# Sufrir la guerra y rehacer la vida (Impacts & resistances) — Digest

*Tomo 5 of the Colombian Truth Commission's final report* Hay Futuro Si Hay Verdad *(2022). Director: Saúl Franco Agudelo. Subtitle:* Impactos, afrontamientos y resistencias.

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## 1. Identity & purpose

This is the **impacts-and-recovery volume** of the eleven-tomo report. Its mandate (Decreto Ley 588 de 2017, art. 11 — seven of the thirteen mandate points) is to make visible the **daños e impactos** (damages and impacts) the 60-year armed conflict inflicted on persons, families, communities, democracy, culture and nature — and, crucially, the **afrontamientos y resistencias** (coping and resistances) through which people and communities remade life and built peace. Its declared aim is to overturn **negacionismo** (denialism, "una actitud muy frecuente en el país"), to have society "accept as true the terror and destruction," and to dignify victims as **ciudadanos sujetos de derechos** (citizens who are subjects of rights) and **sujetos políticos** for Colombia's transformation. It draws on ~14,000 interviews and conversations with 30,000+ people, plus 1,000+ institutional reports, and references where group-specific impacts (women/LGBTIQ+, children, ethnic peoples, exiles) get their own tomos.

## 2. Central thesis

Stated as **four hallazgos** (findings): (1) the conflict gravely and **irreparably** damaged life — physical and symbolic deaths that touched all citizens through fear, distrust, stigma; (2) the conflict's **long duration and degradation** ("mecanismos del horror") amplified and perpetuated the daños, including the prohibition to mourn, bury, or grieve; (3) the **State's chronic failure to protect** — absent, weak, selective, or actively complicit as perpetrator — deepened impacts and produced illegitimacy and despair; (4) yet victims were **not passive** — persons, families, communities and organizations created mechanisms to resist, rebuild the **tejido social** (social fabric) and reconfigure their **proyectos de vida** (life-projects), even where nothing can be rebuilt. The framing posture: "No se queda en el lamento... No ignora el dolor, pero descubre y resalta el valor."

## 3. Structure

Two parts. **Part I — Los impactos:** impacts on persons (deaths/disappearances/mourning; integrity and dignity; health; the **vida humillada** — life without liberty/autonomy; **vidas indeseadas** — damaged life-projects); on economy, culture and nature; and on democracy. **Part II — Rehacer la vida y construir la paz:** four families of action — defend life and dignity; defy the war; defend and demand rights through collective organization; build peace defying hopelessness.

## 4. Typology of impacts / daños (with mechanisms)

The Commission's concept of **daño**: beyond civil law's material/immaterial split, it follows moral philosophy (Thiebaut) — daño as a **negatividad**, a deliberately produced **desequilibrio** (disequilibrium). It describes not only rights violated but "cómo ocurrió la destrucción a las formas de vida." Daños **retroalimentan** (feed back) and compound; many are **irreparables**; intensity depends on the cultural/spiritual/economic/social resources of the violated and on the social/institutional response (solidarity mitigates; rejection and **culpabilización** deepen). Drawing on Joaquín Samayoa, war reduced **atributos humanos** (lucid thought, truthful communication, sensitivity to suffering, solidarity, hope), configuring dehumanized, polarized relations. The suffering is **individual, familial AND social** — the whole of Colombian society is a victim.

- **Physical / bodily & health.** Tortures (RUV 6,485; Estatuto de Seguridad 1978–82 database ≥1,340, Army 67.9%), violencia sexual (CNMH 15,236 victims 1961–2021, 90.5% women; RUV 32,407 against sexual freedom/integrity), minas antipersona/MUSE (RUV 6,844 / CNMH 9,096; ~90% laid by guerrillas; ~60% victims were security forces; ≥453 Indigenous, Awá 130 incidents, >1,250 minors killed). Mechanism: the body becomes "depositario de actos crueles"; chronic incapacitating pain, lost organs, lasting disability.
- **Psychological / emotional / mental health.** Impacts on **emociones, pensamientos y conductas**: insomnia, nightmares, anxiety, depression, rage, guilt, flashbacks, PTSD, paranoia. Mechanism: victims "no encuentran las palabras," suffer **en silencio y soledad**, often unrecognized even by medical staff; revictimizing contexts deepen harm. Suicide pathways enumerated: direct impact of the violent act (esp. torture/sexual violence), economic anguish, accumulated youth suffering, poor clinical management, and **impossibility of mourning** (Emberá: unhealed dead "invite" others to follow — chains of suicide).
- **Moral / dignity (vida humillada).** Kidnapping, recruitment, confinement, social control, degrading treatment. Mechanism: **deshumanización** — discourses stripping victims of human attributes to make them **prescindibles** (disposable); torture aimed to "limitar tu pensamiento," turning bodies into "meros objetos."
- **Sociocultural.** Three dimensions: rupture of territorial bonds; impossibility of **transmitir** cultural legacies; transformed **cotidianidad**. Mechanisms: desecration of sacred sites; killing of cultural transmitters (elders, parteras, jaibanás, médicos tradicionales) severing generational **saber hacer**; **silenciamiento**; **estigmatización** building the **enemigo interno**.
- **Political / democratic.** See §4 below — attacks on organization, electoral participation, justice; legitimacy crisis. Mechanism: stigmatization as the device that "facilitates, justifies and endorses" attacks, signaling that a person "debe excluirse, despreciarse o destruirse."
- **Economic / material.** Distinguishes **daño emergente** (value of goods destroyed) and **lucro cesante** (forgone income). Confinement, displacement, **despojo**, robbery, extortion ("la vacuna"), secuestro extorsivo (**ponerle precio a la vida**). Mechanism: economy as a **red de relaciones** — local damage propagates regionally/nationally; trust-based local economies collapse.
- **Territorial / environmental.** **Vínculos territoriales rotos**; nature as **víctima, escenario e instrumento** (minefields, animal-bombs, rivers used to disappear >1,000 bodies, oil spills, glyphosate). Mechanism: fractioning nature into **"recursos naturales"** turns it into **botín** (war loot); megaprojects advanced by killing opposing leaders. Nature and territory recognized as **sujetos de derechos** and victims (Decreto-Ley 4633/2011 "el territorio es víctima"; Sentencia T-622/16 **derechos bioculturales**; JEP recognized Katsa Su, Çxhab Wala Kiwe, Eperara territories).
- **Social fabric (tejido social) & intergenerational.** The Commission aligns three equivalents of life-degradation: Indigenous **desequilibrio de la red vital** ≈ Afro **imposibilidad de vivir sabroso** ≈ campesino/urban **ruptura del tejido social**. Daños "trascienden en el tiempo e impactan a varias generaciones"; orphanhood, displaced children carrying inherited guilt and frustration, **trauma biocultural** (wounds in collective memory, social fabric AND territory).

## 5. Statistics & data

- **Forced displacement:** 8,510,295 persons (RUV, Jan 2022) — "la forma de violencia que ha impactado al mayor número de víctimas"; ~1 in 6 Colombians; ~92% rural. Corte Constitucional **T-025/2004** declared the **estado de cosas inconstitucional**.
- **Homicide:** ≥450,664 conflict-related victims 1985–2018 (JEP-CEV-HRDAG); CNMH ≥68,602 (1961–2021).
- **Kidnapping:** RUV 34,689; CNMH 37,962 (1958–2021), ≥70.4% by guerrillas; CNMH: 84% economic motive.
- **Recruitment of minors:** RUV 7,158; CNMH ≥16,879 (FARC-EP 54%, paramilitaries 27%, ELN 10%); Colombia ranked 4th worldwide (2006).
- **Disability:** RUV 427,945 victims with disability (5 of every 100 registered); ~10.3% of reincorporating FARC-EP report conflict-caused disability.
- **Mental health:** conflict victims attempt suicide **1.6×** more than the general population; suicide-attempt rate 94.1 vs 58.8 per 100,000; higher prevalence of anxiety disorders (INS/Observatorio Nacional de Salud). Fuerza pública suicides: Army 50 (2015)/36 (2016); Policía 213 (2009–16); Armada 109 (1997–2016).
- **Land:** ~7.7M ha abandoned (CGR, 2013); 8.05M ha / ~280,000 predios (PPTP). Colombia #1 in Latin America for land inequality (2016); >4M ha controlled by narcos/paramilitaries by 2005. III Encuesta de Verificación: patrimonial loss COP 19.9 trillion (3.9% of 2009 GDP); lucro cesante COP 59.8 trillion (12% of GDP).
- **Reparations (Ley 1448):** COP 135.5 trillion spent 2012–2021; only 13% of victims accessed reparation; Contraloría estimated >COP 328.3 trillion needed by 2031.
- **Environmental:** Colombia holds ~10% of planetary biodiversity, lost ~18%; 3,659 armed actions on pipelines (1986–2016); 4.1M barrels spilled over 35 years (16× Exxon Valdez); >1.5M ha glyphosate-sprayed (2002–2014) at 4× the recommended dose. **661 environmental defenders killed** 2016–Sept 2021 (Colombia #1 globally, 2020).
- **Democracy:** social leaders — Fiscalía 6,004 attacks (1986–2020); JEP-CEV 2,848 killings; Colombia #1 worldwide for HR-defender killings since 2016 (53% of global total in 2020). Press: 159 journalists killed (1977–2019), 78.6% in impunity. **Unión Patriótica: 4,934–5,382 members killed 1985–2005 (95% confidence)** — framed as **genocidio político**. CNMH master tally: 12,950 democratic-process victims (1958–2018), 10,010 selective assassinations. Three presidential candidates killed in the 1990 cycle (Galán, Jaramillo Ossa, Pizarro). Impunity for intentional homicide 86.6–94.3% (UN, 2018); institutional distrust >70%.

## 6. Afrontamientos y resistencias (the distinctive contribution)

The Commission's defined distinction: **afrontamiento** = actions victims take to **prevent, protect, survive and manage emotions**; **resistencias** = individual/collective actions that **confront arbitrariness, transform the unjust order and build new realities**. The arc is a subjective shift "from víctimas to **sobrevivientes**" and agents of change. Four families of action:

- **Defend life and dignity (coping):** compartir y afrontar la tristeza (**comunidades emocionales**, AMOR/Provísame, **costureros**); cuidar la vida (**minga**, JAC, reconstruction — Granada's **Marcha del Ladrillo**); fortaleza en la espiritualidad (dioceses, Justapaz "no violencia activa," **rituales de armonización** Nasa, martyred priests); desafiar el silenciamiento (cantaoras de Bojayá, **chirimía**, **Casa Kolacho** hip-hop in Comuna 13); quitarle niños a la guerra (mothers confronting Don Berna's bloque; theater "saved 189 youths"); resguardar la vida y dignificar la muerte (**Réquiem NN/Puerto Berrío**, Bojayá's ~17-year struggle to bury its 79–102 dead); **buscar a los desaparecidos** (ASFADDES since 1982, MAFAPO, Equitas, Fabiola Lalinde's **"Operación Cirirí"**).
- **Defy the war (resistance):** desobedecer y confrontar (San Carlos, **CAVIDA/zonas humanitarias** of Cacarica, conscientious objection); negociar y expulsar (**ATCC del Carare**, 1990 Alternative Nobel; **guardia indígena/cimarrona** with the **bastón de mando**); denunciar (**Madres de la Candelaria**, modeled on Madres de Plaza de Mayo); declararse neutral (**Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó**, 1997, **neutralidad activa**; PBI, CICR); comunicar para confrontar (AREDMAG, Nasa Stereo); **hacer memoria**.
- **Defend & demand rights (collective organization):** campesino organization (**JAC, ANUC** — 800+ land occupations on 21 Feb 1971, **CRIC, Zonas de Reserva Campesina**); defend nature (**río Atrato sujeto de derechos**, T-622/16, Guardianes; **Liberación de la Madre Tierra**; consultas populares ambientales — Cajamarca); HR defenders (**CSPP** since 1973); the **búsqueda** movement winning Ley 589/2000 and the **UBPD**; **paz por mandato popular** (1997 **Tarjetón por la Paz**, >10M votes; asambleas constituyentes — **Mogotes** 1997; municipios modelo de paz — Aguachica).
- **Build peace defying hopelessness:** **la paz como buen vivir**; art for peace (San Carlos "pueblo de los murales," Minga Muralista Nasa, **H.I.J.O.S.** Ciudad Memoria); education for peace; **Programas de Desarrollo y Paz** (PDPMM, Premio Nacional de Paz 2001); forgiveness/reconciliation (Madres de La Candelaria ↔ ex-paramilitaries; **CARE** in a former torture hotel); ex-combatant reintegration (**Ecomún**, >13,000 reincorporated, >200 emprendimientos; Agua Bonita).

**Memory practices ("hacer memoria"):** "no es solo recordar... es mantener vivos los hechos." Notably Colombia built memory **before the conflict ended**. Forms: **costureros/textiles testimoniales** (Tejedoras de Mampuján; ~30 initiatives networked); counter-monuments (Doris Salcedo's **Fragmentos**, cast from melted FARC weapons); museums (El Mochuelo, Casa Museo de las Mujeres del Magdalena Medio); the UNESCO-listed **Archivo Fabiola Lalinde**; the **Red Colombiana de Lugares de Memoria**.

**Women's role:** the explicit protagonists. **Care** as a "tarea moral irrenunciable" — unrecognized and unpaid. **83% (34 of 41)** of family search organizations are led by women; mothers became **abogadas empíricas** digging riverbanks with their own hands. **Cuerpo-territorio** framing links women's bodies and the land under the same patriarchal power. Ruta Pacífica de las Mujeres, OFP ("Las mujeres no parimos hijos para la guerra"), alabaoras de Bojayá (who sang at the 2016 Accord signing), Pastora Mira García.

## 7. Differential impacts

The conflict "se ha ensañado con los más empobrecidos y marginados," aggravating pre-existing inequality and exclusion. **Indigenous peoples** (Awá worst-hit by mines; jaibaná killings = **disarmonización**, **mala muerte**; territories recognized as victims). **Afro-descendant peoples** (Bojayá, Bahía Portete, **imposibilidad de vivir sabroso**, **maritorio**). **Campesinos** (~92% of the displaced; "nos mataron el ser campesinos"). **Women and girls** (90.5% of sexual-violence victims; care burden; cuerpo-territorio). **Children** (orphanhood, recruitment, inherited trauma). **Persons with disability** (427,945; "esta guerra también es capacitista" — ableist). **Ex-combatants** (PTSD, the dead they could not mourn). **Political/social leaders** (UP genocidio político, trade unionists). Nature/territory as differentiated victim-subjects.

## 8. Representative quotes

- "**El secuestro no tiene fecha de vencimiento, no se acaba el día de la liberación... la persona que entra, que es secuestrada, muere y muere una muerte lenta.**" (Ingrid Betancourt) — *Kidnapping has no expiration date; it does not end on the day of release... the kidnapped person dies, and dies a slow death.*
- "**Después de dicha violación mi mente quedó en blanco y mi cuerpo se convirtió en un territorio ajeno para mí.**" (campesino leader tortured 1979) — *After that violation my mind went blank and my body became a foreign territory to me.*
- "**Resistir no es aguantar... resistir es luchar por el buen vivir. Resistir es luchar para que tengamos una vida digna.**" (Asopema, Tolima) — *To resist is not to endure; to resist is to fight for buen vivir, to fight for a dignified life.*
- "**Yo creo en la utopía. Si no creyera, qué seríamos... educar es combatir... Por eso insistimos.**" (Medellín teacher — the volume's final words) — *I believe in utopia. If I didn't believe, what would we be?... to educate is to combat... That is why we persist.*

## 9. Recommendations

This volume carries no numbered recommendations (those live in the *Hallazgos y recomendaciones* tomo). Its operative argument functions as a **garantía de no repetición** claim: **desesperanza is functional to war** (it deactivates transformative action), so the documented resistances are themselves the path forward — conflicts must be handled by **non-violent means**, society must reject the idea that "el vecino, amigo o incluso familia" is a potential enemy, and reconciliation requires accepting **diversidad** ("no tratemos de polarizar la verdad"). The implicit policy load: recognize victims as political subjects, fund reparation adequately (the COP 328.3T gap), protect leaders, and treat territory/nature as rights-bearing victims.

## 10. Distinctive insights & coined concepts

- **Daño as desequilibrio** — damage defined morally as a deliberately produced disequilibrium, not just a rights-violation; described through the *destruction of forms of life*.
- **Trauma biocultural** — *biocultural trauma*: an integrated injury to people, the **tejido social**, AND the land, caused jointly by **armed actors and "development actors."**
- **Solastalgia** (Glenn Albrecht) — *place-grief while still at home*: the pain of environmental damage to one's own habitat (women of the Sogamoso river movement grieving the dammed river).
- **Nature/territory as sujeto de derechos and victim** — **derechos bioculturales** (T-622/16); "el territorio es víctima" (Decreto-Ley 4633/2011); the **red vital**.
- **Vidas indeseadas** — *undesired lives*: damaged proyectos de vida; people forced into precarious, unwanted existences.
- **Vida humillada / deshumanización / prescindibles** — the moral-degradation register of harm.
- **Genocidio político** — for the Unión Patriótica extermination; companion term **politicidio**.
- **Three-way equivalence of life-degradation**: Indigenous *desequilibrio de la red vital* = Afro *imposibilidad de vivir sabroso* = campesino/urban *ruptura del tejido social*.
- **Afrontamiento vs. resistencia** — coping (protect/survive/manage emotion) vs. resistance (confront/transform/build) — the volume's organizing axis.
- **Neutralidad activa / comunidades de paz / paz como buen vivir / "resistir no es aguantar"** — the affirmative grammar of recovery: peace not as the absence of war but as **vida digna** and harmonious coexistence of all living beings.
- **Comunidades emocionales** (Myriam Jimeno) and **costureros/textiles testimoniales** — collective grief and memory as political technologies; Colombia making memory *before* the conflict ended.