Journal of Vincentian Social Action Volume 4 Issue 2 WARS, CONFLICTS, AND THE Article 8 MARGINALIZATION OF DISSENT September 2019 COLOMBIAN CONFLICT: A SOCIOLOGICAL VIEW OF A GENDERED SOCIETY Jorge Restrepo St. John’s University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.stjohns.edu/jovsa Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons, Business Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Disability and Equity in Education Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Law Commons, Life Sciences Commons, Medicine and Health Sciences Commons, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons, and the Urban Studies and Planning Commons Recommended Citation Restrepo, Jorge (2019) "COLOMBIAN CONFLICT: A SOCIOLOGICAL VIEW OF A GENDERED SOCIETY," Journal of Vincentian Social Action: Vol. 4 : Iss. 2 , Article 8. Available at: https://scholar.stjohns.edu/jovsa/vol4/iss2/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by St. John's Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Vincentian Social Action by an authorized editor of St. John's Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. COLOMBIAN CONFLICT: A SOCIOLOGICAL VIEW OF A GENDERED SOCIETY Jorge Restrepo INTRODUCTION When analyzing the role of minorities in the peace process, it is necessary to understand war n this essay I explore, having lived and experienced as gendered. Creating a space to share, discuss IColombian conflict, how the construction of the and debate war and war experiences from the war narrative was driven by berracos (an expression standpoint of the minorities challenged the used in Colombia to identify uber-males masculinized prevailing narrative. by war). In Colombia, women, afro-Colombians, native-Colombians, LGBT, anyone over sixty (as they It was imperative for all involved to acknowledge are not perceived useful to society), children (child- the relationship of minorities with the state soldiers), who have no representation before the apparatus in order to recognize their role in government, the voiceless minorities, politics. This process required were cruelly marginalized. deconstruction of berraco gender “Women were participants ideology, and underlining gender The characterization of the in peacemaking, while non- as a fluid category. victims of the Colombian conflict started from the recognition of the uber men tended to take The Colombian conflict imposed differences between the agents who the“pacifist” role based a power dynamic between men, participated in all processes of the women, and other minorities, on a prevailing notion that war. The peace process contained established by the government two systematic assumptions about women give birth and and the FARC (Revolutionary those who participated in the men protect them.” Armed Forces of Colombia - conflict (perpetrator), and those People’s Army) as part of their who would tell the story about internal war. They constructed the many years of war (victims); their own understanding this reinforced an understanding that berracos of gender, which was reproduced by the dominated the war narrative, which resulted in the conflict discourse. This conception of gender exclusion of all minorities. This “binary” rendered mainstreamed the way victims and victimizers men as active in the process as perpetrators or as related to each other. victims. BERRACO VIEW OF CONFLICT IDEOLOGY: Colombian conflict discourse emphasized a DISMISSAL OF THE FEMININE patriarchal structure that perpetuated gender Colombian conflict started as a systemic power dichotomy. Women were participants in peace- relationship between two agents of domination. making, while non-uber men tended to take the The first was the Colombian government which “pacifist”role based on a prevailing notion that played a functional role of guaranteeing the women give birth and men protect them. Conflict reconstruction of peace, as a societal need, and brought about “masculinization” of men through the protection of civilians involved in the conflict. war (war became an instrument of masculinization). The second group, with a dual role of dominating and being dominated, were the guerrillas or JoVSA • Volume 4, Issue 2 • Fall 2019 Colombian Conflict: A Sociological View of A Gendered Society 52 illegal groups like Revolutionary Armed Forces MASCULINIZATION OF VIOLENCE AND THE of Colombia - People’s Army (FARC) (Moser & VICTIM’S ROLE IN A GENDERED SOCIETY Clark, 2001). The dynamics of Colombian conflict during the The society was segmented in synchrony with the 80s and 90s resulted in conflicting perceptions ideological apparatuses and the related norms of the victims by the government. Victims’ rights imposed on anyone who participating in the war. were compromised by the systemic violence, which Conflict became the vehicle to implement gender forced them to take refuge in several “safe-zones” norms. These two actors, government and FARC, within Colombian territory (Moore & Barner, continued to actively reproduce the war narrative, 2007, pp. 33-37). increased violence under different labels that affected both combatants and noncombatants, Minorities were not considered part of the such as “kidnappings, sexual violence, torture, war process since they were not recognized as death threats, and harassment, loss and participants in the conflict. Minorities were destruction of property and goods, recruitment expected to be masculinized by society as a of minors, injury from landmines, and attacks pattern of “naturalization,” as part of the social on infrastructure” (Bouvier, 2016, p. 4). This war acceptance of a warring society as “natural,” induced masculinization, thus, creating berracos. and, as such, normative. They were at high risk of suffering sexual attacks, war crimes, and Men in the conflict were affected by different were a product of collateral war casualties. The acts of violence, such as torture; some were even government was not willing to protect their rights, recruited by different actors of the conflict against and the members of FARC sexualized the conflict their will. Women were forced into prostitution, by using them as tools to advance their agenda. displacement, sexual violence, abortions (Bouvier, Women and LGBT members lack of representation 2016, p. 4), or became widows of war, the head of in the government, and this left them in the hands the household, and subjects of the government and of their own oppressors. of the guerrillas. Perpetrators objectified women, assumed them as a primary target and denied “Gay, lesbian and transgender Colombians have them their human rights. This systematic structure been actively persecuted by armed groups involved of aggressiveness fundamentally corrupted basic in Colombia’s decades-long civil war” (Espitia, norms of human dignity. 2016). This marginalization, linked with fear of not being accepted and recognized by society as In general, men in the Colombian conflict had been active participants of civil life, condemned them acting as perpetrators, as war affected women at to be further sexualized because of the lack of the center of the family. Women faced the conflict representation in the Colombian laws. Colombian in many different ways, such as mothers of the criminal code IN 1890 condemned homosexuality perpetrators who were recruited, most of the (Martínez, 2010), which left behind a legal hole, time, when they were young. This war dynamic thereby, promoting acts against this community reproduced women with a social disparity in the and exposing them to perpetual abuse by members language of the conflict (Meertens & Stoller, 2001, of FARC and the Columbian army. pp. 132-148), and as a result, they were forgotten from the peace process as victims. In the conflict Not only gays, lesbians, and transgender people each side of participants were condemned to suffered the attacks, but also women, children, and participate as passive or active agents, obligated to elders were subject to several forms of violence; masculinize their identities to fit perfectly in army they stoically surrendered to the systematic use forces, either State or guerrillas, and combatants. of power. They were enrolled as combatants (Moser & Clark, 2001). expecting to erase their gender identity (in the case of the women), and characterized as victims in a JoVSA • Volume 4, Issue 2 • Fall 2019 Colombian Conflict: A Sociological View of A Gendered Society 53 homogenized understanding of male supremacy assumed female roles (transwomen) as companions as part of a social contract established between all or partners of some FARC members. After the actors involved. conflict ended, most of the LGBT members, who accepted demobilization as a negotiated way to POST-CONFLICT DE-MASCULINIZATION, start over, found out the Colombian government BINARY GENDER AND SECURITY had not implemented public policies to guarantee In her book Reconstrucción de la masculinidad an adequate assessment of LGBT rights (Díaz y reintegración de excombatientes en Colombia, Botia, 2014, pp. 4-5); therefore, policies like Theidon (2009) addresses how former combatants, reparation and assistantship were not adopted after demobilizing, were getting ready to die for this community, as they were not considered protecting their families as a stoic post-conflict vulnerable. Transitional justice recognized some possibility. As a result of this seemingly protective collectivities, and emphasized the recognition governmental posture, the combatants imagined of everyone’s