Since the 19th century, Colombia has experienced a mosaic of complex and intersecting conflicts at the local, subnational and national levels, characterized by mutually reinforcing expressions of political and criminal violence. Callous violence has been committed by state and nonstate actors alike in the name of state security, liberty and emancipation. The most recent manifestation of such organized barbarie has been the country's more than five decades of internal armed conflict, which began in 1964 and remains ongoing at the time of writing. This barrage of killing, maiming and carnage has left the country with over nine million victims (National Centre for Historical Memory 2012; Peace Accords Matrix 2023).

Amid enduring war and atrocity, victims and survivors of political violence in Colombia have crafted innovative strategic initiatives aimed both at withstanding and putting an end to egregious violence, and redressing the causes and consequences of protracted military, partisan and ideological confrontation. Moreover, since the early 2000s, victims of political violence have forged an increasingly visible role as political actors at the local, subnational and national levels (Rettberg 2015), leading them to participate in formal peacemaking processes, such as the Caguan negotiations and, more recently, the Havana peace talks. This book has sought to understand how those who have survived the atrocious violence perpetrated within the confines of Colombia's protracted and aberrational Cold War narrate and make sense of violent conflict and endeavour to build peace by shaping the accountability mechanisms structured within formal peacemaking processes.

The research presented here has focused on the Santos– FARC-EP peace negotiations (2012– 2016) and, specifically, on the formal role played therein by victims and survivors of political violence. As discussed throughout this book, at the behest of the negotiating parties, five delegations of victims travelled to Havana in 2014 to present their individual testimonies and proposals for Point Five, the Victims’ and Transitional Justice Agreement. On paper, the objective of Colombia's victim-centred initiative was to place victims of the armed conflict at the centre of the peace talks and, in turn, to satisfy victims’ rights by guaranteeing participants a role in crafting the transitional justice and accountability provisions consecrated within the accord.