Jineth Bedoya (Bogotá, 47 years old) has found the justice that she so much sought. The journalist, a symbol of the fight against sexual violence in Latin America, was kidnapped by paramilitaries on May 25, 2000 at the entrance to La Modelo prison in Bogotá, while waiting to enter for an interview previously agreed upon as part of a investigation on arms trafficking, disappearances and homicides in Colombian prisons. They held her for 16 hours and then abandoned her on a highway. After more than 20 years, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on Monday condemned the Colombian State for the kidnapping and torture of Bedoya, a trap set with the participation of state agents.
Bedoya’s suffering throughout these years was aggravated by the 12 occasions on which the Prosecutor’s Office made her testify about her violation, as well as the unprecedented decision of the Colombian State to withdraw from the virtual public hearing on March 15, when he tried to challenge the magistrates in a plea rejected by the highest American court of human rights.
“Perhaps I will never be able to see behind bars the police general who ordered my abduction, nor the men who supported him. That will remain in the conscience of the State, and in the ineffectiveness of the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation that contributed to this impunity, but my compensation is sealed. The Inter-American Court has ruled, and the vindication that I sought so much today is here, ”said Bedoya this Tuesday in his first appearance before his colleagues, at times with tears in his eyes, at the headquarters of the Foundation for Press Freedom ( Flip), which has accompanied his case. “What relieves my soul and compensates in some way for so much pain, all that I have had to suffer, is that I did not achieve it just for myself. Thousands of women who are survivors of sexual violence, and women journalists who have been violated, persecuted and stigmatized for doing their work, are finally recognized and heard. That is justice ”.
Bedoya, editor of the newspaper Time, has become a recognized activist against sexual violence. Since she decided to speak out about her rape, more than a decade ago, she has spearheaded the campaign It is not time to shut up, which seeks that the victims raise their voices and denounce the attacks. “A campaign that today, by order of the Court, becomes a memory center for this country”, the only one in the world dedicated to sexual violence, highlights the day after the sentence during an interview at the headquarters of the Flip, an old brick house in Bogotá.
Petite, she wears a green coat and a purple scarf, the combination of the colors of feminist struggles. The scarf is stamped with violet butterflies, “which in oriental culture mean dignity, which is my symbol and that of It is not time to shut up”, He points out. The entrance is guarded by the security scheme with which he has had to learn to live, a reminder that he has been the target of incessant threats even before his abduction.
Question. Has the sentence helped you heal?
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Answer. After the hearing on March 15, I entered a very difficult moment, the most difficult of my life. The State assumed an attitude that left me completely empty. I went into a very serious health crisis, and severe depression. I spent five months without going to the newspaper, with all the support, fortunately, but I could not reconnect with journalism. And in all that time I thought, first, if I was going to make it to today. If my will and my body were going to allow me to know the sentence. And second, how I was going to feel about the sentence. I can say that there are things that are irreparable, and that I will never be able to recover, but I do have peace within. Today I see different things. I think that nothing will be able to return me to that state of feeling anger, or of entering those crises of trying to get justice, but skating on pain. Today I feel like I downloaded.
P. President Iván Duque said that Colombia will abide by the ruling in its entirety, and you said that the Court has given them an opportunity to make history. What do you expect now from the Colombian State?
R. Seeing the president’s message was encouraging after all that has happened. It was not very clear how they were going to react, but that position of the State representative at this moment gives the possibility that we can move forward. And what I hope is that. That we can sit down very soon, build together and that, as the sentence says, they open a path for me where we do not have to argue, fight, press, but they understand the greatness of the moment. And that we can do something together.
P. Has any representative of the State contacted you regarding the sentence?
R. No one has looked for me yet. I hope they are in the analysis of the sentence, but that they do it soon. This is an opportunity to try to straighten out that path that was so undermined on March 15.
P. So far it has not been a restorative process, to the point that it has equated the humiliation of the State with the sexual violence it suffered. How did you feel in March when the Colombian State withdrew from the hearing?
R. My life ended again. It was the feeling of total humiliation, and of abandonment by a state with which, ultimately, I had been collaborating in recent years. Mission of It is not time to shut upFrom reaching so many regions and helping so many women, he always came across some part of the State. In some cases, we made alliances with the Presidency itself to make feminicide or sexual violence visible. So, it is to feel that from one moment to another they turn their back on you, they ignore you. I felt that I was empty, but the worst thing is that this situation led me to an emotional crisis that triggered a problem in the spine. It was a moment of crisis. I went down to the bottom of the hole and hit bottom.
P. At the hearing, she said that if something kept her on her feet, it was journalism.
R. I cannot conceive of my life without doing journalism. In the most difficult moments, it is what has saved me, what has given me hope that having a strong voice is the possibility of doing things that transform. If I look back, I have done many things that have transformed lives, and that is what I want to take away from this whole painful process.
P. He has also highlighted the issue of mental health, sadness and depression. Has that been a tougher battle than the judicial one?
R. Yes, and I mean that with full knowledge of what I just went through. The depression I fell into after March 15 has been the hardest episode in 21 years. Sadness is something that sometimes you can’t fight. The hardest thing is when you don’t find reasons to continue.
P. Where have you been able to get your courage and strength?
R. When I felt that I couldn’t fall anymore, that I had already crashed to the ground, I asked myself: After so much, is it fair to me to have given this fight and ended up like this? I think that was what filled me with strength. And I repeat again, journalism.
P. You asked for the closure of the La Modelo prison. More than 20 years later, is it still a symbol of impunity?
R. La Modelo continues to be one of the worst detention centers in Latin America and the world. Until the last day you are in that place, you will be the greatest symbol of impunity in this country. On those structures where thousands of men are deprived of their freedom, are the corpses of people who were dismembered and disappeared, thrown away by the pipe. People who have families and have mourners. The reparation measure for which I opted was not given, but I managed to get people to talk about La Modelo again. And in that I will continue working from journalism.
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