Mnemo-critical Artifacts in the Colombian Social Uprising: “The March of the 6,402” and “They’re Killing Us!!”

Abstract

Abstract This article examines how Colombia’s 2021 Social Uprising (Estallido Social) reactivated a collective memory of state violence through precarious and insurgent visual interventions, including the “March of the 6402”and the ubiquitous murals which read “NOS ESTÁN MATANDO” [They’re Killing Us!!]. While mainstream accounts identify the failed pandemic-era tax reform as the immediate trigger, much of the protest’s visual language harkens back to the “false positives” scandal—extrajudicial killings of civilians during Álvaro Uribe Vélez’s administration (2002-2010). Recognising this, I propose the concept of mnemo-critique to refer to artifacts of popular memory that arose as precarious, insurgent and collective forms of symbolic resistance within public space, outside of institutional frameworks. Drawing on Benjamin, Agamben, Mbembe and Butler, this article explores how these acts of visual protest challenge state-sanctioned violence, collectivize grief and demand a reformulation of Colombia’s social contract. Rather than merely commemorate the past, mnemo-critical interventions activate memory as a form of resistance and make mourning a transformative political practice.