Caso Colectivo 11.227

The extermination of the Union Patriotica

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On 12th of March, 1997, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights opened against the Colombian State the case n. 11,227 about the extermination of the Colombian political party Union Patriotica and its supporters.
The case is not yet closed.

Caso Colectivo 11.227

A series produced in Colombia in 2015/2016 by Pietro Paolini in occasion of the Graziadei Award and exhibited at MACRO-Roma.
The Patriotic Union was founded in 1985 as part of peace negotiations between the rebel groups FARC and ELN and President Belisario Betancur. The new movement stood for election in 1986 and won the greatest share of votes ever achieved by a left-wing party in Colombia.Nonetheless, between 1986 and 2006, two presidential candidates,eight congressmen, 13 state deputies,  70 councillors, 11 mayors and approximately 3,000 militants were assassinated by paramilitary groups and members of State security forces.

What might have initially looked like a coincidence was progressively revealed to be a systematic persecution intended to eliminate the party and instill terror among its supporters. The 95% of the crimes committed between 1986 and 2006 have gone completely unpunished. Thousands of the survivors and their families fled the country or hid in an attempt to escape the violence.

Pietro Paolini has tackled the most significant facts of this dramatic affair, reconstructing the stories of various cases of homicide, massacres, forced disappearance and exile filed with the Inter-American Court.