Women’s resistance strategies vis-à-vis the violence in Medellín and Barrancabermeja: 2000-2005

Abstract

Based within their possibilities, the women inhabitants of the popular neighborhoods of Medellín and Barrancabermeja embarked on a series of actions to counteract the violence, which occurred between 2000 and 2005. To this extent, the purpose of this article is to highlight the creative repertoire constructed by the women to resist the violent acts committed against them, their relatives, and organizational processes, and to declare their position against armed conflict. The information required for this, was gathered through semi-structured interviews and focus groups with women belonging to organizations groped in the popular neighborhoods of the two cities. The researchers also interviewed people that are close to the organizational processes, and they reviewed the statistics and databases of a number of organizations that gave them an idea of the numbers of homicides, forced disappearances, and forced displacement, which took place in this period. The violence suffered in the urban centers caused innumerable human rights violations. In view of that reality, the women’s collectives transcended their condition as victims and strengthened their personal and collective skills to resist. They identified as legal subjects in order to visibilize and denounce the ravages of the urbanization of the conflict and urban violence.