Skip to main content

Intangible Heritage in Colombia in the Midst of Armed Conflict and Unreached Peace

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Transcultural Diplomacy and International Law in Heritage Conservation

Abstract

After sixty years of armed conflict in Colombia, the wounds have left very deep marks within the representative social groups and their cultural manifestations. War impacted vulnerable populations, especially those rich in indigenous and black heritage. The chapter explores the case of the El Salado massacre in the region of Montes de Maria, Colombia, in which between February 16 and 22, 2000, a group of paramilitaries executed 66 people, including men, women, and children while the victims were forced to play their traditional music or the killers played the instruments after each brutal murder or rape. The chapter discovers how international and national legislation reached out late but finally recognized the brutality of one group against another, and how from the cultural heritage a community strives to forget and to prepare its next generations for the future, based on reconciliation and revaluation of its intangible cultural values.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Law 1448 of June 10, 2011, “By which measures of attention, assistance and integral reparation to the victims of the internal armed conflict are dictated and other provisions”. http://www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co/micrositios/caminosParaLaMemoria/descargables/ley1448.pdf. Accessed: 27 July 2020.

  2. 2.

    Final Agreement for the End of the Conflict and the Construction of a Stable and Lasting Peace. November 24, 2016.

    https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/Colombia%20Nuevo%20Acuerdo%20Final%2024%20Nov%202016_0.pdf. Accessed: 27 July 2020.

  3. 3.

    This was not, therefore, the first time that the creation of private security forces was promoted in Colombia. In fact, according to Gutiérrez-Sanín (2016), this was a practice deployed since the beginning of the twentieth century to control agrarian conflicts.

  4. 4.

    A testimony of this process can be seen in the documentary “La Sierra”, directed by Margarita Martínez Escallón and Scott Dalton in 2004. It can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3ENEjvzIrA&has_verified=1.

  5. 5.

    After the demobilization of the different paramilitary groups, so-called Criminal Gangs (Bacrim) appeared, organizations that “picked up” some structures that did not demobilize. These groups have evolved so that some call them “neo-paramilitary” (Ávila, 2019) and/or “narco-paramilitary”.

  6. 6.

    Taken from the documentary El Salado: Face of a Massacre. Directed by Tony Rubio. Produced by the National Center of Historical Memory (CNMH) and published on Youtube in 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrSbzIt0-Us.

  7. 7.

    https://en.unesco.org/countries/colombia/conventions. Accessed: 18 July 2020.

  8. 8.

    https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/. Accessed: 18 July 2020.

  9. 9.

    https://ich.unesco.org/en/states-parties-00024. Accessed: 18 July 2020.

  10. 10.

    http://territoriosonoro.org/. Accessed: 26 July 2020.

  11. 11.

    http://cantospitosytambores.blogspot.com/. Accessed: 26 July 2020.

  12. 12.

    https://www.mincultura.gov.co/areas/artes/expedicionsensorial/Paginas/montes-de-maria.aspx Accessed: 26 July 2020.

  13. 13.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_APYncn97g. Accessed: 26 July 2020.

References

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to César Augusto Velandia Silva .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Velandia Silva, C.A., Uribe Sarmiento, J.J. (2021). Intangible Heritage in Colombia in the Midst of Armed Conflict and Unreached Peace. In: Niglio, O., Lee, E.Y.J. (eds) Transcultural Diplomacy and International Law in Heritage Conservation. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0309-9_19

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics