Narrando el pasado: Interpretaciones de los excombatientes de las Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia sobre su participación en el conflicto armado

Based on life stories of ex combatants from the United Self Defenses from Colombia, the paper discusses their narrations concerning their participation in the internal armed conflict. When they talk about their participation, they are constructing their identities, adopting a victim position. They use a set of repertoires that defend the notion of security to justify their participation. These repertoires belong to the discourses of the paramilitary groups and they allow the representation of the violence as a function executed in a job, creating a banality of the aggressions. The banality is constructed by the creation of a language of euphemisms giving form to a paramilitary culture.