From an ethnographic approach to the discussions that preceded the delivery
of the black Christ by the FARC to the Bellavista community (Bojayá), this article discusses
the role of affection and emotions in the processes of state construction, taking as a framework for its analysis, the debates that have emerged within the field of the anthropology of
the state, as well as some recent developments in the legal ethnography. In relation to the
anthropological approaches to the processes of state formation, the article takes an additional
step with respect to the discussed dichotomy absence/presence of the state, by characterizing the types of bureaucracies that have been present in Bojayá. The main findings
show the predominance of soft bureaucracies over hard bureaucracy, and how it has led to
the precarization of citizenship, in which the discussion on the basic needs of villagers is
displaced by the moral benefits and affective care provided by the officials of the soft
bureaucracies present in the region. The article also problematizes the category of victims
of the armed conflict as that privileged place of enunciation for those subjects who are
recognized as such, showing how they enjoy a certain “moral superiority” in their
negotiations with the soft bureaucracies, as well as in their faculty to grant pardon. Thus,
the article shows how forgiveness moves into a moral orbit, but also the way in which
politics and its bearers – in this case the victims of the Bojayá massacre – administer it in
their interactions with state bureaucracies, creating a different form of citizenship.