Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T19:04:28.357Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Guerrillas and the State: The Role of the State in the Colombian Peace Process

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Lawrence Boudon
Lawrence Boudon
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines the Colombian peace process since 1982, arguing that the government must strengthen the state and expand its presence into the remote areas in which the leftist guerrillas have established para-statal organisations. The traditionally weak Colombian state has allowed rebel groups to flourish in isolated areas. However, President Ernesto Samper has announced a new initiative that features an ambitious plan to strengthen the state. The plan includes judicial and social reforms that address many of the guerrilla demands, but also threaten to undermine their para-statal organisations. Massive oil discoveries and tax reforms could provide the necessary funding.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , May 1996 , pp. 279 - 297
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 'Los derroteros de Samper para el ‘Salto Social’, El Espectador, 8 Aug. 1994. p. 9A.

2 Carlos, Arango Z., FARC: Veinte Años (Bogotá, 1985), p. 97Google Scholar.

3 Pécaut, Daniel, ‘Guerrillas and Violence’, in Bergquist, Charles, Peñaranda, Ricardo and Sánchez, Gonzalo (eds.), Violence in Colombia (Wilmington, 1992), p. 251Google Scholar.

4 Chernick, Mate, ‘Is the Aimed Sttuggle Still Relevant?’, NACLA Report on the Americas, vol. 27, no. 4 (January/February 1994), p. 9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 See interviews collected and translated by Braun, Herbert in Our Guerrillas, Our Sidewalks (Niwot, 1994), pp. 154–8Google Scholar.

6 Eduardo Pizarro, ‘Revolutionary Guerrilla Groups in Colombia’, in Bergquist et al. (eds.), Violence in Colombia, p. 175.

7 Hartlyn, Jonathan, The Politics of Coalition Rule in Colombia (Cambridge, 1988), p. 191Google Scholar.

8 By the end of 1984, the FARC, EPL, and M-19 had all signed ceasefire agreements and the FARC had launched a political party, the Patriotic Union (UP). Only the ELN remained outside the peace process.

9 Pearce, Jenny, Colombia: Inside the Labyrinth (London, 1990), p. 175CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 ‘Pacto político por la paz y la democracia’, El Espectador, 6 Nov. 1989, p. 6A.

11 Chernick, ‘Is the Armed Struggle Still Relevant?’, p. 12.

12 It has since changed its name to the National Guerrilla Coordinator (CNG).

13 ‘Diálogo: Cese del fuego sería bilateral’, El Tiempo, 11 Sept. 1991, p. 7A.

14 ‘Creada comisión para discutir agenda’, El Tiempo, 11 March 1992, p. 3A.

15 ‘Diálogo sin plazos ni treguas: Gobiemo’, El Tiempo, 18 Nov. 1994, p. 3A.

16 ‘Doce puntos de negociación del Eln’, El Tiempo, 9 Nov. 1994, p. 15A.

17 Wickham-Crowley, Timothy P., Guerrillas and Revolution in Latin America (Princeton, 1992), pp. 302–26Google Scholar.

18 Ryan defines negotiated settlement as ‘an outcome in which the movement succeeds in wresting from the incumbents not only survival guarantees, but certain institutional reforms which make possible (though do not guarantee) the realisation of some portion of the revolutionaries ultimate agenda’. He defines negotiated surrender as ‘a n outcome in which the movement realises the immediate goal of survival but nothing beyond that’.

19 Ryan, Jeffrey J., ‘The Impact of Democratization on Revolutionary Movements’, Comparative Politics, vol. 27, no. 1 (1994), p. 27CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 Antonio Navarro Wolff won 13 per cent of the popular vote in the 1990 presidential elections, and AD M-19 candidates received 27 per cent of the vote in the elections for the Constituent Assembly.

21 Ryan, ‘The Impact of Democratization on Revolutionary Movements’, p. 41.

22 Shugart, Matthew Soberg, ‘Guerrillas and Elections: An Institutionalist Perspective on the Costs of Conflict and Competition’, International Studies Quarterly, vol. 36 (1992), p. 121CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Ibid., p.136.

24 Ibid., p.136.

25 I am referring here to the pluralist, managerial (or elitist) and class (Marxist) perspectives, as defined by Dunleavy, Patrick and O'Leary, Brendan in Theories of the State (New York, 1987)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 According to Stepan, ‘[t]he state must be considered as more than the government. It is the continuous administrative, legal, bureaucratic and coercive systems that attempt not only to structure relationships between civil society and public authority in a polity but also to structure many crucial relationships within civil society as well.’ Stepan, Alfred, The State and Society: Peru in Comparative Perspective (Princeton, 1978), p. xiiGoogle Scholar.

27 The state is also a set of social relations that establishes and maintains a certaín order via centralised coercive authority over a given territory. Relations are formalised in a legal system that is created and backed by the state. The legal system is a constitutive dimension of the state and of the order that it establishes. Guillermo O'Donnell, ‘The State, Democratization, and Some Conceptual Problems’, in Smith, William C., Acuña, Carlos H., and Gamarra, Eduardo A. (eds.), Latin American Political Economy in the Age of Neoliberal Reform (New Brunswick, 1994), p. 159Google Scholar.

28 Ibid., p. 167.

29 In addition, the Colombian state has been deficient in two other areas: it has failed to extract adequate resources from society and it has similarly failed to distribute those resources back to society in the form of public goods and services.

30 As Dunleavy and O'Leary argue, Marxist views of the state see it either as a kind of mediator (the guardian image) or as a semi-autonomous entity which seeks to balance its interests against those of capital: Theories of the State, p. 333. And since the bulk of Colombia's guerrillas profess to have a Marxist-based ideology, that view of the state may be the most relevant. As such, the more autonomous the state becomes, or is perceived to become, the more it is seen to be repressing the interests of other than just the ruling classes.

31 Commission for the Study of Violence, ‘Organized Violence’, in Bergquist et al., Violence in Colombia, p. 264.

32 Pearce, Colombia: Inside the Labyrinth, pp. 115–17.

33 Braun, Our Guerrillas, Our Sidewalks, p. 23.

34 O'Donnell, ‘The State, Democratization, and Some Conceptual Problems’, p. 161.

35 Nueva Constitución Politico de Colombia (Bogotá, 1991), P. 25.

36 Hoskin, Gary, ‘The Consequences of Institutional Reform on the Colombian Party System’, Paper presented at the Latin American Studies Association conference in Atlanta, 10–12 03, 1994, p. 4Google Scholar.

37 ‘Es factible erradicar la violencia’, El Tiempo, Z4 July 1994, p. 7A.

38 ‘Los derroteros de Samper para el “salto social”’, ElEspectador, 8 Aug. 1994, p. 9A.

39 Americas Watch reported 3,760 political deaths in 1991, with an average of 3,500 a year since 1988. ‘The principal targets for political killings include members of leftist political parties, suspected sympathizers of the guerrilla forces, civilians caught in conflictive zones, victims of “social cleansing”, and other members of civil society such as union leaders, human rights workers and members of the judiciary.’ Political Murder and Reform in Colombia: The Violence Continues. An Americas Watch Report (New York, 1992), p. 3.

40 ‘Reformas: La hora del cambio’, Semana, 4 Oct. 1994, pp. 46–8.

41 ‘Protectión a víctimas en todo el país’, El Tiempo, 16 Nov. 1994, p. 8A.

42 The 1995 Colombian national budget contains significant spending increases in the following areas: public health 97.5 %, education 47.4%, justice 30.7%, public works 25.7 % and labour and social security 19%. The figures are based on a projected inflation rate of 17%. Estrategia, 31 Oct. 1994, pp. 21–2.

43 El Tiempo, 8 Aug. 1994.

44 Valero, Guillermo, ‘Impulso decisivo a la Tv. y Telecom’, El Espectador, 21 01 1995, p. 5AGoogle Scholar.

45 ‘Pauto, quinto hallazgo petrolero’, El Tiempo, 28 July 1995, pp. IB, 2B. It is important to note that a significant portion of the oil reserves is located in a concession owned solely by the state-owned Empresa Colombiana de Petróleos (ECOPETROL).

46 ‘Cusiana no disparara la economia’, El Tiempo, 7 July 1993, p. IB.

47 Mazuera, Jaime Mejía, ‘Cusiana: Llegó la hora’, El Tiempo, 27 06 1993, p. ICGoogle Scholar.

48 ‘Entre el cielo el infierno’, Semana, 8 Aug. 1995, pp. 38–43.

49 Rubio, Miller, ‘Doce puntos de negociación del Eln’, El Tiempo, 9 11 1994, p. 15AGoogle Scholar.

50 In fact, the Colombian government is taking steps to attract additional foreign investment in oil and natural gas by eliminating the ‘war tax’ and allowing companies to write off up to 50% of their exploration investments. El Espectador, 27 Jan. 1995, pp. IB, 6B.

51 The 1991 constitution laid the groundwork for the decentralisation of the Colombian government. Article 287 says that territorial governments (departments and municipalities) will be granted political and fiscal autonomy from the central government. Article 360 stipulates that departments in which natural resources are being exploited will share in the revenue. Nueva Constitution Política de Colombia, pp. 79, 103.

52 ‘Asi cambió el mapa político regional y local’, El Tiempo, 31 Oct. 1994, p. 7A.

53 Luis Alberto Restrepo, ‘The Crisis of the Current Political Regime and Its Possible Outcomes’, in Bergquist et al., Violence in Colombia, p. 286.