For the social movement in Barracabermeja, 2010 has been characterised by an increase in political repression.[1] In fact, there appears to be an intentional and systematic increase in this repression, through the use of fear and efforts to destroy the fabric of society, as a strategy to debilitate and paralyse work to defend human rights in the region. PBI has investigated the psychosocial impacts of said repression and the resistance strategies of the affected organisations.

Political repression

Concretely, this repression is evidenced through threats (via phone, directly to the targeted person or their family members, via electronic mail and pamphlets), intimidations, stalking, physical aggressions, theft of information, defamations, unfounded accusations, and criminal prosecutions.[2]

A psychosocial reading of this situation demonstrates how these apparently isolated and separate incidents make up an elaborate, intentional and systematic strategy of repression whose objective is to paralyse the social struggle of human rights defenders.

Threats have become one of the most common forms of fear generation. They are repeated and arrive from different sources and at unexpected moments, creating a climate of tension and uncertainty. The majority of the organisations interviewed and accompanied by PBI has, and continue to, suffer threats.

In addition, it is important to mention the crude reality of the neighbourhoods, districts, and villages of Barrancabermeja[3] where organisations like the Grassroots Women’s Organisation (OFP) work to confront systematic human rights violations against civil society, which is affected by various violations[4] such as threats, murders, gunfights, infighting among illegal armed groups, the detonating of grenades in public spaces, extrajudicial executions and the repeated distribution of threatening pamphlets by different illegal armed groups.[5]

Criminal prosecutions

In terms of criminal prosecutions, the case of David Ravelo, member of the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS), demonstrates how to paralyse the activism of a historic and recognised popular leader, and how to symbolically attack social movements, given David’s role in defending human rights. Another example is the attacks against the Peasant Farmer Association of the Cimitarra River Valley (ACVC), whose members have been prosecuted since 2007,[6] which has left the organisation stigmatised and in a legally vulnerable situation.

The prosecutions appear to be particularly strategic in the sense that they have a low political cost and require minimal force on behalf of the victimisers, while, on the other hand, they have a high social and political cost for the affected organisations. These prosecutions can last a long time—from the start of the investigation, emission of the arrest warrant, detention, legal proceedings and even the period until which the detention order is definitively lifted—meaning that the human rights defenders are out of world of human rights work for quite a long time. This has two impacts. First, it impacts the organisation in question, and second, shows other organisations the potential repression they could face. This creates a paralysing fear of a possible prosecution among these human rights defenders. 

But that is not all. In order for a criminal prosecution to happen, certain conditions to permit and justify it must exist. And that is where the unfounded accusations, defamations, and stigmatisations come in. These play an important role in terms of shaping public opinion, creating doubt about the work, credibility, transparency and legitimacy of the organisation. In the collective imagination, these organisations end up marked or labelled as a suspicious organisation, and if they are later prosecuted, it is because "they must have done something or have some kind of illegal connection. "

That is to say, threats, stalking, defamation and stigmatisation function, at times, as precursors to criminal prosecutions.

The experience of some of the interviewed organisations also relates to information management in the press, military and paramilitary presence in Barracabermeja, criminal prosecutions or changes in laws that affect human rights—as is the case of the removal of the Peasant Reserve Zone in the Cimitarra River Valley—among others.

Psychosocial impact of repression

The experience of many of those interviewed demonstrate some key impacts: fear, destruction of the fabric of society, and the wearing down of leaders.

Fear is a psycho-physiological reaction that is activated in the face of a threatening situation that causes uncertainty. There is a difference between fear and terror.[7] Fear is caused by uncertainty, while terror is caused by knowing with certainty that something can, will, or has happened. The fact that the Barrancabermeja social movement has become the focus of simultaneous repression creates the sense of collective threat. In this we see at play the political dynamic of fear, which occurs when the capacity exists to paralyse an entire political project.

Another impact is the wearing down of the members of social organisations. To live under constant political threat and fear generates an accumulated exhaustion that has negative affects on one’s physical and psychological health.[8] Fear can become chronic[9] when the violence is constant and unending. In such cases, fear becomes a permanent state of daily life that not only affects human rights work, but also the family, community and personal spaces of the affected persons.

Similarly, fear can pass from the individual to the collective when it seeps into organisational dynamics, breaking up community and collective experiences. The message is not individual but rather collective because the intention is not just the break up one organisation, but an entire social movement. This creates a climate of tension and mistrust that can l of organisations and community spaces.

Understanding the present requires the preservation of memory

From the 1980s to the late 1990s, Barrancabermeja was strongly influenced by the armed insurgency. At the same time, the oil boom led to an atmosphere of workers rights and union struggles. The city has had an emblematic political and social movement that has regularly risen up in support of human rights, for the most part composed of unions, peasants, indigenous and women. On 16 May 1998, one of the most gruesome massacres in the history of the city took place, marking the beginning of paramilitary control. The Peasant Exodus to Barrancabermeja, in which 10,000 peasants participated, also took place in 1998. That same year, the ACVC promoted the creation of the Peasant Reserve Zone of the Cimitarra River.[10] In 2000, the various organisations of the social movement joined forces in a solidarity action to confront the unfounded accusations, threats and burglary of the CREDHOS headquarters. From 1998 to 2000, paramilitaries took over Barrancabermeja. The impacts of the aforementioned repression are evidenced in the exodus starting in 2001 until 2005 of various organisations, including CREDHOS—and specifically David Ravelo—and the OFP as a result of selective murders and a wave of threats that continued to grow until 2007. In general, all of the organisations were targeted during the years of paramilitary power, and that continues today.

Peaceful resistance for human rights

Despite the fact that paramilitary repression led to the weakening of the vast majority of the social movement, it did not manage to exterminate them completely. In fact, some initiatives were maintained and new organising spaces were created, like the Magdalena Medio Human Rights Defenders Working Group (ETTTDDHH) and the Barrancabermeja and Magdalena Medio Social Forum. These had an important role in the cohesion of what remained of the social movement, opening new spaces for human rights and strengthening the fabric of society.

Some of the  peaceful resistance strategies that these organisations have used in their daily work include: the struggle for the legitimacy and legality of the Peasant Reserve Zone of the Cimitarra River Valley; constant denunciation and highlighting of human rights violations; collaboration with peasant and indigenous movements in rural areas; human rights trainings with women, children and young people in the affected neighbourhoods of Barrancabermeja; and protest and legal struggles against the criminal prosecution of members of social organisations.

The political and economic support of the international community has also played, and continues to play, an important role. This has included highlighting and validating the victims’ reality, which shows the lack of political guarantees for the work of human rights defenders.

To conclude, neither the wearing down that this repression generates among leaders, nor the fear, nor the attempts to generate mistrust and undo the fabric of society, have managed to break the social movement. On the contrary, a political reading of these strategies—as well as the evidence of the increasing sophistication and dynamism of the repression strategies—gives strength to a movement that is united in its commitment and perseverance to continue its legal, legitimate and transparent work for the human rights of girls, boys, young people, peasants, unions, indigenous peoples, and, in general, the rural and urban population, especially in Barrancabermeja’s neighbourhoods, as is the case of the Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Bisexual community, severely attacked by social intolerance.

PBI Colombia supports the legitimate defence of human rights and is constantly analysing new strategies of political repression and attacks on the fabric of society, as well as the impacts on social movements, and supports peaceful resistance initiatives in defence of human rights, as internationally recognised.