Narratives about Political Violence and Reconciliation in Peru

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 44-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerónimo Ríos
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Shining Path ◽  
Social Fabric ◽  
Sendero Luminoso ◽  
Internal Armed Conflict ◽  
Depth Interviews

The narratives of members of the armed forces, former members of the Shining Path, and victims of Peru’s armed conflict between 1980 and 2000 include very different views of the responsibility for the violence, the notion of terrorism, the concepts of truth, justice, reparation, and nonrepetition, and the meaning of reconciliation itself. Analysis of in-depth interviews reveals a society that, decades after the violence, in 2018, the Year of National Dialogue and Reconciliation, is still fractured and far from any type of recovery of its social fabric and symbolic resolution of its internal armed conflict.Las narrativas de miembros de las Fuerzas Militares, exmiembros de Sendero Luminoso y diferentes víctima del conflicto armado interno acontecido en Perú entre 1980 y 2000 incluyen perspectivas muy diferentes sobre la responsabilidad de la violencia, la noción de terrorismo, los aspectos relativos a verdad, justicia, reparación y no repetición, o el significado mismo de la reconciliación. El análisis de entrevistas en profundidad muestra una sociedad que décadas después de la violencia, en el año 2018, denominado como “Año del Diálogo y la Reconciliación Nacional”, se mantiene fracturada y alejada de cualquier atisbo de recomposición de su tejido social y superación simbólica de su conflicto armado interno.

Testimonio and secrecy in a traumatic past

Focaal ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (69) ◽  
pp. 65-83
Author(s):  
Olga González
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Shining Path ◽  
Internal Armed Conflict ◽  
Traumatic Memories ◽  
Andean Community

This article discusses the fate of dangerous memories of war associated with the “internal armed conflict” in Peru. It focuses on the Andean community of Sarhua in Ayacucho and their experiences with political violence as depicted in a collection of paintings, Piraq Causa (Who Is Still to Blame?). A close examination of this visual testimonio reveals that some dangerous memories have been denied representation. I suggest that these become silences and absences that give expression to a “traumatic gap”, which includes memories of fratricidal violence and the community's initial endorsement of the Maoist Shining Path. I argue that Piraq Causa reflects the magnified secrecy around events that the community agreed to deliberately “remember to forget”. In so doing, I also propose that the perceived gaps in the pictorial narrative provoke the unmasking of what is “secretly familiar” in Sarhua. To that extent, Piraq Causa exposes as much as it affirms the secrecy around traumatic memories of war.

scholarly journals Restoring the dignity of the wars disappeared? Exhumations of mass graves, restorative justice and compassion policies in Peru

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valérie Robin Azevedo
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
National Society ◽  
Shining Path ◽  
Mass Graves ◽  
Social Fabric ◽  
Sendero Luminoso ◽  
The Social ◽  
Structural Inequities

In recent years, exhumation campaigns of mass graves resulting from the armed conflict (1980–2000) between the Maoist guerrillas of PCP-Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) and the States armed forces have increased in Peru. People in rural Andes, the most marginalised sectors of national society, which were also particularly affected by the war, are the main group concerned with exhumations. This article examines the handling, flow and re-appropriation of exhumed human remains in public space to inform sociopolitical issues underlying the reparation policies implemented by the State, sometimes with the support of human rights NGOs. How do the families of victims become involved in this unusual return of their dead? Have the exhumations become a new repertoire of collective action for Andean people seeking to access their fundamental rights and for recognition of their status as citizens? Finally, what do these devices that dignify the dead reveal about the internal workings of Peruvian society – its structural inequities and racism – which permeate the social fabric?

Parallel Tracks and Fraught Encounters

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascha Bueno-Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Internal Armed Conflict ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
Feminist Movements

This chapter examines the struggles and gaps between the protagonism of rural Andean women, or campesinas, and the priorities of the human rights and feminist movements in Peru as they try to address the ever-growing number of victims and survivors of the internal armed conflict. The armed conflict pitted the armed forces versus the Shining Path; both sides demanded allegiance from rural communities. From the beginning, campesinas were at the forefront of local efforts to denounce human rights violations and address the needs of affected people with the help of church groups and human rights advocates. Peruvian human rights and feminist movements presented the strongest potential for taking on the defense of campesinas' rights. This chapter considers how social exclusions marginalized campesina voices in the transitional justice process and how and why, despite campesina protagonism and human rights and feminist movements' best intentions, the gender-based violence directed at campesinas during the armed conflict slipped through the cracks. It also looks at the founding of the Women for Democracy, or Mujeres por la Democracia (MUDE), in 1997.

scholarly journals Las prácticas paramilitares en el Alto Nordeste Antioqueño

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald Edward Villamil Carvajal
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Internal Armed Conflict ◽  
Self Defense ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
El Alto ◽  
Violencia Politica

El artículo aborda el análisis de una modalidad particular del fenómeno paramilitar en Colombia como son las prácticas paramilitares, comprendidas como la constitución de redes o alianzas criminales funcionales, cambiantes y coyunturales en la planeación, coordinación y perpetración de graves violaciones a los DDHH y al DIH. Se toma como epicentro del análisis el proceso de violencia política ocurrido entre los años 1982-1997 en el Alto Nordeste Antioqueño (conformado por los municipios de Remedios y Segovia), paradigmático de esta trayectoria particular del fenómeno paramilitar. La caracterización y análisis de las prácticas paramilitares amplían la comprensión acerca del proceso de conformación, expansión y consolidación de las estructuras paramilitares que se agruparon en la confederación de las Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC).Palabras Clave: Conflicto armado interno, Violencia política, Memoria histórica, Remedios y Segovia, Paramilitarismo ABSTRACTPARAMILITARY PRACTICES IN THE ALTO NORDESTE ANTIOQUEÑOThe article deals with the analysis of a particular modality of the paramilitary phenomenon in Colombia, such as paramilitary practices, including the constitution of functional, changing and conjunctural criminal networks or alliances in the planning, coordination and perpetration of serious violations of human rights and IHL . The epicenter of the analysis is the political violence that occurred between 1982 and 1997 in the Alto Nordeste Antioquioqueño (made up of the municipalities of Remedios and Segovia), paradigmatic of this particular trajectory of the paramilitary phenomenon. The characterization and analysis of paramilitary practices broaden the understanding of the process of conformation, expansion and consolidation of the paramilitary structures that were grouped in the confederation of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).Key Words: Internal armed conflict, Political violence, Historical memory, Remedios and Segovia, Paramilitarism

Prosecuting International Crimes in Peru

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 583-600
Author(s):  
Dino Carlos Caro Coria
Keyword(s):  
Armed Forces ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Shining Path ◽  
Sendero Luminoso ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
The Military

AbstractThe internal conflict in Peru that ranged from 1980 to the mid 90s entailed serious crimes committed by armed groups, especially "Sendero Luminoso" (Shining Path) and by the state's own armed forces, in particular the military and paramilitary groups such as the "Colina Group". These crimes ranged from attacks against civilians in violation of international humanitarian law, to enforced disappearances of persons, torture, and extrajudicial executions. In some cases, these crimes have even qualified as genocide.

scholarly journals LA LEY DE RESTITUCIÓN DE TIERRAS EN COLOMBIA DE ESPALDAS A LOS OPOSITORES DE BUENA FE

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 139
Author(s):  
John Arturo Cárdenas Mesa
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Good Faith ◽  
Internal Armed Conflict ◽  
Great Progress ◽  
New Form ◽  
The Law ◽  
Land Restitution ◽  
Violencia Politica

Colombia ha tenido grandes avances en materia de reparación a víctimas del conflicto armado interno. De la Ley 387 de 1997 a la Ley 1448 de 2011, ha habido un cambio de paradigma jurídico cultural en el cual la reparación por medio de medidas de restitución han ido cobrando tanta importancia como las reparaciones económicas. El objetivo de este trabajo es mostrar que la Ley de Restitución de Tierras, tal como está concebida, puede originar en una nueva forma de despojo dado que desconoce los derechos de los opositores de buena fe, muchos de los cuales son también campesinos víctimas de la violencia política. Ello se debe a una deficiente regulación en aspectos como el probatorio, a la lentitud con que avanza el proceso y a que no se tuvo en cuenta que la dinámica del despojo y el abandono ocasionado por grupos paramilitares es diferente al originado en la violencia guerrillera. The Land Restitution Law against opponents in good faith Abstract Colombia has made great progress in reparation for the victims of the internal armed conflict; from Law 387 of 1997 to Law 1448 of 2011, there has been a legal paradigm cultural change in which redress through restitution measures have been gaining much importance as economic reparations.The aim of this paper is to show that the Law on Land Restitution, as it is conceived, can result in a new form of dispossession because it ignores opponents in good faith, many of whom are also farmers victims of political violence. This is due to poor regulation in areas such as the evidentiary, to the slowness with which the process advances and to the fact that it was not taken into account that the dynamics of the dispossession and neglect caused by paramilitary groups are different to the originated in guerrilla violence. 

scholarly journals Entre Memorias (Between Memories)

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. e1559
Author(s):  
Martha-Cecilia Dietrich
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Revolutionary Movement ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Internal Armed Conflict ◽  
The Disappeared ◽  
Made In

Eudosia is still searching for her husband’s remains in the highlands of Ayacucho, Lucero has been in prison for 25 years now for the crime of terrorism against the Peruvian state, and since 2009 the commandos of the counterinsurgency unit Chavin de Huantar recreate and commemorate their heroic military actions to save a nation from the threat of terrorism. Twelve years after the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission published its final report about the atrocities committed during the internal armed conflict (1980-2000), memories of this period seem more contested than ever. This film explores the complex legacies of twenty years of violence and war in Peru through practices of remembering. In three audio-visual pieces made in collaboration with relatives of the disappeared, insurgents of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) and members of the Armed Forces, this documentary aims for creating an on-screen dialogue between memories, which in practice remains elusive.

From war to peace: Understanding the end of the armed conflict in Colombia

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 463-490
Author(s):  
Jerónimo Ríos
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Simple Game ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
Theoretic Model ◽  
Internal Armed Conflict ◽  
Colombian Government ◽  
Game Theoretic ◽  
Game Theoretic Model

The following article uses a simple-game theoretic model to explain the termination of the Colombian-armed conflict. Assuming a rationality of the Colombian Government and the guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, People’s Army within the internal armed conflict, an analysis of conjuncture and an identification of dimensions and strategies are used to try to explain the evolution of the armed conflict in the last two decades and its particular transformation. This is done by comparing the frustrated Caguán process, which took place between 1999 and 2002, with the recently completed Havana process that has put an end to more than five decades of internal conflict.

scholarly journals A pension for injured victims of the Troubles: reparations or reifying victim hierarchy?

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 297-319
Author(s):  
Luke Moffett
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Internal Armed Conflict ◽  
Complex Approach ◽  
State Practice

Reparations have been often-used victim-centred measures to redress both private harm and gross violations of human rights. However, with the increasing occurrence of internal armed conflict and political violence, identities of victims and perpetrators in protracted conflicts can become blurred for some individuals. In countries like Peru and Northern Ireland that have suffered protracted violence, victimhood has been contested around which individuals are seen as innocent and deserving in order to exclude any members of non-state armed groups from claiming reparations. This article explores the issue of a proposed Bill on a pension for injured victims of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. It identifies that there is no consistent state practice or human rights jurisprudence in this area, but instead offers a more complex approach through four models that can grapple with the seeming diametrically opposed victimhood and responsibility, by including victimised perpetrators in reparations programmes such as that proposed for a pension for seriously injured victims in Northern Ireland.

Choreography of a Massacre

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 41-53
Author(s):  
Renzo Aroni Sulca
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Musical Performance ◽  
Shining Path ◽  
Andean Region ◽  
Sendero Luminoso ◽  
The City ◽  
The Town

On August 14, 1985, during the armed conflict between the Communist Party of Peru, known as Shining Path, and the Peruvian state, an army patrol entered the town of Accomarca, in the Andean region of Ayacucho, and assassinated 69 peasants, presumed sympathizers of the insurgents. The majority of the survivors were displaced to the city of Lima, where they created an organization of victims and joined the Asociación de Hijos del Distrito Accomarca. Since 2011, the survivors and relatives of the victims have been remembering the massacre and transmitting their memories to their children through a Carnival performance of music and dance. Carnival is a constructive space for the production of other forms of memory and for the pursuit of justice and reparations through participatory choreography and musical performance. El 14 de agosto de 1985—-durante el conflicto armado entre el Partido Comunista de Perú, conocido como Sendero Luminoso, y el Estado peruano—una patrulla del ejército entró en el pueblo de Accomarca, en la región andina de Ayacucho, y asesinó a 69 campesinos, presuntos simpatizantes de los insurgentes. La mayoría de los sobrevivientes fueron desplazados a la ciudad de Lima, en donde crearon una organización de víctimas y se unieron a la Asociación de Hijos del Distrito Accomarca. Desde 2011, los sobrevivientes y los familiares de las víctimas han estado recordando la masacre y transmitiendo sus memorias a sus hijos a través de un espectáculo carnavalesco de música y baile. El carnaval es un espacio constructivo para la producción de otras formas de la memoria y para la búsqueda de la justicia y la reparación por medio de una coreografía participativa y una representación musical.

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