Commissioner Carlos Beristain, enlisted in the institution to search for the value of the armed conflict that is in exile, explains some of the hallucinations of the entity about the impacts of this situation in the victims. It is hoped that the “Colombia Fuera de Colombia” will be rescued.
“Asking for refuge is a matter of knowing that your life is worth the pen, that it is not right for you to do so, and that there is a need for protection.” This is a woman exiled to Commissioner Carlos Beristain, in one of the 24 cases in which the Verdad Commission has sent testimonies of people salaried by Colombia to protect their lives. These have meant disarray, aislarse and callar. Y, as he also said in the verses, do not miss the question that accuses: “What have you got to do to get rid of your country?”.
Exile, as Beristain explains, implies from time immemorial that the relationships in families are strained, since “there are niches and nines that have an enormous capacity for adaptation and many times the adult population is the one who has more difficulties. The nines are more adult because they have more capacity for relationship, while learning an idiom if they live in other countries, while the adults are in a much more fragile position. Y pierden el rol. No pueden ir a comprar el pan porque no saben cómo hacerlo ”.
Without embargo, the majority of Colombian exiles are living in several cities: Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil and Panama. Between 2000 and 2020, 524,496 people applied for asylum in these countries, according to Acnur. The situation is complicated because of the fronts and the people who are exiled are their most vulnerable. For this, the Verdad Commission organized the meeting for the Verdad Reconciliation of Exile in the Frontiers with Colombia. Beristain explains in this interview some of the halls of the Commission on this topic.
Why put the magnifying glass in exile on the fronts?
First, however, a large majority of Colombian exiles saluted the frontier lands. Second, because it is a population that has suffered from cross-border crossings, in many cases, is more vulnerable. Have a profile on all people around the world; some ethnic ethnic communities, and also aphrodisiac population that has side objects, digamos, massive violence. On the other hand, even the fronts are a very invisible territory in what follows lads and lads. There is also a concentration of different foci of the armed conflict and the persistence factors of what is manifested here.
What did it mean for the people to exile? What are their names that are not so obvious and which exile the people?
Exile is something that you can talk about, because it is very difficult for you to have the idea, because you do not have an experience as far as what the total loss means, the loss of corners. Many people say to us: mira, treat yourself to a new life, but not from the peddlers, but from the cenizas, because they have nothing left. Geen quedó nada de lo que éramos nie. And so it is a very deep impact on the people. There is a very large rupture. One of the most important factors of chronic stress in the exiled population is the known chronic separation. On the other hand, what we agree on are the difficulties of working on the theme. The commissions of the world, in general, did not work on the exile. We are working on land peace and we also know that there is an exile in which we tend to reproduce in certain conditions of conflict.
How?
Because of the impact of the conflict on land ownership, which is also being transferred and transmitted in other countries. For example, the disobedience of knowing who will be this victim or the person who is waiting to be taken care of will be part of the war or will be part of those responsible. This generates much veces a social Islam. Also follow the action of the people of the acogida. Muchas veces, pues no hay una buena acogida. Are there any stereotypes about Colombians and Colombians: will there be a part of Norway? Will you export the conflict? Exile leads to escalations in the social status that tenia, sea el que sea, and has to learn to integrate into a new society with different codes.
What difficulties do the people encounter in their new lands?
Pueden has some protection requirements in terms of the international protection of refugees that have been established, but many times this does not allow them to work. He told people in Panama that he had asked for asylum since he was nine years old and that he had not given any money yet, so it is a limbo. It is possible, for example, to try to work in a window and come to the Work Inspectorate, then you can do something to break the cable, and resemble the situation for when you want to turn the cable. And so the Colombian exile differs: its most debilitating. The people looking for things to do in order to be able to do economic resources, also to be active in life and to be able to do so, in addition, many people who pay salaries because no one has passed a hecho, if they have one or two displacements previos antes de salir al exilio.
What impact has the exile had on the camping and ethnic population?
Concerning the camping population, in general, what is fundamentally in the youth is the loss of the land and the relationship with the territory. The world, not only as a work or a space in which it lives, has a relationship with nature, and it has a strong impact on collective identity. In the indigenous peoples, the violations take place in a barn, but when they pass through the territory of the other country, because there is a frontal zone, they do not have the protection conditions that allow them to be responsible. No, because it corresponds to Colombia and is not another lad. And it puts people in such vulnerable conditions. Pasa, for example, with the barren people in terms of the frontier with Venezuela or with the kuna, he has massacres, especially on the part of paramilitary groups in Panamanian territory.
What violations are suffered in transit?
One of the moments of mayoral vulnerability to the victims, especially to the women, is the transit, for example, on the Panamanian front. It’s the moment of burgemeester kwesibility for sexual violence in the case of women and the LGBTI people because they are rooting in traditional protection systems, relationships, vincules, etc. The people themselves vuelven much more vulnerable front to the powders that operan. And who are the powders that operate in these transit processes? Above all, the proposed states or the illegal ones. And then there is an invisibility burden of responsibility. Nadie’s hace responsible. Although we have seen that the facility extends more than the front line.
How did he prove it?
We found him with many testimonies from people he told us: well, there are those who are responsible for what you think will sell us here, in Ecuador, in Ibarra. And we went through a lot of people and so, obviously generously. Here is one of the first cases I have chosen. One encounters things that appear in the movie, total locations. I was involved in a case of the Patriotic Union that in 1995 the token to be exiled to Ecuador was able to pursue, pursue and attempt to arrest, detain and torture. When they arrived in Ecuador, a paramilitary group called Macogui sent a map to the board of directors of Acnur soliciting that in favor of the identities of these people, and of the number of variants that were refugee status, “because of their guerrilla and loser members we want to eat ”. And he says to Acnur that he has another list of adelante. We have the document, here is the extension of the arrangement. This family now lives in Switzerland.
How did the Commission work with the victims of these frontier attacks in Colombia?
The country in which he was able to make an acquisition a little more robust than the principle of Ecuador. There is a place where there are more refugees and reconciled Colombian refugees. We work with organizations such as the Escalabrinian Mission, the Jesuit Service for Refugees and GIZ. Also with the universities, like Flacso and the Andina. We also have high capacities for all testimonials. In Panama, there is a small print on time. We work with people who are in the capital and who have some routes to the affected zone or people from the most affected zone of front. In the case of Venezuela, we are carrying out the work in San Cristóbal, with a plate for people to rent in the same regions also for the testimonies. But the pandemic is blocking the chances of securing this job, obviously, due to the economic situation. With Brazil our step is wrong. The team is also on the march to catch up at this time and none of the key players in Colombian exile have been fired by the Commission.
Does the people want to steal?
There are not many studies on it, but in general the people do not want to go to Colombia. With the peace process, a return expectant, as well as the assessment of the conditions, the continuation of the conflict, the criticisms of the peace process and the assessment of readers and members of the FARC will make the return expectation not. llevará a cabo.
A survey conducted by the University of Massachusetts revealed that in Ecuador, the death of the people would not be wanted. The problem with return is that it is a very individual decision and has no political conditions for it. The problem of Colombian exile is that it is massive, but individual. And I believe that what is needed is really a policy. Not only are we “able to propagate the important thing that Colombia has to say to the people who are vultures”, but they are the only ones who have the media that they have to be able to be. It can also help in the reconstruction of this social fabric that is rooted in the fact that it is part of the country and that it also has a very important potential for the reconstruction of Colombia. There have been many changes in exile, there have been many normalization of violence, reflections that the people have shared in distance and conviction with other communities in other countries that have allowed them to have a greater vision. It also has a positive vision to integrate into a peace reconstruction project.
We recommend:
– The invisible reality of Colombians exiled in frontier lands
– “A peace in peace”: the petition of Colombians exiled for violence
– Victims of Eln’s sequestration resist olvido
– Return to exile? The question of the victims of the conflict in the exterior