Citizenship in Times of Exception: the Turn to Security and the Politics of Human Rights in Valle Del Cauca, Colombia
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University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Open Access Dissertations 2-2012 Citizenship in Times of Exception: The urT n to Security and the Politics of Human Rights in Valle del Cauca, Colombia Erika Marquez Montano University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations Part of the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Marquez Montano, Erika, "Citizenship in Times of Exception: The urT n to Security and the Politics of Human Rights in Valle del Cauca, Colombia" (2012). Open Access Dissertations. 535. https://doi.org/10.7275/kx7v-kb45 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations/535 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CITIZENSHIP IN TIMES OF EXCEPTION: THE TURN TO SECURITY AND THE POLITICS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN VALLE DEL CAUCA, COLOMBIA A Dissertation Presented by ERIKA MARQUEZ Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY February 2012 Sociology © Copyright by Erika Marquez Montano 2012 All Rights Reserved CITIZENSHIP IN TIMES OF EXCEPTION: THE TURN TO SECURITY AND THE POLITICS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN VALLE DEL CAUCA, COLOMBIA A Dissertation Presented by ERIKA MARQUEZ MONTANO Approved as to style and content by: _________________________________________________ Agustin Lao-Montes, Chair _________________________________________________ Millie Thayer, Member _________________________________________________ Sonia E. Alvarez, Member __________________________________________ Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, Department Head Department of Sociology ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the various social and popular organizations that made possible this project with their generous guidance, testimonies, and camaraderie. My family, too, provided critical support throughout the fieldwork, as well as a musical repertoire large enough to fuel the writing of this and many projects to come. Special thanks to my advisor, Agustin Lao-Montes, who, throughout the research, conversed with me about the theoretical and human issues at the root of this project. Millie Thayer provided incredibly thoughtful feedback and support both as a committee member of this dissertation and in previous stages of my doctoral work. Sonia Alvarez’ rigurous work on social movements and her sharp observations in discussions preceding my fieldwork inspired the writing of my dissertation. Many thanks, too, to my friends at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, with whom I have shared years of celebrations and conspiracies. Finally, I thank my partner, Aaron Winslow, who attentively heard me count and recount the recent history of Colombia, as I saw it through the lenses of my project. I thank Aaron because our conversations greatly strengthened my dissertation, and I thank him, very especially, for his dedicated editorial help, provocative theoretical suggestions, and delicious cooking. iv ABSTRACT CITIZENSHIP IN TIMES OF EXCEPTION: THE TURN TO SECURITY AND THE POLITICS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN VALLE DEL CAUCA, COLOMBIA FEBRUARY 2012 ERIKA MARQUEZ MONTANO, B.A., UNIVERSIDAD EXTERNADO DE COLOMBIA M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Agustin Lao-Montes Since at least the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, security has emerged as a major political paradigm built upon an expansive definition of state control emphasizing not only the mere policing of violations of law, but the means through which the state asserts itself as a particular political entity through the militarized management of social actors both inside and outside its borders. Through an analysis of the case of Colombia's Democratic Security policy, this dissertation documents the transformations of social mobilization within the boundaries of the newly politicized, and newly globalized, security state. The research builds upon six months of ethnographic work and in-depth interviews with Valle del Cauca regional chapters of pacifist feminist grassroots network Women’s Peaceful Route, with human rights advocacy organization Permanent Committee for Human Rights, and with afrodescendant movement Process of Black Communities. Analyzing the work of these organizations, this dissertation assesses the uneven impact of security policies on social actors claiming territorial, cultural, and political rights. Through these organizations the work illuminates how security is gendered and v racialized, while it is strongly resisted by the movements’ challenge to the model of citizenship promoted by the state. The research poses that, no longer able to see human rights work in terms of the defense of individuals, social movements have instead redeployed the concept of human rights as a mode of articulating radical democratic demands reflecting a collective social struggle. Illustrating the connections between neoliberal development and security, and its impact for afrodescendants and women’s claims for rights and recognition, the dissertation shows how global discourses on security influence the constitution of new social identities through the constant re-iteration of the question 'who is the terrorist,' and the subsequent re-articulation of new parameters of citizenship. Beyond Colombia’s case, this research advances existing scholarship regarding the technologies of statehood in the post September 11 era, at the same time that it contributes to an understanding of social mobilization in the context of global and hemispheric governance. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………………………..iv ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………....v CHAPTER INTRODUCTION: SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN THE SECURITY STATE……............1 1 SECURITY AND THE RECONFIGURATION OF THE POLITICAL………….…..20 1.1 Security and Liberalism………………………………………………….......21 1.2 The Geopolitics of Security……………………………………………….....26 1.3 Colombia: From National Security to Democratic Security…………………30 1.3.1 The Advent of Democratic Security……………………………….35 1.3.2 The Appeal to Emergency Powers………………………………...37 1.4 Democratic Security: Continuing Authoritarianism or New Governmental Technique?...........................................................................................................39 1.5 Legacies and Ruptures in the Security Field……………………………...…45 1.5.1 Democratic Security and the Economy/Security Interface………...48 1.6 Human Rights in the Era of Security………………………………………...53 2 SECURITY AND TERRITORY: AFROCOLOMBIANS AND THE MILITARY GOVERNMENT OF THE PACIFIC COAST…………………………………………..64 2.1 Violent Accummulation in Valle del Cauca’s Pacific……………………....70 2.1.1 A Territory in Dispute…………………………………………......78 2.1.2 Democratic Security: Militarization for Prosperity………………..81 2.1.3 Territory and Racialized Militarization…………………………....84 2.2 The Internal Colonization of the Territory…………………………………..88 2.2.1 The Physical and Functional Transformation of the Territory as a Space For Social and Productive Life…………………………………...93 2.2.2 Physical Transformation of the Territory……………………….....95 2.2.3 Alteration of temporal and spatial logics………………...……......97 2.3 The Militarization of Social Life…………………………………….……....99 vii 2.4 Effects of the Militarization in the Organizative Process…………….…….105 2.5 Collective Rights, Human Rights, and Resistance Strategies………….…...109 2.6 Neoliberal Governmentality and the Anti-Drugs/Counter-Terror Continuum……………………………………………………………………...112 3 GENDERING SECURITY: PACIFIST-FEMINISTS INTERPELLATE THE STATE………………………………………………………………………………….115 3.1 Ruta Pacífica de las Mujeres and the Pacifist-Feminist Critique…….…. ..121 3.2 Ruta and the Peace Policy…………………………………………….……125 3.3 Interpellating the Security State……………………………………….……127 3.4 Militarization and its Effects on Women’s Lives………………….....…....131 3.5 Women in the War……………………………………………………........136 3.6 Women and National Security…………………………………………......138 3.7 Women’s Rights as Human Rights…………………………………….......148 3.8 Rights for Women…………………………………………………….........149 3.9 Women and Human Rights…………………………………………….......153 3.10 Women’s Praxis as Critique………………………………………………155 4 CITIZENSHIP IN TIMES OF EMERGENCY…………………………………........159 4.1 A Politics of Human Rights: From Individual Rights to Collective Projects of Citizenship……………………………………………..…………...161 4.2 State of Exception, Citizenship, and Human Rights……………..………...163 4.3 Engaging the State: Mass Detentions and Bio-Political Governance……...169 4.4 The Politicization of Human Rights……………..…………………………177 4.4.1 From Human Rights to Social Mobilization……………………...182 4.4.2 Citizenship in Times of Exception: Building upon Human Rights…………………………………………………………………...186 4.5 Re-constituting Narratives of Security and Citizenship through Human Rights Activism………………………………………………………………...192 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………....195 viii INTRODUCTION SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN THE SECURITY STATE In 2003, the Colombian government launched its Defense and Democratic Security policy—a comprehensive strategy designed to strengthen the rule of law and to recover territorial control from illegal armed groups and drug traffickers. According to governmental rhetoric, the main feature of the policy (hereinafter, Democratic