They vandalize the mural ‘Las cuchas are right’ that was replicated in Bogotá

The mural with the phrase ‘The cuchas are right’, a tribute to the mothers of victims of the armed conflict that artistic groups created last Friday in Bogotá, was vandalized and painted black, after that same image was erased from a wall in Medellín and was painted again.

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The yellow letters painted on 45th Street with Carrera Séptima, in a central area of ​​Bogotá, woke up this Sunday painted black and you can no longer read the sentence which in recent days has gone viral and which vindicates that the mothers (‘cuchas’ is an informal way of saying old women) who sought justice for their missing or murdered children were right.

“We reject these vandalistic actions, full of ignorance, violence and intolerance and that ignore the history and memory of our country. Let’s make a mural, a phrase, a song, a dance, on every block, in every neighborhood, on every corner, that “summons us to life, to forgiveness, to reconciliation, to Peace”denounced the representative to the Chamber for the ruling Historical Pact Alirio Uribe.

Commune 13 of Medellín was the scene between October 16 and 17, 2002, of Orión, an operation of the Armed Forces to expel the militiamen of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas and National Liberation Army (ELN).

For human rights defenders, this action, which was carried out with the help of the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), left numerous dead and missing people who, apparently, were buried in a landfill known as La Escombrera, in the Commune. 13 of Medellín.

‘The cuchas are right’ is a reference to the fact that on December 18, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) and the Search Unit for Persons Reported as Missing (UBPD) announced that they found the first human bodies in that place after years of searching for missing persons during the armed conflict experienced between 2001 and 2004 in the Comuna 13 sector, when Operation Orion occurred.

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The Medellín mural

This week, the mural of ‘The cuchas were right’which artistic groups had painted on a wall in the north of Medellín, was covered up after the Mayor’s Office made the decision to cover it.

“Graffiti is one thing as an artistic expression, for example what has been achieved in Comuna 13 and other areas of Medellín. What’s more, it is regulated by a municipal agreement. And in our Development Plan we have defined to intervene 30,000 square meters with urban art”, expressed the mayor of Medellín, Federico Gutiérrez, in X.

And he added: “Another very different thing is disorder and those who simply want to generate chaos and make the city ugly and dirty. Here there is respect for artistic expressions and we support them, and at the same time we are clear that the public space of the city belongs to everyone and “You have to keep it clean and pretty.”

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The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, even intervened in the controversy, asking himself: “Why is he dedicated to erasing the art that expresses one of the worst humanitarian horrors committed in Medellín: Operation Orión, the surrender of commune XIII to paramilitarism and the disappearance of hundreds of people, most of them young people, the dismemberment of adults , the common graves”.