The country has been at war—a socialcatastrophe since 1948, sparked by themurder of the revered liberal leaderJorge Eliécer Gaitán. Although his deathtook place in Bogotá, during the follow-ing 16 years Liberals and Conservatives waged a war mostly in the countrysidethat took 250,000 lives. Despite deathsof this magnitude, for decades no onetalked about victims nor mentioned the word “memory.
