LIVING UNDER SUSPICION

Executive summary
This report explores the violence committed against LGBT people due to their
diverse sexual orientations and gender identities during the armed conflict in
Colombia. In the midst of war, difference was met with violence.

The Unitary Victims’ Registry, known by its Spanish acronym RUV, has documented
1818 cases of LGBT victims during the armed conflict. According to the Unit for
Attention and Reparation of Victims, paramilitary groups were the perpetrators in
366 of these cases and armed guerilla groups in 287. The remaining 1165 cases
either lack sufficient information or have been attributed to other armed actors.

The current report seeks to document the cases of LGBT victims during the armed
conflict in two regions of Colombia. The events transpired in San Onofre, Sucre and
in Vistahermosa, Meta. The former occurred at the hands of the María Mountains
Bloc, a unit of the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (known by
its Spanish acronym AUC), and the latter at the hands of the 27th Front of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (known by its Spanish acronym FARC-EP).

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Executive summary

Though not all forms of violence perpetrated against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans
individuals were the product of prejudice, we at Colombia Diversa use the term
“violence based on prejudice” (violencia por prejuicio) as the analytical category that
encompass all the human rights violations experienced by LGBT individuals in our case
studies.

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Vistahermosa: HIV as pretext
for persecution and
displacement 

During the time of the demilitarized zone, the FARC’s 27th Front discriminated
against and displaced LGBT people in Vistahermosa. One of the most exemplary
acts of violence was committed against Verónica and Jenny  in Piñalito.

In April of 2000, Verónica’s sister awoke them and asked if they had gotten into
some sort of trouble. She was concerned because the walls and doors had been
vandalized, emblazoned with the message: “Verónica has AIDS.” Following this
incident, alias Pitufo forced them to compile a list of all the members of the LGBT
community, including those that were still “in the closet” or those that had had
sexual relations with them.

He also gave them three days to go to Vistahermosa and undergo HIV testing. Pitufo
had ordered massive HIV testing for all rural and urban residents under the care of
the San Juan Bosco Hospital. Consequently, Verónica and Jenny were forced to
leave Vistahermosa.

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Relentless Public Shaming

In 2003 in San Onofre, the AUC’s María Mountains Bloc, under the command of
Marco Tulio Pérez Guzmán, alias el Oso, forced several gay men and one person
who at the time of the events identified as a trans woman to participate in boxing
matches against their will.

The fights took place the second weekend of May, on Mother’s Day, in the
corregimiento  Alto de Julio during a party that el Oso organized in honor of his
commander, Rodrigo Mercado Peluffo, alias Cadena.

This boxing match forced LGBT individuals to participate in an involuntary and

discriminatory act of self-ridicule and public humiliation, an act that made a
mockery of their basic human dignity, for which it constitutes violence based on
prejudice.

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Colombia Diversa´s
recommendations

Bearing in mind the results of the investigation, Colombia Diversa makes 10

recommendations regarding differential reparations measures that have
transformative potential for LGBT victims of the armed conflict in Colombia:

1. Recognition of the self-determination and gender identity of the

victims.
2. Extension of the time frame for registering LGBT victims.
3. Access to justice guarantees that include rigorous and efficient
investigations as well as prosecutions and punishments for
perpetrators of violence based on prejudice.
4. Comprehensive reparation efforts that target the underlying social
conditions that enable violence against LGBT people.
5. Truth-seeking and historical memory initiatives that shine a light on
the violence based on prejudice perpetrated against LGBT people, as
forms of satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition.

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Colombia Diversa´s
recommendations
6. A comprehensive approach to health and rehabilitation, reflected in
programs for the prevention and treatment of HIV that place a special
emphasis on the needs of trans people, as a measure of individual
reparation.
7. Educational measures that aim to increase access to education, job
training, and entrepreneurship opportunities and thus reduce LGBT
victims’ political, economic, and social vulnerability, as guarantees of
non-repetition.
8. Security measures that include efforts to prevent stigmatization and
discrimination, as guarantees of non-repetition.
9. Public policy that ensures the full enjoyment and exercise of rights
by LGBT people and that incorporates a public awareness campaign, as
guarantees of non-repetition and reconciliation.
10. Training for public servants so that government strategies and
programs are implemented with a differential focus for the LGBT
community, as a guarantee of non-repetition.