El archivo y el testigo. Un análisis de la relación entre memoria y justicia a partir del caso colombiano

Abstract

In memory studies and in the field of transitional justice, the story of the victims is usually seen as relevant. It is usually assumed that what is said by the victims has an absolute value of truth and cannot be controverted, otherwise we would be attacking their dignity. And, next to this, it is maintained that everything held by the perpetrators is false, and therefore we cannot believe absolutely in what they tell. But we have to take into account that neither perpetrator nor victims are witnesses, but, from a legal point of view, they are active parties in that social relationship we call crime. In this text, I want to discuss the relationship between the witness and the archive and for that I use the Colombian case as a case study. Initially I analyze the question of memory and later I analyze the relationships between truth and memory. With this text, I intend to contribute to the studies of transitional justice that take for granted, without further analysis, the validity of the documentary contributions or the stories of the victims and the witnesses. It is not a mere theoretical pretension, since it depends on the elaboration of truth criteria for both the criminal justice system and the Truth Commissions.