The project of land restitution in Colombia: an illustration of the civilizing force of hypocrisy?

This article offers a theoretical interpretation of the dispositions on land restitution contained in the famous “Victims’ Bill”, which was debated in the Colombian Congress during the year 2008. The bill included specific mechanisms aimed at guaranteeing the restitution of land to victims of the Colombian armed conflict. At the time, the bill was endorsed by all the main political actors in the country –notably the government and the elites that support it, on the one hand, and victims’ and human rights organizations and other opposition groups, on the other–. The fact that the restitution of land to victims of the Colombian armed conflict was being considered as a serious possibility by all political actors in the country seemed to indicate the existence of a consensus among actors whose positions are ordinarily opposed, on an issue that has traditionally led to high levels of polarization. This consensus is quite puzzling, because it seems to be at odds with the interests and/or the conceptions of justice advocated by these political actors, and because the restitution of land faces enormous difficulties both from a factual and a normative point of view, which indicates that it may not necessarily be the best alternative for dealing with the issue of land distribution in Colombia. This article offers an interpretation of said consensus, arguing that it is only an apparent consensus in which the actors are actually misrepresenting their interests and conceptions of justice, while at the same time adopting divergent strategies of implementation aimed at fulfilling their true interests. Nevertheless, the article concludes that the common adherence by all actors to the principle of restorative justice might bring about its actual realization, and thus produce an outcome that, in spite (and perhaps even because) of being unintended, might substantively contribute to solving the problem of unequal land distribution in Colombia. Even though the article focuses in some detail on the specificities of the 2008 Bill, it attempts to make a general argument about the state of the discussion on how to deal with the issue of land distribution in the country. Consequently, it may still be relevant today, especially considering that a new Bill on land restitution is currently being discussed in Congress, which includes the same restitution goals as the Victims’ Bill and many of its procedural and substantive details, and which therefore seems to reflect a similar consensus to the one analyzed in the article.

Estudio de caso: terapia manual en una paciente de 18 años con escoliosis juvenil idiopática

La escoliosis es una desviación lateral de la columna vertebral desde la línea media, caracterizada por una curvatura lateral y por una rotación vertebral. Generalmente, es de carácter idiopático y se presenta, principalmente, en niñas adolescentes. Existen múltiples técnicas de tratamiento conservador para la escoliosis, entre las cuales se encuentran la terapia manual, que complementa el tratamiento para dicha patología. Esta terapia utiliza menos medios físicos, más manipulación de tejidos blandos y óseos, y logra así una recuperación más eficaz, con una mejor calidad de vida. El objetivo de este estudio de caso es comparar y describir los cambios en las condiciones de una paciente de 18 años, con escoliosis idiopática juvenil en columna toracolumbar izquierda, al aplicar un tratamiento de terapia manual. Se realizaron procedimientos de valoración integral mediante terapia manual, ortopedia, postura computarizada, análisis del puesto de trabajo, tratamiento con medios físicos y movilización de las articulaciones torácicas y lumbares, en los segmentos vertebrales que presentaban disminución del deslizamiento inferior de las carillas inferiores de la vértebra superior, sobre las carillas superiores de la vértebra inferior (segmentos T5-T6, T6-T7, T7-T8, T8-T9);técnicas de energía muscular, ejercicios de reeducación postural global, estabilización cervical y lumbar, ejercicios de fortalecimiento para musculatura débil del hemicuerpo izquierdo y de estiramiento, con el fin de elongar la musculatura retraída del hemicuerpo derecho. Al iniciar el tratamiento, se verificó, mediante una radiografía, que el ángulo de Cobb era de 24º; después de las sesiones de terapia manual se logró reducir a 18º, lo que generó una disminución significativa de 6º. Se verificó la efectividad del tratamiento por la disminución del dolor, el aumento de la fuerza muscular, la realineación postural, la satisfacción del paciente y la recuperación significativa comprobada por los estudios radiológicos.

Influence of the lateral pterygoid muscle on the growth of the mandibular condilar cartilage

At the end of the last century, a model to explain clinical observations related to the mandibular growth was developed. According to it, the lateral pterigoid muscle (LPM) was one of the main modulators of the differentiation of mesenquimal cells inside the condyle to condroblasts or osteoblasts, and therefore of the growth of the mandibular condilar cartilage (CCM). The main components of the model were the humoral and the mechanical. Nowadays, the humoral would include growth factors such as IGF-I, FGF-2 and VEGF, which seem to be involved in mandibular growth. Since skeletal muscle can secrete these growth factors, there is a possibility that LPM modulates the growth of CCM by a paracrine or endocrine mechanism. The mechanical component derived from the observations that both the blood flow inside the temporomandibular joint (ATM) and the action of the retrodiscal pad on the growth of the CCM, depend, in part, on the contractile activity of the LPM. Despite the fact that there are some results suggesting  hat LPM is activated under conditions of mandibular protrusion, there is no full agreement on whether this can stimulate the growth of CCM. In this review, the contributions and limitations of the works related to mandibular growth are discussed and a model which integrates the available information to explain the role of the LPM in the growth of the CCM is proposed.