ABSTRACT
Since the 1950s, Colombia has lived in a semi-permanent state of war. Between 1958 and 2012, the lives of 220,000 Colombians were lost to armed conflict (Grupo de Memoria Histórica, 2013: 31). The Colombian war has its own idiosyncrasies: war is waged where people live; antagonist armed groups invade neighbourhoods, towns, farms, and streets. Leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, the Colombian armed forces, drug traffickers and criminal gangs compete for control of people and territory. While legal and illegal armed groups wage war, civilians are caught in the crossfire; as a result, 81.5 per cent of all casualties since 1958 have been civilians (ibid.: 32).
