Economic Motivations to Join Insurgencies in Colombia Fabian
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UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão Economic Motivations to Join Insurgencies in Colombia Fabian Enrique Garzón Cuervo Orientador: Prof. Doutor Carlos Nuno das Neves D’Assa Castel-Branco Tese especialmente elaborada para obtenção do grau de Doutor em Estudos de Desenvolvimento 2021 UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão Economic Motivations to Join Insurgencies in Colombia Fabian Enrique Garzón Cuervo Orientador: Prof. Doutor Carlos Nuno das Neves D’Assa Castel-Branco Tese especialmente elaborada para obtenção do grau de Doutor em Estudos de Desenvolvimento Júri: Presidente: Doutor Nuno João de Oliveira Valério Professor Catedrático e Presidente do Conselho Cientifico no Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão da Universidade de Lisboa Vogais: - Doutor Christopher Cramer Professor at the Department of Development Studies at School of Oriental and African Studies of University of London, UK - Doutor João Alfredo dos Reis Peixoto Professor Catedrático no Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão da Universidade de Lisboa - Doutor Carlos Nuno das Neves D’Assa Castel-Branco Professor Associado Convidado no Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão da Universidade de Lisboa - Doutora Maria Paula Meneses Investigadora Coordenadora no Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra Tese integrada em Bolsa em Programa de Bolsas de Doutoramento da Universidade de Lisboa 2016 2021 In loving memory of my father, who always put me in his shoulders to keep me out of the mud. Dedicada a Lorena, por ser y estar. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special appreciation to my brother and mother, as well as to the family members and close friends that have supported me all along the way thus far. Sincere gratitude to my dissertation tutor, Prof. Carlos Nuno Castel-Branco, for his judicious advice, without which this work would have not come to fruition. Many thanks to the personnel attached to the Group of Humanitarian Attention to Demobilized (Grupo de Atención Humanitaria al Desmovilizado, GAHD) for granting me access to the interviews I used as main input for this research. Special thanks to the University of Lisbon for providing the scholarship that allowed me to develop this research since 2018. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1 1. HISTORICAL ROOTS OF THE COLOMBIAN ARMED CONFLICT ........... 13 1.1. Introduction ............................................................................................ 15 1.2. Colonial era ............................................................................................. 17 1.3. Republican era ........................................................................................ 23 1.4. The turn of the twentieth century .......................................................... 38 1.5. Conclusion .............................................................................................. 50 2. FROM GRIEVANCE TO WARFARE ............................................................ 53 2.1. Introduction ............................................................................................ 55 2.2. Conceptual groundwork ......................................................................... 56 2.2.1. Conflict, violence and violent conflict ............................................. 56 2.2.2. Collective mobilization .................................................................... 62 2.2.3. Collective violence ............................................................................ 66 2.2.4. Non-State Armed Groups ................................................................ 73 2.3. The forge of armed groups in Colombia ................................................. 78 2.3.1. The politics of violence .................................................................... 78 2.3.2. The organization of violence ............................................................ 85 2.3.3. The (not so) calm before the storm ................................................. 97 2.4. The official onset of the armed conflict ................................................ 106 2.4.1. The birth of the FARC .................................................................... 106 2.4.2. The birth of the ELN ....................................................................... 113 2.5. Conclusion ............................................................................................. 116 3. CHARACTERIZATION OF THE COLOMBIAN ARMED CONFLICT ....... 122 3.1. Introduction .......................................................................................... 124 3.2. A marginal war ...................................................................................... 125 3.3. War expansion and new actors ............................................................. 133 3.3.1. The narcotics industry ................................................................... 136 3.3.2. Insurgency expansion ..................................................................... 141 3.3.3. Counterinsurgency revival ............................................................. 149 3.4. Full scale armed conflict ....................................................................... 158 3.4.1. One against all, all against one, and all against all ........................ 159 3.4.2. A new country for an old war ......................................................... 175 3.4.3. War rearrangement and exhaustion .............................................. 186 3.5. Conclusion ............................................................................................ 194 4. GENERALITIES OF MOTIVATION ........................................................... 198 4.1. Introduction ......................................................................................... 200 4.2. The study of motivation ........................................................................ 201 4.3. The study of motivation to join armed groups ..................................... 207 4.4. Previous studies of motivations to join armed groups in Colombia .... 217 4.5. Victimization of the community ........................................................... 233 4.6. Conclusion ............................................................................................ 251 5. MOTIVATIONS TO JOIN INSURGENCIES IN COLOMBIA .................... 253 5.1. Introduction .......................................................................................... 255 5.2. Data presentation ................................................................................. 257 5.3. Methodological approach ..................................................................... 277 5.4. The nuances of joining insurgencies in Colombia ............................... 285 5.5. Greed or need? ...................................................................................... 314 5.6. Conclusion ............................................................................................ 328 6. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................ 335 LIST OF MAPS, GRAPHS, TABLES AND FIGURES Maps Map of Colombia with administrative division and location of capitals .................. 12 Map 1-1: Population distribution in New Granada, 1778-1780 ............................... 18 Map 1-2: Land colonization movements in Colombia, C. XIX and XX .................. 36 Map 2-3: Geographic reach of the violence 1948-1953 ........................................... 96 Map 3-1: Coca cultivation in Colombia, 1994-2001 ................................................ 141 Map 3-2: Regions of colonization after 1940 and regions with presence of insurgencies and paramilitaries 1990-2000 ................................... 165 Map 3-3: Presence and activity of the FARC between 1985 and 2000 ................... 170 Map 3-4: Presence and activity of the ELN between 1985 and 2000 ..................... 170 Map 3-5: Distribution of insurgent raids by department, 1965-2013 .................... 172 Map 3-6: Presence and activity of the AUC paramilitaries in 2002 ....................... 173 Map 4-1: Historical intensity of forced displacement ............................................ 249 Map 5-1: Birthplace of interviewees ....................................................................... 288 Map 5-2: Birthplace of interviewees and period of enrolment into insurgency ................................................................................................... 289 Map 5-3: Motivations according to department of birth ....................................... 306 Graphs Graph 3-1: Exports of cocaine in metric tons, 1980-1995 ...................................... 140 Graph 3-2: Evolution of FARC and ELN number of members, 1964-2014 ............ 171 Graph 3-3: Size and composition of Colombian armed forces, 1961-2016 ............. 174 Graph 4-1: Fatal victims in combats, 1958-2018 ................................................... 243 Graph 4-2: Proportion of total massacres by identified author, 1958-2018 ......... 244 Graph 4-3: Extrajudicial executions by Colombian armed forces, 1994-2010 ............................................................................................... 246 Graph 4-4: People forcedly displaced in Colombia, 1980-2014 ............................ 247 Graph 5-1: Interviewees gender demographics ...................................................... 261