Conflict and peace in Colombia. Meanings in human rights defender organizations

The paper presents a qualitative study on the meanings of conflict and peace in Colombia, developed from six deep interviews with leaders of Colombian Human Rights organizations. By means of an analysis of narratives, two groups of emergent categories on conflict and peace in Colombia settled down respectively. With relation to the conflict, the meanings make reference to land, poverty and exclusion, international influence, paramilitarism, drug trafficking, and cultural questions. On peace, these talk about general questions, structural reforms, political participation, citizen participation for peace, integral repair of victims, and reconciliation. The article concludes with a general reflection on the conflict and peace in Colombia taking as contributed departure point the meanings.