Legitimacy Is Given by the Victims

Salomón Lerner, who presided over Peru's truth commission, reflects on the eventual creation of a truth commission in Colombia. On August 28, the tenth anniversary of the presentation of the report of Peru's Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación (known as the CVR) was marked. Ten years since thirteen commissioners — academics, representatives of social organizations, the Church, and even a military officer — showed the country the account built across numerous regions of the country about the violence suffered in its territory: the horror stories committed by both Sendero Luminoso and the Armed Forces, an understanding of the causes that gave rise to it, the statistics, and recommendations for building a country on the foundation of acknowledging the past.