All Are Worthy

ALEJANDRO ANGULO S.J
General Director of Cinep

Where do we go from here?

2004 began with the news of negotiation with the paramilitaries and closed with the proclamation that they are being demobilized. There are some who say that this is good news: there will be less soldiers. But there are some who ask how long this breaking down will last until the build up begins again.

We still do not know everything about the demobilization, since questions on impunity have not been answered, and the chosen areas have left many doubts regarding their feasibility. Yet they insist on telling us that improvisation is the norm. But when this includes the ignorance of communities bordering sites who would benefit from an injection of manual labor, in addition to the economic insecurity of the converts into society, one has to ask oneself: where are we going?

The scenarios are not brilliant. The inclusion of the paramilitaries within society is a sign of the times, but that does not mean that it is the desirable solution because, to put it succinctly, we are heading towards much of the ‘same old, same old’. And, similarly, it is force instead of policy and exclusion instead of democracy. Similarly, it translates into an increase in poverty on the one hand and its corresponding concentration of wealth on the other. This tendency is not new in the case of Colombia, where indications show inequalities of the worst kind. Yes, what is new is that the values make coexistence possible and these were codified in the 1991 Constitution. They are transformed with war and the exclusion strategy. Unfortunately, the metamorphosis of the values also undermine the resistance of those who defend the good, the principles of justice, personal dignity, and freedom.

Fear

The substitution of the value of coexistence with that of security is demonstrated mainly by the prevalence of fear. Just as Uribe Vélez was chosen thanks to his promise to defeat fear, Bush was also re-elected for the same reason, and Uribe counts on being re-elected for just this identical reason. And the paradox of the story is that when choosing force as an instrument for gaining security, both are fighting fear with fear. In this form we have entered the spiral of fear, and we do not realize this spiral has no exit.

Individualism

The second example of the metamorphosis is the prevalence of "every man for himself". Like all terrorist strategies, those employed by both presidents create a momentary loss of good sense that appears in cases of explosions or surprise raids. The instinctive reaction is flight. In this case, the flight goes forward: that my grandchildren pay later so that I can save myself. In many cases this had meant escaping literally out of the country, but for many others it consists of defending personal goods without any show of solidarity, as is demonstrated by the many current legislative and judicial procedures as far as social welfare is concerned. And future problems that egoism creates are not considered. Those of the future will have to solve those.

Human rights

By the nth time it is necessary to indicate that the hostility against the defenders of human rights is the trade name of the paramilitaries. And the new strategies to delay homicides and postpone the kidnappings rest on the displacement, little by little, the economic blockade and psychological pressure. It is the prevalence of "all are worthy" because human life is not more important than private property, nor is the human being more valuable than the fruits of his hands. These points of reference that we call human rights have been lost: we have no alternative to the fight of the species. Today, this seems to be the most probable scenario for Colombia, where priorities incline more and more toward quick riches and less and less toward integral and sustainable human development.