“I am a victim of crime, but being a victim of that crime did not make me lose my humanity.”
Diana Márquez, who is a lawyer, but also coordinator of the organization Víctimas por La Paz, left us with important reflections, personal and collective, of the group that she forms, which was created by the tireless doer that was Judge Mario Juliano, thus passing on to be part of a larger group called Asociación Pensamiento Penal.
I am a Victim for Peace fundamentally because Victims for Peace has a very strong concept, which is that of coexistence, that the opposite of insecurity is not security, but rather coexistence and that we all have to fit into the social framework, victims and offenders.
I am a victim of crime, but being a victim of that crime did not make me lose my humanity, and I think it would have been the worst thing that would have happened to me, the idea of losing humanity to the point of understanding what the The issue of insecurity and coexistence and violence is extremely complex and well that is something that Victims for Peace deals with, and it seems to me that the most valuable thing about being Victims for Peace is that we are a group that We live pacification in our own flesh, we work for it, for the humanization of relations, I think that makes me proudly Victims for Peace.
Objectives
I would like to emphasize that we are a group that is opening new paths, new perspectives, on prevention, on non-repetition of actions, on recidivism, putting aside the idea of revenge, looking punitivism in the face , which has taken us to really horrible places, looking at the other as an enemy, does not lead anywhere, leaving that binary idea of us and them, of war, which is not taking us anywhere either.
It seems to me that what makes us different is that look, which necessarily includes the other and that in the best of cases includes them all lovingly, or respectfully, if we wanted to be more precise.
The truth is that we victims have had great pain, which I respect, because I respect my own pain, but the truth is that there are victims on both sides of the walls, and there are extremely invisible victims and I think that nobody has to remove the cartel from victim as a banner or a cocarda.
I think that those of us who have been victims have great responsibilities as well, and one of them for having experienced pain is not to add pain to pain.
That is why for me the transformation of those pains and those anguishes, I believe that it is the most valuable thing that a victim can achieve, and from that point if we can be a dissenting, countercultural voice, because we are more aware of those transformations, of those healings , that, if we stay in our idea of victims, or in the idea that the victim cannot lead his life. For me, we victims can lead our own lives, and do a lot of good in the lives of others.
One before and one after
There is a fact in Victims for La Paz that has been foundational, which is the first restorative meeting that we did between Mercedes, Emiliano and Fernando, the first cited as a victim and the rest as offenders, in this case today all belonging to Victims for La Paz , it was the first restorative meeting, we are very much following the philosophy and guidelines of restorative justice, in my case I am a facilitator of restorative dialogue, apart from being a mediator, I have to carry out that meeting, really a restorative meeting that has some very special characteristics, in relation to responsibility, to the possibility of meeting face to face, horizontally and also with the community that is containing this situation.
The truth is that the facilitation of dialogue in that restorative encounter was foundational for me, having met people like Mercedes, Emiliano and Fernando, with courage, a vocation for dialogue, love and an understanding that justice is not going to solve certain things that one humanly must restore with another who in this case must be the offender.
It seems to me that there is something very strong, powerful, very transformative, that we experience in Victims for La Paz, at this point we have already held another very important restorative meeting that has been in the city of Mercedes between Valentín and Pelusa, Valentín being the minor offender, Fuzz the victim's son. I think those are the strongest events we've ever had.
I believe in the meeting of people, I believe in coexistence, in the construction of bridges, I believe that the need for daily peacemakers is the way to improve this society to reduce violence.
I feel Victim for La Paz because it is a very loving group, a very doer group, and a group that accompanies each other from our place of victims, but with the responsibility