Memory and youthcide in the national strike of Colombia (2021)

Abstract

How were memory and youthcide related in the context of the 2021 national Strike in Colombia? This article answers this question through a study that combined activism in the streets with an analysis of social media content posted by young people. The author participated in several moments of the protests held in the city of Bogotá and analyzed the social media posts made by the Escudos Azules (Blue Shields) youth collective between April 28 and June 2, 2021 on Twitter. The results show that memory and youthcide converged in a set of collective actions. Through different memory exercises, the young people addressed the systematic youthcide through which their political practices have been eliminated, criminalized and stigmatized.