This year, Colombia commemorates the 20th anniversary of Law 975, which established the country’s first transitional justice process, called Justicia y Paz (or Justice and Peace). Passed in 2005, the law provided the legal framework for the agreement reached between the government and the paramilitary coalition United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) and set a precedent for transitional justice in the country. With this anniversary top on mind, and as the current government engages with eight of the remaining armed groups in pursuit of its “Total Peace” strategy, ICTJ recently teamed up with podcast producers Sillón Estudios to create a four-part series that delves into the peace process with the AUC and considers key lessons learned.
When it comes to building peace, Colombia possesses a wealth of knowledge and experience. Over the past 40 years, the government has negotiated at least six peace agreements with guerrilla and insurgent groups, including the landmark 2016 peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People's Army (FARC–EP).
“[In Colombia,] we have accumulated lessons like few other countries in the world, but we do not give them the value they deserve,” explains María Camila Moreno, head of ICTJ’s Colombia office. “We underestimate our own experience of war and peace.”
With a view to bringing important and relevant lessons from previous peace processes with paramilitary groups to today’s conversations in Colombia, the ICTJ team decided to transform the 2023 report “El cascarón y la semilla” (The Shell and The Seed) by journalist and former member of the Colombia Truth Commission, Marta Ruiz, into a powerful audio experience meant to engage a wider audience.
The report investigates the 2003-2006 peace process between the government and AUC, offering valuable lessons that can contribute to current peace negotiations and the national post-conflict dialogue. The resulting four-part podcast of the same name goes deeper, and features prominent experts and journalists, including Ruiz and Moreno, as well as Laura Bonilla, Tatiana Navarrete, Gustavo Duncan, Óscar Parra, Camilo Villamizar, María Emma Wills, and former AUC commander Salvatore Mancuso, to shed light at every turn on past lessons and today’s challenges.
The first episode examines the origin and expansion of paramilitary groups, their complex relationship with drug trafficking and the state, and the power dynamics that marked the negotiations with AUC. The second looks more closely into the AUC’s connection to drug trafficking, comparing it to that of criminal groups active today, and explores the discussion of political status. In the third episode, the experts discuss how armed groups “recycle” individual combatants because of incomplete demobilization processes, as well as the importance of territorial control. The final episode offers a broader perspective on the important lessons learned from the process with the AUC and their potential application to current peace efforts.
“The seed of war is buried deep within our country,” asserts the podcast’s director, Sara Trejos. “No matter how hard we try to deal with its consequences, if we do not unearth it, it will continue to produce more misfortune.”
“El Cascarón y la Semilla” is available in Spanish on Apple Music, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.
