View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Sycamore Scholars Persistent Revolutions in Colombia and Peru: A Comparative Analysis _______________________ A thesis Presented to The College of Graduate and Professional Studies Department of Political Science Indiana State University Terre Haute, Indiana ______________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts _______________________ by Brandon Huson May, 2011 Brandon Huson 2011 Keywords: Revolution, FARC, Shining Path, Colombia and Peru ii Committee Members Committee Chair: Gaston Fernandez, Ph.D. Professor of Political Science-Indiana State University Committee Member: Michael Erisman, Ph.D. Professor of Political Science-Director of Graduate Studies-Indiana State University Committee Member: Mike Chambers, Ph.D. Professor of Political Science-Department Chair-Indiana State University iii Abstract This thesis performs a comparative analysis of rural-based revolutionary movements in Latin America. The movements that are compared are the FARC, originating in Colombia, and the Shining Path, which emerged from the highlands of Peru. The comparison is meant to serve as a test for what variables are predictive of revolutionary success. Since these movements differ in their success in establishing permanent political, social and military movements in their countries over time, their dichotomous outcome can be used to point toward variables that warrant further consideration. Comparison of revolutionary movement makes sense in this case due to the similarities between the FARC and Shining Path, including geography, income distribution, historical political development and international context. However, the politics of these two countries contribute greatly to how these states adapt to their international environment and historical political development, providing a compelling point for analysis and explanation for the different scale of revolutionary success achieved. iv Acknowledgements I would like to thank my Committee for their help. I should particularly thank Dr. Fernandez for his many readings and suggestions, both in the drafting and formulation process that were each instrumental in helping me draft the current thesis. Dr. Erisman was also critical in providing early suggestions that were instrumental in arriving at a topic. I would also like to thank the work of the ISU writing center for providing me with hours of proofreading that gave me good insight on when clarity was needed and when more attention was needed to grammar, punctuation, and style. v Table of Contents Committee Members ..................................................................................................................................... ii Abstract ........................................................................................................................................................ iii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................................... iv Peasant-Revolutionary Relations in Colombia and Peru .............................................................................. 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 1 Literature Review ................................................................................................................................. 2 Methodology ....................................................................................................................................... 16 Historical Context ....................................................................................................................................... 23 Modernization-The Case of Peru ........................................................................................................ 24 Modernization-The Case of Colombia ................................................................................................ 25 Origins of Peasant Mobilization and State-Sponsored Land Reform: The Case of Peru ................... 27 Peasant Mobilization and State-Sponsored Land Reform: The Case of Colombia ............................ 37 The Origins, Scope and Persistence of Guerrilla War-The Case of Peru ........................................... 46 The Origins, Scope and Persistence of Guerrilla War: The Case of Colombia .................................. 53 Conclusion: A Brief Comparison of Peru and Colombia ................................................................... 61 Peasant Society and Revolutionary Opportunity ........................................................................................ 63 Changes to Peasant Society and Support for Peasant Revolution in Peru and Colombia ................... 65 The Influence of State-Sponsored Land Reform on Peasant Uprisings: The Case of Peru ................ 70 The Influence of State-Sponsored Land Reform on Peasant Uprisings: The Case of Colombia ........ 75 The Influence of Insurgent/Guerrilla Strategies on Peasant Societies: The Case of Peru .................. 80 The Influence of Insurgent/Guerrilla Strategies on Peasant Societies: The Case of Colombia .......... 84 The International Context and State Legitimacy ........................................................................................ 90 Basic Elements of U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Insurgents in Peru and Colombia ............................ 91 The Influence of U.S. Drug Interdiction Policies: The Case of Colombia ......................................... 96 The Influence of U.S. Drug Interdiction Policies: The Case of Peru ................................................ 100 The Influence of FARC Negotiations with the State and the Role of Paramilitaries in State Legitimacy ........................................................................................................................................ 103 U.S. Efforts to Discredit FARC ........................................................................................................ 109 vi Influence of Domestic and Other International Actors on Legitimacy ............................... 111 The Effects of Human Rights Abuses and Impunity on State Legitimacy-The Case of Colombia ............................................................................................................................. 120 Peru‟s Different Approach to Insurgency and Foreign Alliances ....................................... 121 International Environment Impact: Comparison for the Shining Path and the FARC ........ 122 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................... 126 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................. 139 1 Peasant-Revolutionary Relations in Colombia and Peru Introduction Revolutions have affected nations worldwide, creating havoc for governments in states where control over a population and territory and possession over the exclusive use of force is not held in the state‟s hands. Revolutions have created new forms of government in places like Russia, France and China (Moore 1966; Skopcol 1979). In these successful revolutions, peasant uprisings played a role in destabilizing the country by ripening the environment for political change. In Latin America, since the Cuban revolution took hold of power in 1959, revolutionaries in the peasantry have largely been unable to form the necessary alliances with other society sectors to force regime change. Peasant struggles to exact justice from the political systems which govern over them have long fallen short of the lofty aspirations and success of the Cuban Revolution. This thesis deals with two cases of peasant revolution in Latin America. In Colombia and Peru, revolutionary groups still engage in a war to overthrow their governments. Though their chances for success are limited by weakness relative to other social classes that more directly and effectively influence and empower the state, rebel operations persist. The factors which explain revolutionary activity in these two countries are rooted in the experience of the peasant societies from which these revolutionary groups emerged, and which make up the populations in areas controlled by revolutionaries. 2 Today, the FARC and the Shining Path are politically active in Colombia and Peru respectively. However, their capacity to challenge state power differs; so while each movement has emerged from similar political and geographical contexts, the success of each group to develop into a viable resistance to state power has been variable. The FARC maintains a much more active insurgency and still controls territory inside Colombia and a membership total in the thousands. In contrast, the Shining Path is much more geographically isolated to the drug trafficking alleys in Peru‟s highlands. Explaining the difference in revolutionary movements is the focus of this thesis. In terms of revolution, the divergent path of these two movements provides the basis for an exploration of revolution literature and theory to test the viability of variables for predicting revolution. By searching for variables that differ in these two movements, a search is performed for the variables that predict