Burning and Rebuilding Bridges: Forensic Infrastructures in War and its Aftermath

Abstract

On February 20, 2002, FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) guerrillas bombed Danticas Bridge in the Colombian region of Eastern Antioquia. Half an hour later, three people plunged to their deaths there. For the next decade, the broken bridge was a material metaphor for the government's inability to successfully negotiate with the FARC or repair the damage of sabotage. This article uses the concept of “forensic infrastructures” to examine the symbolic and political importance of the destruction and reconstruction of Danticas. It draws on Eyal Weizman's interpretation of forensics as the art and science of understanding materials as evidence and forums where truth is debated and crafted. It examines the political utility a forensic understanding of infrastructure offers in assessing responsibility for destruction in the aftermath of war. It suggests that performance, physicality, and play—when seen forensically as forums for truth creation—can help achieve embodied forms of justice and reparation after war. [Colombia, conflict, ecology, environment].