Columbia’s Ruta Pacifica: Very Righteous Bare Naked Ladies

Ruta Pacifica is a “thirteen-year-old movement of Colombian women against violence.The group is famous for groundbreaking direct actions joining campesino, black, indigenous and urban women in massive mobilizations or “rutas,” often held in locations controlled by armed groups who target women.”Andrew Willis Garcés talked to Alejandra Miller Restrepo, one of the groups regional coordinators talks about the group’s work and the roles of artistic activism and men in the organization:

How would you describe la Ruta?

We’re a movement of women against war, founded in 1996. We’re feminist, pacifist and anti-militarist.

We have two fundamental objectives: 1. To make visible the effects of war on the bodies of women. On our bodies because women’s bodies are sites of conflict in war, and it’s historically a particularly grave type of violence. And we must denounce the violence of war.  2. Insist on a negotiated outcome to the war. The militarization of territories creates more war and pain, the only way to end it all is through political negotiation.

Ruta is a coalition of organizations, many of which have men and women members. Can you describe the role of men in relationship to Ruta, both in the coalition and human rights movements generally?

It’s tough with the men because they think this is a theme, not a problem in itself, and it’s subordinate to other issues. The relationship with them is not a struggle in the same sense, but they often do deny and diminish violence against women. It’s hard to get it on the national agenda. For instance, the Organization of American States has a commission following the paramilitary demobilization process. We published a book about the effect of the process on women, how they’re being harmed, and they inserted maybe a few sentences about it in their official report.

Some men say we’re very exclusive. No, this is just our space. And regardless, very few men have expressed interest in participating and supporting us. That said, the empowerment politics we practice has encouraged women to get their husbands to take more responsibility for childcare and domestic work to make it more possible for them to attend.

From looking at the visual art used in your demonstrations, and the language and photos in your publications, like women painting on their bodies, I see a lot of symbolic use of the body as a metaphor, and of a very explicit kind of political language. Is that accurate?

It’s a politically symbolic language – we think about how symbols of war are constructed, how they’re implemented in society, and how to uninstall them and install symbols of life.

The body, for instance, is fundamental, because we’re feminists. Our bodies are the first territories of autonomy, and they are expropriated, exiled, beaten, violated… it’s been critical to express resistance, such as after the 2004 Massacre of Bojaga, a municipality in Chocó. The only access there is the Atrato River, and at the time the paramilitaries controlled it. During a confrontation there with the FARC, in the middle of town, many fled to the church, where 119 were killed by a bomb lobbed inside. No one could get into town because the paramilitaries controlled the river. So ten to fifteen women from the Ruta committee in Quibdo, nearby, dressed up in colorful clothes, brought their tambores, and headed down the river on a small boat, singing alabados, traditional Afro-Colombian songs. The paramilitaries didn’t know what to do, but they let them through. They were the first people to reach the survivors.