Counting the Dead: The Culture and Politics of Human Rights Activism in Colombia (California Series in Public Anthropology)

401 Pages·2007·1.4 MB·English

by  Winifred Tate

Counting the Dead
CALIFORNIA SERIES IN PUBLIC ANTHROPOLOGY
Series Editor: Robert Borofsky (Hawaii Pacific University)
Contributing Editors: Philippe Bourgois (University of Pennsylvania),
Paul Farmer (Partners in Health), Alex Hinton (Rutgers University),
Carolyn Nordstrom (University of Notre Dame), and Nancy Scheper-Hughes
(U.C. Berkeley)
University of California Press Editor: Naomi Schneider
Counting the Dead
The Culture and Politics
of Human Rights Activism in Colombia
Winifred Tate
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley . Los Angeles . London
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© 2007 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tate, Winifred, 1970–.
Counting the dead : the culture and politics of human
rights activism in Colombia / Winifred Tate.
p. cm. (California series in public
anthropology ; 18)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn: 978-0-520-25282-o (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn: 978-0-520-25283-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Human rights advocacy—Colombia. 2. Political
persecution—Colombia. 3. Colombia—Politics and
Government—1974. 4. Colombia—Social
conditions—1970. I. Title.
JC599.c7t38 2007
323.09861—dc22 2007015639
Manufactured in the United States of America
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on New Leaf EcoBook 50, a 100%
recycled fiber of which 50% is de-inked post-consumer
waste, processed chlorine-free. EcoBook 50 is acid-free
and meets the minimum requirements of ansi/astm
d5634–01 (Permanence of Paper).
For the many Colombian human rights
defenders and their colleagues around
the world who generously shared their
reflections, hopes, and fears with me
And for Beatrice

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xiii
Map of Colombia xvii
Introduction 1
1. Colombia: Mapping the Eternal Crisis 31
2. Solidarity with Our Class Brothers: The First Wave
of Colombian Human Rights Activism 72
3. The Production of Human Rights Knowledge and
the Practice of Politics 107
4. The Emotional Politics of Activism in the 1990s 146
5. The Global Imaginaries of Colombian Activists at
the United Nations and Beyond 175
6. State Activism and the Production of Impunity 215
7. Human Rights and the Colombian Military’s War Stories 256
Conclusion: The Politics of Human Rights Knowledge 290
Notes 307
Selected Bibliography 345
Index 371

Acknowledgments
Many more people than I can name here deserve my thanks and grati-
tude as they have accompanied me in research, reflection, and activism
over the past eighteen years.
First, I could not have written this book without the support and
intellectual prodding of the New York University Department of Anthro-
pology, especially my adviser, Tom Abercrombie. Fred Myers, Margaret
McLagan, Michael Taussig, and Sally Engle Merry provided critical
comments. I was fortunate to find a writing group on my return from
the field: many thanks to Jessica Cattelino, Omri Elisha, Ayse Parla,
Elizabeth Smith, and especially Julie Chu, who offered support and com-
ments until the bitter end. Leo Hsu has been a long-standing support
in matters existential, intellectual, and technical. My colleagues at the
Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University provided
an intellectual home during my fellowship in the Politics, Culture, and
Identity Program. Among the many Brown colleagues who deserve my
thanks are Peter Andreas, Keith Brown, James Der Derian, Cathy Lutz,
Simone Pulver, and particularly Kay Warren. I have also benefited from
thoughtful comments following public presentations of pieces of this
work at the Watson Institute faculty seminar, the Pembroke Center at
Brown University, the Anthropology of Media Lecture Series at Wellesley
College, and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas
at Austin. Ramiza Koya offered thoughtful comments on many drafts, as
well as many hours of conversation and reflection; I have been fortunate
ix