Jineth Bedoya works for El Tiempo, Colombia's largest daily newspaper. She has been reporting for many years on armed conflicts in Colombia and their civilian victims.
Original language: German
Jineth Bedoya’s work focuses on pervasive corruption, the lack of the rule of law, and impunity. In 2000, she was kidnapped and raped by paramilitaries while attempting to write a report on the paramilitary-controlled arms trade in a Bogotá prison. Three years later, she was kidnapped again, this time by the FARC. Today, Jineth Bedoya is one of the most important voices in the fight against sexual violence against women. May 25, the day of her first kidnapping, is now officially recognized in Colombia as the “Day of Remembrance for Victims of Sexual Violence.”
A part of Colombia’s dark history is etched into this Colombian woman’s body.
Jineth was kidnapped by three men from a paramilitary group; she was held captive for ten hours, tortured, and raped. This is a group that does not shy away from bloodshed or violence in order to implement its parapolitical ideas and pursue its quest for power. Jineth still bears the scars of that day to this day.
Her eyes still radiate grief and sadness over what was done to her on that fateful May 25, 17 years ago. Grief over the acts of violence inflicted on countless girls and women by criminal gangs, organized guerrilla groups, state actors, or even family members. Jineth is still filled with outrage when she speaks of the impunity surrounding her case. The same impunity that spreads like a plague over the vast majority of acts of violence against women in Colombia. But Jineth is not only outraged. She is also full of courage, hope, love, strength, solidarity, and resilience.
One day, you might see her at a demonstration in Tumaco, the “capital” of coca cultivation, encouraging victims of sexual violence. The next day, you’ll find her in a courthouse, where she identifies the three men who drugged, kidnapped, and raped her back then—simply because she was doing her job. Her job as a dedicated journalist. She gets through the lineup without shedding a tear. She saves her tears for other moments.
Today, Jineth weighs less than 45 kilos. Her experiences have left their mark on her. But despite her fragile appearance, her body is her armor. She fights not only for her own rights, but also for those of many others. May 25, the day on which these terrible events befell her, is now a national day of remembrance by presidential decree. It is a day to commemorate the dignity of women who have been made victims of sexual violence in the context of Colombia’s internal armed conflict.
Until the year 2000, Jineth, as a journalist armed with a notebook and rubber boots, published daring reports on the Colombian conflict. She was threatened and survived an assassination attempt. Nevertheless, she published numerous critical books, becoming one of Colombia’s most recognized war correspondents. Then she herself became part of one of those horrific stories she usually reported on.
Since then, she has endured and survived everything one can imagine—including the skeptical questioning of those who didn’t believe her story and forced her to recount her experiences in detail. She had to describe the kicks to her face and the physical and psychological atrocities.
“They did terrible things to me as a woman. So terrible that I didn’t even speak of them during the court hearing,” she admits.
Despite everything, she isn’t giving up. With tireless strength, she continues to seek the truth and demand justice for herself and the hundreds of women who have suffered violence.
She took to the streets for Rosa Elvira (who was murdered and impaled on a tree branch) and demanded justice. For the young people who were burned with acid, for the girls who were forcibly recruited and raped by the guerrillas, for the women who were beaten or shot by their husbands, for herself, and for those who come after her, so that they will no longer be made into victims.
“I often feel very powerless. I’d love to help everyone, but unfortunately I can’t. I try to stand by as many as possible. I am one of them, and sometimes their pain is greater than my own,” Jineth has asserted in numerous international interviews.
Amid her deep commitment, she flew to Havana as a representative of the victims of the armed conflict and called on FARC commanders to contribute to the search for the truth regarding sexual crimes as part of the peace agreement. With that same courage, she also confronted a military general, asking him whether he had been the mastermind behind her rape.
Her case was brought before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and classified as a crime against humanity in 2014. The state subsequently offered her a compensation payment of a paltry 8,000 dollars. Jineth did not accept a single cent of it. Just as she has rejected every request to enter politics, to forget, or even to leave the country.
She refuses to take a single step back. Not even when she discovered that her phone was being tapped by government agents, or when she received threats again and her life has since been guarded by bodyguards. But she doesn’t wear a bulletproof vest. On the contrary, she pins butterfly brooches to her clothes. Butterflies symbolize the transformation of the women she has been able to help: her “butterfly army,” through which she radiates strength and justice.
“You can regain your faith; you can learn to dream again (…) Physical and spiritual pain allows you to transform yourself into something positive.” Despite her history, despite the threats, Jineth lives on. Nothing has broken her. She exudes hope, forgiveness, and strength. She is a natural-born leader and faces the terrible violence that affects everyone with stoicism.
Inspired by her strength, her smile, her deep, resonant voice, and her tears, Colombia now has a media observatory on gender-based violence. This center monitors media coverage. A necessary measure in a country that has the second-highest number of acts of violence against women, after Mexico. Every year, more than 18 million acts of violence against women are recorded. Approximately 1,000 of these are murders committed with firearms, by strangulation, or by beating.
Thanks to Jineth, the passionate journalist, Colombia has become aware of what sexual violence against women means and has taken legal action against it. Numerous social groups have joined the “This Is Not the Time to Stay Silent” campaign and are taking action against impunity. Thanks to Jineth, women know they are not alone and that no one can victimize them again.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jineth, and I’m sorry we weren’t there to prevent all of this.
A part of Colombia’s poignant history is also etched into Jineth Bedoya’s body.
Also available in Spanish on our Colombia office’s website: "La guerrera de las mariposas"
