Big Problems in Bogota

There has been a recent development in the difficult story of Internal Displacement in Colombia. Last week, a large group of Internally Displaced Persons in Bogota (the capital of Colombia) mobilized in protest and took a large park in the city. Displaced Persons are fighting for visibility and inclusion. Bogota receives more Displaced Persons each day than it can deal with, and the system many times collapses under the pressure of so many families in need of attention. According to estimates, Bogota is also the city with the largest population of displaced persons in the country.

Reportedly about 2500 Displaced Persons have settled at the Parque Tercer Milenio (Third Millennium Park) in protest, and they are calling on others to join them. They have been there for about 2 weeks and are demanding several things, among them housing and COL$15 million, about US$7000 for a productive project (starting a business). City officials have brought the police to the park to prevent any more people from settling there and to prevent the construction of more permanent structures. The city has offered the displaced population settled at the park to move to "albergues" or shelters, but the displaced fear that once they are in the shelters they will be forgotten and their demands not met.

Although IDP legislation in Colombia is considered by experts as the most advanced in the world, assistance programs demand the displaced persons to be registered with the gvmt in order to be eligible to receive aid. There are many programs from school, to subsidies, to work programs, and many of them are wonderful, but many people are excluded from those kinds of benefits. The bottom line is that many displaced persons are very afraid of registering in the RUPD (Registro Unico de Personas Desplazadas - Unique Registry of Displaced Persons), because they fear retaliation. The affected persons and families have suffered a great deal and many times have lost their loved ones in violent ways. It is not hard to understand their fear. Making registration obligatory in order to receive aid makes sense because it is hard to classify who is really displaced and who is not, but at the same time, as I already stated, it excludes many people who deserve and desperately need that assistance from the gvmt.

This act of protest has been criticized by some government officials who argue that a public space is not a place for a long-term protest, and that young children are being abused by having them at the park. What they either don't realize or just omit from their discourse is the fact that the informal settlements in which they have to live at are not much better and, in some occasions, worse.

This is a new development, one in which displaced persons are being empowered by their will to become visible. It will be very interesting to see what kinds of other structures come out of this effort, and hopefully it will bring more attention to the subject, and better solutions to aid the displaced.

I am going to try to go to Bogota and speak to some of the people at the Parque Tercer Milenio, because I think this a very interesting development, but one that scares me because Internal Displacement is used as a way to destabilize the country and as a deliberate strategy of war. These people have suffered greatly, and I would not like to see them suffer any more.

I don't mean to romanticize displacement or the displaced, but it do mean to acknowledge their part in this fight, and their efforts for inclusion and visibility.

Thank you for reading...

Photo by David Campuzano - El Espectador.