Disappearance of 60,000 Colombians Impacts All Society: Report

The impact of forced disappearances in Colombia has not only deeply affected the person and their relatives, but also communities and society in general culturally, economically and politically, according to a report published Tuesday by Colombia's National Center for Historical Memory.

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From 1970 to 2015, a shocking 60,630 people were forcibly disappeared in Colombia — the most in all of Latin America — but also disturbing is the social-political toll it has taken and will continue to take on communities around the country.

The study said that this type of violence from state security officials or in complicity with illegal armed groups, such as paramilitary organizations, is “created with the ultimate end of affecting society in general.”

“Thus, terror, which can be seen in the practice of forced disappearance, has historically been used to truncate processes of social transformation, to impose political regimes and to force social and economic measures favorable to those who execute these crimes,” said the report.

Politically, it divides the society from its state representatives, as relatives of the victims come to distrust the government organizations that are supposed to defend them.

According to the report, when officials and offices don’t help citizens seek the truth to find their missing relatives, and even threaten them, it breaks a democratic order. It also injures, silences or paralyzes mechanisms, organizations, movements, parties, leaderships and political ideals.

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“When enforced disappearances are carried out selectively against people who represent particular political ideals, this act is a message for those who share this person’s views,” the report stated.

Depriving communities of burial rites for their community and Indigenous or religious leaders, also creates collective suffering, since these members represent important values for the people's identity and culture, and this also destroys social links and community projects according to the report.

It added that state security officials and paramilitaries “stigmatized” signs of solidarity with and grieving processes for victims, implemented curfews and other repressive measures. They have called out victims as “traitors, informants, militants from the enemy side, undesirables and transgressors.” Families also have to face the fact that their loved one can’t defend themselves since they are missing and can’t respond to false accusations.

Relatives also face different economic obligations once they lose a family member, for example, if that person was the main financial supporter of the rest of the family.

But, social consequences took on the largest space in this report, both after someone has been forcibly disappeared and during the process in which relatives denounce the act and seek to find them alive or dead. The report included experiences and interviews with victims of forced disappearances, experts, and human rights defenders.

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Some of the relatives adopted new living standards, where they lived with constant sadness and despair, as well as insecurity. They tended to stay indoors, lose contact with family and friends, which in turn created more tension in families affected.

Family members were reported to suffer from lack of attention to personal care, sleep and eating problems, loss of relationships and drugs and alcohol abuse, among other consequences of these violent acts.

According to the report, this was the case with Jorge Varas, who lost his son Alix Fabian in August 2008, and was “overwhelmed with the circumstances in which he died and the process he had to face to recover his body changed his temper, he was no longer passive, he was aggressive ... he became more quiet and complained a lot ... he didn’t want to go to the doctor, he wanted to die.”

Vargas' physical condition deteriorated, he stopped eating and no longer wanted to talk to anyone, he finally passed away on Dec. 15, 2009, just over a year after his son disappeared.

Younger and future generations are also affected by the disappearances, since they grow up in a violent, distrustful and resentful environment, which becomes the new norm and can be perpetrated for decades.