DOCSLIB.ORG

Colombian Conflict: a Sociological View of a Gendered Society

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Colombian Conflict: a Sociological View of a Gendered Society Journal of Vincentian Social Action Volume 4 Issue 2 WARS, CONFLICTS, AND THE Article 8 MARGINALIZATION OF DISSENT September 2019 COLOMBIAN CONFLICT: A SOCIOLOGICAL VIEW OF A GENDERED SOCIETY Jorge Restrepo St. John’s University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.stjohns.edu/jovsa Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons, Business Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Disability and Equity in Education Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Law Commons, Life Sciences Commons, Medicine and Health Sciences Commons, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons, and the Urban Studies and Planning Commons Recommended Citation Restrepo, Jorge (2019) "COLOMBIAN CONFLICT: A SOCIOLOGICAL VIEW OF A GENDERED SOCIETY," Journal of Vincentian Social Action: Vol. 4 : Iss. 2 , Article 8. Available at: https://scholar.stjohns.edu/jovsa/vol4/iss2/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by St. John's Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Vincentian Social Action by an authorized editor of St. John's Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. COLOMBIAN CONFLICT: A SOCIOLOGICAL VIEW OF A GENDERED SOCIETY Jorge Restrepo INTRODUCTION When analyzing the role of minorities in the peace process, it is necessary to understand war n this essay I explore, having lived and experienced as gendered. Creating a space to share, discuss IColombian conflict, how the construction of the and debate war and war experiences from the war narrative was driven by berracos (an expression standpoint of the minorities challenged the used in Colombia to identify uber-males masculinized prevailing narrative. by war). In Colombia, women, afro-Colombians, native-Colombians, LGBT, anyone over sixty (as they It was imperative for all involved to acknowledge are not perceived useful to society), children (child- the relationship of minorities with the state soldiers), who have no representation before the apparatus in order to recognize their role in government, the voiceless minorities, politics. This process required were cruelly marginalized. deconstruction of berraco gender “Women were participants ideology, and underlining gender The characterization of the in peacemaking, while non- as a fluid category. victims of the Colombian conflict started from the recognition of the uber men tended to take The Colombian conflict imposed differences between the agents who the“pacifist” role based a power dynamic between men, participated in all processes of the women, and other minorities, on a prevailing notion that war. The peace process contained established by the government two systematic assumptions about women give birth and and the FARC (Revolutionary those who participated in the men protect them.” Armed Forces of Colombia - conflict (perpetrator), and those People’s Army) as part of their who would tell the story about internal war. They constructed the many years of war (victims); their own understanding this reinforced an understanding that berracos of gender, which was reproduced by the dominated the war narrative, which resulted in the conflict discourse. This conception of gender exclusion of all minorities. This “binary” rendered mainstreamed the way victims and victimizers men as active in the process as perpetrators or as related to each other. victims. BERRACO VIEW OF CONFLICT IDEOLOGY: Colombian conflict discourse emphasized a DISMISSAL OF THE FEMININE patriarchal structure that perpetuated gender Colombian conflict started as a systemic power dichotomy. Women were participants in peace- relationship between two agents of domination. making, while non-uber men tended to take the The first was the Colombian government which “pacifist”role based on a prevailing notion that played a functional role of guaranteeing the women give birth and men protect them. Conflict reconstruction of peace, as a societal need, and brought about “masculinization” of men through the protection of civilians involved in the conflict. war (war became an instrument of masculinization). The second group, with a dual role of dominating and being dominated, were the guerrillas or JoVSA • Volume 4, Issue 2 • Fall 2019 Colombian Conflict: A Sociological View of A Gendered Society 52 illegal groups like Revolutionary Armed Forces MASCULINIZATION OF VIOLENCE AND THE of Colombia - People’s Army (FARC) (Moser & VICTIM’S ROLE IN A GENDERED SOCIETY Clark, 2001). The dynamics of Colombian conflict during the The society was segmented in synchrony with the 80s and 90s resulted in conflicting perceptions ideological apparatuses and the related norms of the victims by the government. Victims’ rights imposed on anyone who participating in the war. were compromised by the systemic violence, which Conflict became the vehicle to implement gender forced them to take refuge in several “safe-zones” norms. These two actors, government and FARC, within Colombian territory (Moore & Barner, continued to actively reproduce the war narrative, 2007, pp. 33-37). increased violence under different labels that affected both combatants and noncombatants, Minorities were not considered part of the such as “kidnappings, sexual violence, torture, war process since they were not recognized as death threats, and harassment, loss and participants in the conflict. Minorities were destruction of property and goods, recruitment expected to be masculinized by society as a of minors, injury from landmines, and attacks pattern of “naturalization,” as part of the social on infrastructure” (Bouvier, 2016, p. 4). This war acceptance of a warring society as “natural,” induced masculinization, thus, creating berracos. and, as such, normative. They were at high risk of suffering sexual attacks, war crimes, and Men in the conflict were affected by different were a product of collateral war casualties. The acts of violence, such as torture; some were even government was not willing to protect their rights, recruited by different actors of the conflict against and the members of FARC sexualized the conflict their will. Women were forced into prostitution, by using them as tools to advance their agenda. displacement, sexual violence, abortions (Bouvier, Women and LGBT members lack of representation 2016, p. 4), or became widows of war, the head of in the government, and this left them in the hands the household, and subjects of the government and of their own oppressors. of the guerrillas. Perpetrators objectified women, assumed them as a primary target and denied “Gay, lesbian and transgender Colombians have them their human rights. This systematic structure been actively persecuted by armed groups involved of aggressiveness fundamentally corrupted basic in Colombia’s decades-long civil war” (Espitia, norms of human dignity. 2016). This marginalization, linked with fear of not being accepted and recognized by society as In general, men in the Colombian conflict had been active participants of civil life, condemned them acting as perpetrators, as war affected women at to be further sexualized because of the lack of the center of the family. Women faced the conflict representation in the Colombian laws. Colombian in many different ways, such as mothers of the criminal code IN 1890 condemned homosexuality perpetrators who were recruited, most of the (Martínez, 2010), which left behind a legal hole, time, when they were young. This war dynamic thereby, promoting acts against this community reproduced women with a social disparity in the and exposing them to perpetual abuse by members language of the conflict (Meertens & Stoller, 2001, of FARC and the Columbian army. pp. 132-148), and as a result, they were forgotten from the peace process as victims. In the conflict Not only gays, lesbians, and transgender people each side of participants were condemned to suffered the attacks, but also women, children, and participate as passive or active agents, obligated to elders were subject to several forms of violence; masculinize their identities to fit perfectly in army they stoically surrendered to the systematic use forces, either State or guerrillas, and combatants. of power. They were enrolled as combatants (Moser & Clark, 2001). expecting to erase their gender identity (in the case of the women), and characterized as victims in a JoVSA • Volume 4, Issue 2 • Fall 2019 Colombian Conflict: A Sociological View of A Gendered Society 53 homogenized understanding of male supremacy assumed female roles (transwomen) as companions as part of a social contract established between all or partners of some FARC members. After the actors involved. conflict ended, most of the LGBT members, who accepted demobilization as a negotiated way to POST-CONFLICT DE-MASCULINIZATION, start over, found out the Colombian government BINARY GENDER AND SECURITY had not implemented public policies to guarantee In her book Reconstrucción de la masculinidad an adequate assessment of LGBT rights (Díaz y reintegración de excombatientes en Colombia, Botia, 2014, pp. 4-5); therefore, policies like Theidon (2009) addresses how former combatants, reparation and assistantship were not adopted after demobilizing, were getting ready to die for this community, as they were not considered protecting their families as a stoic post-conflict vulnerable. Transitional justice recognized some possibility. As a result of this seemingly protective collectivities, and emphasized the recognition governmental posture, the combatants imagined of everyone’s
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Assessing the US Role in the Colombian Peace Process
    An Uncertain Peace: Assessing the U.S. Role in the Colombian Peace Process Global Policy Practicum — Colombia | Fall 2018 Authors Alexandra Curnin Mark Daniels Ashley DuPuis Michael Everett Alexa Green William Johnson Io Jones Maxwell Kanefield Bill Kosmidis Erica Ng Christina Reagan Emily Schneider Gaby Sommer Professor Charles Junius Wheelan Teaching Assistant Lucy Tantum 2 Table of Contents Important Abbreviations 3 Introduction 5 History of Colombia 7 Colombia’s Geography 11 2016 Peace Agreement 14 Colombia’s Political Landscape 21 U.S. Interests in Colombia and Structure of Recommendations 30 Recommendations | Summary Table 34 Principal Areas for Peacebuilding Rural Development | Land Reform 38 Rural Development | Infrastructure Development 45 Rural Development | Security 53 Rural Development | Political and Civic Participation 57 Rural Development | PDETs 64 Combating the Drug Trade 69 Disarmament and Socioeconomic Reintegration of the FARC 89 Political Reintegration of the FARC 95 Justice and Human Rights 102 Conclusion 115 Works Cited 116 3 Important Abbreviations ADAM: Areas de DeBartolo Alternative Municipal AFP: Alliance For Progress ARN: Agencies para la Reincorporación y la Normalización AUC: Las Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia CSDI: Colombia Strategic Development Initiative DEA: Drug Enforcement Administration ELN: Ejército de Liberación Nacional EPA: Environmental Protection Agency ETCR: Espacio Territoriales de Capacitación y Reincorporación FARC-EP: Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo GDP: Gross
    [Show full text]
  • Women, Conflict- Related Sexual Violence and the Peace Process Ben Keenan/Trocaire Contents
    Colombia: Women, Conflict- Related Sexual Violence and the Peace Process Ben Keenan/Trocaire Contents Executive Summary 1 Recommendations 3 1.0 Background to the Conflict 5 1.1 The Prospect of Peace 1.2 Land and displacement 1.3 Poverty and inequality 2.0 Conflict Related Sexual Violence 7 2.1 Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Women 2.2 Children, sexual violence and the conflict 2.3 Sexual violence and economic interests 3.0 Modus Operandi of Sexual Violence in Conflict 10 3.1 Sexual and gender violence used for social control 3.2 Sexual violence and sexual slavery 3.3 Sexual violence within armed operations 3.4 Sexual violence and the Security Forces 4.0 Access to Justice and Reparation 13 4.1 Social stigmatisation 4.2 Patriarchal attitudes and re-victimisation in the administration of justice 4.3 Impunity and the Rule of Law 4.4 Policies and laws 4.5 Gender Equality Law 1257 4.6 Constitutional Court Auto 092 of 2008 4.7 Investigation and prosecution 4.8 The Victims and Land Restitution Law 1448 4.9 Health and psycho-social support 4.10 Marco Para La Paz (Legal Framework for Peace) 5.0 Women and the Construction of Peace 21 5.1 Women defenders and community leaders 5.2 Women as peace builders 5.3 International instruments 1 Colombia: Women, Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and the Peace Process Executive Summary The magnitude of conflict-related sexual violence against women in Colombia is yet to be fully understood. It is a crime that is massively underreported. Where it is reported women encounter major obstacles to accessing the justice system including extremely high levels of impunity.
    [Show full text]
  • Colombia Human Rights & Development
    AMERICAN UNIVERSITY ALTERNATIVE BREAK COLOMBIA HUMAN RIGHTS & DEVELOPMENT DECEMBER 29, 2010 – JANUARY 9, 2011 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Welcome to Alternative Breaks!!! 3 Important Information 4 Expectations & Code of Conduct 5 Colombia Pre-Departure Meeting Agendas & Syllabus 6 About Colombia 9 Country Profile 10 Political Map of Colombia 13 Our Primary Destinations 14 Witness for Peace and Itinerary 15 Safety & Security & Health 18 Colombia Timeline 19 Colombia Pre Departure Resources 26 Payment & Fundraising 27 Travel Logistics 28 Further Reading Materials List 30 2 WELCOME TO ALTERNATIVE BREAKS!!!! Congratulations on being selected to participate in an Alternative Break trip! You are about to embark on a journey of transformation, reflection, activism, and community involvement. As you know, the Alternative Break program is student-run, with the Center for Community Engagement and Service and the Alternative Break Coordinator serving as resources for the student leaders of each trip. Please read this letter carefully for important information about participating on a trip. FORMS YOU MUST TURN IN TO CSC: ON WEBSITE: www.american.edu/altbreak under “Participant Applications & Forms” Medical/Emergency Contact form Copy of health insurance card Consent & Release Waiver Form Copy of passport (for international trips) Code of Conduct Signature form PAYMENT DEADLINES: Monthly payment installments are due according to your payment schedule. Talk to your trip leaders for dates. ONLINE PAYMENT INSTRUCTIONS: 1. Log-on to my.american.edu, click on the Finances or Life@AU tab. 2. Under your personalized links, click on “Alternative Break E-payment.” 3. Choose your trip. 4. Enter your credit card information and click submit! 5.
    [Show full text]
  • Colombia's Peace Process Through 2016
    Colombia’s Peace Process Through 2016 (name redacted) Analyst in Latin American Affairs December 31, 2016 Congressional Research Service 7-.... www.crs.gov R42982 Colombia’s Peace Process Through 2016 Summary In August 2012, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced that the government was engaged in exploratory peace talks with the violent leftist insurgent group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in a bid to resolve a nearly 50-year internal armed conflict. The secret, initial dialogue between the Santos government and the FARC’s leadership led to the opening of formal peace talks with the FARC—the oldest, largest, and best-financed guerrilla organization in Latin America. Formal talks began in Oslo, Norway, in October 2012 and then, as planned, moved to Havana, Cuba, where they continued for more than 50 rounds. Despite more than three years of negotiations, the leader of the FARC, Rodrigo Londoño, alias “Timochenko,” had not met publicly with President Santos. In September 2015, the two leaders shook hands in a televised meeting and announced that the negotiating parties would reach a final accord no later than March 23, 2016. However, that deadline, as many others before it, went unmet. By the end of 2015, the most difficult issue in the peace talks’ agenda, outlined in a framework agreement, was resolved. Government and FARC negotiators reached a partial agreement on victims of the conflict, providing a comprehensive system for reparations, justice, truth and guarantees for non-repetition and outlining a transitional justice system. In late January 2016, the United Nations (U.N.) Security Council adopted Resolution 2261, stating that a U.N.
    [Show full text]
  • Elite Bargains and Political Deals Project: Colombia Case Study
    Elite Bargains and Political Deals Project: Colombia Case Study Roddy Brett Stabilisation Unit February 2018 This report has been produced by an independent expert. The views contained within do not necessarily reflect UK government policy. Author details The author is Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor with the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews, and the Director of the Masters Programme in Peace and Conflict Studies and Acting Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies. He has acted as Advisor to the United Nations Development Programme in both Colombia and Guatemala, to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Guatemala and as Advisor on Indigenous Affairs to the Norwegian Embassy in Guatemala. Background to Elite Bargains and Political Deals Project This case study is one of a series commissioned to support the Stabilisation Unit’s (SU’s) development of an evidence base relating to elite bargains and political deals. The project explores how national and international interventions have and have not been effective in fostering and sustaining political deals and elite bargains; and whether or not these political deals and elite bargains have helped reduce violence, increased local, regional and national stability and contributed to the strengthening of the relevant political settlement. Drawing on the case studies, the SU has developed a series of summary papers that bring together the project’s key findings and will underpin the revision of the existing ‘UK Approach to Stabilisation’ (2014) paper. The project also contributes to the SU’s growing engagement and expertise in this area and provides a comprehensive analytical resource for those inside and outside government.
    [Show full text]
  • List of Colombian Organisations Looking for Partners in the UK for the Innovate UK Agri-Tech Colombia Call
    1 List of Colombian organisations looking for partners in the UK for the Innovate UK Agri-tech Colombia Call For more information about the call scope and dates: https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/133/overview CIAT produced this database based on information supplied by the organizations listed here and the purpose of such database is informative only so you can identify a suitable partner to work with. CIAT is not recommending any institution within this list to partner up with. Therefore, CIAT will not be responsible/liable for the background, execution and/or result of the work with the partner of your choosing. If you identified a suitable partner to work with, and requiere more information please contact Maria Camila Gómez at CIAT ([email protected]). Areas of focus of Brief description to share with potential partners in the United Kingdom. (For Type of Organization Website Area (s) of Organization name Brief description of the organization the organization example: project ideas, strengths within the organization, what you are looking organization size organization interest /project for in a partner in the United Kingdom, etc.) Afrowilches Ethnic Large Afrowilches The organization has been working for the Crops Rural development We are looking for a partner to increase the cultivation of plantain and cassava to corporation rights of the Afro-Colombian ethnic obtain an added value of 100 banana counts and 100 cassava in the manufacture of communities and everything arinas and packaged products such as fried potatoes, fried plantains and packaged contemplated in Law 70/93 and ILO bread.
    [Show full text]
  • A Criminal Peace. Mapping the Murders of Ex-FARC Combatants
    Documentos A Criminal Peace. OCCO #2 Mapping the Murders of November 2020 Ex-FARC Combatants Observatorio Colombiano de Crimen OrganizadoMathew Charles, Başar Baysal Working Paper Series 2020 and Juan Diego Forero THE COLOMBIAN OBSERVATORY OF ORGANIZED CRIME (OCCO) Organized crime (OC) constitutes one of the greatest threats to security in Latin America. It has had a grave impact in terms of violence, corruption and the weakening of institutions, creating an urgent need to understand the penetration of organized crime into the fabric of contemporary societies across the continent. The Colombian Organized Crime Observatory (OCCO) is dedicated to the analysis of different facets of OC using a multidisciplinary and applied approach. The Observatory is a partnership between the Universidad del Rosario’s Faculty of International, Political and Urban Studies (FEIPU) and Insight Crime, who work both independently and collaboratively to advance understanding of OC. In addition to producing cutting-edge research, the Observatory seeks to train new researchers dedicated to the development of more effective responses to the challenges posed by OC in Colombia and Latin America. Launched in 2020, the Documentos OCCO series, produced by FEIPU, aims to enhance knowledge of organized crime across a wide range of research themes, including: Criminal governance, structures and infrastructures; Armed group dynamics; Crime, conflict and peacebuilding; Gender, youth and gangs; Illicit economies; Policy and intervention. CONTACT US We welcome your comments and feedback. To get in touch or to submit an article to be included in this working paper series, please contact the series editors Arlene B. Tickner and Mathew Charles via: [email protected] TO CITE THIS PAPER Author surname, Author Initial.
    [Show full text]
  • WOLA Colombia Monitor
    WOLA Colombia Monitor JULY 2002 A WOLA BRIEFING SERIES Produced by the Washington Office on Colombia Cracks Down Latin America, the Colombia Monitor n May 26, Alvaro Uribe Vélez earned the Colombian presidency in a re- combines timely analysis sounding first-round victory. This edition of the Colombia Monitor provides of policy dynamics in Obackground on the history of Colombian elections, a review of this year’s Washington with on-the- March congressional and May presidential elections, and an assessment of the chal- ground monitoring of lenges awaiting, and concerns about, the Uribe administration, which assumes office on the impact of U.S. policy August 7. It also outlines the unfolding debate about Colombia in Washington, particu- in the Andean region. The larly around the emergency supplemental appropriations bill that will, among other intent of this briefing things, alter the U.S. mission in Colombia to include involvement in series is to broaden and counterinsurgency operations. inform the public and policy debates about how to strengthen Democracy and Elections in Colombian History democracy, human rights, The Conservative and Liberal parties are pillars of Colombian political history. Their and prospects for peace. nineteenth-century origins are some of the oldest in Latin America and one scholar has called them the “functional equivalent of subcultures.”1 Until the late 1950s, the parties did This issue provides an more than represent social cleavages in Colombia: they were the social cleavage. Indeed, the analysis of the Colombian infamous la violencia (“the violence”), a civil war lasting from the 1940s until the 1960s, presidential election and largely stemmed from land disputes and the “hereditary hatreds” of familial party loyalties.
    [Show full text]
  • The Financial Arm of the FARC: a Threat Finance Perspective
    Journal of Strategic Security Volume 4 Number 1 Volume 4, No. 1: Spring 2011 Article 3 The Financial Arm Of The FARC: A Threat Finance Perspective Thomas R. Cook Global Defense Technology & Systems (GTEC), [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jss Part of the Defense and Security Studies Commons, National Security Law Commons, and the Portfolio and Security Analysis Commons pp. 19-36 Recommended Citation Cook, Thomas R.. "The Financial Arm Of The FARC: A Threat Finance Perspective." Journal of Strategic Security 4, no. 1 (2011) : 19-36. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5038/1944-0472.4.1.2 Available at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jss/vol4/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Open Access Journals at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Strategic Security by an authorized editor of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Financial Arm Of The FARC: A Threat Finance Perspective Abstract The FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) transformed from a traditional guerrilla group into a full-fledged insurgency because of its ability to effectively convert the proceeds derived from illegal narcotic trafficking into operational funds. Those financial capabilities allowed theARC F to challenge government authority in large swathes of the Colombian state. The FARC moved into the drug trade, initially controlling production territory and subsequently engaging in trafficking, which allowed the organization to increase its war-fighting capabilities. This paper only scratches the surface of the mechanism by which the FARC utilized its coca revenue in order to fund its community reinvestment programs, engage in large scale military buildup, and buy political support throughout the region.
    [Show full text]
  • Colombia: Background and U.S. Relations
    Colombia: Background and U.S. Relations Updated October 26, 2020 Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov R43813 SUMMARY R43813 Colombia: Background and U.S. Relations October 26, 2020 Colombia, a key U.S. ally in Latin America, endured from the mid-1960s more than a half of century of internal armed conflict. To address the country’s prominence in illegal June S. Beittel drug production, the United States and Colombia have forged a close relationship over Analyst in Latin American the past two decades. Plan Colombia, a program focused initially on counternarcotics Affairs and later on counterterrorism, laid the foundation for an enduring security partnership. President Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018) made concluding a peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)—the country’s largest leftist guerrilla organization at the time—his government’s primary focus. Following four years of peace negotiations, Colombia’s Congress ratified the FARC-government peace accord in November 2016. During a U.N.-monitored demobilization in 2017, approximately 13,200 FARC disarmed, demobilized, and began to reintegrate. The U.S.-Colombia partnership, originally forged on security interests, now encompasses sustainable development, human rights, trade, and wider cooperation. Support from Congress and across U.S. Administrations has been largely bipartisan. Congress appropriated more than $10 billion for Plan Colombia and its follow-on programs between FY2000 and FY2016, about 20% of which was funded through the U.S. Department of Defense. U.S. government assistance to Colombia over the past 20 years has totaled nearly $12 billion, with funds appropriated by Congress mainly for the Departments of State and Defense and the U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Colombia's Peace Processes: Multiple Negotiations, Multiple Actors
    LATIN AMERICAN PROGRAM SPECIAL REPORT DECEMBER 2006 Colombia’s Peace Processes: Multiple Negotiations, Multiple Actors Cynthia J. Arnson, Jaime Bermúdez, Father Darío Echeverri, David Henifin, Alfredo Rangel Suárez, León Valencia INTRODUCTION by Cynthia J. Arnson1 Efforts to bring Colombia’s long-running time, government negotiators and guerrilla internal armed conflict to an end through commanders of the smaller National political negotiations continued to face major Liberation Army (ELN) continued to meet in obstacles in 2006. In August, the government Havana, Cuba. Despite an atmosphere of of President Álvaro Uribe Vélez succeeded in goodwill and high expectations, the two sides demobilizing the last contingent of fighters of appeared to remain far apart on the actual con- the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia tent of the negotiating agenda as well as (AUC), the principal paramilitary coalition. whether or not the opening of formal talks That brought to a total of 31,671 the number would be conditioned on a cease-fire. of men and women demobilized as a result of the peace talks with the government that THE AUC PROCESS began in July 2003.2 This singular accomplish- ment was diminished throughout the year, Even before the eruption of a new political however, by disputes with paramilitary leaders scandal in late 2006 regarding paramilitary infil- over the terms of their demobilization and by tration of the Colombian Congress, and as scandals highlighting the AUC’s continued detailed in previous publications,3 the Uribe involvement in assassinations, drug-trafficking, government’s peace talks with the AUC and infiltration of government institutions, remained mired in controversy.
    [Show full text]
  • Columbia, Democracy, and the Intermingling Thereof
    Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee Volume 7 Issue 1 Article 8 April 2016 Columbia, Democracy, and the Intermingling Thereof Will Clifft [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/pursuit Recommended Citation Clifft, Will (2016) "Columbia, Democracy, and the Intermingling Thereof," Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee: Vol. 7 : Iss. 1 , Article 8. Available at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/pursuit/vol7/iss1/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Volunteer, Open Access, Library Journals (VOL Journals), published in partnership with The University of Tennessee (UT) University Libraries. This article has been accepted for inclusion in Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee by an authorized editor. For more information, please visit https://trace.tennessee.edu/pursuit. Pursuit: The Journal of Undergraduate Research at the University of Tennessee Copyright © The University of Tennessee PURSUIT trace.tennessee.edu/pursuit Colombia, Democracy, and the Intermingling Thereof WILL CLIFFT Advisor: Dr. Jana Morgan Since it began in the 1960s, much has been said and written about the various layers and aspects of the conflict in Colombia. Beginning as a civil war, this ongoing struggle has evolved from a struggle between peasant groups fighting to recapture their land from a powerful class of agro-elites to include multiple local and international actors with such diverse motivations as philosophical ideals, capital gain, and the execution of international, sociopolitical power plays. To better understand the gravity of the modern-day situation in Colombia and to attempt to ascertain how and why this decades-long struggle may be finally drawing to a close, I briefly explore the history of the conflict and review the ways in which the principal actors have directly influenced the development of the social and political infrastructure of this country.
    [Show full text]