May 5th Is Liberation Day. Also in Curaçao.

May 5th Is Liberation Day. Also in Curaçao.

5 May 2026

May 5th is Liberation Day. In Curaçao, too, we mark the end of the Second World War. The island was not a bystander; it played a role, and YdK soldiers lost their lives. That awareness is growing. Rightly so.

At the same time, we increasingly celebrate peace in the spirit of UNESCO. Much of that is due to the Committee for Peace, which organizes annual gatherings at the Peace Square. That matters. But it also raises an uncomfortable question: how deep does that peace really run?

Because on Curaçao, May 5th is also the date of a political assassination. In 2013, a member of parliament was murdered. The perpetrators were convicted. Those who ordered it were not. Thirteen years later, we still do not know who ultimately bears responsibility. That is not a footnote. It is an open wound.

We behave as if it belongs to the past. It does not. It lingers—quietly, but persistently. In distrust. In speculation. In the sense that justice was only partially served. And where justice is incomplete, peace is, by definition, superficial.

Meanwhile, we look away from wars elsewhere—in Ukraine, Iran, Gaza—as if distance exempts us from engagement. It does not. We feel the consequences. We are connected to them. And still, we choose not to make them part of our public conversation.

For an island that presents itself as a zone of peace and a potential platform for peace negotiations, that is a fragile position. Peace is not an image. It is a practice. It requires courage, consistency, and a willingness to confront what is unresolved—also within our own society.

A culture of peace, as Omayra calls it, is not built on commemoration alone. It is built on justice. On inclusion. On naming uncomfortable truths rather than avoiding them.

As long as we do not do that, we celebrate peace. But we do not yet live it.

 Miguel Goede