Memorias emergentes: las consecuencias inesperadas de la Ley de Justicia y Paz en Colombia (2005-2011)

Abstract

The article explores the unintended consequences of the 2005 Justice and Peace Law enacted by Colombian congress in order to reincorporate paramilitary groups into society. The article argues that although the law emphasizes in DDR (Disarm, Demobilization and Reincorporation) mechanisms, the incorporation of transactional justice principles (truth, justice and redress) into the statute transformed the interpretative frame of Colombian conflict by state and non-state actors as well as the traditional mechanisms of historical account. The incorporation of these principles also became central tools for the mobilization, empowerment and re-legitimation of social and victim’s organizations. The article investigates the political and cultural consequences of this law by studying the work of governmental and nongovernmental institutions created in Colombia as a result and as a reaction of the Law. In order to explore the process of appropriation and incorporation of transitional justice mechanisms in these institutional and organizational contexts, the article focuses on experts, civil servants and social activist that challenge the normative purpose of the Law and negotiate the terms in which the past, the present and the future can be thought, represented and interpreted under transitional justice as a new horizon of meaning.