Abstract

In March 2015 a Pilot Project for Humanitarian Demining started as a result of the ongoing peace conversations taking place in Havana, Cuba, between the FARC-EP and the Colombian National government. The initiative, described as a “peace gesture” as well as an exercise of de-escalation and trust building, meant that the two warring parties would work together in a defined Colombian territory to decontaminate two- densely mined villages: El Orejón, in the province of Antioquia, and St. Helena, in the province of Meta. Based on a year and a half of ethnographic work at these humanitarian demining sites, I conceptualize landmines as agents whose capacities surpass the violent destruction of bodies, lives, and relations. My work seeks to go beyond the detonation, the dramatic “boom” of the landmine exploding to examine within the Demining Pilot Project what I have called “non-explosive capacity” of antipersonnel mines. I will do so by exploring a quite technical issue: the process through which the innovative combination of three different and yet complementary demining methodologies (mechanical preparation, mine detection dogs, and manual technique) took place in these pilots. 

Everyone is welcome to attend the workshop.