Figures and responsibilities in contexts of mass violence: limits and risks of quantification in transitional justice in Colombia

Abstract

This article raises the limitations and risks of the use of quantification to attribute responsibilities for mass crimes in transitional justice. I question the inconsistencies in the official registry of forced displacement in Colombia with respect to the distribution of responsibilities of the armed actors, taking into account the historical trajectory of the armed conflict and the differences with social records, for which I propose to investigate the conditions under which the registration technology operates and how these affect the production of figures that circulate in the public sphere with claims of truth. I propose that the production of testimonial evidence on which the official registry is based changes according to state policies and the dynamics of the armed conflict, highlighting the importance of historically and contextually situating the official registry and how the armed conflict not only leaves victims but also produces its own representations and opacities through the story told by the official registry.