Generales

By Carlos Olimpo Restrepo S., Journalist at UdeA Communications Office 

Women have played a central role in the pursuit of truth, justice, and memory in Latin America. Mothers and relatives insist on answers about the fate of their loved ones. Feminist groups bring attention to systemic gender-based violence. Scholars explore the conflict through interdisciplinary methods. Each of these efforts, while distinct in focus, strengthens the broader struggle to preserve memory and resist silence. 

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In Medellín’s 13th district, Women Walking for the Truth spearheads the search for missing persons. Photo: Libertad Legal Corporation 

For decades, countless mothers—alongside grandmothers, aunts, and sisters—have raised their voices across Latin America. They seek justice not only in the courts but in history and collective memory. They fight to reclaim the truth about their sons, husbands, brothers, and nephews—so that the story of their deaths doesn’t remain the one written by executioners or preserved by official narratives. 

Women researchers have played a key role in this search, using their academic work to amplify the voices of victims and their communities. Through careful documentation of atrocities and insights drawn from their diverse fields, they have helped bring these stories to light and into public consciousness. 

For eight years in Jalisco, Mexico, drug traffickers have lured young people through social media with false promises of jobs. They recruit many of them for their operations, and most die and end up buried in clandestine graves. Investigators recently found the latest mass grave at Izaguirre ranch in Teuchitlán. By November 2024, officials had reported 15,340 missing persons in the state. 

Alejandra Guillén González, journalist and professor at the Western Institute of Technology and Higher Education (Iteso) in Guadalajara, has dedicated over a decade to investigating violence in Mexico. She firmly believes that journalism must expose and name every missing and murdered person—to keep their memory alive, inspire demands for justice, and prompt reflection amid pervasive loss. In 2014, she voiced this commitment while receiving an award for her work. 

This scholar’s strong commitment to this principle has established her as a prominent leader in Latin American investigative journalism, particularly among women seeking the truth in the war on drugs. She noted, “Countless women investigate, analyze, and explain the war on drugs, offering a perspective that challenges the usual narratives.” Through their reporting, she added, these women bring a more critical and nuanced understanding of the conflict. 

Alejandra Guillén González emphasized, “In Mexico, women drive the search for the disappeared. Women journalists, in particular, play a crucial role because they recognize the sacredness of life in the smallest details and deeply understand each person’s unique pain.” 

The transition from being sources to co-researchers 

In Sonsón, women actively preserve the memory of the June 2002 events in La Piñera, a defining moment in the armed conflict in eastern Antioquia. Photo: Hacemos Memoria.  
 
In Colombia, Patricia Nieto Nieto has earned recognition for her comprehensive reporting on the armed conflict and for fostering academic and journalistic platforms that keep the stories of national violence alive, challenging traditional media and official narratives. 

“Women take the lead throughout the country—not only in reporting crimes and searching for their missing children but also in preserving and sharing stories. They are the ones who bring memorial halls to life in villages, making these spaces possible,” said the journalist, renowned for elevating the voices of victims and their families. 

The professor and researcher at the Universidad de Antioquia emphasized that collective movements have fueled these achievements. These groups have risen, marched, and persistently demanded truth, justice, and the search for the disappeared, all while safeguarding the memory of their loved ones. Among the most prominent are “Women Walking for the Truth” in Medellín—particularly in Commune 13—and “The Mothers of Soacha” in Cundinamarca. 

“Women forged powerful alliances with NGOs and universities, forming an extensive network of memory workers nationwide,” said Nieto Nieto, emphasizing that this collaboration developed over many years through mutual compromise. 

“Women in the communities-built trust with NGOs and universities, just as those organizations learned to adapt and compromise with the people, we call sources. This reciprocal relationship has profoundly shaped academic research methods on memory and violence,” she explained. 

The professor explained that this shift transformed academic methodologies by involving victims as co-researchers, requiring researchers to build more careful and respectful relationships with their sources. 

“Women in universities have played a vital role by showing a unique readiness to listen deeply, craft and share stories with other women, and devote long hours to uncovering the truths behind what has happened. This approach strengthens what we designate as qualitative methodology. We understand it better as one based on empathy, attentive listening, respect for the feminine, and a distinctly female perspective on this issue. 

“Women’s testimonies and narratives from both academia and civil society have created a public memory that confronts the violence against them and reveals that this issue is neither accidental nor solely a women’s concern, but a fundamental challenge to democracy,” stated María Emma Wills Obregón, political scientist and social researcher. This insight has reshaped our understanding of gender-based crimes in armed conflicts. 

A different sensitivity 

John Mario Muñoz Lopera, professor of Social Work at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences at the University of A Coruña, has focused his research on women in the Colombian armed conflict. For his 2023 book Women, Memory, and Resistance, co-authored with Diana Sofía Villa Múnera, he chose journalism as a methodological approach, convinced that it fosters a deeper connection with the people who share their own stories. 

“Women are speaking out to reveal the violence their sons, brothers, fathers, husbands, and partners endured. By doing so, they assert their place as victims and confront a state that tries to erase them by denying their memory,” said the social researcher. 

According to the professor, this dynamic partly stems from the fact that most of those killed or disappeared in Colombia’s armed conflict are men. While women have also suffered deeply, they often take more decisive action in the public sphere. “Women tend to possess a heightened political awareness, especially those with close ties to victims of the conflict. They transform their struggle for memory and resistance into a meaningful political force,” Muñoz Lopera explained. 

The professor emphasized the need to make these efforts more visible through a social lens to encourage broader public engagement with this knowledge. He highlighted the university’s study and research groups, many of which are led by women, as a clear example of how this progress is already taking shape. 

A process that changed the point of view 

Journalistic organizations, educational institutions, NGOs, and government agencies at both national and international levels create platforms to highlight the vital role of women’s voices in armed conflicts. These spaces highlight not only the voices of victims and combatants but also those of women researchers. 

In Colombia, political scientist María Emma Wills Obregón has spent many years of her academic career studying feminism and historical memory. She asserts that, since the late 20th century, women from NGOs and academic circles have actively reshaped the discourse around the Colombian armed conflict and brought forward fresh insights. 

“The testimonies of victims, along with analysis from academia and journalism led by women, reveal that the violence women endure in war—the attacks on their bodies—is not accidental damage but stems from deep-rooted historical factors,” the academic said. 

She emphasized that rigorous methodologies guided these investigations, uncovering consistent patterns of armed groups’ behavior toward women. Both victims’ testimonies and the insights of academics and NGO members help explain these patterns. 

She highlighted that these courageous voices expose violence against women and boldly challenge official narratives that tend to minimize their experiences. They also reveal how Colombian society has nurtured toxic masculinities—attitudes that we must confront to break the cycle of violence against women. 

Researcher Wills Obregón emphasized that women have created pedagogies of memory that reveal how, in some way, we all share responsibility for this violence as a society.