Memorias de ti…A story of Colombian Resistance

Memorias de ti tells the story of  family members and survivors of the political genocide against the Patriotic Union (Union Patriotica). The UP was a progressive party created in 1985 out of peace agreements between the insurgency and the government. Since its creation in 1985, the wave of state sponsored violence has claimed more than 5,000 of their lives. The objective of this collection is to emphasize the power of memory as a tool of resistance and hope.

Memorias de ti, is a collection of works by photographer Pablo Serrano and muralist Erin Yoshi completed in 2009. The collection is part of a much lager project called Memoria Viva, of the Colombian Human Rights organization, REINICIAR.

The UP was born as a broad movement of democratic convergence, in opposition to the in liberal-conservative proposal , who were the traditional and exclusive actors in the Colombian political life so far. In March 1986 (its first year of participation in elections), the UP won the highest vote in the history of leftist parties.

In those elections UP won 5 senators, 9 member of the Chamber of Representatives, 14 departmental deputies, 351 mayors and 23 municipal councilors. Given this first electoral success, powerful economic sectors, influential groups of traditional parties and sectors of government and the military forces designed a genocidal strategy to remove this nascent opposition force from the political spectrum.

30.000 estudiantes en Bogota +Educación – Armas

In late 2009 a huge mobilization by students from across the country came to Bogota. More than 30,000 marched to government buildings in downtown . They protested various issues including; the support for a free and public education (+education / – war), An end to US intervention in Colombia (7 new US military bases put in Colombia by Obama), and an end to the attacks on the student movement (many students have been hunted down, disappeared, and killed). These and many more demands were taken by the students to the Colombian congress.

Hoy miles de estudiantes marcharon en la capital de Colombia. Gritando consignas por una educacion publica, soberania nacional, y por los derechos humanos. La tremenda tormenta que cayo apenas empesaba la marcha no paro la voz estudiantil que llego al congreso nacional en la Plaza de Bolivar.

Fuerza Publica – Colombia

In 1998 president Bill Clinton signed into affect what would make Colombia the largest recipients of US military aid in the western hemisphere. Today, president Obama has continued to funnel billions of tax dollars to the Colombian military and police, going even further than his predecessors and installing seven US military bases.

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The Obama administration’s aid package indicates that the new government in Washington is not only continuing the militaristic policies of the Bush administration in Colombia, but actually intensifying them by developing even closer ties to the worst human rights-abusing military in the Western Hemisphere.

Perhaps the most troubling human rights issue in Colombia today is the worsening crisis of forced displacement in the country’s rural regions. According to the Bogotá-based Consultancy on Human Rights and Displacement (CODHES), more than 380,000 Colombians were forcibly displaced by violence last year—a 24 percent increase over the previous year—making 2008 one of the worst years for displacement in the past two decades. With more than four million internally displaced persons, Colombia ranks second in the world after the Sudan.

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Kankuamos – encarcelados falsamente

“Respetuosamente los indígenas Kankuamos recluidos en la Cárcel Judicial de Valledupar (Cesar), sindicados y condenados, en la mayoría de los casos, por el delito de rebelión, nos dirigimos a ustedes con la firme esperanza de encontrar alternativas que nos permitan resolver todos estos atropellos, los cuales repudiamos enérgicamente.” *…“Nuestras comunidades han sufrido el rigor de la violencia en las últimas décadas, pero esta ha recrudecido en los actuales tiempos con muertes selectivas, desapariciones forzosas, desplazamientos y ahora con las capturas masivas, que estamos viviendo en carne propia, al igual que nuestros familiares y la comunidad, ya que existe el temor de visitar a los presos y dentro del Resguardo nadie quiere ir a sus parcelas por la incertidumbre que se vive, y son las mismas razones para no nombrar el Cabildo Menor de Atánquez por temor que le suceda igual al anterior.” *“Nos identificamos como presos indígenas porque a pesar de estar sindicados por el delito de rebelión, llevamos nuestra cultura indígena, madre de toda organización habida y por haber, motivo que nos engrandece y que no nos permite rebajarnos a ser identificados como presos políticos.” *…

El pueblo kankuamo, una de las cuatro etnias asentadas en la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, ha venido siendo sometido de manera sistemática a un exterminio físico y cultural, en el que bajo la estrategia paramilitar y otras formas de terrorismo de estado, ha cobrado la vida de más de 300 indígenas. Al menos 400 familias kankuamas han sido desplazadas de su territorio y más de 700 niñas y niños han quedado huérfanos. Es decir, un verdadero proceso genocida que ni las medidas provisionales de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos ha podido detener.

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