Mujeres de Negro, Madrid

Blood and fire

1 December 2002Feature Mujeres de Negro, Madrid

The specific targeting of women and young people in Barrancabermerja has led, not to a passive acceptance of authority and domination, but to their organisation and empowerment. This article, written by Mujeres de Negro (Women in Black), Madrid, focuses on the work of the Organización Femenina Popular (Women's Organisation of the People).

The paramilitaries of the AUC arrived in Barrancabermerja, the capital of Magdalena Medio and the oil capital of Colombia, in 1998, and at the turn of the year 2000-2001 “our city underwent a pacification by blood and fire ... by which one armed actor was thrown out and another has taken control as overlord of the city”. The result has been displacement, assassinations and intimidation of social activists, and the imposition of a “Manual de Convivencia” (Handbook for Living Together) with…