With psychosocial support from the Victims Unit , 140 of them were reconciled with ex-combatants of Farc and paramilitary groups for peace and coexistence.

"That they commit themselves not to repeat the violence so that we do not have to repeat the pain that we already live and we can live in peace." This was the reiterated call of 140 survivors of the conflict gathered with 30 ex-combatants of Farc and paramilitary groups in Anorí (Antioquia).

Those who still feel pain, murders, forced disappearances of relatives, or who suffered kidnappings, sexual violence or forced displacement in their own flesh bet on coexistence in their territory being the central protagonists of the event Let's meet for Reconciliation.

It was an emotional event for which the victims were prepared for three months with the psychosocial team of the Unit for the Reparation to Victims in Antioquia in the management of mourning and emotional regulation, as well as accompanying them during the catharsis that meant for them the I come face to face with their victimizers.

First there was a private moment and then a public act with many moments of personal relief at the local coliseum, where ex-guerrillas and former paramilitaries mingled in a circle in front of the inhabitants.

Glavedis Hernández was the first to get up from her chair, take the microphone to narrate with tears in her eyes and the choked voice that does not forget "that the paramilitaries killed my brother, an innocent victim".

Despite her pain, with decisiveness in her voice she asked the demobilized of both illegal groups for commitment with non-repetition: "I want to tell everyone that the people have not forgotten, we already suffer, we thank them for having vacated our town ( ...) that we never have to repeat the pain that we already live and that from now on we bet on a better future and that our people will never have to bloodshed like so many innocent people spilled, who died without knowing why they were being killed without have someone to defend us. "

Commitment to non-repetition

The ex-combatants of Farc, headed by Rodrigo Granda, Jaime Alberto Parra Rodriguez ("The Doctor") and Ovidio Antonio Mesa ("Anderson", former commander of the front 36), in addition to the former chief of the former paramilitary groups in the area, known as " Milton ", they apologized" for the mistakes that were made and the pain caused to the victims "by these illegal armed groups.

Rodrigo Granda said in public that in the "passing of the same revolutionary struggle and confrontation were making mistakes on our part that today we have to recognize and now we say with the victims in the center of national reconciliation and the implementation of the same agreement peace. We are not going to back down, we made some mistakes and we were victims too (...) That the generations of the future see us as people who have conquered peace ".

On the other hand, "Milton" asked for "forgiveness" and, in front of the victims of illegal group that led in the area, assured that "you are right, your relatives were not guilty". He also reaffirmed his "commitment to work to reconcile us, for peace and the resolution of conflict." 

At the end of the meeting, which also included cultural events, the mayor, the representatives of  victims and national and international institutions that support the process, signed the Book for Territorial Reconciliation and proclaims it with the commitments in favor of peace in this municipality.

One of them was the director of Unit for the Attention and Integral Reparation to Victims (UARIV), Ramón Alberto Rodríguez, who highlighted that these meetings "allow us to build peace scenarios and learn what happened in the conflict and that they serve us to have a memory and do not repeat. It also gives us the opportunity to rebuild the social fabric. "

From the perspective of reparation to the victims, Rodríguez explained that this process of reconciliation "serves the emotional recovery and in favor of territorial coexistence and the non-repetition of victimizing acts."

At the end, as a symbolic act of reconciliation, the ex-combatants stood before the victims who held in their hands white cardboard doves with black and red ribbons, in mourning and bloodshed during the conflict. They exchanged them for white and green ribbons, symbols of peace and hope. Then the survivors handed them the flowers they brought to the event and shook their hands and embraced them.

On-going repair

This meeting, which was held before in Remedios and Dabeiba, is the result of a strategy of the Departmental Council of Reincorporation, through the Subway of Reconciliation, which articulates the work of the Peace Management of the Government of Antioquia, the Agency for Reincorporation and Normalization, the Unit for the Reparation to the Victims, the FARC and the Verification Mission of United Nations in Colombia. Its objective is to help the implementation of the peace agreement with this demobilized insurgent group.

Last August, through the rapid strategy of Coexistence and Peace, 335 victims of Anorí received from the Unit for the Reparation of Victims psychosocial support for emotional recovery and financial compensation. In this municipality, 7,169 million pesos have been invested in humanitarian aid and compensation to 527 survivors.