GENERATION UNDER FIRE

Children and Violence in Colombia

Human Rights Watch/Americas
(formerly America's Watch)

Human Rights Watch Children's Rights Project
New York · Washington · London · Brussels

Copyright © November 1994 by Human Rights Watch.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 94-79742
ISBN: 1-56432-144-4

We the young
are not allowed to express ourselves
they find us on street corners
and want only to shoot us down...

- Social Danger, a rap group from Ciudad Bolívar ("Cuando los caminos se cierran," El Tiempo, December 31, 1993.)

The rights of children prevail over the rights of all others.

- Article 44, Constitution of Colombia (Constitución Política de Colombia, Santafé de Bogotá: Ediciones Emfasar, 1992, p. 22.)

CONTENTS

ACRONYMS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

SUMMARY

I. BOGOTÁ
        "SOCIAL CLEANSING" OF CHILDREN
        CIUDAD BOLÍVAR
        IMPUNITY

II. MEDELLÍN
        GANGS
        MILITIAS
        THE VILLATINA MASSACRE
        EFFORTS TO RESOLVE CONFLICT

III. CODE FOR MINORS

IV. THE NECESSARY REFORMS

APPENDICES
        GLOSSARY
        CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD