The Unspeakable Agony of Inflicted Pain: Torture, Betrayal, Redress

Abstract

Whereas most torture narratives focus on the abuses of the state, Garcia’s essay addresses the underrepresented issue of torture committed by a political movement against its own members. One of fifty-five survivors of an anti-infiltration operation instigated by the militarized wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines against its members, Garcia describes the challenges of redress: reopening traumatic pasts; searching for justice from a non-state entity; and confronting atrocities within a movement to which survivors had dedicated themselves. These difficulties, combined with the lack of anti-torture legislation in the Philippines, underscore the ways in which politics and the law can foreclose avenues for justice that survivors seek. Garcia looks internationally for examples of how survivors have campaigned for a public accounting of torture and for various forms of redress.