Deuda, desesperación y reparaciones inconclusas en La Guajira, Colombia

While memory has been a privileged topic of analysis to understand (post) conflict situations, other ways to regulate the temporality of the victims have received less attention. The metaphors on reparation as a "debt to the victims" are deeply rooted in the language of transitional justice. In this article, based on ethnographic work with indigenous Wayuu communities, the language of debt is analyzed as part of the legitimatizing function of truth and reparation processes undertaken by the State. The central argument is that notions of reparation and debt, when dealing with subjects previously marginalized by violence, involve ways of inscribing state sovereignty through the regulation of temporality. Reparations are then transformed into a permanent delay where the future cannot be seen apart from the submission to the State as sovereign.