Tulio Perez Guzmán, the Bear, had been detained
for other things – not for sexual violence, of course -

00:44:12.584 --> 00:44:15.376
and his case was being heard by the
tribunal of Justice and Peace,

00:44:15.501 --> 00:44:20.876
If there’s anything that the Bear must
regret, it’s that he didn’t kill all of us,

00:44:21.209 --> 00:44:30.584
because he never
imagined that we’d speak out,

00:44:31.251 --> 00:44:36.126
She said that as the
nurse there in Libertad,

00:44:36.417 --> 00:44:43.709
She was aware of many cases of sexual violence
perpetrated by a paramilitary known as the Bear.

00:44:44.209 --> 00:44:47.959
He controlled the zone,
and she wanted to report him.

00:44:48.209 --> 00:44:55.042
When we decided to formally accuse
him - along with Women for Peace,

00:44:55.251 --> 00:45:00.209
the prosecutor, and Justice and
Peace Tribunal - we got a lot of threats.

00:45:00.834 --> 00:45:06.458
Men called the women claiming
that they were prosecutors.

00:45:06.459 --> 00:45:11.250
They offered them groceries, and they
called other leaders to warn them off.

00:45:11.251 --> 00:45:14.667
The Bear would call them and say “Hey, this
is your little teddy bear calling you.”

00:45:15.001 --> 00:45:21.042
That meant some difficult
things and some very nice things,

00:45:23.334 --> 00:45:29.959
because we made a lot of
trips to meet with each other.

00:45:30.084 --> 00:45:33.251
To begin the process with Women for Peace,

00:45:34.084 --> 00:45:39.751
we had to leave here in secret, one
going this way and another going that way.

00:45:39.959 --> 00:45:41.958
All the cases were heard here in Bogotá.

00:45:41.959 --> 00:45:44.750
None of them were under their names,

00:45:44.751 --> 00:45:46.000
only under my name.

00:45:46.001 --> 00:45:51.709
We had a code name for everybody…

00:45:51.917 --> 00:45:59.626
I’d tell Adriana, for example, let’s
meet at the January festival in Sincelejo

00:45:59.792 --> 00:46:04.291
in order to put the enemy off our trail and
think that we were at the bullfights there.

00:46:04.292 --> 00:46:09.209
A few days later, they broke into
my house and destroyed everything...

00:46:09.334 --> 00:46:11.334
They threatened me.

00:46:11.501 --> 00:46:17.334
They went to my house that I have here,
looking to kill me, but I wasn’t there.

00:46:22.334 --> 00:46:24.001
They wanted to kill me.

00:46:24.126 --> 00:46:30.001
When I saw the Bear in
a hearing for the first time;

00:46:30.876 --> 00:46:34.834
we always saw him on
a screen at the hearings,

00:46:35.292 --> 00:46:38.792
but one time he was face to face

00:46:39.959 --> 00:46:42.541
with me and Nergina,

00:46:42.542 --> 00:46:46.709
and it was very, very hard.

00:46:47.251 --> 00:46:52.876
And that’s when this new Martha

00:46:54.626 --> 00:46:56.501
showed how strong she is,

00:46:59.626 --> 00:47:02.417
when she didn’t cry.

00:47:04.334 --> 00:47:10.292
One of the questions we asked him was “Did you
have sexual relations with such and such a woman?”

00:47:10.542 --> 00:47:11.667
“No.”

00:47:11.917 --> 00:47:13.583
“Did you have sex …”

00:47:13.584 --> 00:47:15.584
“No.” He always denied it.

00:47:15.834 --> 00:47:19.751
I wanted to grab him by the throat

00:47:20.209 --> 00:47:25.542
because he was telling so many lies, that he had never seen
us before, when he knew what he’d done to each one of us.

00:47:26.542 --> 00:47:29.834
Not just us but all that
he did here in Libertad.

00:47:37.084 --> 00:47:41.626
The prosecutor approached
him and said, “You have a visit.”

00:47:42.126 --> 00:47:45.917
“No, really?” he said,

00:47:47.501 --> 00:47:53.751
“Yes, you have visitors. There are about 20
people here from Libertad (About 20 of us went.)

00:47:53.959 --> 00:47:55.792
And he fell ill.

00:47:55.876 --> 00:48:01.584
He got diarrhea, he fainted, his blood pressure
fell, and the hearing had to be suspended.

00:48:03.334 --> 00:48:06.126
When you’re at war,
that means that you kill.

00:48:06.751 --> 00:48:10.542
So yes, I was in the war,
I committed these crimes.

00:48:10.709 --> 00:48:13.459
I had other people’s lives in my hands

00:48:13.626 --> 00:48:15.001
and that gave me prestige

00:48:15.626 --> 00:48:17.417
There’s no prestige in being a rapist.

00:48:18.084 --> 00:48:24.251
Rapists are treated very, very
harshly, both in society and in prisons.

00:48:24.501 --> 00:48:31.792
Any kind of criminality leads to rejection, but society
doesn’t reject the murderer the same as the rapist.

00:48:32.167 --> 00:48:39.416
Somehow there are these social codes that
say “Murderer? Well, I was in the war,”

00:48:39.417 --> 00:48:41.792
and it’s kind of accepted.

00:48:42.209 --> 00:48:46.334
And this is what happened:
he really didn’t accept it.

00:48:47.459 --> 00:48:51.709
My older daughter asks me, “Why, Neidis?

00:48:52.667 --> 00:48:55.626
Why is this coming out in the news?”

00:48:55.834 --> 00:49:00.417
And I tell her, “The
thing is, we’re in a trial.

00:49:01.459 --> 00:49:08.001
We decided to speak out so these things that happened
to us don’t keep happening to your generation.”

00:49:09.376 --> 00:49:14.834
Justice and Peace decided to exclude him
from their jurisdiction

00:49:15.001 --> 00:49:20.126
due to his crimes of sexual violence and
all the others that he had not admitted.

00:49:21.292 --> 00:49:23.167
Seeing him in that situation

00:49:23.459 --> 00:49:26.541
was feeling up to a
certain point like reparation.

00:49:26.542 --> 00:49:30.001
It was like “Aha!” he’s getting a
taste of what he made us feel.”

00:49:31.292 --> 00:49:35.001
Marco Tulio, what are you
going to say to the court?

00:49:38.209 --> 00:49:40.417
Hey, Marco Tulio!

00:49:41.542 --> 00:49:44.501
The \"Bear\" sentenced to 24 years in prison
for the rape of 10 women.

00:49:48.667 --> 00:49:52.834
The most important thing was
his acknowledgement of the truth.

00:49:53.209 --> 00:50:03.959
The most satisfying victory for the women was to hear
the Bear admit in court that he’d committed those crimes.

00:50:04.334 --> 00:50:05.667
So here we are,

00:50:06.042 --> 00:50:07.459
firm in our convictions.

00:50:07.876 --> 00:50:10.292
Not as strong as we could be

00:50:11.209 --> 00:50:15.876
after all that we’ve gone through,
but we’re here in the struggle.

00:50:20.709 --> 00:50:23.917
Mountains of Central Colombia

00:50:46.417 --> 00:50:49.376
Many things were impossible during the war,

00:50:49.584 --> 00:50:53.084
and the hopes of many women were dashed.

00:50:53.917 --> 00:51:00.001
But God is great, and he
saved the lives of some of them.

00:51:03.042 --> 00:51:08.250
I embrace the women who were also victims

00:51:08.251 --> 00:51:09.916
because I too was a victim.

00:51:09.917 --> 00:51:12.876
Now I’ve found a way to
heal, or to process the pain.

00:51:13.876 --> 00:51:19.292
I can feel the pain of others because I felt the same
pain. If you also felt it, you understand them better.

00:51:21.751 --> 00:51:23.542
The basic things

00:51:24.542 --> 00:51:30.750
you can convey to other
people to help heal their wounds,

00:51:30.751 --> 00:51:40.708
open up shared spaces for rebuilding confidence
and recovering positive perspectives on life.

00:51:40.709 --> 00:51:44.791
Victims don’t beg for their rights anymore.

00:51:44.792 --> 00:51:53.958
They’re empowered to recover their self-esteem and
the identities they lost when they were displaced.

00:51:53.959 --> 00:51:59.876
They become citizens rather than victims.

00:52:00.667 --> 00:52:07.541
They respect officials but
demand respect in return,

00:52:07.542 --> 00:52:13.417
and they don’t let
themselves be revictimized.

00:52:14.084 --> 00:52:19.709
They told of the killings, the threats,

00:52:19.792 --> 00:52:23.958
the guerrilla sieges and kidnappings,

00:52:23.959 --> 00:52:29.209
consumed with anguish
after all these experiences.

00:52:29.376 --> 00:52:33.001
When I relate my experiences, it
builds up the confidence of other women.

00:52:33.084 --> 00:52:36.875
And I say women, because
we women participated the most.

00:52:36.876 --> 00:52:47.251
Few men participated because they had been killed or
displaced in the war, or because they had to work.

00:52:47.917 --> 00:52:50.583
So women led the process.

00:52:50.584 --> 00:52:54.376
And due to the war, many women were left
in charge of families

00:52:54.917 --> 00:52:58.917
after husbands and
sons were torn from them.

00:52:59.292 --> 00:53:03.834
When a territory is imagined
from the women’s point of view,

00:53:03.959 --> 00:53:06.917
we see our demands as
explicitly women’s demands.

00:53:07.042 --> 00:53:12.167
It’s important to understand that the perspective
of our organization is a view of the territory,

00:53:12.251 --> 00:53:15.209
not just of its women.

00:53:15.292 --> 00:53:18.251
This concept of feminism isn’t a matter of
competing with men

00:53:18.626 --> 00:53:22.209
but of discovering and valuing
the contributions of women,

00:53:22.417 --> 00:53:33.375
which leads us as men to recognize what
Leonardo Boff calls the denial of the feminine…

00:53:33.376 --> 00:53:40.084
…which is what we have renounced, or
what the patriarchy has had us renounce,

00:53:40.167 --> 00:53:46.376
and what we must recover: affection for the
other, the love for life, the defense of life.

00:53:51.959 --> 00:53:58.625
There was a guerrilla
incursion in Nariño (Antioquia),

00:53:58.626 --> 00:54:05.376
and the most emblematic
image of that violent event

00:54:05.792 --> 00:54:12.751
is of a woman guerrilla known
by her pseudonym Karina.

00:54:19.751 --> 00:54:22.708
Once you become a FARC
guerrilla, there’s no turning back.

00:54:22.709 --> 00:54:26.292
The only way out is to desert

00:54:28.876 --> 00:54:34.834
and the deserter immediately becomes a
military target of the FARC.

00:54:34.959 --> 00:54:36.750
Why didn’t you want to demobilize?

00:54:36.751 --> 00:54:39.709
Out of fear, terror.

00:54:42.001 --> 00:54:48.834
I had the terrifying image
of a monster, a beast.

00:54:49.126 --> 00:54:58.792
Then when the armed
conflict abated somewhat,

00:55:00.751 --> 00:55:06.250
we began to work with
families of the disappeared.

00:55:06.251 --> 00:55:10.001
We asked them to write letters

00:55:10.084 --> 00:55:15.583
to those they considered
guilty of disappearances,

00:55:15.584 --> 00:55:21.209
and we would make sure
that they received them.

00:55:22.834 --> 00:55:27.459
Many families wrote letters to Karina,

00:55:27.792 --> 00:55:32.416
asking “Where’s my son,
what happened to my son,

00:55:32.417 --> 00:55:34.334
why did you kill him?”

00:55:36.417 --> 00:55:39.458
Señora Karina, My name
is María Ligia Arango,

00:55:39.459 --> 00:55:42.417
mother of Fabio Nelson Franco Arango,

00:55:42.584 --> 00:55:45.541
16 years old at that time...

00:55:45.542 --> 00:55:49.708
In 2002 men under your
orders took him from Bujío area.

00:55:49.709 --> 00:55:55.751
This letter is to find out where my son
Fenedy Alonso Arango Giraldo is...

00:56:01.376 --> 00:56:05.833
Señora Karina, I’d like to ask
you what happened to my son.

00:56:05.834 --> 00:56:07.791
He was taken from a
house in the area of Dragal.

00:56:07.792 --> 00:56:10.959
I’d like to know if he’s dead or alive...

00:56:11.626 --> 00:56:14.000
My name is Isaura Arias de Arango,

00:56:14.001 --> 00:56:16.250
mother of Alba Lucia Arias,

00:56:16.251 --> 00:56:20.667
13 years old, disappeared between
the area of El Café and the town of...

00:56:20.917 --> 00:56:23.084
When she began to look at the letters,

00:56:23.334 --> 00:56:26.626
it suddenly struck me to ask her

00:56:26.667 --> 00:56:29.042
why she joined the guerrillas.

00:56:30.834 --> 00:56:39.041
She described the poverty of her family

00:56:39.042 --> 00:56:43.501
and her thinking that the only way
to get food was to join up with them.

00:56:43.709 --> 00:56:47.541
She wasn’t moved by idealism
about revolutionary change,

00:56:47.542 --> 00:56:49.501
because she didn’t have any.

00:56:50.126 --> 00:56:57.167
What she wanted was food to eat and food
to bring her family.

00:56:58.542 --> 00:57:06.416
As she spoke, I was so
moved that I couldn’t hold back

00:57:06.417 --> 00:57:09.917
the urge to step forward and hug her.

00:57:10.084 --> 00:57:17.001
She went on, telling all
she went through in the war,

00:57:17.042 --> 00:57:21.792
and finally, that she wanted three things:

00:57:23.042 --> 00:57:26.292
“First, to recognize all the harm I did,

00:57:26.334 --> 00:57:29.292
and I want to acknowledge
it to the victims,

00:57:30.209 --> 00:57:33.708
and I’d like them to
forgive me for what I did,

00:57:33.709 --> 00:57:37.751
and I want somehow to make amends for it.

00:57:37.876 --> 00:57:40.834
I ask my family for forgiveness,

00:57:41.584 --> 00:57:45.917
but I also ask forgiveness
from all the victims,

00:57:47.042 --> 00:57:51.166
not just my own victims
when I was a guerrilla,

00:57:51.167 --> 00:57:54.167
but all the victims of the FARC.

00:57:54.292 --> 00:57:58.876
This shows that these
meetings, when they’re prepared,

00:57:59.084 --> 00:58:01.751
serve both parties.

00:58:01.959 --> 00:58:08.000
For those who were victimized,
to ask questions of their victimizers,

00:58:08.001 --> 00:58:13.376
to listen to their responses, and to see that they’re
capable of hearing them and acknowledging the harm they did.

00:58:20.709 --> 00:58:23.667
May our enemies see
this wall of resistance,

00:58:23.917 --> 00:58:31.126
this wall of truth, and
commit such crimes no more.

00:58:36.334 --> 00:58:40.708
We didn’t expect this wall
to gain worldwide fame,

00:58:40.709 --> 00:58:44.041
we didn’t know how much it would mean,

00:58:44.042 --> 00:58:48.958
above all to the aggrieved who
leave flowers, candles, even letters.

00:58:48.959 --> 00:59:00.125
It’s painful when a person dies, but
their loved ones who were disappeared

00:59:00.126 --> 00:59:07.542
People come to the wall to connect
with their loved ones who were victimized.

00:59:16.459 --> 00:59:19.417
Putumayo: land of peace,
designed and built by women - 2018

00:59:36.334 --> 00:59:39.292
Justice! Justice! Justice!

00:59:40.292 --> 00:59:45.001
If civil society doesn’t get organized,
this will just go on.

00:59:48.334 --> 00:59:54.876
By organizing, we expose it
and others take an interest.

00:59:56.417 --> 01:00:00.959
Organized, we can show the country and
the world what’s happening in this region.

01:00:02.251 --> 01:00:05.792
We’ve gotten women out, saved lives,

01:00:06.501 --> 01:00:09.708
and educated,

01:00:09.709 --> 01:00:14.459
so it’s very positive and
we need to keep it going.

01:00:15.667 --> 01:00:20.917
As long as women leaders are supported,
because that’s the problem we have here.

01:00:26.126 --> 01:00:31.084
By 2012, there was talk of negotiations.

01:00:31.251 --> 01:00:34.209
It was a surprise, and we began to think…

01:00:34.584 --> 01:00:40.751
Together we can give women
a voice in the peace proposals.

01:00:46.376 --> 01:00:51.126
Women demand truth, justice and reparation.

01:00:58.667 --> 01:01:05.876
After 50 years of war, the Colombian government and FARC
guerrillas signed a peace agreement in Havana, Cuba.

01:01:06.376 --> 01:01:13.583
UN Resolution 1325 encourages women participation in
peace talks and in the implementation of peace agreements.

01:01:13.584 --> 01:01:19.834
It\'s the first peace agreement in the world
to expressly include a gender perspective.

01:01:26.376 --> 01:01:31.416
When negotiations in
Havana were on the horizon,

01:01:31.417 --> 01:01:36.916
we already had years of annual
reports to follow-up on Resolution 1325,

01:01:36.917 --> 01:01:41.626
demanding that Colombia move to negotiated
political solutions.

01:01:41.709 --> 01:01:50.417
The 1325 resolution gives
visibility to women in conflicts

01:01:50.751 --> 01:01:56.791
Resolution 1325 itself was constructed
by an international group,

01:01:56.792 --> 01:02:03.667
a critical mass of women proclaiming the
important role of women in peace construction.

01:02:07.459 --> 01:02:18.833
I coordinated the group of advisors who wrote the
proposals that the government brought to the table,

01:02:18.834 --> 01:02:22.167
under the leadership of
Sergio Jaramillo, of course

01:02:27.709 --> 01:02:31.541
Elena was on the government commission,

01:02:31.542 --> 01:02:38.167
but the idea of a consistent gender perspective
throughout the agreement was not yet visible.

01:02:40.751 --> 01:02:49.625
While women’s rights and responsibilities
were equal to men’s in FARC documents,

01:02:49.626 --> 01:02:55.626
the organization was an outgrowth
of patriarchal Colombian society.

01:02:55.917 --> 01:03:00.166
So, it’s hard.

01:03:00.167 --> 01:03:05.875
The fact that there were more women but they
were less visible shows that progress was needed.

01:03:05.876 --> 01:03:12.291
The peace agreement had to reflect the importance
of women’s work and the gender perspective.

01:03:12.292 --> 01:03:17.458
There was enough information
when we began the talks,

01:03:17.459 --> 01:03:28.375
including international literature stressing the importance
of incorporating the protection of women’s rights in peace

01:03:28.376 --> 01:03:38.417
agreements and a robust international framework
along the lines of women, peace, and security,

01:03:38.834 --> 01:03:45.916
but it seemed that none of
that was in the negotiations.

01:03:45.917 --> 01:03:49.916
So the first thing we said to
the Colombian government

01:03:49.917 --> 01:03:52.500
was you have an obligation
to comply with Resolution 1325

01:03:52.501 --> 01:03:56.584
and enlarge your delegation, introduce women’s
participation, because there wasn’t any.

01:04:10.417 --> 01:04:16.541
When we demanded the inclusion of women with
plenipotentiary powers in the delegations

01:04:16.542 --> 01:04:21.541
two women were added to
the government delegation,

01:04:21.542 --> 01:04:26.584
and women from the FARC at another level
of participation began to be more visible.

01:04:29.376 --> 01:04:32.458
And as we became more visible,

01:04:32.459 --> 01:04:35.083
the Government had to do the same,

01:04:35.084 --> 01:04:39.834
because there was a strong women’s movement asking
what was happening with the women in Havana,

01:04:40.501 --> 01:04:44.292
because the Government didn’t have a delegation,
the FARC had several women, all this...

01:04:53.334 --> 01:04:59.292
I remember some messages saying
that I’d been designated for Havana,

01:05:01.292 --> 01:05:04.416
and at first I thought it was a mistake,

01:05:04.417 --> 01:05:06.750
that I wouldn’t be sent there.

01:05:06.751 --> 01:05:10.958
But 3 days later the leadership
said you’re going with the delegation

01:05:10.959 --> 01:05:15.834
and you’re one of the plenipotentiaries.
Then I was even more afraid.

01:05:20.709 --> 01:05:25.834
I think it was a very good decision,

01:05:29.042 --> 01:05:32.708
which I attribute to the
women’s organizations

01:05:32.709 --> 01:05:40.834
that requested or rather demanded not only that
there be women plenipotentiaries at the table,

01:05:41.917 --> 01:05:48.291
but that the agreement address the
particular needs and interests of women

01:05:48.292 --> 01:05:53.958
on the current agenda and on all the points
agreed to since 2012.

01:05:53.959 --> 01:05:57.250
When they called the first of us,

01:05:57.251 --> 01:06:01.917
we took up the three
points already agreed to

01:06:02.667 --> 01:06:05.626
and began to insert the relevant additions.

01:06:05.667 --> 01:06:10.458
We didn’t try to advance the whole
agenda or try to pack in too much,

01:06:10.459 --> 01:06:12.666
because we wouldn’t succeed.

01:06:12.667 --> 01:06:16.750
We knew it would be very difficult
to advance all these points,

01:06:16.751 --> 01:06:24.417
So we inserted our carefully prepared
language here, here, and there.

01:06:28.251 --> 01:06:32.916
This knowledge that you
have rights is empowering,

01:06:32.917 --> 01:06:39.083
so the movement of women victims
was empowered throughout the country.

01:06:39.084 --> 01:06:51.709
Our alliance between feminists and women victims
was very beautiful and enormously powerful.

01:06:52.042 --> 01:06:58.875
This is the press conference of experts
supporting the work of the subcommission on gender

01:06:58.876 --> 01:07:04.333
in conversations between the
Colombian government and the FARC.

01:07:04.334 --> 01:07:06.708
The six Colombian experts accompanying us…

01:07:06.709 --> 01:07:11.250
The participation of women’s organizations
in these conversations

01:07:11.251 --> 01:07:17.209
is historic in the context of Colombian and
international peace processes up to this time.

01:07:17.334 --> 01:07:24.417
We would like to see women be a decisive
political actor in this process.

01:07:28.042 --> 01:07:34.208
To assure not only reparation for the harm
caused in the armed conflict,

01:07:34.209 --> 01:07:40.708
but transformations of the structures
that underlie such violence against women.

01:07:40.709 --> 01:07:45.334
The addition of a subcommission on gender

01:07:45.667 --> 01:07:50.916
was one of the most important
aspects of the process,

01:07:50.917 --> 01:08:03.251
unlike all those that came before.
If this perspective is applied seriously,

01:08:05.042 --> 01:08:20.459
all the agreements should reflect
gender equality rather than discrimination.

01:08:21.251 --> 01:08:24.958
The subcommission on gender
was established with two goals.

01:08:24.959 --> 01:08:31.000
One, to revise the three agreed-upon
texts to include the gender perspective,

01:08:31.001 --> 01:08:35.667
and then to guarantee that the three outstanding
points include the gender perspective,

01:08:36.459 --> 01:08:41.876
not waiting for them to be finished but
incorporating it as they are negotiated.

01:08:52.917 --> 01:08:56.125
Juanita was on the technical subcommission,

01:08:56.126 --> 01:09:00.459
and she began to come to meetings of the
subcommission on gender.

01:09:01.334 --> 01:09:03.709
At first, this generated a certain…

01:09:04.001 --> 01:09:07.459
concern and resistance on our part.

01:09:07.667 --> 01:09:13.209
For some reason they thought I was from
Intelligence, that I was going to be spying on them.

01:09:13.501 --> 01:09:15.708
But I’ve never been with Intelligence

01:09:15.709 --> 01:09:18.667
I’ve never even taken the
most basic course in that area.

01:09:19.376 --> 01:09:24.584
But I think they were more comfortable with my presence
after about a month, and there were no more problems.

01:09:24.626 --> 01:09:27.375
We discussed the issues in
the subcommission on gender,

01:09:27.376 --> 01:09:34.292
we considered proposals, and she compiled them
and presented them at the negotiating table.

01:09:35.542 --> 01:09:39.958
At first she had to convince the military representatives
that those proposals should be incorporated,

01:09:39.959 --> 01:09:44.625
but it was very hard for them to reject
women’s rights proposals coming from the FARC,

01:09:44.626 --> 01:09:50.459
especially when they were introduced by a woman officer.
But we always worked together with Juanita on that.

01:10:01.542 --> 01:10:09.583
It was hard, but finding common ground with
the women of the government was very important.

01:10:09.584 --> 01:10:13.750
It was a successful alliance
and a victory for women,

01:10:13.751 --> 01:10:22.501
and a peace agreement ending an armed conflict incorporated
a gender perspective for the first time in history.

01:10:23.084 --> 01:10:29.583
We’ll never know, but I think the peace agreement wouldn’t
have been the same without the subcommission on gender,

01:10:29.584 --> 01:10:34.126
and it would’ve taken much longer without
the participation of women.

01:10:37.126 --> 01:10:42.958
I told chief negotiator De la Calle that
I came to help him give the agreement,

01:10:42.959 --> 01:10:47.334
let’s say, something different.

01:10:48.126 --> 01:10:55.041
If you ask me where I
think that contribution was,

01:10:55.042 --> 01:11:03.084
it was there in the subcommission where
the end of the war was being negotiated.

01:11:04.501 --> 01:11:11.625
I think that introducing the gender
perspective in the resolution of a conflict

01:11:11.626 --> 01:11:15.625
was among the most important
aspects of the Peace Agreement.

01:11:15.626 --> 01:11:20.042
It was something that had
never been done before.

01:11:33.459 --> 01:11:41.083
We succeeded in including women’s rights,

01:11:41.084 --> 01:11:47.083
the gender perspective, and a differentiated
approach in all five points of the agreement.

01:11:47.084 --> 01:11:54.833
We established parity for women’s representation in
the Truth, Justice, and Reparation System overall,

01:11:54.834 --> 01:11:59.583
and in each of its three component
bodies: the Truth Commission,

01:11:59.584 --> 01:12:06.458
the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, and the Unit
on the Search for People Deemed to be Missing.

01:12:06.459 --> 01:12:12.376
Each of these bodies also includes an entity to promote
the inclusion of women’s rights and a gender perspective.

01:12:12.959 --> 01:12:22.750
The Ruta Pacífica and the movement decided to
nominate me for this role on the Truth Commission,

01:12:22.751 --> 01:12:30.250
and I think that was very important because
I’m the first feminist on a commission.

01:12:30.251 --> 01:12:35.750
No other Truth Commission
has included feminists,

01:12:35.751 --> 01:12:39.584
So I think this is important
achievement for the movement.

01:12:40.084 --> 01:12:53.500
Those who committed crimes of sexual violence or rape
were declared ineligible for any amnesty or pardon.

01:12:53.501 --> 01:12:56.458
An important accomplishment,

01:12:56.459 --> 01:13:06.626
because it recognized that sexual violence is an
element of armed conflict, that it is a weapon of war.

01:13:08.667 --> 01:13:15.125
The peace negotiations were very positive
for the LGBT movement

01:13:15.126 --> 01:13:17.416
I think we won a lot.

01:13:17.417 --> 01:13:23.041
For one thing, we had an opportunity to wrest
this matter of LGBT war victims out of the closet.

01:13:23.042 --> 01:13:28.709
Something came out in Peru in the Truth Commission,
but no other peace agreement in the world…

01:13:29.251 --> 01:13:32.000
this is a new aspect
and an opportunity for us

01:13:32.001 --> 01:13:36.167
to put this matter on the public agenda in
Colombia and the world.

01:13:36.417 --> 01:13:39.042
LGBT people are
negatively affected in wars.

01:13:39.667 --> 01:13:45.709
We conveyed a rejection of war,

01:13:46.917 --> 01:13:54.917
that wherever violent acts have their origin,
including in war, such acts degrade human beings.

01:13:55.751 --> 01:13:59.125
And as women we suffer most
from the kinds of daily violence

01:13:59.126 --> 01:14:02.792
that aren’t visible, that aren’t
punished, and that are highly normalized.

01:14:03.084 --> 01:14:08.833
I think this was part of the idea
that violent acts against women

01:14:08.834 --> 01:14:16.709
in war are also invisible and stem from the
same patriarchal model.

01:14:17.834 --> 01:14:23.166
To explain everything
that women experienced,

01:14:23.167 --> 01:14:27.708
which is a task of the commission,
includes their pain, their victimization,

01:14:27.709 --> 01:14:35.292
but also to tell the country of their
strength and resistance.

01:14:36.626 --> 01:14:40.001
Women carried the weight
of this war on their backs.

01:15:43.709 --> 01:15:48.708
As we were going to become civilians,

01:15:48.709 --> 01:15:52.625
it was a good stage, a new life,

01:15:52.626 --> 01:15:56.584
our reincorporation as civilians.

01:15:57.542 --> 01:16:03.708
It was also sad in a way, because you’re
used to the life there,

01:16:03.709 --> 01:16:12.417
but on the other hand the process was a
good one for us, you know what I mean?

01:16:14.292 --> 01:16:26.625
Right here we have 86 children and in the larger area
there are 116 children of reincorporated guerrillas,

01:16:26.626 --> 01:16:31.417
almost 2 per family.

01:16:31.626 --> 01:16:41.417
I don’t regret what I’ve done because we’re in this
process now and backing out isn’t an option for me.

01:16:43.417 --> 01:16:50.667
I want to keep working; I have a family,
I have two children.

01:16:54.459 --> 01:17:01.417
And you say to yourself, get it in
your head that you really are a leader,

01:17:03.459 --> 01:17:12.083
To defend life. In this war there’ve been many
deaths, much pain, and much victimization.

01:17:12.084 --> 01:17:18.251
All that women have done
to protect and safeguard life,

01:17:18.542 --> 01:17:28.292
reconstruct the social fabric, rise above circumstances,
build community, demand their rights, it’s inexplicable.

01:17:29.459 --> 01:17:32.833
Where did they get the strength

01:17:32.834 --> 01:17:41.584
–not only to breathe, but to keep breathing
and reaffirm life after all they went through?

01:17:41.834 --> 01:17:46.334
There are people who say that the Colombian
Peace agreement is a model for humanity

01:17:46.667 --> 01:17:52.625
We are very proud to
have been a part of it.

01:17:52.626 --> 01:17:58.791
Also ask the young feminists of today,
how are you going to advance?

01:17:58.792 --> 01:18:05.625
I like the old image where I stand
on the shoulders of the suffragists,

01:18:05.626 --> 01:18:10.958
young feminists stand on my shoulders and keep
moving forward, and others stand on their shoulders.

01:18:10.959 --> 01:18:13.583
Because it’s like there’s
a wall in front of us.

01:18:13.584 --> 01:18:18.083
If I don’t stand on the shoulders of others,
I don’t see anything beyond the wall,

01:18:18.084 --> 01:18:22.917
but if we stand on each other’s shoulders, we
see not only the wall but a much wider horizon.

01:18:23.542 --> 01:18:26.833
These tapestries are woven collectively,
not without great effort.

01:18:26.834 --> 01:18:29.792
Born of this womb, from this heart

01:18:30.209 --> 01:18:34.042
we need to feel that it’s the
womb of mother earth herself.

01:18:34.542 --> 01:18:37.750
To inspire other grieving women,
those who think they can’t go on,

01:18:37.751 --> 01:18:47.250
that they’ve seen the worst possible calamity. They
may be devastated, but they must not give up hope.

01:18:47.251 --> 01:18:52.708
They may have been knocked down,
but they must stand back up,

01:18:52.709 --> 01:18:56.708
refuse to let the enemy break their spirit.

01:18:56.709 --> 01:19:01.626
They can be robbed of today’s
dreams, but never their capacity to dream.

01:19:02.001 --> 01:19:06.084
We’re connected. When one
of us acts, she inspires others.

01:19:07.084 --> 01:19:12.126
If we join forces with others in the struggle,
it turns out that there are even more of us.

01:19:12.751 --> 01:19:18.416
The fact is we’re not alone
and when we unite, we grow.

01:19:18.417 --> 01:19:22.583
As Juliana said yesterday, we grow together
and together we can defend ourselves.

01:19:22.584 --> 01:19:26.791
We need to come together to
confront such a formidable task.

01:19:26.792 --> 01:19:30.876
Because we are still few.

01:19:34.251 --> 01:19:37.708
Since the body is our territory and
the territory is also a body,

01:19:37.709 --> 01:19:44.834
when women’s bodies and nature’s body join
together, we grow in size and power like the rivers.

01:19:49.876 --> 01:19:53.833
Revealing now what was hidden

01:19:53.834 --> 01:19:57.667
wounds that bleed

01:19:58.251 --> 01:20:02.542
striding with fear at her feet

01:20:03.209 --> 01:20:06.709
she does not stray

01:20:08.167 --> 01:20:11.875
a life lived without believing

01:20:11.876 --> 01:20:15.751
a life of stolen dreams

01:20:17.084 --> 01:20:21.708
today she discovers in her woman’s hands

01:20:21.709 --> 01:20:25.042
her unceasing strength

01:20:25.917 --> 01:20:30.334
she will not yield while her heart is stout

01:20:31.167 --> 01:20:35.166
though the past shattered
all she yearned for

01:20:35.167 --> 01:20:40.000
if her light has not been extinguished

01:20:40.001 --> 01:20:44.376
she can believe again, be born anew

01:20:45.417 --> 01:20:48.709
determined now, she does not yield

01:20:49.542 --> 01:20:53.084
while her brightly glowing torch illumines

01:20:55.042 --> 01:20:58.084
the road forward

01:20:59.042 --> 01:21:01.584
her struggle has begun

01:21:12.751 --> 01:21:15.666
The peace agreement was not an endpoint,
but a starting point.

01:21:15.667 --> 01:21:18.541
The stories and voices presented here
are just a small sample

01:21:18.542 --> 01:21:22.000
of the immense diversity
of women in Colombia

01:21:22.001 --> 01:21:25.584
who are speaking out and working courageously
for truth, justice, and reparation.

01:21:27.084 --> 01:21:33.916
In a historic ruling on October 18, 2021, the Inter-American
Court of Human Rights condemned the Colombian State

01:21:33.917 --> 01:21:41.166
for the kidnapping, torture, and rape of
journalist Jineth Bedoya.

01:21:41.167 --> 01:21:46.125
This ruling sets a precedent regarding the required
compliance of member States with their obligation to

01:21:46.126 --> 01:21:51.042
protect women’s rights in general and the rights of
women journalists in the context of armed conflict.

01:21:52.167 --> 01:21:56.791
In recent years, there has been significant
progress in the consolidation of peace in Colombia.

01:21:56.792 --> 01:22:01.750
There\'s still a long way to go, but Colombian women
provide hope and the ability to mobilize communities.

01:22:01.751 --> 01:22:10.876
This film is dedicated to the women who suffer through war
while dreaming of peace, and those who dare to build it.

01:22:11.959 --> 01:22:18.251
Tribute to Ángela Salazar Commissioner
of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission