From stigma to peace in the official University

How can we not dream
of a country where no one
is on the waiting
list of the lords of all sides
of the war?

Juan Manuel Roca

The phenomena of repressive practices are not widespread throughout the country; rather, there are systematic repertoires that vary according to the dynamics, structures and actors involved in the map of conflicts at the territorial level. In the Caribbean and Antioquia Areas, paramilitaries have been the main players attacking university communities. Unfortunately, in Bogotá, where the connection is less clear, it is not surprising that state institutions have been the leading actors in harassing public university students.

The former Vice President and retired General Óscar Naranjo Trujillo admitted it and accepted in the name of the State, after the “Meetings for Truth,” that a discourse and some means to persecute and stigmatize the public universities were designed by the National Police. But perhaps with the purpose of recognizing and asking for real forgiveness, a mistake for him, because “we have not come close to overcoming mistrust,” it is only the doctrine of internal enemies that becomes reality, threatening public universities and critical thinking, something that unfortunately we have suffered for a long time.

The reflections on the stigmatization and persecution of young university students have been recorded in a longer perspective, which we have recently tried to analyze in the book: ¿Cuál paz para esta guerra? ¿Para esta guerra, cuál paz? In fact, we make explicit some critical, substantive issues as contributions to the Paz Total proposal of the current government. In this way, we propose three critical points for understanding our reality: to create a tension in the context through a reading of the actors involved, their practices, interests and motivations in relation to the war and the possibility of building peace with social justice; to problematize the Government’s Paz Total in terms of its political, legal and practical approach; and to show a way in which the situation is evolving to address the urgencies of the dynamics of war-mongering and repression.

The war has not stopped in Colombia, even though it has been almost two years since the public policy of Total Peace was declared. Our country has not yet been able to move from the lines of war to the lines of peace. The continuous war lines of the representation of the internal enemy and the strengthening of the doctrine of national security are the reason for our concern about the campaign of stigmatization that, according to history, has targeted public universities and has caused many victims, such as those at the UPN.

This Government has made several statements about its commitment to integral reparation in the name of national security. To achieve this, we believe it is important to define the place of the Colombian state in the transition between war and peace in at least three ways: I. as an actor in the war; II. as a guarantor of the right to peace; and III. as a responsible actor in the strengthening of a state policy that could ensure non-repetition. These responsibilities tend to guarantee, consolidate and affirm such a right effectively, using all available resources, not only military, industrial or agricultural, but also educational.

In this regard, universities, especially public ones, are recognized as a social arena for building sustainable peace. In addition, it requires the ability and the effort of the state to avoid any kind of mistrust or stigma that could limit pedagogical, political and socio-cultural thinking, that is, critical thinking that invites people to talk about new paradigms and to move towards lines of peace with social justice.

From this point, the state can also strengthen the nation’s ability to begin with peace and to end the war in the same way. A war that we have suffered for decades in the public university, generation after generation. In order to achieve this, it is imperative to believe in education and educational communities, to have the will and political acumen, and in the same way to focus on three main objectives: to build peace, to stop making war, and to contribute to the eradication of stereotypes that enable political repression.