Natalie Munevar’s story of her father’s enforced disappearance exposes the enduring wounds of Colombia’s political violence. Through memory, she demands justice and confronts the silence imposed by fear and impunity
Hearing that a loved one has disappeared without a trace may sound like a nightmare, but for many across the world, it is a devastating reality. This is the experience of Natalie Munevar, who writes a moving first-person account of her father’s disappearance for the Spanish publication Contexto y Acción, on the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. While history often remembers the grand political events that shape nations, Munevar reminds us of the deeply human suffering behind them. Her story offers a rare and intimate glimpse into the lingering effects of political violence.
Munevar recounts the day her father was abducted by state enforcers in Colombia on 7 February 1997, targeted for his political activism. A child at the time, she remembers sitting with her brother in front of the television, hearing her mother’s cries from the living room as news of her father’s disappearance broke. She recalls:
“I was afraid for my dad; I wanted him to be safe and sound. Waiting for him was a constant feeling that grew stronger every day… I grew up missing my dad constantly, especially during difficult times when I saw my mother, who couldn’t bear the loneliness, the fear, the exhaustion, the sadness, the work, the responsibility of the house, the financial problems, or giving us the attention and love we needed. And I thought that everything would be different if my dad would just walk through the door of our house once and for all.”
Her father was a communist activist during one of Colombia’s most turbulent and transformative periods – an era marked by the drug cartels’ war against the state, led by Pablo Escobar. “Car bombs exploded in the streets; terrorist attacks and political assassinations took place, and the rise of narco culture permeated everything around us,” she recalls.
Paradoxically, this was also a period of democratic progress, as guerrilla groups such as the M-19, EPL, PRT and Quintín Lame demobilised and transitioned into political movements. The Constituent Assembly that drafted Colombia’s current Political Constitution would soon convene. Yet, as Munevar notes, the state’s militarisation in response to cartel violence enabled widespread impunity and paramilitarism – and her father became one of countless victims forcibly abducted without warning or trial.
Her story is not unique. It is estimated that that 120,000 people were forcibly disappeared in Colombia from 1958. (The article cites figures for those disappeared in Spain under the Franco regime from 1936-1975 as between 114,000 and 140,000, placing it just behind Cambodia in terms of the total numbers). Forced disappearance is recognised as a crime against humanity – a “tool of state terrorism and social control that deprives victims of their rights, memory and identity, plunging their families into perpetual anguish.”
Beyond the loss of her father, Munevar describes how her family was abandoned, stigmatised and blamed for what happened. Former friends and even extended relatives distanced themselves out of fear. Her writing carries a sense of urgency and resistance: “From the raw experience of someone who has lived through impunity, I tell you that remembering is not enough. Memory is a militant act, a trench from which to combat the advance of barbarism and fascism.”
Through her words, Munevar insists that remembrance is not passive – it is an act of defiance against silence, erasure and the normalisation of violence.
Original article ‘La espera interminable: memoria contra el olvido y la impunidad’ by Natalia Munevar was published in Spanish by Contexto y Acción on 30 August 2025.
It is available here.
Contexto y Acción is a Spanish independent and critical media outlet founded by journalists with strong backgrounds working for major European media organisations.
Summary by TMH
