The seven sections of the Colombian society when condemning violence. Which one are you for?

It’s important to discuss and to think about the tendency to condemn the violence coming from a specific group and at the same time to justify or to be indulgent with another. If one looks at it very carefully it could be one of the main reasons that explains the everlasting Colombian armed conflict.

Generally speaking it’s normal to hear expressions and statements about the exact dimension of violent actors compared in quantity to the rest of the Colombian population. It’s very common to hear expressions such as “we -the goodies- are much more than the baddies”. They aren’t false at all. They really reflect the hope of living in peace one day.

However it’s not common to think about how many of the goodies are prone to be more indulgent with one or more forms of violence. It’s important to discuss and to think about the tendency to condemn the violence coming from a specific group and at the same time to justify or to be indulgent with another. If one looks at it very carefully it could be one of the main reasons that explains the everlasting Colombian armed conflict.

To keep it simple, there are seven sections of the Colombian society when condemning the forms of violence coming from the different groups in the armed conflict. I will explain each of them starting from the extreme sections and ending by the one in the middle.

The first section could be integrated firstly by the left-armed groups such as ELN and FARC but also by people that could help them rather logistically or with some sort of money to carry on fighting. This group is composed of very few Colombians compared to the rest of the population. It’s not the case of some years ago when the guerillas were helped by a group of little farmers who felt oppressed by the state. This section of the population publicly condemns any action from the state and paramilitary groups and obviously not the ones committed by the guerrillas. We could name it the armed left and its sponsors.

The seventh section is the armed right and its sponsors and is composed of the paramilitary groups, members of the state that perpetrate illegal actions such as false positives and the people who could help these operations logistically or with some sort of money. This group could be bigger in quantity than the armed left and its sponsors but it’s still too small compared to the rest of the population. The armed right and its sponsors publicly condemns any action from the guerrillas while keeps quiet over their own activity.

The second section of Colombian society when condemning violence is composed by citizens who think that any act of the guerrillas is justified by the fact that there is a dictatorship regime which acts against the people and with the help of oligarchy and paramilitary groups. Even there is the feeling that the acts committed by left-armed groups fulfill minimum standards of a fair war or at least that when it’s not the case it’s because of false propaganda from the government. Among this section that we can name the armed left’s naïve supporters we find very few Colombians, some of them little farmers who feel safer under the control of the guerrillas. However we can’t say this group supports the guerrillas with money or logistically.

In the sixth section that we can name the armed right’s naïve supporters there is still a very small group of population but bigger in quantity than the armed left's naïve supporters. Here, we still find expressions in some well-off circles such as “paramilitary groups are a legitimate response to guerrillas in the absence of security from the state”. Also when talking about excessive force from the police or the army, it’s common to think that anything is worth to defeat the guerrillas.

We could name the armed left’s indulgents those composing the third section. This group is much bigger than all the previous and it rejects all forms of violence both from the armed left and the armed right. But there is a big indulgency over the acts committed by the guerrillas. The armed left's indulgents are used to recognize the atrocities perpetrated by FARC and ELN but put all or most of the blame for the conflict on the armed right. This section of citizens is composed mainly of radical members from the Colombian democratic left.

The fifth section may be named the armed right’s indulgents because of the indulgence towards the illegal actions perpetrated by the state and paramilitary groups. It rejects the illegal violence from those actors but the condemnation is so little compared to the blame attributed to the guerrillas. Last year there was a big demonstration on February 4 against FARC. There were massive rallies in most of Colombian large cities and towns. There was a massive condemnation to the crimes of both paramilitary groups and the state on March 6, but it was not the same in quantity as the rallies of 4^th of February. This shows that most of Colombians –being the bigger section- could condemn the illegal action of the armed right but if asked who’s to blame for the conflict, they probably answer FARC and ELN. President Uribe –at least when he speaks publicly- is a member of this group. He represents the majority who think that the illegal acts committed by the armed right are very few compared to the ones of the guerrillas’.

Finally, there is a minority who thinks that regardless of the discussion on who is guiltier of the conflict, any violent act committed rather from the armed left or the armed right is to be condemned the same. This group is smaller than the armed right's indulgents, the armed left's indulgents and even than the armed right's naïve supporters but could be growing these days. We can name the fourth section of Colombian society the non tolerants of any violence. For good of peace the bigger this group is the quicker we reach an agreement of stopping violent actions.

At least there is progress towards peace if there are fewer Colombians in the first and seventh sections. However, justifying or being indulgent with the violence from the armed left or the armed right is the same as waiting the other to make the first step, which means that nobody will give up until the other gives up and so that peace depends always on the other’s commitment and very few on its own. That’s why I prefer to be part of the non tolerants of any violence. Which section are you for?