National Center for Historical Memory

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Building in Bogota 2018 Bogota Centro de Memoria Historica.jpg
Building in Bogotá

The National Centre for Historical Memory (NCHM) is a national and public entity attached to the Administrative Department for Social Prosperity (DSP) in Colombia.

Contents

History

The NCHM was created by the Law 1448/2011, also called the Law of Victims and Land Restitution. [1] The NCHM is in charge of contributing to the State´s duty of memory regarding the violations committed during the Colombian armed conflict. Also, it helps on the comprehensive reparation and the right to the truth to which the victims and the entire society are entitled. [2]

The Centre produces public information available for everyone interested, through museum and educational activities that enrich the knowledge of the social and political history of Colombia. In 2021, the NCHM will inaugurate the Colombia’s National Museum of Memory, a platform for the dialogue and articulation of plural memories of the armed conflict that guarantees the inclusion of different actors and populations and contributes to the comprehensive reparation, historical clarification, guaranties of non-repetition and the construction of a sustainable peace.

Deemed to be very close to the Colombian government and the Armed Forces, the Centre was excluded in 2020 from the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience (which brings together more than 200 museums and memorials in over 60 countries). According to associations of victims of the conflict and historians, the center carries out "negationist" work by reducing the armed conflict to a struggle between the State and "terrorists. [3]

The government approved the so-called "veterans' law," which provides that a space in the National Memory Museum be dedicated "to displaying to the public the life stories of veterans of the public force, especially highlighting their courageous actions, their sacrifice and their contribution to the general welfare.

The director of the organization, Darío Acevedo, resigned on July 7, 2022, following a complaint filed against him by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace for having altered documents, when he did not have the right to do so, in order to conceal the role of paramilitarism in the conflict. Darío AcevedoHe faced several controversies and was criticized by victims' associations who accused him of denial. In particular, he signed a controversial agreement with José Félix Lafaurie, president of the Colombian Federation of Cattle Breeders (FEDEGAN), to highlight the role of cattle breeders in the conflict, while FEDEGAN has often been criticized for financing paramilitary groups and opposing reparations to victims through land restitution. [4]

Organization

To fulfill its mandates and strategic objectives, the NCHM is divided into four large areas:

One of its main objectives is the contribution to the clarification of the facts, the culprits and the conditions that made the armed conflict possible, as well as the institutional, political and social dynamics that unleashed and degraded the conflict.

Also, the NCHM works to:

Reports published

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

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References

  1. "LEY 1448 DE 2011" (in Spanish). secretariasenado.gov.co. Archived from the original on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  2. "DECRETO NÚMERO 4803 DE 2011" (PDF) (in Spanish). presidencia.gov.co. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  3. "Accord de paix en Colombie : Le gouvernement sape le travail de mémoire". Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved 2022-07-13.
  4. "En medio de varias polémicas, Darío Acevedo renunció como director del Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica - Cuarto de Hora". 8 July 2022. Archived from the original on 8 July 2022. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
  5. Historical Memory Group (2013). "Enough Already!" Colombia: Memories of War and Dignity (PDF) (in Spanish). The National Center for Historical Memory’s (NCHM). ISBN   978-958-57608-4-4. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-12-11. Retrieved 2015-12-11.