A play about the massacres of Trujillo, carried out by paramilitaries in collusion with the security forces, will open in Bogota in September.
“The Duty of Fenster” (“El deber de Fenster”) is the fictional story of an editor who is commissioned to make a documentary about the killings of more than 300 people in the town of Trujillo, Valle del Cauca department, in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The series of brutal murders, mutilations, and rapes were carried out by paramilitaries and the Cali cartel, with the collaboration of Colombia’s security forces.
No one has been convicted for these crimes, although former President Ernesto Samper acknowledged the state’s responsibility for the killings.
The play uses witness testimony, contemporary news reports, and the statements of Daniel Arcila, a soldier whose testimony was declared invalid by prosecutors on grounds of his alleged mental illness, and who later disappeared.
“It’s a revelation about the good of knowing the truth and, at the same time, the horror of knowing the truth,” co-author Humberto Dorado told EFE.
“That’s what happens to Fenster, and that we our ourselves in some way. We went from amazement to horror, to disgust, disgust and the desire to escape the subject, but were couldn’t flee.”
“Indifference is a weapon to protect the guilty,” said the writer.
The play, which premieres September 28, is written by Matias Maldonado along with Dorado, and directed by Nicolas Montero and Laura Villegas.
