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Violence and perception of space

Mompós, Departamento Bolivar, Colombia

Whenever I’m in a new place, I want to see as much of the surrounding area as possible – here the desire is stronger than usual, since the plants and trees are already spectacular in the city. I didn’t even see the birds that are responsible for it yet, but I am hearing their songs and they seem strange and magical. Even after dark it is still far too hot and too humid. At night the temperature doesn’t drop below 25 degrees, but I decide to go running anyway. Using my map, I find a country road that leads away from the city and goes through a few nearby villages. The route has a distance of round about 15 kilometers and since there aren’t too many crossroads on the way, I can’t really get lost. In theory, it´s perfect.

I’m about to get on my way, as I see the neighbor and decide to ask her for some more information. After all, maps aren´t always reliable. I ask her about the route to San Pedro and Juana Agustina. She looks at me as if she had never heard of those places, even though they are not that far away. I am describing the direction to her.

– If you go in that direction, there is only the expressway.

I feel like we’re getting closer to understanding each other.

– Exactly, I mean the path and the towns on the other side of the expressway.

– Ah, no, these places are dangerous, it’s better that you stay in the city – she says very firmly and looks at me as if this whole idea was very strange, perhaps even very stupid.

I figure what she has in mind, but I am curious and want to understand the situation. Perhaps it is dangerous, because I could be attacked by wild dogs, of which there are many in this area, or because I could be run over by a car. So I ask again.

– Why is it dangerous?

Now she’s definitely looking at me as if it’s not just the idea that’s stupid, but me.

– Because there are some places, that are very dangerous – she says, as if she was explaining something really obvious to a small child. I decide to better leave it at that, just follow her recommendation and start running towards the city. Sometimes it is better to trust than to understand.

The same day in the morning, I was sitting at the river and having a long conversation with a young man. We talked about many things, but what stuck in my mind most vividly was when he told me about the activities of the “Paracos”, paramilitary militias that operated in the area during the presidency of Álvaro Uribe Vélez from 2002 to 2010 (and also afterwards). Among other things, he told me about how most people avoided all unnecessary excursions and trips during this time, especially after dark.  Generally, they preferred not to go too far away from their homes – in case of doubt, it was best to just stay inside the house. Sometimes they heard shots in the distance or saw dead bodies floating by in the Río Magdalena from the shore. But even if they didn’t see or hear anything, it could be that the militias are somewhere nearby. When I asked him, where the militias were staying when they weren’t out on foray, he made a broad gesture towards the other side of the river and just said “En el monte” – in the mountains. Even though there aren’t really any mountains in this area, it was clear to me what he meant. They were out of sight, perhaps further away, but perhaps behind the next thicket, everywhere and nowhere, potentially always nearby, where you don’t see them, where you don’t expect them, where you don’t go, Terra nullius, Mordor – call it whatever you want.

Since 1948, Colombia has been in an ever-changing violent conflict, which began as a clash between conservatives and liberals and turned into a civil war between various left-wing rebel groups – in particular the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) on the one side and the security forces of the government as well as various right-wing paramilitary militias on the other side. To complicate matters, the conflict is intertwined heavily with the international drug trade, various Colombian cartels on both sides, and external interference by the USA as part of its “War on Drugs”.

During Uribe’s presidency, the conflict took on a new quality, as he decided to increase the pressure on the rebels, particularly using the help of the right-wing paramilitary groups under the umbrella of the AUC (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia). He armed them and, among other things, offered individual bounties for killed rebels. Unsurprisingly, it turned out that if you let act militias outside of jurisdiction and give them the task of committing murder, things can get out of hand. Many left-wing guerrilla fighters were killed during this time, but – as part of the false positive scandal – also many innocent civilians, who were presented as rebels in order to collect the bounties. But it didn’t stop there. The militias roamed the country and also murdered lots of civilians in order to rob them. Sometimes they murdered also to demonstrate their strength or as part of internal power struggles. And if it wasn´t anything else, they sometimes were also murdering for the simple reason, that this was what they were used to do.

Between 1958 and 2012, an estimated 218,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Colombia, 81% of whom were civilians. According to the UN in 2008, right-wing paramilitaries were responsible for 80% of deaths. But the violence against civilians also comes from left-wing guerrillas, drug cartels and governmental forces. Colombia is currently the country with the most internally displaced people in the world, with an estimated 4.7 – 5.7 million people. Most of them never received neither recognition as refugees nor any kind of help from the state.

Even if the activities of the paramilitaries have currently cooled down significantly, the experience of omnipresent violence is having a serious impact on people’s collective perception of security and space – also manifesting in their daily behavior. Usually, you don’t go somewhere without a good reason to do so, especially if that place is unknown or if it isn’t considered safe. Indeed, the difference between perceived and factual safety is irrelevant for people’s notion of space and their actions. Places are treated as unsafe because they are perceived as unsafe. Given the numerous direct and indirect experiences of violence that most people have had here, this should be respected as legit. Sometimes it’s better to trust than to experience.

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