 Four, three, two. Buenos tardes. My name is Kief Mein. I'm from the U.S. Institute of Peace. For those of you new to the Institute, we are a public national institution dedicated to the proposition that peace is possible and it's secureable if we do the hard work to anchor a peace in settlements that will last after the peace has been set. We have a very unique event today that we're very excited about. I know we'll long remember it and we're very happy to co-host this event with the Atlantic Council, the Washington office on Latin America, and the Universidad Nacional. When we talk about conflicts like those in Colombia, we often reduce them to numbers. The numbers of hundreds and even thousands killed, the numbers of displaced, numbers of villages impacted. We have today with us Jesus Abad Colorado and Maria Belen that have been defying that tendency to go with the statistics in this conflict in Colombia that has gone on for so many decades. They have been in Colombia and have been dedicated to giving a face and a voice to the people impacted by the conflict. So we're here to share their work with their new book called El Testigo, a brilliant work that will impact us all. It's a point of reference for this process of looking for the truth for the victims and looking for justice and reconstructing the Colombian society. And it comes after several important events. Here we organize the launch of the information of the Commission of Truth a few months ago. The special jurisdiction for peace continues to do work to seek hope for the victims and families to find peace in the future. There are new discussions about the negotiations with the ELN in the context of the politics of peace of the new administration. These books are a testament to the periodism. Maria Belen has done a good job and I'm going to pass the word to Camila Hernandez Subdirectora de Centro de América Latina del Consejo Atlántica para presentar a nuestros invitados. Gracias. Thank you, Keith. Para los que no conocen el Atlántico somos un centro de vencamiento aquí en Washington. We are an organization here in Washington and I direct all the issues related to Colombia. It's an honor to be here and I'd like to welcome our speakers. Thank you to the U.S. Institute of Peace and WOLA and the National University of Colombia. We have a special conversation today with Jesus Abad Colorados, also known as Chucho, and Maria Belen Sanz de Ibarra. Chucho is a recognized photographer, a Colombian photographer who's been working for the last 30 years to document the armed conflict. He have worked with thousands of victims throughout the entire national territory. His work has been recognized on a national and international level. He received the Simone Bolivar Award on three occasions, another award in 2019, and the Excellence in Photography Award given by the Ministry of Culture in Colombia. And he also worked Maria Belen is a lawyer and a cultural manager. She's in charge of the Heritage Council of the Ministry of Culture. She directs the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bogota. She has also been a university professor in the University of the Andes and she was in charge of the Visual Arts Office in the Cultural Ministry in Colombia. And she was also an advisor to the Heritage Division of the Ministry of Culture. They worked together to tell the stories of millions of Colombians and they produced this book in four parts. The witness, thank you Chucho for being with us and for your commitment to peace, justice, and reconciliation in Colombia. It's an honor for me to help make visible these stories and to give our grain of sand from Washington. I admire this work very much. Memory is a project of the future and it shows that the multicultural nature, the number of ethnic groups and the resilience that exists in Colombia and I will pass the microphone over to thank you for being with us. Thank you Camila and good evening everyone. My name is Maria Antonia Montes. I'm the program officer in the Institute of Peace in the Latin American program. It's an honor to have these panelists here with us today. Welcome to our home and in name of the entire team here in Washington and from our office in Bogota. Thank you for being here with us. As others have already said we are here today to launch the volume of photography which has accumulated more than 30 years of work done by Chucha which has been curated by Maria Belén and we'd like to talk a little about what brought you to do this project and brought you to all these stories and these testimonies of people who have been victims of the armed conflict in Colombia. We are transmitting live right now and we have simultaneous interpretation and if you'd like to follow us on Twitter we're using the hashtag the witness or Diego. So first I would like to talk to Maria Belén and to think a little bit about the political context of the country. The peace accords were signed with the FARC five years ago and just a few months ago the final report of the truth commission came out and there's a new government. So tell us a little bit why you decided to start this project. Why was this such an important moment in the country? Thank you. Hello Chucha. So we're all very honored to be here at the Institute of Peace. Thank you to everyone for organizing this tour that we've been doing here in the United States and we're doing it because we think that the current moment in Colombia requires us to understand that this conflict doesn't pertain to a culture of violence. Sometimes we think that Latin America is very violent and we have problems with drug trafficking. We have social problems and we are also subject to oppressions that come from the coloniality of power. Coloniality does not just come from institutions. There are also other ways of reproducing it. There are economic systems and there are interests that has to do with exploitation of natural resources and that is leading to a very strong repression in many areas of the country. But this story also pertains to Africa, the Congo so this is about resource exploitation and also in the midst of a very radical environmental crisis and that's why we're here in the Institute of Peace we work towards peace and this institution understands that this political moment and this context of coloniality we have to work on it from within the north this belief that in human rights we also have to bring it to the south where we have been expelled from the human project and this is what we see in these books. This is about people that we that we are trying to consider in a different way so we don't, we have to look at this and we have to see how this affect our lives these are people who live on the periphery of life. We see in images where sometimes the only thing that they have is memories of their family after forced disappearance they might just have a photo so this is how precarious their existence is so what we've come to bring here today is to put the victims at the center of the conversation again within the peace process. We're also trying the Democratic Center which is a political group in Colombia which has just taken power in the country after almost 25 years controlling political ideas and the application of force in Colombia this is a social conflict in Colombia this is a conflict that goes far beyond drug trafficking Chucho called me and he told me with this frustration that we all felt after the peace accords were signed so we did an exhibit in San Agustín but we included, we did it very quickly but we included thousands and thousands of images where I tried to support Jesús in elaborating a very precise narrative that would help people realize what it was like to be there in those places in those places where the ongoing war was carrying on for decades from day and night without stopping so these are constellations these detailed events from people's lives where you can see people's eyes, you can see their tears their gestures, the way that they walk the weight of life above all else the absence of the people that they love how they flee, how they cultivate crops in the midst of violence how they search for their loved ones with their own hands how they try to go back to the land where their loved ones are buried and of course how they make life carry on how they share food how they share their memory rituals which allow them to continue living and above all how they show us the route to a challenge, shame these are people who have shown us the path towards calmness because what they want is to be at peace and it's also very impressive that it's always the same people the most vulnerable people, single women children, boys and girls of course adult men who have been in combat maybe in the self defense patrols, in the military and it's the mothers and they're all family some of the people who are behind the scenes so finally this is a system where there's interest in exploiting the land, which is a very rich land and that's why these people who are here are subject to all of these dangers and they've been expelled from a territory that is more valuable to some than the dignity of their lives and so that's why they are inconvenient to these interests they flee, they go to the cities they're subject to violence and if they return again they are mistreated so that is what we show in these books and that's what we want to put up for discussion because the lives of these people cannot be used for political strategy we have quick agreement, fast agreement where support to this humanitarian emergency that has been largely ignored must be the center of discussion and it also has to be the center of a political activity to relate to countries such as ours by accepting a society thanks to the special society for peace the mission for the truth as well as a series of elements that have allowed the Colombian society to break silence, to break this and to benefit from this and to accept a system that works like a mafia, not necessarily in the sense of drug trafficking but in the sense of ghettos in the sense of dark and hidden agendas and corruption, where corruption is everywhere so this book seeks to contribute to this but we have to speak about this from the most vulnerable people thank you Maria Belén you mentioned the San Agustín exhibit that is the place where Tucho's works have been exhibited there's also the next documentary with the same name and you have spoken about this but what was the process like when you selected the pictures how was the editing like, the book and how was the process because I believe it was something very complicated I think it's been a very spiritual process we have the need to recover values and we have to understand the true value of life that's the moral of the story here, the true value of life and these lives are very valuable so as nature just as nature says it, they have to the waters, the forests, the jungles and this process of taking ourselves in the eyes of all these people who we have been visiting for over 30 years in all these communities, this is a process that is very touching it goes beyond information, it goes beyond the historical aspects and we have to truly understand how in just one moment of this touch with the holy elements no matter what we do, we have to commit ourselves with the transformation towards justice can be served without killing each other without weapons because after seeing all these weapons we know that this can indeed be done and from that process of the FARC we are building a new society this is a process that has to be implemented I don't know if we can sign the obligation of the state if we can affirm that the obligation of the state has to offer economic incentives to share resources that might not be abundant and of course the state has to bring modern armed security all these people who were displaced once I was in a visit of children who go to the cloister of San Agustín and a little girl took my hand she was maybe 10 years old and she asked me why isn't there anyone who would give me a glass of water so these are children who have been displaced and we don't need to sign more agreements to do that Chucho, I wanted to ask you about your own life history your family has also been a victim of this situation in the department of Antioquia and how has this helped you in your life this accompaniment with them, could you please share with us about this experience and how you also somehow carry all these faces and experiences with you Well, first of all, thank you for this invitation to provide my... To tell people that the presentation of these four books or four volumes of the witness The Contraportadas are stories of women that have a name, that have a memory that have a history, it is very important because I dare to take some of these photographs because it is to tell those who are listening to us through the internet that it is not free that it has a clear objective to show these photographs because they are African and indigenous populations the main victims of that violence that for so many decades has lived in our country that has obviously affected our lives and when they ask me, I have to look in my memory to be able to tell people I was born in 1967 and seven years before I was born they killed my grandfather or an uncle and my grandmother died of pain my grandmother died of penamoral when she was three months old and these are the consequences of the war and what this generates that is not had as a consequence of the conflict there was no FAR, there were no paramilitaries, there was no LN there was no violence, there was an activist that lived, let's say, half of the last century that took more than 300,000 people's lives that drove the peasants to the cities and that's how my family came running to the city of Medellin and they were peasants but I have to say that my parents they hated me, but on the contrary that is the nature of our people and it is to think with hope to think that it will not be repeated again and that's why when I am the youngest son of a family where there are five women and three men I am the youngest violence not only affects a generation affects two or three generations more and I end up studying journalism and since I started my journalism career I was very afraid in 1987 when many people were killed in the same university where I studied human rights defenders doctors, lawyers, odontologists, journalists they were killed in Colombia but my university of Antioquia lived the death of 17 students and teachers all linked to the defense of human rights and I chose to hang a camera because I was afraid to write I was afraid to write and let's say in a different way while I studied I met in the same university for example Carlos Pizarro León Gómez who signed the peace process in 1990 they killed Bernardo Jaramillo and I met them in the university as well as we are here in an auditorium and I took photos of them and a month later they wanted to bring to a country the way I was looking for was from memory and that's why from memory against oblivion from being close to the peasants I had a good education in the house of my parents and my older brothers and when I started to walk the country I met with that beauty of the territory that has everything because we have the Neuados we have the Paramos, half of the world's Paramos which are water factories 65 languages some of them are sent abroad but Colombia is a racist, classist country where the peasants are taken out of the land defamed, humiliated, offended and that's what I wanted if it's possible to present a series of images that I want to show you here from the broken mirror to say this is what we have to stop for the next generations to understand that the signing of the peace agreement with the War of the Asfars which is the largest insurgent group that committed multiple crimes in Colombia has committed all the armed groups guerrillas, paramilitaries, the army itself but sometimes we don't have an eye to see I would like to kill my friend in the master I put some of these images to be able to start and say you can see that they speak of that broken mirror of that country we only see those who make noise with a gun but behind the guns as Maria Belén said and that's what's here in these books are the fragments of that broken mirror of the Colombian War is the life of those men and women who have been silenced and presented it in the form of a book with the support of the National University of Colombia which is the same university where my father, being a peasant one day he got a job as a worker and thanks to him and my mother let's say the names because it's a way to honor the life of two peasants who taught me to love a country and of course it was fragmented by many violence but those violence mainly came from the political class from the class of the leader of Colombia that for many years they have taken out the resources they have stolen the budget and the need is that all in a country mostly Catholic they say Catholic, Apostolic and Roman understand that you can't steal that you can't kill the dream of a country because the bad decisions they take and when I say bad it's when it ends with the budget of a country they lose the indigenous they lose the black communities and they lose not only because they lose their lives they are recruited, as I said now they are recruited by all the armies and seeing these photographs when I look at the face of a woman like Matilde Sánchez or I look at the face of Uwadel Padilla indigenous and black the faces of our peasants and I say until when precisely let's say this editorial project in company of the National University edited with the accompaniment of Maria Belenzáez de Ibarra and of a team that was formed to give a name and face to these victims to understand who are the exposed like our people when Uye marines with his father Misael, they take out the pigs they take out the sheep they take out the chickens they take out the clothes they run with dogs in so many places in Colombia and we have to name them because they can't continue to be statistics and if I present let's say we are in the books 90 or 95% of the victims we name them all and if I can know that that girl who takes a chicken is called Lorena and that Lorena is with her mother Carmentulia displaced by a criminal action in this case of paramilitaries and I find then the faces of that beauty that speaks to us from the country that are the Nukakmaku the Senvera the Nasa the girls who run like Dwyer who have to run for the war but they can't even take their dogs their marines they can't run with them and I see them crossing rivers and there is that hard face or that beautiful face also of a country that has been taken and where we have to solve the conflicts when I say to solve the armed conflict a conflict can help in the life of a country when it is transmitted with the word but not through the bullet which is what I have found in so many places in Colombia that's why I present these images here to tell you all these portraits speak of a wealth of our people but I don't want to see more people running occupying educational spaces being victims of the kidnapping of a group or another being disappeared the destroyed schools and the armed actors obviously as an expression of that country that has let's say a faith but I say a faith in which killing the other sometimes by a armed group ends up being for me a counter-sense I claim to the Colombian church that sometimes is divided to work for peace and I claim because I see in the breasts of the combatants I see the weapons and I see the religious symbols and that's why it's so important to develop this project to say we have to say enough of so much war enough of so much of the natural resources not only is our life important it's important the life of our peasants and peasants all of these portraits that you just saw many of them are in the books and we tell stories to say that territory so rich in the photography that you are almost, those photos are not in the books we have done an exercise we have debated that that says that I exaggerate but it's that glorifying the war is very easy to show the weapons, the army, all the uniforms I think that the conflict can have many explanations you can figure out especially we know that it is an economic system and a political system clearly but there are also some explanations that go beyond what is reasonable and it is that the boots the the missiles the weapons generate a kind of eroticism that also motivates the desire of the armies and the confrontations so we did an exercise that when military military forces or armed and legal groups were also shown in their indignity the victim makes them indignity and also shown as many times victims themselves many children of forced recruitment even that the humanitarian international right does not consider a crime of that humanity they recruited a 16 year old child but I think it is a terrible image and we also see children who only raise the height of the rifle to be able to load it and that is what we show there armed men but indignely armed to me it seems very important the precision that Maria Belén just made I showed some images of religious symbols that are not in the books because less than 1% of the photographs there are armed groups because it was an editorial decision because really of these more than 700 photographs that are in the four tomes are really dedicated is a tribute to the memory of the victims of the homeless but also of those who resist in the territory and when Maria Belén says that there are some some armed are shown precisely in their quality also of victims of that same war that when I planted now they are children and daughters of peasants recruited who have been the great losers and precisely at this moment I want to make a reflection with the story that I am going to tell that in the book it is good to say, let's say, the territory that I have walked the most in Colombia the most violent territory for me, let's say and then I have traveled is the region of Urabá and then here I want precisely through this photograph to show the mountainous area of Apartado specifically the correction of San José de Apartado victim, let's say for many years of all the armed actors but especially of the paramilitarism Colombian who in many moments allied with the institutionality with the paramilitarism to try to get those peasants out of that territory but it is that there in the background we are seeing the sea we are seeing the proximity of the Gulf where the banana comes out where it can come out also let's say now thousands and thousands of people are coming out who are trying to get through to get to Central America and try to get to the United States and I want to show you some images of a community of the community of San José de Apartado images of the year in 1997 where the peasants seeds of cacao, aguacate, maize and banana had to go pick up in the middle of that advanced paramilitarism on the territory they had to go pick up their cacao seed accompanied by the International Committee of the Red Cross 8 years later in 2005 I was accompanied by the community because the paramilitarism of the hand of the Brigade 17 committed a massacre and killed 8 people 3 of them younger than 11 3 children and 1 girl and for me to accompany this community that I knew since 1996-1997 was a bet understanding that those men and women had formed a peace community to tell them not to the guerrilla and their recruits not to the paramilitarism that sought to expel them from the land to investors of the banana the winery, to corrupt political sectors that have had interest on that territory and these photographs not only speak of the beauty of that territory rich in water, in forests inhabited by simple people that the only thing they have wanted is to live in peace and find one the history is not isolated photographs they are all inside the books and I want to present this very quickly so that you understand what has been accompanied by the community to tell the story there is a girl named Camila who is inside the tree is Luisa the families had to leave after this massacre years later a captain confessed his participation in the crimes of the brigade 17 with a paramilitary group from the Ause to the service of a paramilitary narco known as Don Berna and these images become a testimony of that pain of the humiliation that the peasants have lived that they have to flee that they raise walls with the names of the victims so as not to forget them and it has been, let's say, the loneliness in which many times these communities bury people 12 years later in 2017 of the massacre in the mountains of Altacordo mountain during the peace process I found, let's say the front 58 in the process of weapons it was the only place in Colombia where I attended for the process and there I found the young man who carries a gun from the front 58 the second from right to left is Camila and Camila had a story linked to that community of San José of Apartado Camila inside her uniform carried a press cut and that press cut spoke of the death of her father of her brothers, of her family her younger brothers had 20 months of age and 5 years is, let's say what you are seeing at this moment on the screen that is the story, the story is in the books and that she saved a portrait of the day of the baptism of her younger brother Santiago and she had entered at the end of 2006 to the guerrilla 20 months after the murder of her family 20 months later she went to the mountains to search because she wanted to search for revenge when I found her in that camp I took her photos I went back to Medellin I searched between my press and I found that girl who was already wearing a uniform had been treated 12 years before in 2005 and I was buried on a cross where is her father where is her stepmother where are her older brothers Camila is in the center and I understood also why many people sometimes take the weapons and they can become victims children of violence and then the reflection that I want you to see is the following I went back when people were leaving to deliver the weapons and I saw them go out on the high ground because of the hydroelectric repression and I saw Camila is the second person who comes on the line but in front of Camila comes a man who tells him J.J. and he brings a machine gun .50 with a peace flag and J.J. I had seen him there in the camp with a guitar with a machine gun that is produced here in the United States it is a .50 barret and those machine guns that are produced in this country end up in all of Latin America because they come to sometimes insurgents to military groups to criminal groups linked to drug trafficking and then I understand that the war ends up in a business that harms some people who kill children and girls here in schools and who kill them in the streets but that our countries end up with the life of peasants and peasants and I say today until when the weapons will continue to sustain politicians who receive benefits associations who risk resources because that could not be accepted when I see this man with that machine gun .50 barret and many other weapons that are produced in different parts of the world but behind Camila and J.J. there is also a young man who just gave birth to a child Stefania comes in arms with a child called Emanuel and they want to bet on peace and peace is like a baby that just was born and of course peace has enemies in many places inside Colombia I was thinking about it Maria Belén there are people who want to make peace and peace is like a baby who needs a country that builds peace a lot of education health food but especially love I assure you that in our country there are many people working with love so that things change not to inherit our children the hatred, the revenge Camila there in that camp when she leaves the weapons she is teaching her to walk to her daughter called Nicole I told Camila Camila, please you have to take pictures of your daughter now that you left the weapons because Camila told me I want to live in peace I want to have a piece of land a big farm a small farm where I have my chickens a cow a cow months after this process Camila sent me a video from the mountains of Uraba that I want you to watch at this moment to look for Camila after watching that video she was just born and I told her I'm going to visit you because your daughter is growing in peace so when I arrived to those mountains where she was in a small piece of land which is not hers which is her mother-in-law her partner is also a sign of peace agreement and she is called Neymar as the footballer so I'm going to meet the life of a woman who should never take the weapons that she deserves to give love to her daughter and she has a collar I saw her collecting more cacao orcas that could be exported to the United States and sweeten a breakfast with a chocolate transform into a chocolate it's so beautiful the life of the peasants when they can live in peace I am a son and a family of people who fled the countryside and I understand the importance of producing the history of Camila and I tell you, it's in the books months later or a year later in 2019 I went to see Camila graduate and there she is with many signers of peace agreement in San Jose and she has been receiving the Primaria carton that exhibits a beautiful way with her partner Neymar called Luis Fernando and there she is with Nicole Charif who is growing who is still growing and not only collecting cacao but corn which is a beautiful food of our America and right now May 13th Nicole Charif was 6 years old I didn't take that photo I took it a woman in the countryside or her husband and I sent it from above from a mountain in the serranía to tell me the life continues Estefania and her baby Emanuel so I went to look for her to find me that Emanuel was already growing and she had a little sister called Sofia and if you want to know what happened to the man of the .50 Barrett who also loaded a guitar so here I want to present a man who is harvesting platinum trying to have a project with his family and with other signings of the PASA agreement in Urabá they have a fish tank to sell fish and then I show you the photo that he loaded and I took over there before leaving the weapons and here I want to present them because he already had the gun but when he signed the PASA agreement he formed a new relationship and I want to show you here the composer they told me that here your partner and you keep this full of flowers here in San José de León of the municipality of Multatá and that you had a very beautiful song for George Leves Jota Jota and George Leves well, what I want to show you with this man composer is to tell you that a year after having taken that record there was already a new baby on the way Jota Jota his name is Arquime de Salvares and together with George Leves they had a baby and he went to doja for this auditorium there is also a little baby in the arms of the mother the child that Jota Jota has arms is called John Kennedy Alvarez and the little sister of arms is called Paula Andrea at the end I want to when I say at the end of this photographic presentation to talk about the books this image or photograph that has almost four years there in the house of Nariño Ega that is part of the exhibition that Maria Belén director of the Claustro San Agustín curator of the exhibition and editor or editorial director of this project that photograph neither civil nor military nor guerrilla or this work what seeks is to generate a reflection not only in Colombia but also in these spaces of discussion where sometimes you can support and should always support the projects of peace of a country that is tired believe me that we are always losers we always wanted to support a big peace that is obviously needed so that those leaders in many places of Colombia do not continue to be stigmatized I am a journalist I am a defender of human rights and let's say that my service has to be my work has to be of our people not of any political economic or military but I believe that the dream of building that big peace is urgent and we are looking for all those who are here and those who are listening turn into allies thank you Chucho for me it is very impactful to hear those stories of Camila and Stefania and I feel that that is also a learning of the resilience and the resistance of these communities and towns so what are your reflections of that resistance of resilience of the Colombian and that hope for a peace Yes, I think we have to bet on a future we have to look forward for that we need the value of looking at the eyes that violence to assume it try to to cross it the resilience of the victims is a fact but I think that we should not so much in that idea we need to repair them we need to give them the possibility of access to the land that is to say, give them land generate projects invent new ways of property or not property of the land we have to reinvent all a system of repair ready and give them the possibility of having a place in our society we cannot wait to resign that seems to me almost an unacceptable frustration I think we have to advance towards to give them these people who live in those rich and luminous territories something more than the possibility of entering a military or the slavery that is subjected through violence to the mafia of all classes that requires something different to resign that is a radical decision of the will to assume the responsibility of including them Yes, I I would like to tell you because I know that there are several people who are asking how we can look for those books that are still where we want to tell you that from the October 20 of the next Thursday when the exhibition the witness fulfilled four years of being there at the foot of the house of Nariño, at the foot of the presidency that October 20 a page was enabled called the witness collection and there people will be able to acquire these four volumes that have to be served these books have to be served as a pedagogical tool for many educational spaces to arrive because that is the objective of a project like these let's say the report of the Commission of Truth came out it is very important that in the country what came out that they read but let's say with this project that it is autonomous that it is done by the hand of the National University in which it also participated let's say the embassy in Norway supporting us we called let's say to the group to support us in this publication we were supported by Mr. Del Valle Del Cauca who has always been a democrat Carlos Arcecio Vautista of the city of Cali with the University when I say the National University this project has to go to the educational class it has to be served so that someday the people who in Colombia or here take decisions in the face of budget in the face of the support that the construction of the peace deserves they have to be let's say a part of those discussions and I know you talked to me about how we can do and I tell you we need to look at that broken mirror of what the Colombian conflict has been each one of these images when I say now 90 or 95% of the photographs that are in these books have the names of the victims because I don't serve to talk about statistics of 9 million victims of thousands of kidnapped many of them who didn't come back and bet precisely on peace is to tell the signers of the agreement for example of the last peace agreement that took place in Colombia at La Guerrilla de las Fares where are the kidnapped who disappeared but the Colombian army also has to say where are the disappeared I have a brother who disappeared by the army a man who was not a guerrilla was a family father and the family did not dare to claim the army we all claim the guerrilla but how many more people but sometimes we cover our eyes to point to a group and we don't see the other in the end I believe that there are too many responsible also within political power and criminal people linked to criminal companies who participated in the destruction of lands has always been in the path of violence in Colombia and our peasants when I show to Camila planting cocoa I remember my father of 80 years planting oranges planting yucca collecting lemons planting lovingly and let's say in Colombia we all need to live in peace that have always been the persecuted and the displaced vote for peace build a great national agreement today when it is spoken that we have to involve different groups or all armed groups to build a big peace that is the shadow of a new country to respect human rights but especially to respect the lives of those who have always been oppressed and obviously we need the alliance of many people some of whom are here and who have accompanied us for years and I would like to name each of the people I am seeing at this moment they are not from Colombia others belong to human rights organizations of this country but to tell them that you can influence with your congressmen with the people of the State Department I mean the weapons what they leave us is a lot of pain what we have to build is a country with opportunities with equity and also strengthening a justice that needs to change and when I say change is a justice that is equal for everyone that acts in the framework of the constitution and of the different laws that are in Colombia because if justice and looks the same in terms of the people that sometimes those who are privileged and criminals they give them the house for jail and those who are peasants obviously they give them many years of condemnation what we need is to strengthen when I say justice to give them education opportunities to that country so that we all walk together in search of peace That's right Chucho and thank you very much for those reflections I will invite my colleagues Miriam and Carla for this portion of questions from the audience if you have a question please if you can present your name and your question please in terms of peace how can we implement in terms of how can we support those who are here in that position that you have and thank you Mariam next is it referring to the total peace? yes yes well I think it is essential to continue with the implementation of agreements as the government is doing and part of the implementation of those agreements is precisely to provide to these communities a guarantee of non-repetition which is fundamental that is to avoid the professor Gutierrez Sanin of the National University may be starting a third cycle of violence in Colombia so we have other actors that continue creating violence and it is a responsibility of all of us of the state and the government of assuming to lower the violence immediately with all the resources peace is the greatest that society has and it is the ultimate of a state and finally it is the end of each of us and our lives it is the project human so we do not need permission or anyone to politics and strategies forms of submission and negotiations to avoid that violence it is an obligation so I think that is what the Petro government is and and the bank of the party led by the senator Iván Cepeda they are putting the victims on top of everything it is the same that was made with the agreement of peace of the former but in a way even more clear and is that to attend the humanitarian crisis and avoid that it continues using that population as focus and objective of war is the priority it implies that a ceasefire is not a weak sample and that it can be a ceasefire without having to have an agreement signed before a congress of the republic that is a little what I understand and in that sense it seems important to support it always always we have to support all those who come in the name of peace and the restitution of land the massive purchase of land that they are planning is perhaps a challenge for all society we have to accompany it it involves all of us and we have something to comment on or that we can contribute because we have to do it because building a project where these people have access to dignity under the land without being enslaved and without being mediated by war or violence or the interests of others that is an immense challenge and it seems to me that the time is short and the urgent solutions and these people have waited too long for a repair for a restitution that has not been given and I think we have to implement it immediately and it is better to make a mistake in trying to offer justice than to make a mistake without trying so I don't think there are easy solutions or safe but as a society we have to compromise as we said before in repairing these people we have to compromise them so that the dignity of their life does not remain I would like do you remember your name please Angelo I would like to compliment what Maria Belenie says look I am going to put the example of Bohaya which is a territory that at the end of the 90s at the beginning of the 2000s there were very strong confrontations where the black and indigenous peoples were the losers and I tell you because if I think, imagine the following there is a book of the violence in Colombia published in the 62 which talks about what happened in the 50s I investigate them as a commission as a bit of the truth at the end of the 50s that they directed in Colombia three people Orlando Falzborda a bishop and a lawyer Eduardo Umaña Luna and in that document in the first in the second published in 1964 it talks about how those peoples of that region were burned in 1952 burned in January of the year 1952 Bohaya, Bebara, Naurita 50 years later in 2002 they again lived a tragedy especially by the FARC the church of the people with a pipeta but also because there was a fight with the paramilitaries and the state that knew what could happen because there were orders of aid days before of the United Nations of the defense of the people in Colombia they made alerts and in a church on May 2, 2002 they lost the life 79 civilians most of them 47 children and girls I documented all of that in the books there is history because I was the first photoperiodist who arrived in the hands of the church of the missionaries if I tell you what is happening today in Bohaya from where it happened a leader who was part of the commission of the truth after the signing of the peace agreement and the war of the FARC to have given the weapons that territory began to occupy in the mountains guerrillas of the LN and also new paramilitary groups called AGC called Gaitanist self defense of Colombia what I want to tell you with that angel who are listening to us when they understand what they want to do in this new government we have to look for a negotiation business only with the LN guerrilla and the LN guerrilla comes out because it occupies AGC and possibly another group so we have to try to involve them to try to make a contract let's say that way and it is that all the illegals give their weapons but also that the Colombian state not only to recover that monopoly of the weapons but also to make a presence not only with an army but also to give well-being to the communities possibilities to extract those products so beautiful that they sow the peasants because they have the pineapple because they can produce the biche because they extract the lulo palmito but also because they are builders of peace there in the photo that you are watching there is a man who fled from Bojaya in May with his family his name is Eugenio he fled with his wife Felipe that photo was taken on September 2, 2002 17 years later I look for Eugenio to see him again and I find him when they fell in love 17 years of the Bojaya tragedy and I find him carrying a photo taken with the cell phone and I find him with the nice beard and I see him with a baby in arms and then I tell Eugenio aha this is the magic realism of Colombia you are getting old and your daughter did not grow and he tells me aha, chucho no man, this is my granddaughter this is my granddaughter is daughter of Sandra Patricia the girl that he brought in arms 17 years before the next day when I look again for Eugenio I tell him a photo with Sandra Patricia the girl that he brought in arms and with that granddaughter the life of our communities is still and people cry and always dream with peace that was what I was taught since I was very young that's why when I keep walking the country when I try again let's say a new tragedy my ring my dream I would be able to see again those who were besotted by violence including political violence and see them as Eugenio in a new life project because the real war is a plague another question yes here in the black shirt sorry thank you very much colleague because I know the work of the lighthouse I solidify my heart with you because I know the persecution that have lived also the signs that have lived under the government and the courage to continue brother because journalism journalism is the search of truth to be close to people and never to any power that you ask me I tell you I think we need to be much closer to the truth of the victims much closer to that strength and that dignity that they have even because I look at it look when many murders have happened in Colombia people know where their tragedy comes from and clearly point out to responsible armed also people say behind that there are interests of such people of the political or economic power in a region and they say it very fast but justice takes many years and even decades to dictate sentences after investigation and many times when the complainers of the truth those mothers and fathers that have suffered the disappearance and the murder or the expulsion of the lands many times they die waiting for justice to act justice sometimes acts very fast when there are political and economic powers but when it is the one that the humble complainers complain it takes a long time I would like to say because honor, honor along with Maria Belén I believe that in the books in the different prologues that Maria Belén does she says honor those journalists brave men and women that are in Colombia that there are many that sometimes are in the regions and in the peripheries of Colombia and that they are the ones that make great stories and the ones that lead them to follow many of those stories that justice takes a long time to find to give face and name that somehow I have to thank many people because these are sumptuous of many memories and I have to honor those memories not only the ones that educated me and the ones that formed me but also who have given me testimony who have given me a visual testimony or have narrated its anguish that is the voice that is in each of these books that is pluralistic and multicultural that I told you sometimes it is invisible for many because many people believe that they are descendants of Europeans we are a magnificent mix of many cultures and we would have to feel proud to be descendants of course of black people and of some people who came to our territory some of them but others could also honor life that is what would have to do journalism to walk next to people one more question ahead why do you think the community is so important and why is it important to be a part of the community that is the one that speaks a lot I wanted to know in your experience that it has served to bring Erasista del país, son las más pudientes privilegiadas y blancas europeas del país. Bueno, yo creo que esta es una operación de segregación. Por supuesto, son comunidades racializadas, porque es que el concepto de rasa también podríamos discutirlo ya a estas alturas, lo que estamos ya en ese momento. Pero son los oprimidos precisamente porque hay una gran estructura que requiere gestionar grandes porciones de territorio planetario y también gestionar estas poblaciones para precisamente poder controlar esos territorios. Son operaciones de despojo. Entonces, para hacer el despojo primero hay que segregar. Entonces, en eso consiste la racialización. Precisamente por eso tenemos que dignificarlos, hacerle el homenaje a estas personas que hemos permitido excluir de proyecto social. Y es algo epocal y no es colombiano, es planetario. Estamos viendo imágenes cruzando la frontera con Venezuela en Colombia, caminando bebés y niños, desnudos, sin zapatos, todos los andes, pasando todos los climas, hasta los fríos más intensos y los calores más despotas. Llegando hasta la selva del Darien, el tapón del Darien, no se se han visto en New York Times y son registros en estos días, que es realmente muy doloroso. Son imágenes bíblicas, y así en el Mediterráneo, en África, es planeta, está en una gran operación de apartheid. Entonces, es una racialización y una opresión sobre estas poblaciones que nosotros podemos tener aquí el privilegio de estar sentados discurriendo sobre esos temas. Pero quizá lo que nos falta es mirarnos en los ojos de estas personas y asumir que puede ser tu hijo, ¿verdad? El mundo está en eso, ¿qué vamos a hacer? Empecemos por lo pequeño que podemos hacer en cada comunidad, cerca a nosotros y comprometernos con eso. Lo que dice Jesús, hay que ir allá al campo y estar con las personas que, como dice un indígena amigo, no somos tan pobres ni quedamos tan lejos. Bueno, yo quiero, como siempre, mi lenguaje es unir la palabra y la imagen, las fotografías que he tomado durante muchos años para decirles que este trabajo que vuelvo y le recuerdo que desde el próximo jueves 20 se puede adquirir el testigo colección a través de esa página para que llegue a muchos lugares del país y ojalá del mundo hacerles una reflexión, hacerles una reflexión porque cuántas veces he acompañado a esa gente valiente en un país que muchas veces ha vivido con destrucción y quiero referirme a esta fotografía tomada en Granada en diciembre del año 2000 en donde habían habitantes del pueblo pero también líderes de derechos humanos que bajamos juntos para solidarizarnos con un pueblo que había sido víctima de paramilitares pero también de la guerrilla de las Far. Y la gente marchando en medio de la destrucción nunca voy a poder olvidar a esa pareja que en medio de la destrucción se casó Beatriz García y Óscar Giraldo. Ahí en el mismo pueblo donde está la bandera de territorio de paz está esa cola blanca de un vestido de novia una mujer que se estaba cazando mientras buscaban a los muertos de la Toma Armada a un lado dice un letrero, la guerra la perdemos todos ayudemos todos a construir un proceso de paz en ese pueblo de Granada unos meses después fui porque se organizó una marcha del ladrillo y hombres, mujeres, niños y niñas llevan ladrillos en sus hombros para reconstruir ese pueblo cada persona para mí es una invitación a que juntos pongamos un ladrillo hoy lo estamos haciendo acá desde distintos espacios académicos de la Agencia de Cooperación para el Desarrollo con gente de distintas universidades en este recorrido que vamos a hacer entre Washington, Boston y Nueva York con personas de la academia, con líderes con personas defensoras de derechos humanos con muchos que han tenido que huir de Colombia buscando un mejor camino si todos nos juntamos como nos juntamos para hacer estos libros de memoria seguramente podemos levantar una casa grande y una paz grande en donde todos podamos unirnos eso digamos es el sueño de construir la paz de volver a buscar y quiero cerrar con dos fotografías porque la mujer que se casó en medio de la tragedia Beatriz García y Óscar Giraldo con el paso de los años vi crecer los dos niños que tiene la pareja vi el pueblo marchar por la paz vi a la gente regresar para sembrar y finalmente volver a presentarles unos años después a la pareja que entendía que el amor es más poderoso que cualquier guerra cuando veo a Beatriz, a Óscar, a Vanessa y a Santiago viviendo en un pedazo de tierra pequeño yo les dije, yo quiero tomar una foto con lo que ustedes tienen y entonces pusieron a posar una vaca y la llamaron, bolita, bolita venga y ahí está la vaca había dos gansos que me persiguieron más que los perros y también tenían nombre Evelio, Eimelda, tres perros Escúbido, Coqui y Lupe y había un gallo al que ese día por no tener nombre le dijeron y el gallo como no tiene nombre lo vamos a llamar Chucho como yo y yo me tuve que reír mucho pero entiendo que cuando un campesino tiene poco, todo lo nombra si soy ascendado y tengo 10,000 vacas no voy a saber a qué sabe la leche de una sola vaca que se llama bolita entonces con esto yo quiero rendirle un homenaje a esos hombres y mujeres de muchos lugares de Colombia de distintos territorios que en medio de la pandemia y después de que ha pasado la peste de la guerra por sus vidas si pueden vivir en paz lo hacen y lo hacen amorosamente para que cada una de esas lechugas papas, sanahorias o huevos o leche llegue a cada una de nuestras mesas eso es poder vivir en paz si los campesinos hombres y mujeres pueden vivir en paz nosotros en las ciudades también podríamos hacerlo pero para eso se necesitan políticas decentes y gobernantes honestos y humanistas no gente que llegue a saquear el territorio gracias Chucho y Maria Belén por esas reflexiones los felicito por este trabajo tan impresionante honesto, hermoso, difícil muchas gracias a la audiencia aquí presencial y virtual y a todo nuestro equipo y nuestros socios Bola y el conservador del Atlántico para cerrar invito a Jimena Sánchez de Bola para unas palabras de bienvenida antes de ir a la recepción gracias bueno, hace una bienvenida a la recepción primero agradecimientos a UZIP a Chucho, a Maria Belén Atlantic Council y a todos que nos hicieron parte de este importante esfuerzo el libro no es solo un libro o imágenes obviamente pero un vínculo para muchas cosas que no se pueden poner en palabras donde no se puede mostrar su esencia se ven las víctimas en el centro la diversidad de Colombia socioeconómica étnica generacional realmente te aplaudo por ser uno de los primeros y más consistentes artistas que visibilizó estas riquezas culturas de Colombia las personas olvidadas y vulnerables también este libro es una memoria para las víctimas porque mucha gente dice que cuando sufren estos traumas no se acuerdan todo y no tiendan que pueden tocar y eso es tan esencial para poner no solo sobrevivir esas situaciones pero también reconciliar el dolor es un espejo para todos nosotros no solo en Colombia pero Estados Unidos es un homenaje a la resistencia contra la guerra bajo circunstancias imaginables y artísticamente te muestra la banalidad de la guerra, de la violencia y la belleza visual en los peores momentos y en objetos cotidianos realmente es una obra de humanidad y para eso te felicito muchísimo muestra lo bueno, lo mal, lo complicado y la dignidad de todos seres humanos gracias realmente por arriesgar tu vida todos estos años para centrar el atención en lo que era lo más importante para Colombia en momentos difíciles y por tu forma de crear relaciones con tus sujetos y mostrar su trayectoria las consecuencias, la resistencia las equivocaciones y la nueva oportunidad que da la paz tu activismo contra la violencia de todos lados y lo bello que es la vida es algo que es increíble nuevamente gracias a María Belén por editar estas joyas de forma coherente para que muchos puedan aprender y ser tocadas por ellos esto es un muy buen momento el secretario de Estado Anthony Blinken estuvo en Colombia la semana pasada real firmó el apoyo de Estados Unidos al acuerdo de paz en 2006 con las FARC y anunció que Estados Unidos es el primer garante del capítulo étnico de la acuerdo de paz algo que ojalá muchos otros países sigan es un momento realmente para reflexión de todos frente a estas guerras estas violencias en Estados Unidos y como nosotros de aquí estamos conectados con esto de forma financiera, política y que se puede hacer para construir algo totalmente diferente la masaje de San José apartado de hecho la menciono porque fue una masaje galvanizante aquí para los activistas y personas que siguen Colombia que impulsó a que se hizo mucho presión y cabineo y que se cambia el balance de la ayuda de Estados Unidos menos militar y más económica entonces esas imágenes ayudan tanto en tantas cosas que yo creo que ni tú te das cuenta es importante que Colombia sea no solo estas tragedias pero también un referente para que el resto del mundo vea que es posible si se cambia el chip hacia la paz y en muchos conflictos del mundo se siga un diferente ejemplo entonces nuevamente gracias a todos gracias a la audiencia y yo que invito a todo el mundo a una recepción que es hacia allá gracias yo siempre pido 30 segundos un minuto más y es decirles esto cuando veo esta fotografía de los ladrillos y entiendo muchas personas sumaron para que fuera posibles a las personas que hicieron parte de este proyecto editorial darle las gracias no nombró a una sola sino a las distintas personas que les muchas gracias a ellas y a nuestras familias por por abrazarnos por darnos apoyo emocional por darnos fuerza para seguir caminando porque eso es necesario es necesario mantener la esperanza es necesario mucho amor y también decirle a mis amigos en Colombia a nuestros amigos porque aquí Maria Belén inclusive Adan y Saxon mi amiga Jimena somos de un colectivo que se llama Defendamos la paz y sé que en algunos de ellos están conectados en esta transmisión Maria Antonia y a ellos un abrazo que cuando pienso en Defendamos la paz esta fotografía de los ladrillos también de alguna forma simboliza que son parte de la familia para construir ese país que tanto necesita esa juntanza para construir lo que necesitamos muchas gracias y Maria Belén muchas gracias por estar aquí por haber creído en este trabajo por poner tu talento por tantos días y noches durante años para que esto fuera posible