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Colombia: Una Cronología De La Violencia

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Colombia: Una Cronología De La Violencia CADErNoS DE ESTuDoS LATINo-AMErICANoS · Nº5 · MAI/AGO 2008 · ISSN 1646 - 5164 9 CoLoMbIA: uNA CroNoLoGÍA DE LA vIoLENCIA Mariano Andrés Morato1 rESuMEN A mediados de la década del ochenta del siglo pasado surgió en América Latina un término para designar la violencia creciente que se estaba gene- rando en todos los países de la región: colombianización. Esta expresión daba cuenta de una violencia creciente que se manifestaba en los índices de asesinatos y delincuencia que asolaban a las grandes ciudades de Co- lombia. Pero esta violencia no era fruto de la casualidad, era el resultado de un proceso que arrancó mucho tiempo antes, en el mejor de los casos se remontó a la década del cuarenta y cincuenta (siendo un punto de in- flexión el asesinato de Jorge Gaitán en 1948) con altibajos, hasta nuestros días. Pero si miramos mejor y tratamos de seguir las raíces de esa violen- cia podemos llegar hasta el momento mismo de la formación del Estado colombiano en el siglo XIX y la ocupación del mismo por dos partidos, Liberales y Conservadores, que le darán la impronta al régimen político. PALAbrAS CLAvES Violencia, guerrilla, Liberal, Conservador, Reforma Agraria. AbSTrACT In the mid – eighties of the last century, in Latin America there appeared a new term that was used to name the growing violence that was being generated in all the countries of the area. The term was: Colombianiza- tion. It told of the growing violence which was manifested in the indexes of delinquency and murders that were devastating the big cities in Colombia. 1 Mariano A. Morato, Profesor de Historia, Ayudante de 1ª en la materia “Historia Social La- tinoamericana”, cátedra “Barrancos”, carrera de Sociología, Universidad de Buenos Aires. Contacto: [email protected] Yet, this violence was not the result of chance. It was the result of a process that had started a long time before - at least in the forties or fifties- (Jorge Gaitán´s assassination in 1948 being considered a point of inflection) and has continued, with its ups and downs, up to these days. But if we took a closer look and tried to get to the roots of that violence we would go back to the moment of the formation of the Colombian State in the XIX th century and of the occupation of such state by two parties: the Liberals and the Conservatives who would leave a mark on the political regime. KEy worDS Violence, guerrilla, Liberal, Conservator, Agrarian Reform. Hacia mediados de la década del ochenta del siglo pasado surgió en América Latina un término para designar la violencia creciente que se estaba generando en todos los países de la región: colombianización. En el caso de Colombia esta violencia atraviesa todos los segmentos de la sociedad: desde el fenómeno del narco- tráfico, pasando por la ya antigua guerrilla de las FARC y ELN y los paramilitares hasta llegar a lo que, Fernando Vallejo en La Virgen de los Sicarios (2002), describe tan magistralmente: la violencia cotidiana de la otra Medellín, de mano de una obra ‘desocupada’, barrios marginales producto de los desplazamientos del campo a la ciudad, etc. Pero la violencia no es una creación de las últimas décadas. El fenómeno se remonta al siglo XIX, donde podemos rastrear al- gunos indicios en la conformación misma del Estado y en la es- tructuración del bipartidismo entre Liberales y Conservadores. Es un tejido complejo de factores en interacción, de múltiples facetas y elementos en constante evolución. Sin embargo, no se trata de 11 realizar una simple enumeración de las situaciones de violencia, ya sea política o social. La historia de América Latina y del mundo está plagada de estas situaciones, pero lo que hace de Colombia un caso interesante para analizar es que podemos rastrear, a lo largo de su historia, aquellos factores que sostienen la violencia desatada durante las décadas del cincuenta y sesenta del siglo XX que, con mayor o menor intensidad, se perpetúa hasta nuestros días. Por lo tanto, este artículo tiene por objetivo hacer una crono- logía de la violencia buscando las causas que, según el período que tomemos, pueden tener raíces diferentes. En este sentido, identi- ficamos tres grandes momentos: el primero está asociado con la aparición del régimen político y la formación del Estado. Abarca desde mediados del siglo XIX hasta la primera década del siglo XX. Allí la violencia se manifiesta en los diferentes grupos que acceden al Estado, cómo ejercen el poder y las consecuencias que esto trae aparejado. Un segundo momento está determinado por lo que he- mos de llamar la cuestión agraria, que abarca aproximadamente desde las décadas del veinte al sesenta del siglo XX. Este período está marcado por un hecho que potenciará la disputa por la tierra: el asesinato de Jorge Eliécer Gaitán en 1948. El tercer momento se halla atravesado por la violencia des- plegada en torno de los cultivos de coca y el accionar del narcotráfi- co, con la aparición de los grupos paramilitares y la profundización del accionar de la guerrilla. Temporalmente, este período abarca desde la década del setenta hasta nuestros días. Si bien la cuestión agraria no dejó de ser importante, se recrudece la violencia (sobre todo en las décadas del ochenta y noventa) en parte por la exten- sión de las áreas geográficas de la guerrilla, la inoperancia de los 12 sucesivos gobiernos para controlar la situación y la consolidación de los cultivos de coca en Colombia. Además, se ingresa en lo que llamaremos período de guerra civil y banalización de la violencia. Territorio y Estado En muchos casos, la naturaleza resulta uno de los factores determinantes del tipo de conformación social que se da en un ter- ritorio. Producto de esto, surge un tipo de Estado característico del entorno natural. En el caso Latinoamericano, la cordillera de los Andes generó, desde el momento mismo de la conquista, un de- safío constante a las autoridades coloniales que se asentaron en América. Los Andes tuvieron la particularidad de concentrar la mayor cantidad de población a la llegada de los españoles. Sin embargo, los colonizadores decidieron asentar sus capitales y potenciar en mayor medida las zonas costeras. Esta situación generó un tipo de estado que logró controlar algunas áreas, en general de fácil ac- ceso o cercana a los grandes centros urbanos, quedando fuera del alcance del Estado otras zonas de más difícil acceso. Esta situaci- ón, que podemos evidenciar a lo largo de toda la cordillera de los Andes, en los territorios de Perú, Bolivia y Ecuador, es incluso más sobresaliente en Colombia, ya que la cordillera se divide en tres y es atravesada por grandes ríos que dificultan la comunicación en- tre las regiones. Para tener una verdadera dimensión de lo que el fraccionamiento del terreno significa, nótese que el trasporte de carga, hasta bien entrado el siglo XIX, era realizado por personas 13 que cargaban los bultos a sus espaldas, ya que en algunos caminos de montaña era la única manera de transporte posible. Esta situación se mantuvo durante toda la colonia, no pu- diendo ser resuelta ni siquiera cuando, a comienzos del siglo XIX, se declaró la independencia, generando una herencia que marcará definitivamente al nuevo Estado. En el momento en que los Esta- dos latinoamericanos dedican sus más grandes esfuerzos a inter- comunicar sus regiones para ponerlas al servicio de los Estados nacientes, en el caso colombiano este esfuerzo demanda una can- tidad de recursos de los que carece, quedando esta tarea para más adelante. El Estado colombiano se hace fuerte en la ciudad capital y en algunas zonas más, mientras que grandes extensiones de ter- ritorio quedan fuera de su alcance. El surgimiento de un régimen político bipartidista de libe- rales y conservadores precede la construcción del Estado y deja su marca en él. Colombia está regida por la supervisión de dos partidos que se disputan los resortes del Estado desde mediados del siglo XIX hasta la actualidad. Esto trae aparejado un tipo de enfrentamiento que no siempre se agota en la vía electoral, sobre todo teniendo en cuenta que los períodos de apropiación del Es- tado son largos, por lo que cuando se produce un recambio, esto genera verdaderas situaciones de violencia desatada. Si bien el en- frentamiento entre Liberales y Conservadores no deja de tener las características que podemos encontrar en otros países de América Latina, no es menos cierto que cada período de recambio genera un espíritu de revanchismo, que se manifiesta fuertemente en las zonas rurales y que no siempre es desaprobado por las élites di- rigentes. Este revanchismo en algunos casos, como los de zonas 14 rurales, llega al desplazamiento de familias completas que deben huir de un poblado y refugiarse en otro donde la mayoría coincida con su ideología política. De esta manera, podemos ver que, en un sistema bipartidista cerrado, los cambios de manos se dan en períodos relativamente largos, generando un clima de verdadera revancha cuando se pro- duce la alternancia en el poder. Sobre todo, en aquellas zonas don- de el Estado no logra controlar del todo este fenómeno, quedando a merced de las élites locales representativas de cada partido. En el caso colombiano, esto tiene un peso determinante dado por la frag- mentación regional de larga data y la existencia de regiones no so- metidas a la autoridad estatal. Han sido los dos partidos, el liberal y el conservador, surgidos a mediados del siglo XIX, y no el Estado, los que definieron las formas de identificación y de pertenencia co- lectivas, dieron nacimiento a las subculturas transmitidas de gene- ración en generación [...] y engendraron fronteras políticas que se han perpetuado hasta el presente.(Pecaut 1997:904) Hay distintos tipos de violencia que van desde las pugnas fa- miliares o entre poblados vecinos, hasta otras formas asociadas a razones ideológico-políticas o conflictos no resueltos por la tierra.
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