CPTnet
14 February 2011
COLOMBIA ANALYSIS: Las Pavas—The criminalization of victims

 --by Stewart Vriesinga  

 [Note:  The following analysis has been edited for length.  The original is available here.]

 In perverse judicial manoeuvres, the victims of paramilitary and military crimes in Colombia are increasingly facing the denial of justice, reparations, and protection on the grounds that they are perpetrators rather than victims of crimes.

 Las Pavas is one recent example of this phenomenon.  The paramilitaries who displaced the community, the palm-oil cultivators Daabon and Aportes San Isidro responsible for the environmental degradation and continued occupation of the land are not the subjects of judicial investigations.  It is the dispossessed and displaced campesinos who are under investigation for allegedly fabricating the story of their displacement, occupying land that is not theirs, and having connections to guerrilla insurgents.

 Attempts to silence victims seeking justice and restitution here in Colombia are generally dealt with primarily through intimidation, death threats, and extrajudicial killings.

But in some cases, like that of Las Pavas, the national and international profiles of the victims are simply too high to kill them with impunity—the resulting scandal would be counterproductive to the interests of those wishing to silence them.  In such cases—often based on the testimony of demobilized paramilitaries—the victims are simply redefined and prosecuted as criminals.  

  Those who have followed the saga of Las Pavas know that this community,  displaced from its land by both paramilitaries and the state security forces, is still struggling to get titles to the land.  As the result of a Constitutional Court ruling, INCODER—the Colombian Institute for Rural Development—has been ordered to review the case of Las Pavas.  So far, that has not resulted in land titles for the people of Las Pavas, who nevertheless, with the support of their allies and without state authorization, have returned to their land.  The palm-oil producer, Aportes San Isidro, continues to occupy most of their territory.  

 These new allegations and investigations into the community of Las Pavas question whether the community ever lived on the land in the first place, thereby also calling into question whether paramilitaries ever forcefully displaced them.

For the community of Las Pavas these allegations were alarming.  Members were relieved to know that, not only did none of their allies believe the allegations, all of them—including Christian Peacemaker Teams Colombia—publicly reiterated their intention to continue to stand with the community in its struggle for justice, land restitution, and land titles.  

Nevertheless, these developments have created a lot of stress, and require the Las Pavas community members to reassert their status as victims of forced displacement.  Without that recognition, they are unlikely to get the land titles and protection from future displacement.  The community appealed to the Federal Prosecutor, Viviane Morales, who paid a visit to the community.  Many allies of the community as well national media were also there to cover the event, not to mention hundreds of police and military personnel who provided the visiting officials with security.  There she heard testimony from the people of Las Pavas themselves—something the state prosecutor from Cartagena never bothered to do.  The community is hopeful that, after having launched her own investigation and hearing the testimonies of various community members, the national prosecutor will affirm the community members’ status as victims of forced displacement, rather than the criminal invaders and occupiers of private property that the local state prosecutor for the province of Bolívar alleges them to be.

 The community remains cautiously hopeful.  However, experience has taught them that they cannot wait for due process to bring them justice.  They and their allies, joined by other organizations and victims, did a public action in the Plaza Simon Bolívar in Colombia's capital, Bogotá on 14 December 2011.  This mobilization required transporting eighty members of the Las Pavas community, and an equal number of people from other supporting communities from the South of Bolivar, as well as members of supporting organizations, to Bogotá—a twenty-four-hour trip for most of them.  Once in Bogotá they all also had to be fed and housed the three days, requiring resources the campesinos of Las Pavas did not have.  Without the continuing support of allies, this mobilization would not have been possible.

The balance of power in Colombia continues to favour those who profit from crime.  Justice would eat into those profits, consequently justice for the community of Las Pavas is far from assured, and the community is still very much in need of the support of its allies.  Christian Peacemaker Teams in Colombia is one of several allies that remain committed to supporting the community of Las Pavas.