In a historic first, the women war victims in Colombia will be hammering the molten weapons handed over by the now-dissolved Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC,) one of the oldest Guerilla groups in Latin America, in a house in the capital city of Bogota to recount the memories of the war.
According to French news agency AFP, the FARC weapons representing a history of struggle, reconciliation, and peace, would be placed in three different locations.
The second of the monuments will be erected in the sculpture garden of the United Nations, in New York, and the third monument will be placed in the Havana, the capital of Cuba. All the monuments will be created with the weapons handed over by the FARC.
Doris Salcedo, a contemporary Colombian artist and a Bogota-based teacher is working on the monument, titled, "Fragments."
Santos visited the construction of the first of the monuments in the capital Tuesday which is set to be inaugurated in November.
Recognising the horrific impact of the sexual violence during the conflict, Santos said during the pre-inauguration that the monument in progress was "one of the most gloomy symbols of war" and that the artistic initiative would "helps heal wounds."
"If the weapons can be melted, the hatred too," the president said, citing one of the victims. Salcedo's work represents a "counter-monument," that aspires to become a "space of memory and encounter," the organizers noted, according to AFP.
FARC and the Colombian government signed a peace agreement in 2016 that ended one of the country's biggest conflicts which has left at least 250,000 dead, 60,000 missing and millions displaced.