Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the relationship between time, violence, and vulnerability in the distribution of state resources in Bogotá, Colombia. I illustrate how bureaucratic notions of the work of time on violence enter into the provision of humanitarian aid for registered victims of the armed conflict.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the relationship between time, violence, and vulnerability in the distribution of state resources in Bogotá, Colombia. Specifically, I will illustrate how bureaucratic notions of the work of time on violence enter into the provision of humanitarian assistance for registered victims of the armed conflict. Since the Victims and Land Restitution Act was passed in 2011, almost 7.5 million people have become officially registered as victims. The 'Victims Law' is the first to officially recognise the presence of an ongoing armed conflict in Colombia and provide reparations to those affected. Victim status, indeed, is becoming a means through which state welfare benefits are distributed across the population. Yet, even among those registered as victims, benefits are not distributed evenly. Assumptions about the temporal relationship between violence and vulnerability have become an important way of assessing, for instance, a registered victim's eligibility for humanitarian assistance. Bureaucrats responsible for meting out humanitarian assistance often assume that the effects of past violence fade with time. Ten years is frequently cited as vulnerability's temporal boundary: if one's 'victim event' occurred beyond this boundary, it is argued that present or future situations of precariousness are no longer directly the result of past violence, but rather to a present failure of the individual to move forward. This temporal boundary thus becomes a way of limiting registered victims' 'dependency' on the state. I finally illustrate how bureaucratic notions of time's effect on violence conflict with the continued impact of past violence on everyday life.