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PBI-Colombia facilitates workshop with Movement of Victims of State Crimes in Buenaventura

 

PBI-Colombia facilitates workshop with Movement of Victims of State Crimes in Buenaventura

On October 4, PBI-Colombia posted: “Last Friday [October 1], the PBI Social Fabric Reconstruction Support Team facilitated a workshop in Buenaventura with the Movement of Victims of State Crimes, Valle de Cauca chapter.”

MOVICE pursues strategies for truth, historical memory, reparations and non-repetition.

It has been estimated that 261,619 people were killed between 1958 and 2018 as a direct result of the armed conflict of which 214,584 were civilians. Earlier this year, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) inquiry found that 6,402 civilians were killed by the military between 2002 and 2008 and falsely passed off as enemy combatants.

MOVICE has highlighted: “From our experience, we consider that state crimes are mainly those perpetrated by State agents, or by non-State agents (such as paramilitary groups) acting in complicity with, or whose crimes are tolerated by, the State.”

It adds: “We consider that the majority of the crimes against social and popular movements in Colombia are the result of political and economic interests. In this context, this sociopolitical and State violence was not born as a result of the internal armed conflict but is rather a root cause of the conflict.”

MOVICE has also noted that it “has adopted a clear political posture that emerged from the crimes committed against the popular and social movement in Colombia [were done] in favor of the interests of the dominant classes and transnational companies.”

PBI-Colombia has previously noted: “In 2018, from PBI’s work area to Support the Reconstruction of the Social Fabric we have accompanied a group of twenty-five women, family members of disappeared individuals. These women are members of the Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE) – Valle del Cauca chapter.”

PBI-Colombia adds: “It is an accompaniment process that began in Buenaventura in 2017 and is focused on psycho-social support, self-care, and mutual care. Our accompaniment is aligned with MOVICE’s strategy to fight impunity, and in favor of truth and justice in the search for disappeared individuals, guarantees of non-repetition, and comprehensive reparation, where a methodological proposal meets empowerment using elements of historical truth.”

“Reconciliation is impossible if the State does not clarify the truth about its responsibility”: Martha Giraldo, spokeswoman for MOVICE in Valle del Cauca and victim of the extrajudicial execution of her father.

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